Hero of the Day: Sampat Devi, leader of Uttar Pradesh's Pink Gang.
"Village society in India is loaded against women. It refuses to educate them, marries them off too early, barters them for money. Village women need to study and become independent to sort it out themselves."
The Pink Gang:
"The pink women of Banda shun political parties and NGOs ... Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.
They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case.
"Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers," says Sampat Pal Devi, between teaching a "gang" member on how to use a lathi (traditional Indian stick) in self defence."
Love how further on in the article, the reporter assures us they're not 'man-bashing feminists' because Devi says 'Women need men to live with'. Anyone with a brain can see this is a statement of fact in rather than a philosophy of life. In India, economics and culture require that for a poor woman to survive, she must be married. That systematic oppression is what they're attempting to fight. And THAT is feminist by definition.