Semir on gender violence and racial discrimition held in Kokrajhar

From our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, June 28: A semir on women, peace and security awareness and capacity building programme on the issues of gender based violence, racial discrimition and legal mechanism in Bodoland was organized jointly by the Control Arms Foundation of Indian in collaboration with North East Research and Social Work Networking (NERSWN) on Monday at Bodoland Guest House, Kokrajhar. The Deputy Commissioner of Kokrajhar, MP Sharma formally iugurated a day-long semir.

Ree Mutum, coorditor of the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and Control Arms Foundation of India, said that the main objective of the semir was to end gender based violence and racial discrimition and to bring awareness among the women across the Northeast and the country. She said that they had jointly organized a semir on the topic of women, peace and security awareness and capacity building programme on the issues of gender based violence racial discrimition and legal mechanism in Bodoland.

Mutum said that it was important to help local authorities understand existing gaps in accessing justice in specific cases as well as to sensitize local authorities and State departments towards the concept of relevant laws, human rights and their duties in the same regard with relation to dealing  with survivors of violence, racial discrimition and protection mechanisms. She demanded inclusion of more women in electoral processes, judiciary, police forces, economic decision and other decision-making processes for a more gender balanced equitable society. She urged to the Government of India to provide adequate protection for women human rights defenders and to work towards empowering women survivors of any form of violence with emphasis on economic justice and rights.

Neha qvi, project coorditor of Welthungerhilfe, India said that women tend to face higher rates of violence because discrimition on the basis of gender renders them among the most powerless members of society and racial discrimition often results in violence. Women who face discrimition based on both race and gender are thus doubly at risk of violence. In some societies, genders based violence may be perceived as justified by racial, tiol, cultural, or religious traditions and a state’s reluctance to remedy the situation can pose further problems for women.