"Job lost, marriage ruined, where will we go? " said the unemployed young women. They said that their jobs were taken away, and so was their honor. They had come to Bhopal to protest after selling wheat.

Providing and ending jobs for the government may seem like just a government order, but for the women who have been sitting on a dharna at Ambedkar Maidan in Bhopal since August 24th, it meant much more. As professional mobilizers, the ₹4,000 job was the biggest hope of their lives for these young women. Amidst the hardships of tribal villages, these educated young women felt that while the job might be small, the opportunity to work within their community was significant. Now they...