Democracy & Society

Dolly Kikon is a feminist scholar and supports the political participation of women in the Naga community (India).

The National Education Policy 2020, quietly approved without a parliamentary debate amidst the traumatic COVID-19 pandemic, does not address the urgent concerns of millions of students. Its thrust on ‘consolidation’ and centralisation is detrimental to equity and inclusion, and goes against the constitutional federal structure where states make their policies. The policy contradicts the mandate of the Right to Education Act and denies quality ‘inputs’ to those who need them most. Reconfiguring the school structure for early diversion into minimalist vocational courses, it promotes ‘multiple pathways’ including Open Schooling even at primary stage. Newer hierarchies of ‘skills’ versus ‘knowledge’ are forged within a deeply segregated and stratified system. Moreover, disregarding diverse socio-economic realities of disadvantage and deprivation, and without a commitment to girls’ transformative agency, it threatens to push them out into instrumental trajectories of learning and life.

Distress migration of youth from rural India to cities due to lack of livelihood opportunities and rising climate impacts is deeply worrying for Indian economy. Although the present government announced several measures such as rural housing, toilets and better road network for rural development, they have failed to yield overall progress in rural sector. Besides, impetus to budget allocations for rural livelihood mission and employment guarantee schemes has not shown promising results. Constant downslide in the rate of economic growth, business investments and employment indicate an inherent flaw in the country’s development framework. The rural infrastructure calls for a redesign so that it boosts rural economy through integrated planning of fostering small businesses, job creation, expanding irrigation network, agriculture and allied sectors. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic further exposes the dangers of lopsided development where a major part of the country lives under the shadow of shining urban India that has taken an unsustainable path to prosper. India needs a deeper analysis of what is going wrong and where.

“I am not going to compromise my indigeneity!" Santa Khurei radically questions issues of self-determination, discrimination and neglect of and within the queer indigenous communities of northeast India and urges the academia and the public to undertake multi-faceted queer ethnographic work in the region in the absence of prejudice. She urges for documentation of stories of queer group identities that are central to their cultures and histories and contiguous with legacies traversing regions and nations. An understanding of the rich queer cultures and traditions is most urgent, as a source of strength and resilience, as the present trends pose a challenge to the very people who contribute to it. In this interview Santa Khurai speaks about preserving the fabric of Northeast queer traditional cultures as the ‘roots’ of societal nourishment and empathy, about her YouTube documentary on the ‘god from underneath the water- the ‘Nupa-Amaibi’ and about being a Northeastern queer person, sharing her knowledge of the ancient indigenous queer traditions and identities that are under constant threat of extinction.

The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led thousands of youth, mostly migrant workers from the Northeast region, to return home facing uncertainties regarding their future in terms of jobs and careers, and their livelihood. Hence, there is a need to engage with them and explore some strategic paths to address this issue and find some directions. For this article, information from 20 returnees from the eight states of the region has been gathered through digital communication. The returnees include those who were working in hotel industry, restaurants, food courts, retails, malls and business processing outsourcing (BPO) firms. This article looks at the challenges faced by these returnees and comes up with some concrete observations and recommendations regarding their possible livelihood activities for the government, including the state governments of the respective Northeast states, for the general public and for non-governmental organisations.

In this article, the authors explain that the recent amendments to India’s citizenship law, and the processes for listing Indian residents and Indian citizens in national registers together constitute an unprecedented threat to India’s secular democratic constitution. It explains that this is the first time a legal regime is being established which differentiates based on religious identity, which strikes at the heart of the humanist and inclusive framework of the Indian constitution.

The CAA is not the first and by no means will be the last attempt to further the agenda of Hindu Rashtra. One can anticipate many such moves meant to keep the hatred against Muslims simmering. However, the divisive politics will only hurtle India onto the treacherous road of relentless anxiety, uncertainty and injustice, exposing million of its own citizens against the vagaries of statelessness.

India’s Northeast, a land of volatile identities having an uneasy experience with migration, is held to-gether by a fragile consensus forged in the larger interest of peace and co-existence. The seams of these fault-lines pass by people’s lived realities, always at the risk of being burst open with an act of insensitivity. The enactment of the CAA is considered by many as one such act.

Though the instrument is flawed and limited, there is merit in engaging with CEDAW to highlight the issues of members of the LGBTIAQ+ communities in India.

The Indian Dr. Prasanna Gettu is co-founder of the International Foundation for Crime Prevention & Victim Care in Chennai. Survivors of fire and acid attacks are cared for and advised here. The journalist Pragati K. B. met Gettu in her centre and talked to her about domestic violence and her long-standing struggle.