ACT NOW; FOR PEACE AND TO ACHIEVE THE GLOBAL GOALS
By;Abhishek Kumar Dash
KalahandI:In the year 1981, during the thirty-sixth session of the United Nations, a resolution was passed to observe the third Tuesday of September as the International Day of Peace, vide resolution no. 36/37. Later in the year 2001, during the fifty-fifth session of the United Nations, the general assembly adopted a resolution to observe the 21st of September as the International Day of Peace.
Every year, with a different theme, the whole world celebrates the day. This year, the theme for International Day for Peace is Actions for Peace: Our Ambition for the #GlobalGoals. Actions for peace should always be the joint effort of all the stakeholders. All of us are living in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 benchmarks adopted in 2015 to address some of the most pertinent issues of the current era, such as poverty, injustice, and environmental degradation, to end human suffering and improve people’s lives. 2023 marks the midpoint in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. 2023 is also the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
In this context, the statement given by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is very crucial. He said,”Peace is needed today more than ever. War and conflict are unleashing devastation, poverty, and hunger and driving tens of millions of people from their homes. Climate chaos is all around. And even peaceful countries are gripped by gaping inequalities and political polarisation.”
We are living in a time where conflict and inequalities are increasing day by day. All 17 goals can’t be achieved without a peaceful world.
The international community is well aware of the losses that occur because of the Russia-Ukraine war. More than 120,000 Russian troops have been killed and 170,000 to 180,000 injured, with Ukraine’s military toll at 70,000 killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded. The losses are irrecoverable, as they include human lives and have a serious impact on the social, economic, and political lives of many around the world. That war warned human society to take intensive action for peace.
In the context of India as well as Odisha Conflict can be broadly divided into 3 categories:-
Firstly, resource-based conflict. Here, conflict is occurring because of resources. Land issues and community agitation against the state, community’s resistance against multinational companies like Vedanta, POSCO, Bhushan, TATA, etc. Last month, many media houses covered the news of local communities in around six villages in Jharsuguda district demonstrating near the collectorate, demanding the scrapping of the public hearing for Vedanta Group’s proposed coal mining project. Recently, Mulniwasi Samajsevak Sangh, an organisation working for the rights of Dalits and Adivasis, demanded the repeal of the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023, alleging it poses an existential threat to the lives and livelihoods of indigenous communities in southern and western Odisha.
In a press conference, the organisation also demanded that the Odisha Police stop working as henchmen for corporations and withdraw false cases against those who are peacefully protesting against deprivation of their homelands. Many of the protesters were arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Secondly, identity-based conflict. This is the rapidly growing conflict in India and Odisha. Ethnic violence, persecution of people of certain faiths, atrocities against Dalits, and adivasis have been increasing day by day. All of us are well aware of the on-going violence in Manipur, where, as of July 29, 181 people had lost their lives and 4,786 houses had been burned, including the demolition of hundreds of religious and educational institutions. Both our country, India, as well as the state of Odisha, witnessed many incidents of identity-based violence in the past. Hence, there is nothing to say more about the Sikh violence that took place in 1984, Babri Masjid in 1992, Godhra in 2002, violence against Christians in 2008, etc.
Similarly The latest data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) also captures some anomalies and interesting trends. Every year, there is an increase in atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis. Even the 2021 crime data shows a similar trend of an upsurge in violence, with a large proportion of crimes against Dalits and Adivasi women and children. Atrocities and crimes against Scheduled Castes have increased by 1.2% in 2021 (50,900) over 2020 (50,291 cases). Also, atrocities and crimes against Scheduled Tribes have increased by 6.4% in 2021 (8,802 cases) over 2020 (8,272 cases). It may be noted that most of the cases remain unreported.
Thirdly, gender-based conflict. Domestic violence, atrocities against women, female femicide, and sexual harassment at the workplace are growing repeatedly. But such issues usually receive negligible coverage. As per the report of the National Commission for Women (NCW), there was a 30% rise in total complaints received from around 23,700 in 2021 to 30,800 cases in 2022. NCW reportedly received over 6,500 complaints under the ‘protection of women against domestic violence’ in 2022. In our day-to-day lives, we certainly come across many acts of violence against women in different spheres of life.
Since the year 2018, #ActNow has become a viral trend in the United Nations, as it indicates the urgency of the issue and emphasizes collaborative action to achieve the desired goal. Hence, in order to have a peaceful society, we need to ensure the peaceful action of all the key stakeholders at this moment.
The four key elements of our democracy, i.e., the legislature, bureaucracy, judiciary, and media, must act now to build a peaceful society. The legislature should critically examine the policies and programmes that promote violence, inequality, and difference in the society.The bureaucracy also takes necessary measures to ensure that there is no scope for violence on the ground. The judiciary must put those elements behind bars who promote violence.
The media should also publish or telecast such news, which is creating violence in society. We can’t imagine peace in the presence of violence. Every individual, as a responsible citizen, needs to avoid violence and promote peace at their own individual level as Napoleon said “The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.” small individual effort will certainly bring sustainable peace in long run.
[email protected] or in cell-9437734235/8249568959
NB:- The article Solely owned and thought of the author, For any dispute Odishabarta & Team not accountable
