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Today, a visit to the All Bengal Women’s Union.

ABWU (All Bengal Women’s Union) is a non-profit organization founded in 1933. Today, over eight decades later, ABWU has grown into a far-reaching women’s rights organization, providing disadvantaged women and children with shelter, support, advice and infrastructure in their struggle for fundamental rights. The organization’s origins can be traced back to the agitation of a group of determined women in Kolkata, whose campaign for legislation against the trafficking of women and children played a major role in the passage of the Bengal Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act (1933). In the same year, the ABWU opened its first shelter in Dumdum, Kolkata, where three young women, who had been victims of exploitation, received support and guidance to start a new life. ABWU spread its wings over the years to house more and more distressed and disadvantaged women and children who had been abused, trafficked, abandoned and displaced due to natural or man-made disasters and political exigencies.

We spent a long time chatting with a group of young girls and then met the old ladies of the retirement home.

We also visited the printing room, where women can work and earn a wage. This enables them to be self-sufficient. This woman is working on a bed cover. It will take her 7 whole days to make it. This bed cover will be sold for around 1,500 rupees (about €18).