By IANS,
Shillong: All women’s organisations Monday boycotted the official International Women’s Day celebration in Meghalaya, one of India’s matriarchal states, in protest over the deputy chief minister’s alleged derogatory remarks against them.
The organisations instead held protest rallies and a signature campaign against Deputy Chief Minister B.M. Lanong’s remarks.
“We shall intensify our agitation until the minister apologises publicly and withdraws his most derogatory comments,” said Agnes Kharshiing, president of the Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO), which is leading the stir.
“Lanong compared a woman writer with a poisonous �seinpuh’ (snake) which destroys everything around it with its venom,” the CSWO said in a letter to various woman organisations, and requested them to take up similar protest demonstrations against Lanong.
Padma Shree award recipient, social activist and Shillong Times editor Patricia Mukhim said women in the state were actually facing a lot of problems, which needed the government’s intervention.
The International Women’s Day was celebrated Monday by various organisations with seminars, discussions and other functions across the northeastern states.