Today, Good Friday for Christians, members of Viswakamal responded to an invitation from Mother Mission School, run by Bengali Christian Network, situated at Thakurpukur near Bagpota. The VK representatives spoke and showed the film It’s a Girl! The film documents the horror of abortion and infanticide against unborn and newborn girls in India and China. Proponents of legal abortion often claim that legal abortion safeguards women’s rights, but in India abortion claims the lives of almost 80 lakhs of small, defenseless, unborn women every year. How is this women’s rights?

The program was hosted by Mr. Mondal, who is the director of the school. Viswakamal members Swagata Banerjee, and her husband, each addressed the gathering of thirty. Sandip Balmiki also spoke on behalf of Viswakamal. In an interlude, Shreya Naskar sang two beautiful and uplifting songs. In addition to It’s a Girl!, much of which is in English, and has English subtitles, a short Hindi fictional film was shown. It brought out the fallacy of thinking that killing an unborn child is any different from killing a born child.

The audience were moved by the presentation and became ready to join in the fight against abortion.

On December 15 a Viswakamal team once again visited Missionaries of Charity. The audience there consisted of about 150 women. We first gave a performance of spiritual songs. Kakali Ghosh then presented a video, adding some commentary of her own, and Ujjwal Ghosh gave a talk.

The video explained fetal development. A grasp of fetal development helps people to understand that even an embryo consisting of only a few cells, or of only one cell, is no less human than the rest of our human family. A tiny embryo is a human whose form and behaviour is just as a human’s form and behaviour should be at its particular stage of development. If its form and behaviour were different, it would not be what a human being should be at that particular stage.

Among the many poor people to whom the Missionaries of Charity provides free healthcare, some are women of childbearing age. From time to time a group of those women gather at the MOC’s Shishu Bhavan (on AJC Bose Road near the main “Mother House”, which was formerly the headquarters of Mother Teresa), and the sisters give a presentation about abortion. The present head of the Shishu Bhavan is Sister Andrea, originally from Germany. Viswakamal was invited to such an event on the 8th of December, and Viswakamal secretary Ujjwal Ghosh and others gave talks to the group.

Once again, on July 1 in Shyambazar, Viswakamal members brought the pro-life message to Kolkatans.

Swagata Banerjee speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves

Passers-by study our leaflets

The Viswakamal Welfare Society believes in “speaking out for the born and unborn children of India, and assisting their parents.”

We believe that society must be fully active in preventing unwanted pregnancies, through contraception and education. Society must be fully active in caring for any children whom the parents cannot care for. In these ways we will be able to avoid a large population of uncared-for children.

But once any child has been conceived, it is a member of our human family. Just as we do not kill poor children on the street, abortion as a way of dealing with poverty is never a just solution.

Yet in West Bengal alone, every day, about 1500 unborn children are aborted.

On Wednesday, January 25, fourteen members and supporters of Viswakamal gathered on S.P. Mukherjee Road, Hazra More, to reach out to passers-by. We gave our leaflets to the passers-by and engaged them in discussion about the humanity of unborn children, and about the abortion situation in West Bengal. Several of our members addressed the public through loudspeakers. All the talks were in Bengali.

Informing the public

The location was a strategic one provided by Viswakamal supporter S.P. Singh. The event ran for three hours, and was our fourth outdoor event.

Viswakamal wishes to express solidarity with similar pro-life movements around the world. The January 25 date was selected to express support for the March for Life in the US, which will be held on January 27 this year. Every year in Washington DC, almost half a million people face the bitter cold in order to protest the practice of aborting defenceless unborn children. It is the biggest annual pro-life event in the world.

Jan 22, 1973, was the date of a court ruling in the US declaring that the various state governments had no power to protect unborn children from abortion in any meaningful way. Every year the March in Washington, DC seeks the overturn of that decision. But the more fundamental purpose of the March is to raise consciousness about the humanity of the unborn.

Through social media, we can greatly extend the reach of the message we sent yesterday. Please share!

Telephone: 7003088185/9883242052/9062384579

On Saturday November 12, five members and supporters of Viswakamal gathered in Bagbazar, Kolkata, to reach out to passers-by and conduct a public-opinion survey on abortion. The location was a good one, the same location where over thirty of our members had gathered for a rally on January 20. The November 12 event was a continuation of the pioneering survey work commenced in Hazra on August 5. The event ran for four hours, from 1 pm to 5 pm.

Again the question asked was:

“Can we support abortion in a humanitarian light?”

While asking the survey question, we also, whenever possible, engaged passers-by in further conversation about their views. The public were attracted to our YES and NO signs, an idea for which we thank Justice for All and Equal Rights Institute.

Of those passers-by who responded to the survey question, giving their names and phone numbers, 90 replied NO and only 6 replied YES.

A passerby says "No" to abortion

Do such positive results show that Kolkata is the most ethical city in the world, or do such results have to do in part with our survey methodology? Well, we hope that Kolkata is the most ethical city in the world. But even from a distance our banners made it clear what our feelings about abortion are. So our event was more a form of outreach than a scientific survey. In the future we may aim for a scientific survey (while continuing our outreach, separately). Meanwhile, we are already planning for more events like today’s in different parts of Kolkata.

As with the January 20 event, this time we were again equipped with a sound system. Our speeches could be heard through the loudspeakers within a block’s radius of the busy intersection.

Hitangshu explains to the public the work of Viswakamal

Renting the sound system is the most expensive part of such events. Please come forward with some financial help if you can. Contact us at viswakamal.ws@gmail.com, or on the telephone at 9883242052, 9062384579 or 7003088185.