News Analysis India

Tag: All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union

  • Students’ body serves 15-day deadline on Arunachal government to resume census of Chakmas, Hajongs

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Against the backdrop of the charge of racial profiling of Buddhist Chakmas and Hindu Hajongs, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) served a 15-day deadline on the state’s BJP government demanding the resumption of the census of the “refugees”.

    The students’ body claimed the government had stopped the exercise after receiving a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

    AAPSU general secretary Tobom Dai said the PMO had on December 7 sought a response from the state government after the Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) petitioned it, alleging racial profiling of the people belonging to the two communities. Dai dismissed the charge.

    “It was a regular administrative exercise, aimed at maintaining the data of the refugees for safeguarding the interests of the indigenous people. The state government must not buckle under any external pressure,” he said.

    On December 1, the extra assistant commissioner of Diyun circle in Changlang district of eastern Arunachal held a meeting with Chakma and Hajong leaders days after, what the CDFI claimed, the district magistrate had notified the “Census of Chakmas and Hajongs 2021” at all Chakma and Hajong-inhabited areas of the district “for a report to be submitted to the government on or before December 31, 2021”.

    The CDFI said the census had sought personal information such as bank account and employment details and pending criminal cases.

    “This exclusive census is an act of racial profiling as only the Chakmas and Hajongs are being singled out. Arunachal shares its borders with China and Myanmar from where illegal migration has been taking place since independence,” CDFI chairman Suhas Chakma said.

    But Changlang DM, Devansh Yadav had said the December 1 meeting was convened not to start a census but inform the villagers how the process would be executed if at all approved.

    There are about 65,000 Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal. After being displaced by a dam in the then East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), they were resettled in Arunachal during 1964-69 by the central government. 

  • Arunachal govt nixes draft bill on property rights to girls after protests

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The BJP government in Arunachal Pradesh has shelved a move to study, debate, and consider granting marriage and inheritance of property rights to the girl child after it met with opposition.

    The Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women, Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society, and Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights had compiled a draft on marriage and inheritance of property rights to the girl child.

    Two days ago, Chief Minister Pema Khandu had praised the initiative but said the matter called for a debate and wider consultations involving all stakeholders.

    “We want to give our daughters equal rights in all aspects. However, the issue at hand needs a proper debate and consultations given our indigenous identity and tribal rights, particularly property and inheritance rights,” Khandu had said.

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    Amidst speculations that the draft will be tabled in the form of a bill in the upcoming Assembly session, the influential All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union expressed its opposition to the draft.

    The student body said it would not allow the bill, which takes away tribal rights, to be tabled in the Assembly or discussed in the state cabinet.

    The students’ organisation said it would not mind property rights being given to tribal women but that it would oppose if tribal women married to non-tribals are considered for the same.

    Minister and government spokesperson Bamang Felix assuaged the feelings by stating that the government had no plans to table the bill in the Assembly.

    Felix said it was not being drafted by any department. He said the draft was submitted as a memorandum by the women commission members when they had met the CM recently.