While Jarange Patil advised women not to travel the distance, I still showed up to express support,” said Vaishali Nairnavre, a 44-year-old resident of Majalgaon in Beed district.
Vaishali was a part of the throngs of Maratha Morcha protesters that demonstrated across South Mumbai on Friday. While the crowd was dominated by men from various parts of the state, only a handful of women made it to the protests. Vaishali, who works as a staffer with an NGO, is one of them. “We travelled to Mumbai in a vehicle and have carried enough food and resources to keep us going for weeks. This time, there’s no going back until we get our reservation. It’s a little tougher on women since we have to use unclean lavatories at stations and hotels, but I am not complaining,” said Vaishali.
Vaishali Nairnavre
“This reservation could have affected me personally. I have a Master’s in Sociology, but could not find a decent job. Had there been a reservation, things would have been different,” she added.
Right outside CSMT, where the demonstrations had choked the roads, mid-day spoke with four more women who had travelled from Solapur to be a part of the Maratha Morcha. They brought along their school-going children since there was no one at home to prepare meals for them. The oldest was Latika Nanasaheb Masal, 70, who said she’s hopeful of the reservation for her grandchildren. She was accompanied by women in her family — Hirabai Vasudev Navale, 55, Sunita Raosaheb Gavali, 42, and Ashwini Navale, 32.
With no washrooms en route, the women had to relieve themselves on the side of the road. “A large group of men and virtually no women travelled for the Maratha Morcha. This is why we had to wait till nightfall — when it got a little dark — to go and relieve ourselves at the
side of the road. In Mumbai, we are still figuring out the situation. However, we are carrying enough supplies to stick around for the protest,” said Hirabai, a Solapur-based housewife.
70
Age of the oldest woman at the protest
