Kolkata: The Sodepur, Khardah and Panihati areas, including the doctor’s neighbourhood, were taken over by women at midnight on Wednesday as thousands stepped out on the streets with posters and banners. There was a big gathering barely 200 m from the doctor’s house. A crowd later took out a procession from Sodepur’s Traffic More on BT Road till the doctor’s house.
“We never thought that women in such large numbers would attend the assembly at such short notice.We did not even campaign for it,” said Agnihotri Gupta, a postgraduate student. Gupta was a student of Sodepur Chandrachur Vidyapith from where the victim was a passout.
“After a condolence meeting in front of our school on Aug 12 some of us decided to be a part of ‘Women reclaim the night’. We thought that we, the women from the victim’s neighbourhood, should stand as a mark of solidarity in Sodepur only,” said Gupta.
Aditi Das from Sadhur More came with her husband Sanjay to attend the night vigil. “I firmly stand against the heinous crime committed at RG Kar Hospital on Aug 9 night,” she said.
Swapna Banerjee, a writer, held her own hand written placard ‘Antorale ki cholchhe jante chai...’ (What is going on behind the curtain....want to know).
“We carried some placards of protest. Most of the women came today with all their family members,” said Esha Chakrabarty, a retired school teacher.
The midnight assembly saw a very different kind of protest with women reciting poems of Tagore, holding placards written by teenage school and college goers and chanting slogans for justice. S Addhya, an elderly local who accompanied her granddaughter to the gathering said, “Sodepur can’t recall if there was ever such a gathering before.”