Gladson Dungdung
In the name of development, the State is taking resources from poor people and handing it over to the rich. Government policies are creating more and more disparity.
Gladson Dungdung is a human rights defender and writer based in Ranchi, India. He is general secretary of Jharkhand Human Rights movement. He has spoken internationally on human rights issues, including police atrocities, violence against women and gross violation of the rights of indigenous peoples. In his latest book, Mission Saranda: A War for Natural Resources in India, published in 2015, Dungdung documents the struggles and the human rights violations in Saranda Forest, where mining companies are exploiting the ancestral home of 125,000 Adivasi people as part of the Indian Government’s development plans in the region.
Human rights defenders in India face a diverse range of attacks and harassment for their wor defending the rights of others, including killings, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, smear campaigns, and judicial harassment. People defending the rights of marginalised communities are targeted by state and non-state actors alike. Armed groups and private companies also target HRDs and community leaders for work related to economic development projects and their impact on the local communities or the environment. HRDs have also been labelled as "insurgents" or “Naxalites” (Maoists), in an attempt to discredit their work and justify their targeting.
