Citizens for Justice and Peace
CJP moves NHRC against police and forest officials in Dehradun for assaulting tribals Van Gujjars were beaten up, their shelter destroyed, they were even subjected to custodial violence
29-Jun-2020
CJP and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP) have brought to the attention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) a recent instance of blatant violation of legal as well as human rights of Van Gujjars of Dehradun at the hands of police and forest officials. The complaint showcases how the officials not only…
Forest Rights : Shelter destroyed in Uttarakhand CJP stands with the Van Gujjars and condemns police action
19-Jun-2020
On June 17th, forest officials and local police forcefully destroyed a shelter belonging to Van Gujjars. Despite court orders to not take action against those who make claims under FRA 2006, many women and men were beaten up. The government is using the COVID lockdown as an excuse to roll back the gains made by…
Woman, Van Gujjar, Forest Dweller – the roles & intersectionalities in Mariam’s life The Right to a Voice Revisited - Van Gujjar Women & Intersections of Community Mobilization
21-Nov-2019
“One woman standing up against an unjust law is unlikely to achieve much on her own; many women working together, however, are more likely to provoke change” (Rowland 1998) I had first read about a Van Gujjar named Mariam in an article titled “Tribal Women in UP: Challenging the Panchayat System” in Diana Vinding’s book…
A Day in the Life of Van Gujjars Photo Feature
19-Sep-2019
The Van Gujjars are a transhumance tribe of pastoralists belonging to the Himalayas. Their livelihood and subsistence depends primarily on their cattle. During summer they walk upto and beyond 12,500 ft in the mountains and trek down on the onset of winter. Ghulam Mustafa Chopra and I started our journey from Dehradun to Sakhri on…