उत्तर प्रदेश के मुज़फ्फरनगर, शामली, बाघपत, मेरठ, और सहारनपुर जिलों के ग्रामीण इलाकों में सितम्बर के पहले हफ़्ते में हुए दंगों के बाद से हज़ारों मुसलमान चार महीने से राहत शिविरों में रह रहे हैं | पिछले हफ़्ते से, उत्तर प्रदेश सरकार ने जबरन शिविर बंद करने और लोगों को वहाँ से निकालने की नीति अपना ली है | परिणामस्वरूप दंगा-पीड़ित लोग और भी ज़्यादा परेशान और असुरक्षित हो गए हैं |

Following the unprecedented outbreak of riots in the rural areas of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Meerut and Saharanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh in the first week of September, tens of thousands of Muslim families have been living in relief camps for the last four months. However, over the past week, the Uttar Pradesh Government has been following a policy of forced closure and eviction of people from such camps. As a consequence, the situation created has resulted in increasing the vulnerabilities and insecurities of persons affected by the riots.

The Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) expresses deep disappointment at the Supreme Court ruling making homosexual relations between consenting adults an offence.  In an affirmation of the rights of Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) persons, the Delhi High Court in a landmark judgment in 2009 had de-criminalized consensual same- sex relations, taking it out of the ambit of ‘unnatural sex’ under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

PUDR mourns the death of the 23-year-old victim of an intensely violent attack and gang rape. However, rather than giving in to anger caused by this distress, we believe that this is a time to reflect on the constitutive contexts that produce an event and figure out how it might never be repeated.

PUDR condemns growing incidents of sexual assault by CRPF personnel on young women in Paikmal block of Bargarh district in Odisha. On July 24, a few CRPF personnel placed in the same block assaulted a 20-year-old woman of the Vindhyabasini colony of Paikmal. The jawans of CRPF accosted her as she was collecting water from the tube-well, and asked her to go with them to the forest nearby for which they offered her money. When she refused, she was dragged. On resisting, she was kicked, marks of which are still on her body.