Friday - September 17, 2010

NEISP, JNU Weekly Seminar Series 2010

Date & Time: September 17, 2010 at 3:00 PM
Venue: SSS-II Committee Room

Speaker: Dr. Kadayam S. Subramanian, IPS (Retd)
Topic: Democracy and Human Rights Violations in Manipur with special focus on Women and Children

Abstract
The presentation will start with a brief narration of the speaker's experience in the northeast as a senior police officer. It will then explore the conflict scenario in the region and comment on the response of the government of India in the past and present. Then, developments in the tiny state of Manipur since July 2009 will be considered. The focus will be on the role of the state government in dealing with the violent situation and its implication for the common people of the state especially women and children. The analysis will draw on the report of the fact finding team which visited the state in November 2009. The recommendations of the report will be highlighted. As a result of the advocacy work done with the union home ministry by one member of the fact finding team on return from the visit, the union home ministry released a number of innocent persons detained by the state police on security grounds. The presentation will also throw light on the human rights violations in Manipur as recorded in a separate article written and published by the speaker in www.infochangeindia.org recently under the heading Reports and Books. The repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which is having the effect of encouraging human rights violations in the state will be necessary to improve the situation in the state. Since 1980 when the act was first imposed on the state, all children born since then have had no experience of living in freedom. This is a tragic feature of the current scene in Manipur. Manipur today is highly militarized and the situation there resembles that in J&K. However, J&K is more in the limelight. The extra-judicial killings by the police commandos in the state during 2008 and 2009 were the highest in the country during those years but this does not seem to have been documented by the NHRC, which seems to believe that such killings are the largest in UP! Only public pressure from below will bring about changes in a humane direction. The serious human rights situation in Manipur needs to be addressed by public action/pressure from below.

All are cordially invited to attend

Sd/-
Atom Sunil Singh