In a stirring speech to his fellow lawyers on the occasion of Independence Day, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, underscored the importance of eliminating the barriers to accessing justice and said the history of the Indian judiciary has been the history of the daily struggles of the Indian people…He said the “law exudes human interest and responds positively to[Read More…]
Indigenous (Adivasi) people in Bijapur district of Bastar, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, have been traumatised by yet another aerial bomb attack from the security forces which have been using drones to carry out these operations. Although the Indian Air Force is not officially deployed for combat in Chhattisgarh, the repeated use of aerial bombardment on civilian populations suggests a new[Read More…]
Are you aware that the Indian government has once again bombed its citizens? On 7th April 2023, the Indian government dropped bombs aerially with the help of drones on the Adivasis of Bhattum, Kavurugatta, Meenagatta and Jabbagatta villages of Bastar district, Chhattisgarh. Adivasis were busy collecting Mahua leaves for living when the bombing started from 6 am onwards. After the[Read More…]
Fourth drone attack in three years, mockery of democracy in Bastar The adivasi villagers of Bastar have once again made themselves heard against the aerial bombings or drone attacks in their villages. As reported by media, Villagers of Bijapur have alleged drone attacks on their villages on 7thApril 2023. It is reported that villages, namely, Jabbagatta, Meenagatta, Kavargatta and[Read More…]
by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Chhattisgarh and Chhattisgarh Right to Food Campaign (RTFC) Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and Right to Food Campaign (RTFC), Chhattisgarh are writing to the Chhattisgarh government to bring attention to the poor status of human rights and health rights of people living in the Bastar Region. For years the people of Bastar have been denied decent[Read More…]
In 2013, the villagers of Village Kondasawali, Police Station Jagargunda, district Sukma, Bastar Divison, Chhattisgarh had lodged a complaint with the Collector regarding the fact that a few years before that, in 2007, some SPOs and Salwa Judum leaders had come to their village, burnt 95 huts in three settlements in their panchayat, killed 7 people, and threatened the villagers[Read More…]
River Shabari flows through the Dandak forests. Along its banks live people from many tribes, the Adivasis – Gond, Kondh, Koya, Koitur, Shabar, Soro… so many names have history given to them. The epic Ramayana tells the tale of Shabari, the lady from these tribes who had turned into stone. But this is another tale. Below the bed of river[Read More…]
Chhattisgarh state has been a battleground for two conflicting world-views and two models of development that are at loggerheads with each other. Successive governments, representing the interests of global and national capital have been pursuing a policy of emptying tribal villages to hand over the vast forest and mineral resources to private corporations. The mineral rich Dandakaranya forest spanning over[Read More…]
Mumbai Press Club, March 10 2017: Bastar Solidarity Network, Mumbai organised the book release of “ Bearing Witness : Sexual Violence in South Chhatisgarh” on 10th Mach 2017. The book has been brought out by Women against Sexual violence and State repression ( WSS ). Dr. Ilina Sen, academician and activist released the book. While releasing the book she said[Read More…]
IGP Kalluri, the man alleged to have committed untold atrocities on clueless tribal people in Bastar, and the scores of human rights activists who have tried to intervene time and again in order to demand at least a semblance of justice for these innocent people, (who have been mercilessly mass-murdered, raped, beaten ruthlessly, maimed etc.) has been very graciously asked[Read More…]
WSS welcomes the actions taken by the Government of Chhattisgarh to restore its credibility and regain the confidence of the citizens of Bastar. In a series of decisive administrative actions yesterday, the state government announced the appointment of Sri P Sundararaj, IPS as DIG of the newly-created Dantewada Range. Bastar IG Sri SRP Kalluri has been asked to proceed on[Read More…]
This is an appeal for restoration of the rule of law in Bastar (Chhattisgarh), assured access without interference to any persons concerned with human rights abuses in the area, and action against those guilty of harassing such persons or other violations of human rights. Among other recent incidents of harassment is a brazen attack on Dr. Bela Bhatia, an independent[Read More…]
We, the concerned students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai condemn the continuing state repression of adivasis and recent attack on human rights activist Bela Bhatia in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. On the 23rd of January, 2017, a group of 30-odd men attacked Bela where they barged into her house in Parpa, near Jagdalpur violently and threatened to burn the[Read More…]
The National Alliance of People’s Movements strongly condemns the multiple, brazen acts of intimidation directed at well-known academic and activist Bela Bhatia in Bastar including the most recent attack a few days back at her house in Parpa village by a belligerent mob of 30 goons. Clearly, this direct ultimatum and threat to Bela to “leave Parpa (Bastar) within 24[Read More…]
On 24th January, 2017 a demonstration and Hall meeting was organized by the INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE’S LAWYERS (IAPL) in Mumbai to mark the “International Day of the Endangered Lawyer”. A fact finding report by IAPL (see attachment) “on the attack of Lawyers in Chhattisgarh” was released by Advocate Mihir Desai. While releasing the report, Advocate Desai mentioned that though[Read More…]
Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression condemns the recent attack against Bela Bhatia, a researcher and activist, based in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. On the 23rd of January, 2017, a group of 30-odd men attacked Bela near her house. They barged into her house violently, and threatened to burn the building down if she did not leave immediately. The mob also[Read More…]
Just a couple of days after she helped a team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate complaints of rapes by the security forces near Bijapur (South Chhattisgarh), Bela Bhatia was told by a mob of goons to leave her house in Parpa village outside Jagdalpur or face the consequences. Already two days ago, goons had come to[Read More…]
WSS welcomes the decisive intervention of the National Human Rights Commission in cases of sexual violence against Adivasi women by police and security forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh. Validating our assertion that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war in Bastar, the Commission has held the State government “vicariously liable” for gross violations of human[Read More…]
Clearly rattled by the mounting body of evidence of blatant violations of the rule of law and Constitutional rights under the cover of anti-Maoist operations, the Bastar police has launched a no-holds-barred attempt to silence all those who are calling them to account. Advocate Shalini Gera and her colleagues of JagLAG who were in Jagdalpur in connection with a case[Read More…]
The People’s Union of Civil Liberties strongly condemns the action of the Chhattisgarh police in registering an FIR (Cr. No. 27/2016 PS Tongpal dated 5.11.2016) against DU Professor Nandini Sundar, JNU Professor Archana Prasad (also of AIDWA), Vineet Tiwari of the Joshi-Adhikar Institute and of the CPI, and Sanjay Parate of the CPI(M), villagers Mangla of Soutenar Namapara and Manju[Read More…]
Press release by Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chhattisgarh (CPJC) and Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) Giving a whole new turn to the on-going attacks on activists, local leaders and journalists in Bastar, Chhattisgarh Police has now filed an FIR against Nandini Sundar (Professor of Sociology, DU), Archana Prasad (JNU Professor), Vineet Tiwari (Joshi Adhikar Institute[Read More…]
We the Undersigned, strongly condemn the absurd charges of‘criminal conspiracy and murder’ against highly respected academics and social activists by the Chhattisgarh police in the case of murder of Shamnath Baghel by unknown persons on 4th November. None of the following named in the FIR – Dr Nandini Sundar, Head of the Department of Sociology, Delhi University; Dr Archana Prasad,[Read More…]
PUDR strongly condemns the burning of the effigies of activists and a journalist by the Chhatissgarh Auxiliary police force across Bastar in a widely publicised ‘offical protest on 24th October. This show of strength by state forces against civilians was the latest and most brazen example of the patronage extended by the government and its systematic fostering of a Police[Read More…]
Sukli Hemla of Palnar village (Bijapur) remembers that as a widowed woman, she had done everything to save her son when he would fall ill during his childhood. But when on July 5th 2016, the security forces tied his hands and dragged him away, while they were together working in the rice fields, she could do nothing to save him.[Read More…]
There are many of us educated urbanites who haven’t even heard about places like the Bastar region in Chhattisgarh. The reasons are obvious. The mainstream media hardly reports about the region and makes sure that reports from local journalists and stringers are censored if not silenced. Recent reports of false cases being used to arrest journalists in Chhattisgarh is a[Read More…]
“In Bastar, a man dies once, but a woman dies twice, once when she’s stripped of every ounce of her dignity, paraded, brutalized by a gang of uniformed mercenaries; and later, by a bullet. And yet these Adivasi women and girls, prefer to go out and face the consequences rather than sending their menfolk out to die like an[Read More…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
