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 1977 as the Delhi unit of a larger national forum, PUCLDR, and became PUDR on 1 February, 1981.
Remembering Stan Swamy (26 April 1937 – 5 July 2021)
The state persecuted Stan Swamy under the UAPA, a punishment that precipitated his death as an undertrial in judicial custody. Stan Swamy was framed, fettered, and finally forced towards a fatal illness under due process of law called the UAPA. The charges levelled reveal the state’s deep prejudice against an upright activist who spent decades in building and empowering Adivasi rights against historic neglect and exploitation. Stan Swamy’s persecution under the UAPA offers an understanding of how many others have been similarly punished by the state for their dissenting politics.
Prior to his incarceration, Stan Swamy’s failing health was well-known, but he was not granted even medical bail let alone regular bail. The NIA and the prison authorities refused to acknowledge the deterioration that he suffered in prison, and they failed to uphold his rights as a prisoner, a right to decent health care and facilities.
Read: Framed to Die: The Case of Stan Swamy at Framed_to_
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BD Sharma: Advocate of Adivasi Rights
PUDR mourns the death of Dr Brahma Dev Sharma, one among the rare breed of civil servants who, in service as well as on retirement, continued to stand by the marginalised and the oppressed. His lifelong service of championing the rights of the Adivasis has stood the...
Muffling of the media and the slide down to khakistocracy: PUDR strongly condemns Assam Rifles notification in Nagaland
On 16th November this year, the date which is celebrated as the National Press Day, three news dailies in Nagaland ran blank columns in place of editorials. The news dailies picked up the occasion to protest a notification from the Assam Rifles dated 25th October...
Condemn Delhi Police Brutality on Protesting Students
PUDR strongly condemns the repression unleashed by the Delhi police on students protesting against the University Grants Commission's move to scrap non NET fellowship for research scholars. The protesting students were lathicharged by the Delhi police first on October...
Writers’ Protest: A Call Against Intolerance and More
The threat of a two pronged attack on life and liberty of the citizens, as well as visiting foreigners, posed by a party in power never appeared as imminent as it does today. There is an exponential rise in the assault on our democratic rights launched by the Hindtuva...
Lynch and Burn: Hindutva’s slaughter methods
On 18th October 2015, Zahid Ahmed Bhat succumbed to his burn injuries in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. Bhat, a resident of Batengoo, Anantnag district, was a nineteen year old cleaner of a truck that was set on fire on the night of 9th--10th October 2015 by a Hindu...
Latest Publications
A Dead End: Custodial Death at Preet Vihar
The report questions the police version of the death of 27-year-old rickshaw puller Bijeshwar Paswan whom the police claimed to have found in an unconscious state near Radhu Palace Chowk, Preet Vihar. The report traces the disturbing collusion between police, medical...
Shankar Guha Niyogi and the Chattisgarh Peoples Movement
On 3 June 1977, barely three months after the emergency was lifted, the struggle of Dalli-Rajhara miners and the name of Shankar Guha Niyogi became known to the world outside Chattisgarh. The previous night Niyogi had been arrested provoking thousands of workers to...
Dalla: Privatisation, Police Firing and Workers Struggle
On 2 June 1991, the workers of a cement factory at Dalla, (District Sonbhadra) in Uttar Pradesh were fired upon when they were staging rasta rook and dharna in protest against the privatization of their factory, owned by UP state Cement Corporation. Eight bodies were...
A Rape and a Retraction: The Saga of Dakshinpuri
A rape victim invariably faces compelling pressures that impose a shroud of silence over her violations. Such pressures come from within the family and, more pervasively, through the norms and codes of society. Where the agents of state are responsible for such...
A Wiped Out Life: The Story of a Police Cover-Up
This report, published in 1991, is about the death of an autorickshaw driver, Shankar Lal, on the 14th of July 1991. This report is based on interviews with the doctors, police officers, SDM and the family of the deceased. Shankar was picked up on the 4th of July by...
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