A 50-year-old woman sat at Park Circus Maidan chanting “hum ek hain (We are one)”, while her one-year-old granddaughter slept on her lap.

Akbari Begum and her daughter-in-law have been coming to the protest ground every day for the past month, all the way from Entally.

“I am here for her (granddaughter’s) future. Who do I leave her at home with when both her mother and I have to come here?” asked Akbari Begum.

The sit-in to protest the new citizenship regime began at Park Circus Maidan on January 7.

It is a call of duty that Akbari and many other women like her feel compelled to attend, leaving the comforts of their homes and compromising on their chores or source of income day after day.

Akbari’s daughter-in-law has to feed her baby but that hasn’t stopped her from joining the rest. “It is not easy but we have to do it… All of us have to be here to lend strength to this movement. One person less is one voice less,” Akbari stressed.

A fellow feeling binds these women together and gives them the strength to carry on. “We are not alone. There are so many like us here and we have made friends,” Akbari said.

Park Circus, once a festive destination, has now changed its meaning for the women. “This Park Circus is different,” Akbari said. “Park Circus had always been a happy destination for us. Many of us from the neighbourhood would come here during Puja and enjoy the fair on the ground. We would go around eating and enjoying ourselves. But that has changed.”

Now, when Akbari sets out of her home, there is a feeling of hope but there is also sadness because she does not know what will happen. “But when I see so many women making so many adjustments in their daily schedule, I feel there is hope and our voice will be heard,” she said.

Akbari’s husband is a gatekeeper at a wedding venue in central Calcutta and her son works at a marble workshop.

“My husband has to go to work. But for one month I have put aside stitching work that I at times take up for some extra income,” said Akbari, whose son joins them at Park Circus after work every day.

Akbari’s granddaughter is not the only baby at Park Circus Maidan. Most of the women bring their children along because there’s no one to take care of them at home.

Children of all ages can be seen sleeping on the ground or in their mother’s laps, amid the blaring microphones. Some babies cry because of the constant noise or the cold. “The baby’s routine is affected. We have to feed her here but there’s no choice,” Akbari said.

Filmmaker Aparna Sen at a programme recently responded to the death of a child at Shaheen Bagh and urged everyone to take into account “the desperation that they feel”.