User:Flowergirls7/sandbox

Women's Self Defense Corps (WSDC)
In 1947, the Women’s Self Defense Corps (WSDC) was formed of a group of volunteers. The WSDC was the women's wing of the Jammu and Kashmir National Militia. The group’s aim is "to train women for self- defense and to resist invaders". Not only were women trained in weaponry, the group also provided a forum for women. Within this forum, women “steeped in centuries-old traditions, abysmal ignorance, poverty and superstition could discuss their issues”. However, they also worked at a political and cultural level in order to have a greater effect.

Cross-border Collaborations
Cross-border collaborations can be traced back to when the war between India and Pakistan started. There was a range of common issues that women from both these countries were going through, such as public and domestic violence, rape, human rights abuses, and inequality. The environment created by the Kashmir conflict was leaving a negative impact on these women. In such a tense environment, groups and initiatives for cross-border collaborations created a space not only for the women, but also creating an atmosphere for the building of human relationships and for substantive dialogue on issues like the Indo-Pakistani war.

Women’s cross-border initiatives have made many changes and contributions to the peace between India and Pakistan. It provides opportunities for face to face interactions and dialogue, and has facilitated a much-needed understanding between the people of these two nations. Women have firmly engaged in several processes through their meetings with various government officials and civil society groups, addressed important concerns such as the need to look into schools, visas, and initiated an exchange of media between the two countries. At times, when only the civil society groups and government officials had the right to make decisions, groups and initiatives like this were able to negotiate and sustain cross-border dialogue. Women’s experience and groups like these represent an alternative way and a possibility of nonviolent ways of negotiating conflict.

Women's Bus for Peace
In 1999, 40 Indian women representing different faiths and different political views went on a 12-hour bus journey from New Delhi, India to Lahore, Pakistan. It was organized by Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA). This bus journey, or the Women’s Bus for Peace, represents one of many several cross-border collaborations between women from Pakistan and India. This initiative began by simply communicating with each other; all these women had common issues and struggles that they all were going through. What brought these women from different countries together was the need to build strategies for peace and that began with understanding others through communication with a cross section of society in the two countries. Women’s Bus for Peace brought back into focus the need to open the gates of communication between the people of Pakistan and India.

LOC Conference
In November 2007, a women’s conference was held in Kashmir. The conference, “Connecting Women across the Line of Control (LOC)” was open to all whether they were Pakistani or Indian. At the conference they discussed various things ranging from aiding victims of violence and untreated illnesses to mobilizing women in political and social field. The participants “vehemently endorsed diplomacy and peaceful negotiations in order to further the India–Pakistan peace process; withdrawal of forces from both sides of the LOC; decommissioning of militants; rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits to rebuild the syncretic fabric of Kashmiri society; and rehabilitation of detainees”. Regardless of their ethnicities, the women worked together to find solutions to the problems caused by the Kashmir conflict and to finally bring and end to the decades long feud.