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This Article is From Feb 13, 2012

Civic polls: Mumbai's Bais in the fray

Mumbai: The Mumbai civic elections 2012 have seen candidates from diverse fields filing their nominations. Among those in the fray this time is Tanuja Raul, one of Mumbai's five lakh women who live in the slums and work in highrises.

Tanuja works as a house maid for five families and hopes to address the issue of liquor addiction in slums.

A resident of the Malwani slum in North Mumbai, Tanuja is contesting the civic elections as a CPI candidate. "I hope to address the issue of liquor addiction is slums, something we have to live with day in and day out."

Tanuja has the support of Molkarin Sanghatna, a union of 8,000 house maids. They have also fielded two other candidates, Shakuntala Kamble and Sumitra Dabhade in the North Mumbai wards.

All union members have pooled in one hundred rupees each, hoping that even if one person wins, it will go a long way to empower their lives.  

After a long day's work, the maids in the Malwani slum assemble to campaign for one of their own. Some distribute pamphlets in the locality, while others brush up slogans.

"We had been approached by other parties to be dummy supporters for 200 rupees a day. We said no. We want to fight this election for Tanuja", said one of the maids in the locality.

Another maid added, "The leaders don't care to turn back after the elections."

These women in Mumbai hope to bring about a change in their living conditions. Though this is something that will take a lot of homework, the women are all prepared for it and are putting in their best to make it happen.

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