Mumbai : Thousands of women, including teachers, homemakers, activists and students, gathered in south Mumbai on Friday to demonstrate against the CAA, NRC and NPR. The protest that began around 6 pm, continued till night.
The protest was organised by Mumbai Citizens Forum at the YMCA ground in Agripada.
Armed with the Tricolour, the women raised slogans against CAA, NRC and NPR while displaying banners that stated ‘stop dividing the nation’.
Shaheen Ansari, a professor of English, said the major concern is that the identity of Muslims will be questioned if CAA was implemented.
The protest saw local residents as well as people from south Mumbai, Vasai, Thane and Navi Mumbai participating.
Another protester, Gazala Khan (31), added: “We want these protests to show some result. Everything that is happening is not correct.”
Claiming that the community is afraid, Hamida Naren Ansari (49), a homemaker, said, Why should we be questioned about our identity if India is our’s and our parent’s birthplace?”
Feroz Khan, from Mumbai Citizen’s Forum, one of the organisers of the protest, said that several NGOs in south Mumbai got together to form an umbrella organisation to hold the demonstration.
Khan said they wanted to organise a protest similar to the one in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, but said that was “not possible.” “We were expecting around 3,000 to 4,000 people. But the turnout was bigger,” he said.
Women had been spearheading a protest in New Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh since December 15. The protest has even inspired a similar demonstration at a park in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj as well as East Delhi’s Khureji Khas.