The protests at the city centre at Hutatma Chowk, better known as
Flora Fountain in the heart of this commercial capital was replicated
countrywide in all the major cities in this country, all observing
May 13 as National Protest Day.

"The violence continues even now and that is why we have to come out
and appeal to people to generate public opinion against the Gujarat
government," Kiran Moghe, Secretary, All India Democratic Women's
Associa-tion told Gulf News.

Immediately after the worst violence had taken place, several women's
groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had met the victims.

"If this was not done, the Gujarat government would have got away
with what had happened," she says.

Many people come and ask them why the same kind of attention was not
given to Kashmiri Pandits, she says. "Our hearts go out to all women
who suffer unjustly, whether Hindu women in Kashmir or for that
matter Palestinian women in Israel. It is a question of highlighting
their plight," she says.

Even as the women's groups condemn the violence, they are also
demanding the registration of First Information Reports since only a
few have been filed though the police have a big job to do.

"In spite of women being brutalised, raped and killed, police must
still take the testimony of witnesses to arrest the culprits.

Against the background of serious communal carnage or genocide, the
authorities cannot insist on medical records as in normal cases but
instead have time-bound courts to expend speedy justice for all cases
of sexual violence against women," she says.

These groups also want special attention to be given to orphans,
victims of sexual violence, widows and single women in the relief and
rehabilitation measures.

Shalini Mahajan of Forum Against Oppression of Women says that it is
time some kind of rehabilitation is thought for the victims
especially with the approach of monsoon.

"How can they go back to their homes that are charred to nothing and
especially when the culprits are roaming free and even when the camps
are attacked."

Her group has been visiting three districts of Vadodara, Panchmahal
and Dahod to gather information, assess the relief needs and to
coordinate with other NGOs.

A major task is to provide legal assistance, to help the victims file
FIRs and to study what can be done nationally and internationally to
punish the guilty.

Following pressure from the district collector or administrator to
close down the relief camps, "various public interest litigations
were filed so that the camps were not closed."

"We also want UN bodies to send special rapporteurs to look into
human rights violations on the basis of religious intolerance and
violence against women," Mahajan told Gulf News.

In a memorandum handed to the Governor of Maharashtra, Dr P.C.
Alexander, the women's groups told him, "We are filled with anger,
revulsion and shame at the revolting brutality in the name of
patriotism and religious and community rights. No systematic help has
been given to those women and girls who lived to tell their stories.
No justice is in sight for those who died or to those who still live."

The women have asked him to forward their demand for justice to the
President of India and to the government. Some of the groups include
Forum for Women's Health, Maharashtra Mahila Parishad, Sakhya,
Special Cell for Women and Children, YWCA, Stree Mukti Sanghatna and
others.