page_title: Shaheen Bagh Protests
section_title: Causes
hierarchical_section_title: Shaheen Bagh Protests / Background / Causes
caption_attribution_description: English: No NPR CAA NRC graffiti Shaheen Bagh protests New Delhi 8 Jan 2020
context_page_description: The Shaheen Bagh protest was a sit-in peaceful protest, led by women, that began in response to the passage of the Citizenship Act in both houses of Parliament on 11 December 2019 and the ensuing police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing the Amendment. Protesters agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, but also against police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women's safety. Mainly consisting of Muslim women, the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 14 December 2019, blocked a road in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 101 days as of 24 March 2020. It became the longest protest against CAA-NRC-NPR. As a precautionary measure Delhi Police barricaded the neighbouring major highways around the area. Following the North East Delhi riots, police barricading and presence in the area increased with over ten companies, 1000 personnel, being assigned to Shaheen Bagh. The protests ended on 24 March 2020 as Delhi Police vacated the site due to coronavirus pandemic.
context_section_description: On 12 December 2019, the Parliament of India passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant a swifter path to Indian citizenship under the assumption of religious persecution to any individual belonging to the specific religious minorities of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, for those who entered India on or before 31 December 2014. However, the Act does not mention Muslims and does not offer eligibility benefits to Muslim immigrants or immigrants belonging to other religions or from other countries, such as Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees from Myanmar, and Buddhist refugees from Tibet. It is also alleged that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which the government plans to implement for the country in 2021, could be used to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship.
  The CAA–NRC issue also ignited protest of the economic crisis and economic disparities that the country is facing. Women's safety, rising cost of commodities, increasing unemployment and poverty have acted as catalysts for the protest. The Indian economy has been witnessing a decreasing growth rate, increasing household debt, inflation, unemployment and economic inequality. The State Bank of India estimated a growth rate of 4.6% for the financial year (FY) 2020, which would be the lowest since the 2008 Global Recession where the growth rate had been 3.9%. The unemployment rate of India was reported to have reached a 45-year high of 6.1% in FY 2017–18. The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy stated the unemployment rate to be 8.45% with a rate of 37.48% for the 20–24 age group and 12.81% for the 25–29 age group in October 2019. According to the 2019 report of the Pew Research Center, 393.7 million jobs are in a vulnerable state. Oxfam India data states that control of the country's wealth by the richest 1% of the population increased from 58% to 73% between 2018 and 2019, while the wealth of the poorest 50% increased by 1%. The WPS-index (Women, Peace and Security index) ranked India at 133 amongst 167 countries in 2019–20.
caption: No NPR CAA NRC graffiti at Shaheen Bagh
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