INVITATION | PANEL DISCUSSION | FREE MARKAM HIDME : A CALL TO ADDRESS POLICE BRUTALITY ON ADIVASI WOMEN | MAY 21, 6 PM

[Savitribai intersectional Study Circle Nalsar]

“Adivasi women are being beaten every day, they’re being jailed every day. Every day, wherever our women go, they face the same kind of abuse. The only possible way forward is for all women to be united, for our water and our forests, for our lands – to save them from mining.”

                                                             - Markam Hidme 

Dear all, 

On March 9 Markam Hidme was in a meeting along with Soni Sori and many Adivasi women demanding police accountability in  light of the police custodial death of an Adivasi woman named Pande Kowasi. Being a vociferous participant in Nandraj Pahad agitation and an opponent of development projects that according to her has the potential to destroy ecology, her unlawful arrest in the name of alleged connections with ‘naxals’ is a part and parcel of the systematic repression of adivasi women fighting for environmental justice and police accountability.

                                                                                    

MARKAM HIDME This panel discussion will facilitate a  conversation about why environmentalism of adivasis is a threat to the brahmanical state and substantiate why demanding the release of Markam Hidme will also be a demand to end the police violence on all adivasis, while also discussing the UAPA in connection with Adivasis. The discussion will also address the trend of branding adivasi rights activists as naxal/maoists to falsely accusing them of unlawful activities and how this is eleading to the genocide of adivasi ethnic culture, richness of life and knowledge systems. 

                                                                 

On this note, we hope you invite yourself to listen to Soni Sori, Dayamani Barla and Seethakka (Dansari Anasuya) as the Savitribai Intersectional Study Circle and NALSAR Minorities’ Forum present to you a panel discussion - ‘Free Markam Hidme:A Call to Address Police Brutality Against Adivasi WOmen’ on May 21, 6pm .

More about our speakers:

1.

Dayamani Barla popularly known as the iron lady of jharkhand who ran the substantially stupendous agitation against Arecerol Mittal’s steel plant in easter jharkhand is an  environmental land rights activist and also has been a politician as she contended the 2014 loksabha elections from Khunti constituency in Jharkhand. She is a journalist of unique kind as she runs a tea stall which she considers as an important place to document the various socio-political issues of the Munda and other adivasi communities. 

She is the 2013 Ellen L Lutz indigenous rights award , an international indigenous rights NGO. Through her journalism and political activism, she has contributed much to the discourse of environmental justice for which she was infamously arrested twice for leading protests against illegal land acquisitions.    

 

2.

Danasiri Anasuya also known to telugu states dearly as seethakka, is a current  member of legislative assembly of Mulugu constituency of Telangana. She is a lawyer who had advocated rights for surrendered naxal leaders and is currently pursuing phd from osmania university amidst her political and welfare work. She is outspoken and unapologetic about her past history of holding the position of Naxal dalam commander for 11 years who is constantly shifting the essence of being a politician by her several social welfare campaigns. One such is #gohungergo which she started on twitter  to get food and other essentials to the poor in Mulug during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.  

3.

SONI SORI is an ex-teacher, politician and human rights defender whose ground level leadership in bastar has emerged to be one of the greatest organisational counter against state and Upper Caste nontribal naxal violence. Her work reflects the genesis of adivasi genocide owing to the State-Naxal conflict. Together with her nephew, journalist Lingaram Kodopi, she uncovered human rights violations committed by both sides of the conflict. Soni Sori has previously been targeted by the authorities on several occasions. Her focused organisation of adivasi women against police custodial deaths and violence continues despite In 2011 she was imprisoned on trumped-up charges relating to eight cases where she was accused of being involved in attacks against the police

The panel discussion will happen in Hindi and Telugu while live english translation will be made available.

Click here to join the meeting

We hope to see you all there tomorrow.

Regards

Sanjeev Gumpenapalli

On behalf of SISC and NMF

Nalsar University of Law