Shwetha Rasquinha conferred doctorate by Mangalore University

Bengaluru, Jan 25: Several women have completed a 24-hour protest here against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and are going strong to stretch it to 48 hours.

"More than a thousand women gathered on the Masjid Road at Frazer Town to denounce the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC)," participant and Mount Carmel College student Noor Zahira told IANS.

The women protesters extended their support to the students in Jamia Millia Islamia, the Aligarh Muslim University, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and others who were recently roughed up allegedly by police and masked goons.

Zahira, 20, said the women's protest was planned only for 24 hours but is continuing to touch 48 hours.

Starting 3pm on Thursday, the women, several of them in burqas, niqabs and hijabs, are sitting on the road just outside the Haji Sait mosque in Frazer Town in a flash protest. Though they have informed the police, they did not wait for the permission. Around 11 pm, police arrived and shut off the protesters' loud speakers.

Zahira said already four such women's anti-CAA protests were taken out in Bengaluru. Women from all ages groups have joined the protest and are sloganeering.

As the women are protesting on the road, men are guarding them standing on the opposite road, ensuring all supplies such as food and others to them, she added.

"Muslim women were not alone in denouncing the CAA... we were joined by the transgenders, Hindu women, Christian women, Dalits and others, " she said.

Some of the protesters also indulged in creative work such as composing songs against the CAA and making placards.

Though four anti-CAA women's protests happened at the Town Hall and other landmarks in Bengaluru, they were only a few hours long.

The protesting women are also showing support to women protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi who were accused of demonstrating for Rs 500. However, the protest did not align anti-CAA demonstration with any political party, keeping it apolitical.

Mangaluru, Jan 30: A dentist has been arrested by the Dakshina Kannada district police on charge of sexually harassing a woman patient during treatment at a hospital in Beltangady taluk.

The accused has been identified as Dr Sudhakar. He is facing charges under section 354, 354A(1)(I) of IPC.

The incident occurred yesterday when a local woman had been to the government hospital at Kasaba village in Beltangady for dental treatment.

According to the woman, Dr Sudhakar deliberately touched her body inappropriately and sexually harassed during treatment.

The shocked woman went to the jurisdictional Beltangady police station and lodged a complaint. The doctor was arrested and produced before the court.

Mangaluru, May 19: Team Be Human, a city based group of philanthropists, has taken commendable initiative to satiate the hunger of the civic workers of Mangaluru City Corporation that are endangering their lives to keep the city clean amidst covid-19 lockdown. 

On Friday, April 18, gorcesary kits were distributed among around 180 civic workers at Eidgah Maidan in Light House Hill in the presence of Corporator Abdul Raoof Bajal, Mansoor Ahmed Azad, Aina group Ashraf, Ceco Asif, Advocate Abdul Shukoor, U B Saleem, Sahil Zaheer, Rash Beary, Munna Kammaradi and Abdul Muttalib.

The Team swung into action on hearing the civic workers' plight due to the delay in payment of their wages by the Antony Waste Management firm. The Team was helped by the alumni of the St Aloysius College, Mangaluru (batch 1989). 

This is not the first time the Team Be Human distributing kits among the needy. Amidst lockdown it has already distributed around 1200 grocery kits among the poor people including the daily wage workers, migrant labourers in Dakshina Kannada district with help of Ahnaf Deals, Altaf, Shameem, Basha, Pradeep, Vincent,  Shiyaz Deals, Nawaz and Haneef. 

In its next step the Team Be Human is planning to distribute the kits among civic workers in Urva and Suratkal region, said Asif Deals, founder president of Team Be Human. He called upon the youth and students to come forward to help the needy and poor people who are deprived of basic facilities.