VIDEO: Gulabi Gang Rally for separate Bundelkhand at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi

VIDEO: Gulabi Gang Rally for separate Bundelkhand at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi

Sampat Pal, Chief Commander of Gulabi Gang, during a rally to demand Bundelkhand State & diffrent Problam of women & Corruption ,at Jantar Mantar in New delhi on 17 Sep 2009.

Video by RAJEEV TYAGI

Gulabi Gang or the pink gang, formed by a group of women from the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, who are waging a war against corruption and government apathy, laid siege to the Capital on Thursday. Their demand: end to corruption in government organisations, equal rights for women and a separate state for Bundelkhand. The bravehearts, armed with pink sticks, are not sparing anyone from their tinted rage. Not even President Pratibha Patil or Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

They have plans to gift pink saris to both the leaders so that they too can join the brigade.

"If we are not heard, we will return during the Winter Session of Parliament and raise the pitch. We will gift pink saris to Pratibha Patil and Sonia Gandhi to lodge our protest. As women, we expect them to sympathise with our cause," said Sampat Pal, the group's 'commander'.

The group, officially called the Adivasi Mahila Utthan Gram Udyog Seva Sansthan, was formed about a decade ago. "In our villages where food is scarce and there has been a drought-like situation for 10 years, women are the most abused. I realised that under these conditions, a woman has to fight to survive," said Sampat, who claims to have thrashed men who have abandoned or abused their wives and 'taken action' against corrupt babus. Interestingly, even in these male-dominated regions, the gang has managed to strike fear into the hearts of men who misbehave with their women and has grudgingly earned the respect of the local administration.

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Courtesy: MID-Day and Rajeev Tyagi