Statement by the All India Feminist Alliance – NAPM calls upon the State to ensure her safety, bring perpetrators to justice and uphold Naga women’s right to reservations in municipal bodies.

NAPM (All India Feminist Alliance – National Alliance of People’s Movements), a pan-India collective of feminist, grassroots organizations and individuals strongly condemns the threats of death and sexual violence made on social media to Kohima-based women’s rights activist and academic, Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu, Advisor, Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA). The vile, violent and vicious threats on Facebook by one Mr. WJ Longkumer warn her to desist from advocating for women’s political reservation – a hard-won right of Naga women, also upheld by the Supreme Court.  We demand immediate legal action against the perpetrators and call upon the state to ensure the safety of Prof. Rosemary as well as other Naga women, facing similar threats. 

Prof Dzuvichu is no stranger to intimidation. Back in 2017, she was among those leading the struggle to ensure the long-delayed implementation of the Nagaland Municipal (First Amendment) Act of 2006, or the “Nagaland Reservation Bill of 2006″. Through this amendment of the 2001 Municipal Act, women were allotted 33% reservation in urban local bodies (municipalities and town councils), in accordance with the 74^th Amendment to the Constitution of India. Article 243 T (3) of the Indian Constitution, mandates that at least one-third of all directly elected seats in every municipality in India must be reserved for women. Yet, all was not smooth as quotas for women in political bodies was posited as ‘going against the customs and culture of Nagaland’, and women who defied these customs were seen as legitimate targets of ire.

Prof Dzuvichu, along with her colleagues, stood firm with women candidates who faced threats of social boycott as well as threats of their homes being burnt down, in a violent reaction by a coalition of 17 major Naga tribes who opposed the reservation for women in Urban Local Bodies (ULB). When violent protests broke out, even leading to the loss of lives, and NMA withdrew their petitions in the case that had reached the Supreme Court of India, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) successfully carried the petition forward, in a spirit of solidarity.

The rest is history and a matter of public record – the Supreme Court in 2023 directed the Government of Nagaland to conduct the Municipal elections, and in November 2023, the Government of Nagaland enacted the Nagaland Municipal Bill with 33% reservation for women in ULBs. The elections, which were finally held in June 2024, witnessed hundreds of women enter local politics, determined to make their voices heard. In the ULB elections held after a gap of two decades, women won 102 out of 278 seats, clearly signalling that they were no longer willing to be held back by misogyny or customary laws. The matter before the Apex Court was finally disposed off in July, 2024.

The violent threats to Prof Dzuvichu must be dealt with utmost firmness, lest they embolden elements that posit women’s rights in opposition to custom and tradition, and justify violence against women who dare to step into the formal political arena. The impunity for those who make threats and intimidate women in public life must immediately end. We stand in full solidarity with Prof Rosemary Dzuvichu, also a member of ALIFA and the NWG of NAPM as well as with all Naga women who have a legal and human right to make free political choices.  We demand:

1. The police must take serious cognizance of the FIR registered by Prof Dzuvichu on 24/9/25, perpetrators identified and brought to justice, at the earliest, as per law.  

2. The safety and security of Prof Dzuvichu, her family members and other women’s rights activists and Naga women be ensured.

3. Social media platforms and communities must check their members from posting and amplifying misogynous and violent messages. These platforms must remove hate-filled, violent posts before they are amplified.

4. Govt must ensure Naga women’s rights to political participation in municipal bodies, in terms of the Supreme Court’s 2023 order, without women having to face threats to their life, limb, dignity and property.

Endorsed by:

A. Suneetha, ALIFA, Hyderabad.

Adv Dr Shalu Nigam, Lawyer, Delhi

Arundhati Dhuru, NAPM Lucknow

Arundhati Ghosh, Cultural Practitioner, Bangalore

Bhanumathi Kalluri, social activist, Hyderabad

Bittu K R, scientist, Haryana

Chayanika Shah, Queer Feminist Activist, Mumbai

Dr Preeti Edakunny, Bengaluru

Dr Soma KP, Independent Researcher, New Delhi

Dr. Sanju, Sadulpur, Rajasthan

Faiza A. Khan, Delhi

Gabriele Dietrich, Penn Urimay Iyakkam, TN

Gouthami, Goa

Hechin Haokip, Manipur

Hema Das, The EAST, Tezpur, Assam

J Devika, feminist historian, Thiruvananthapuram

Jarjum Ete, Arunachal Pradesh

Jayasree Subramanian, Academician, Hyderabad

K. Sajaya, Social Activist & Independent Journalist, Hyderabad

Kavita Srivastava, PUCL

Laxmi Murthy, Journalist, Bangalore

Madhu Bhushan, women’s rights activist, Bangalore

Madhuri, Social activist, Madhya Pradesh

Mamata Dash, Social Activist, New Delhi

Meena Saraswathi Seshu, National Network of Sex Workers

Meera Sanghamitra, ALIFA – NAPM, Telangana

Mohini, Advocate, Avira foundation, Haryana

Nandini Rao, Feminist Activist, New Delhi

Neetisha Xalxo, Adivasi Rights Activist, Jharkhand

Nikita, Hyderabad, social worker and activist

Priya Dharshini, Delhi forum

Priyanka, Lawyer, Lucknow

Radhika Desai, Independent Researcher, Gender and Social Development, Goa

Roopa Rathnam, Bengaluru

S. Seethalakshmi, Independent Researcher and Activist, Hyderabad

Sagari Ramdas, Food Sovereignty Alliance, Telangana

Sharanya, solidarity worker with indigenous peoples’ movements, Koraput, Odisha

Svati Shah, Academic

V. Sandhya, National Committee member, Progressive Organization of Women, Hyderabad