Gender, social justice and human rights in the northeast

Our Correspondent
Kohima, March 15: ‘Violation of women’s rights is a violation of human rights’ was the crux of a discourse among academicians, members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and university students at a national seminar on ‘Gender, Social Justice & Human Rights: with reference to North East’ held today at the SIRD Auditorium, Kohima.
Issues relating to gender, social justice and human rights concerns everyone, said Prof NS Jamir, vice chancellor (i/c) Nagaland University. Jamir, who was the chief guest during the day-long seminar, reminded that ever since its Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was made in 1948, the United Nations has been tirelessly working to uphold the fundamental human rights to ensure a life of dignity for all citizens of the world. He said the UN, keeping this objective in view gives special emphasis to major issues like gender and social justice in its Vision 2030.
The term social justice, he pointed out, means all members in a society should have equal opportunity, fair treatment and a fair distribution of resources.
In the past, women advancement and empowerment was limited to only social and economic benefit, but the present understanding goes much beyond these considerations, Jamir maintained, adding that women’s rights are now recognised as a human rights issue. “It would be wrong to think that women’s right is confined to our kitchen or is for social and cultural life only,” he added.
Stating that women’s rights, in true sense, are allowing women to fully exercise their rights in all aspects of life including social, cultural and in all the decision making bodies in the society including politics, Jamir pointed out that one of the biggest challenges of the present times is to uphold the UDHR and follow it in letter and in spirit, which requires that one’s rights do not infringe on rights of others.
Delivering the keynote address, NHRC joint secretary Dr Ranjit Singh explained that the objective of the event was to raise awareness about the various divisions of human rights. He mentioned that violations of these rights are now being brought to the public domain mainly due to media reportage and increasing awareness. He also highlighted that based on registered complaints of violation of human rights, Odisha and Haryana were the states with highest statistics while Nagaland has recorded 96 complaints in five years.
Claiming Naga women enjoy parity in status is being ignorant
Head of the English department in NU, Dr Rosemary Dzuvichu said there are many women, particularly from the younger generation and from the educated lot who assert that Naga women enjoyed high status unlike other societies.
“I still say these are women who are ignorant about the rest of the women population in the rural areas,” Dzuvichu said. Emphasizing the conditions that women in rural areas live, she said the voice of those women are carried out when women intellectuals talk about inequality.
Speaking on the topic ‘Gender Equality, Role of Women in Good Governance and Development’, she stressed that lessons from history indicate that on the road to peace, there is a looming dismal future when women are not included.
In the context of Nagaland, she pointed out that the tribe bodies and village judiciary were male dominated as that was the way the Naga society was structured.
She mentioned the recent “war” that the Naga people came out from, out of municipal elections, and commented it appeared that the Naga definition of democracy meant exclusion, not inclusive of everyone in the society. Talking about the provision of the constitution where reservation of seats for women in civic bodies was guaranteed, Dzuvichu wondered how the Nagaland government was going to “wriggle out” of the 74th Amendment of the Constitution.
On why women have not been able to get into politics in the region particularly in Nagaland, she maintained that political parties refuse to see women as “winnable candidates”, mostly because of lack of finance. “The biggest opposition to women candidates for decision making bodies are women themselves. That is the paradox we live in today,” she lamented.
Role of media in social justice
Talking about how the issues of northeast are not given prominence in the mainstream media, senior journalist and former editor of Eastern Mirror, Bano Haralu was of the opinion that earlier there were many limitations including geographical distance and lack of interest, but now with the leaps in IT, the main challenge was the willingness to contribute.
She felt that there is a lot to be covered in terms of communicating with the voice of the communities and “the voiceless”. She underscored the need for journalists in the region including those from Nagaland to bring to the foreground issues faced by the communities by reflecting the truth about these issues.
Haralu also maintained that the news in the region tend to get overweighed by militancy. Towards this, she challenged local journalists to write about the corruption and insurgency prevalent in the region. She further stressed on the need for the media of the region to engage with communities.