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.