Inspiring Article from India: The Pink Gang

[La Lioness Priyanka]

India's 'pink' vigilante women
By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Banda

The 'pink' gang has staged protests against corrupt officials

They wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes.

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials.

The pink women of Banda shun political parties and NGOs because, in the words of their feisty leader, Sampat Pal Devi, "they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund us".





http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7068875.stm

[ismnotwasm]

1. And isn't this how amazing movements get started?

Here in the fat US, we have our own struggles yes, and have pockets of poverty rivaling the third world, but in general, we're, well, fat. We don't have women banding together to go kick the shit out of a wife beater or a rapist, no. We, so often, shut the blinds and live in fear instead of facing it. No only here, but many of us ignore places like India, Darfur, Afghanistan, we don't call or reach out to other women very often. I wish we would.

I don't have the guts these woman have, being complacent, and I have no problem with public or even physical confrontation if it's called for.

I had a mentor from India when I started nursing, it was kind of a spiritual friend thing for my (still)agnostic soul. We were both LTC nurses and she taught me how to respect the field to the point it will always be my first, and fieriest, nursing love. (She also talked me out of a belly button piecing) But she came from wealth, and lived in the US very well also, and I wondered at first reading this if she would understand the need for this "Pink Gang"

Thinking back, I'm sure she would.

[Ellen Forradalom]

2. Where do I sign up?

I got my pink sari and my baseball bat right here.