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- © Riproduzione possibile DIETRO ESPLICITO CONS
Today marks the International Working Women’s Day. On this occasion, FACAM sends revolutionary greetings to all working women across the globe.
However as we celebrate, we must not forget the harrowing reality faced by women in India, particularly under the current BJP-RSS leadership, which has unleashed terror on the women of the country. Last year saw the horrific incidents of Manipur women being raped and paraded naked, a doctor being gang raped, Muslim women being harrassed for wearing hijab and having open calls of rape being made by Hindutva goons.
The women of mineral rich regions of the country, Bastar in particular, continue to bear one of the greatest burdens of this war on people for loot and greed. For over a century, these resilient women have fought heroically for their right over Jal-Jungle-Jameen and dignity and their struggle marches on.
In the pursuit of turning Bastar into a haven for corporates, the once lush green hills and blue rivers have been stained red with the bloodshed and massacres of adivasis peasants and Maoists rebels.
Today, Bastar has become a living hell, transformed into a vast military cantonment. As the war on the people escalates, women have become the victims of even greater sexual violence and oppression.
Bastar has witnessed one of the most gruesome crimes committed against women in the past few decades. One of many such incidents is mass gang rape of women in Bellam Nendra (Bijapur), 2016. Narrating the harrowing event, Joint Fact-finding report of CDRO, WSS and CPDR (Tamil) states, "In a chilling repeat of the violence we saw in Peddagellur and around; forces in large numbers entered Bellam Nendra, in the Basaguda thana area on the 12th of January 2016. They stayed for two nights – looted homes, used up food and rations, beat up several women and sexually assaulted several others. A young woman was covered with a mosquito net and gang-raped, another mother and her young daughter were forced into their homes and simultaneously raped by 5 security personnel. There were also two rounds of blind firing into the forests surrounding the village. At the same time, further away in Sukma district, forces in large numbers entered Kunna and surrounding villages between the 12th and 14th of January, several women were harassed and assaulted. In 2017, the National Human Rights Commission, prima facie, found allegations of rape, sexual and physical assault by state police personnel on 16 women to be true. In another incident in 2018, a 23-year-old Adivasi woman said she was raped by security forces at her home in Bijapur district.
The pattern of rape and sexual violence appears to be deeply entrenched in these combing operations and with the increase in these combing operations and increase in militarisation with hundreds of camps, these incidents have only increased. Between January 2024 and March 2025, over 400 children of this republic have been murdered in cold-blood, with nearly 40 percent being teenage girls and women. On January 1, 2024, Bastar saw the tragic killing of a six-month-old girl child Mangli, shot dead by the infamous illegal militia- the District Reserve Guards (DRG) in Mutvendi village, Bijapur.
On January 19th, while the villagers were still reeling from the shock of Mangli's killing, protests against the incident were underway. Three civilians, along with others, were on their way to a protest in Gorna village when security forces opened fire on them. All three lost their lives. Among them were two teenage girls.The firing continued for about an hour. A few months later, alongside Indravati River in Bodga village, 55-year-old woman Raje Oyam was shot in her back by security forces forcefully barging into her house. The bullet missed her spine and other vital organs, turning her back from the gates of death.
Death is not the only weapon used by state against women in war zones like Bastar. Since the time of Salwa Judum, women of Bastar have faced the brunt of sexual violence unleashed on their bodies. On April 2nd, a teenager named Kamli Kunjam was forcibly taken from her home. Her clothes were torn, including those on her lower body, indicating that she had likely been raped before being killed.The following morning, around 6 AM, Kamli’s sister-in-law, Aythe Kunjam, along with two other women from the village, set out to search the forests for any sign of Kamli. After five hours of searching, Aythe discovered Kamli’s bangle and marks in the mud, suggesting someone had been dragged. According to the police, Kamli Kunjam was among 13 Maoists killed in an eight-hour-long encounter on April 2nd. However, her family strongly refutes this claim. “My daughter was deaf and struggled to speak. She could never have been a Maoist,” her mother stated.
Another such incident of gruesome offense of rape was report by activist Soni Sori over phone call in a program organized by FACAM. Madvi Lakshu, a woman aged around 45 years was brutally raped and killed on March 22, 2024. She was raped, stabbed in her private parts and legs, and ultimately killed.
There are many other cases as such. Apart from a historical practice of squeezing breasts of women to check if they are lactating to discern whether they are Maoist or not, women are regularly harassed at dozens of check points popping up with each new camp in the region. There have been allegations of video surveillance of bathing women by drones of security forces in the region as well, sparking an outrage on violation of women's dignity and privacy.
Over the past year, there has been a rise in fake encounters targeting both Adivasis and Maoists. Notably, around 40 percent of those killed by security forces, Maoists and Civilians alike, have been women.
Among the killed women Maoists was Niti (Urmila), a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, who was killed along with 29 others on April 16th. Maoists alleged that while 12 of their cadres died fighting, 17 others who were injured and surrendered, were shot in cold-blood. On October 4th, 31 Maoists were murdered in what was reported as an encounter, but many believe it to have been staged. At least 13 of those killed on October 4 were women. More recently on February 9th 2025, a deadly operation in Indravati National Park resulted in the deaths of 38 Maoists, including 11 women rebels.
Apart from being raped and killed so as to be beaten in to submission to corporate-state nexus, adivasi women's political assertion is curbed by unleashing repression on the budding women's leadership. Despite the intense repression, countless women continue to resist. We bring forward the profile of some of the young heroic women activists who brave the repression and breed resistance among the masses.
25-year-old Adivasi activist and Human Rights Defender Sunita Pottam, a resident of village Korcholi in Bijapur district was dragged on the floor pulling her out of her temporary residence in Raipur around 8.30 on June 3, 2024 by a team of Bijapur district police led by DSP Garima Dadar. Sunita is the former Vice-President of now banned Moolwasi Bachao Manch, that lead almost 30 mass movements against Camps, big-wide roads, aerial bombings, encounter killings in the name of eradicating Maoist movement and bringing development that displaces the adivasi peasants. She is also a member of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL and National women's organisation Women Against Sexual violence and State Repression (WSS) and has campaigned against police atrocities and sexual violence by state forces on the Adivasis of Bastar. She played an important role in the protest against the killing of 6 month old child in Mutvandi village of Bijapur district on lst Jan and killing of 3 adivasis enroute to protest against Mutvandi killing, including 2 minor girls near Bellam-Nendra by security forces on 19th Jan 2023.
Some dozen hundred kilometers away from Bijapur is another leader in Orcha, deep inside the Abujhmad forest. Somari Kashyap is the Vice-President of Maad Bachao Manch that is leading the Orcha Mass Movement (Narayanpur/Abujhmad) against mining in Amdai Ghati, proposed mining in Tular hills and construction of Paramilitary camps and wide roads in the region. 23 year-old Somari has been at the forefront in organising the movement for past 2 years, turning the protest site into a well designed "protest-village" with a capacity of housing more than 500 people, having huts, parade ground, meeting hall and collective kitchen. One the similar parallel is
Pinky Kashyap, the Vice president and Incharge of women's wing of Adivasi Adhikar Bachao Manch at Morohnar Mass Movement in the foothills of Amdai Ghati hills, around 10 kilometres away from Orcha protest site. In her early 20s, Pinky continues to lead the people of Morohnar on the frontline of the struggle against construction of wide roads and camps, advancing towards Tular hills and Orcha protest site. She urged the FACAM team member who visited her protest site in March last year, to intensify the struggle in solidarity with people of Bastar and herself vowed to continue struggling, despite all threats of death and incarceration.
Thousands of Adivasi women are plunging into the struggle to protect Jal-Jungle-Jameen: the environment, the resources, the dignity of the people and the sovereignty of the country, all currently under threat from foreign looters and exploiters. The slogan to protect Jal-Jungle-Jameen is not a slogan for just the Adivasis and the struggle of adivasi women of Bastar is not isolated from the struggle of other exploited and oppressed people of the country but it is the frontline of the struggle against Foreign Corporations, Big Indian Corporates and their agents, the Brahmanical Hindutva Fascists. It is our duty, as people of the country, to resolve on this International Working Women's Day, that we will materialise the solidarity into action and plunge into struggle in solidarity with movements against Corporatization, Militarization and State repression in mineral rich regions of the country.
