About 300 participants attended the Vidarbha region Matang activists conference at Amravati on May 6-7. The prominent speakers included Adv. Eknath Awad, President of Campaign for Human Rights, Dadasaheb Kshirsagar, Vidarbha region representatives, Nanda Talwade and Satish Gujar.

The main topics deliberated at the two-day conference were education level among Matang community, the “Satyashodhak Samaj” culture propounded by Mahatma Phule to be followed by Matang community members instead of Hinduism, and formation of a state-level political party in Maharashtra to uphold self-respect of Matang community. Traditionally, the Vidarbha region had made notable contributions to the Dalit cause in Maharashtra as well as in Central India region.