About Us

Over the last 20-30 years, the civil rights movement in India has emerged as an autonomous voice in defense of civil liberties and democratic rights of our people. The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi, is one such organisation. It came into existence in 1976-77 as the Delhi unit of a larger national forum, and became PUDR on 1 February, 1981.

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Press Releases


Jan 17 10:30

PUDR demands judicial probe in to the custodial death of Pudiyami Mada in Chattisgarh

The custodial killing of an adivasi in newly formed Sukhma District of Chattisgarh is yet another reminder of the lawlessness which prevails in Chattisgarh’s Bastar region.

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Dec 29 10:52

PUDR condemns arrest and lathi-charge on anti-dam protesters in Assam

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Which ‘People’ are the Dams for?

People’s Union for Democratic Rights strongly condemns the police firing, lathi-charge and arrest of peaceful protesters of the anti-dam movement in Assam in the last two days. Nearly 400 people who had been gathering at the protest site at Ranganadi in Lakhimpur town of north Assam since 16 December were arrested in the wee hours of 26 December. Later when thousands of protesters reassembled to continue their protest at Chauldhowa in the morning of 27 December, police fired in the air, burst tear gas shells, and resorted to lathi-charge to evict the protesters.

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Dec 15 10:30

The Righting of an Injustice: Jiten Marandi and Three Others Acquitted

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PUDR welcomes the Jharkhand High Court decision acquitting Jiten Marandi and three other adivasi poor peasants, earlier convicted and given the death sentence by District and Sessions Court, Giridih in Chilkari Firing of October 26, 2007 in the Girdih District, in which 19 persons were killed and many injured. This firing was allegedly done by CPI (Maoist) cadres aimed at immobilizing the Nagarik Suraksha Samiti, an alleged vigilante force of the former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi’s political party, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.

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Dec 09 10:30

Soni Sori Case shows that our freedoms are at risk because people’s concerns receive a short shrift at the hands of the judiciary

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Peoples Union for Democratic Rights is distressed at the hiatus between the sharp observations of the Supreme Court judges and their timid operative orders and judgments. If there was any doubt over this it has been laid to rest by the recent orders of the apex court hearing the case of Soni Sori and the clarification offered by a bench of the Supreme Court in the much touted judgment on the issue of SPOs.

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Dec 08 10:30

National Industrial Manufacturing Zones is in defiance of the Directives Principles of State Policy and exacerbate regional imbalance and turn workers into wage slaves.

People’s Union for Democratic Rights wants to draw public attention to a new industrial policy regime being proposed by the Congress party led UPA II Government in the name of increasing GDP share of manufacturing from 16 to 25 per cent and to generate 100 million jobs over next five years. The New Manufacturing Policy aims at creating large integrated industrial townships, national investment and manufacturing zones, lower regulatory and compliance “burden”, and faster clearance with fiscal incentives.

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Latest Publications


Dec 18 19:01

A STORY OF ‘SUICIDE’ AND SURVIVAL: Death in the custody of Vijay Vihar Police Station

The newspapers on the 3rd of November 2010 reported a death in the premises of Vijay Vihar P.S. of a 25 year old youth named Vikas. These reports suggested that Vikas had an affair with a woman married to another man. On that specific day Vikas called up police assistance at 100 after he entered into a fight with the husband of the women he reportedly loved. Thereafter Vikas committed suicide inside the police station where he was kept. PUDR‟s team investigated this death.

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Nov 13 10:30

PEOPLE’S CONVENTION FOR THE RELEASE OF THE PEOPLE’S ARTIST JITAN MARANDI

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It was a long-awaited gathering. About five months had passed since the conviction of Jitan Marandi and three others, all poor peasants from adivasi, dalit and downtrodden socio-economic backgrounds by the District and Sessions Court at Giridih, Jharkhand. Jitan himself had been incarcerated for about 3 years and 8 months, accused in various cases, including the one filed in the wake of the Chilkhari firing of October 26, 2007 in the Giridih district. This is the report on the Public Convention against the death penalty to Jiten Marandi and others held in Ranchi on 12th November 2011


Oct 30 09:30

Loot of the Land, Livelihood and Life: A joint fact finding in to incidents of crime against people in Odisha

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A fact-finding committee of ten members from six rights organisations - People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Odisha), Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights (Andhra Pradesh), Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (West Bengal), Human Rights Forum (Andhra Pradesh), Campaign for Justice and Peace (Tamilnadu), Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (Andhra Pradesh) and Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (Delhi) - visited the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada in South Odisha, and Sundergarh in Western Odisha for three days from 2nd to 4th May, 2011 to look into re

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