NAPM condemns "false cases" against tribal rights leader Ashok Choudhary, others

Ashok Choudary at a forest rights meeting

By A Representative
The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), India’s top civil rights network, led by social activist Medha Patkar, in a statement has condemned “false cases” against All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUWFP) activists and “continued incarceration” of Adivasi activists since June 8, adding, the latest in the series is an arrest warrant was issued against AIUWFP leader Ashok Choudhary.
Chaudhary has been booked under several sections, including 147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 504, 332, 333, 336, 353, 427, 120-B of Indian Penal Code 1860 and 3/5 of 7 the Criminal Law Act, 1932 and 5/26 of Indian Forests Act 1927.
Earlier, on June 8, 2018, AIUFWP activists Sukalo Gond, Kismatiya Gond and Sukhdev Gond were arrested on their way back from Lucknow. They had gone to meet state forest minister Dara Singh Chauhan and forest secretary Sanjay Singh to lodge complaints against police brutalities and the forest officials who had falsely accused them.
“They are still being held in jail, even though in the ongoing hearing in the High Court, on a Habeas Corpus appeal, the state at one point claimed that they were never arrested. There is no clarity on their arrest and the UP government continues to play delay tactics”, statement said, adding, their only crime is they are struggling to gain their rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
“These are clearly an intimidation tactics, following which support for the movement poured in from Rahul Gandhi, Congress president, and Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, who showed solidarity with the jailed Adivasi women and their struggle through their messages”, it noted.

Gujarat Sachivalaya blacklists, denies entry to woman social activist: Will NHRC probe?

By Kantilal Parmar* I have approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into a serious incident that took place at the Gujarat Secretariat in Gandhinagar on August 18, 2026. The matter concerns social activist and women’s rights leader Chandrikaben Solanki, who, according to the information available to me, was denied an entry pass to the Secretariat when she went there to meet Gujarat’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Dr. Manishaben Vakil, to raise an issue concerning social justice.

Ample evidence of child labour in South Gujarat's cash rich sugarcane belt: Study

By Rajiv Shah A recent German government-funded study , undertaken jointly by the NGO Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, which mainly deals examines the working conditions of migrant workers in the cash-rich sugarcane zone of South Gujarat, has gone a long way to suggest large scale prevalence of child labour during the harvesting season.

Right to walk, right to livelihood: Clearing footpaths 'can't mean' clearing out the urban poor

By Aseem Mishra* India’s cities are locked in a quiet but intensifying struggle over one of their most contested public spaces: the footpath. For pedestrians, a footpath is basic infrastructure—a strip of ground that should allow people to move safely, independently and with dignity. For millions of informal workers, the same stretch of pavement is a workplace, a source of daily income and often the difference between survival and destitution.

Counterview

Search This Blog