Have the Kolkata rape-murder protests dented Mamata’s women support base?
Several working-class women told Scroll that the anger against the Trinamool Congress government’s handling of the case is justified.
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Clutching a handbag, Manashi Haldar walked up the stairs at Ballygunge railway station in a hurry, anxious not to miss the train home.
Every day for the past 10-odd years, the woman in her early 30s has travelled from her village to Kolkata, 60 km away, to earn a living as a domestic worker.
She is among hundreds of women from the South 24 Parganas district who commute daily in crowded trains to work in the homes of the middle-class and the affluent in South Kolkata.
Like many women in the West Bengal, Haldar has watched the protests seeking justice for the 31-year-old junior doctor alleged raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month with a mix of sympathy and anger. “Everywhere, people are very angry,” she said. “The way chief minister Mamata Banerjee handled the incident, it appeared she was trying to protect someone.”
Though the protests – ongoing for a month – have largely been held in Kolkata, they appear to have struck a chord among a cross-section of women, even in rural areas. “Everyone in my village knows about it [rape]. We have seen the news on TV,” Haldar said.
Her friend Sandhya, who was travelling back to Lakshmikantapur with her, was...
