By Anjuman Ara Begum, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: Assam Social Justice Forum, with an aim to realize social, economic and political justice, held its first annual meet at Guwahati which was attended by about 300 members and well wishers. The meeting was presided over by Hafiz Rashid Choudhury, senior advocate Gauhati High Court.
Assam Social Justice Forum is the new body formed out of two bodies called Assam United Social Justice Forum and Social Justice and Peace Forum formed three years back. A decision was made on January 2, 2011 to merge the two bodies and form a single body.
Along with this a new women’s organization called “Assam Women Social Justice Forum’ was also launched at the same annual meeting of the Assam Social Justice Forum. Both the organization will endeavor to work for the upliftment and development of the weak, minority and marginalized section of the people in Assam based on the constitutional guarantee of fundamental rights. Advocate Abdus Samad Ahmed and Prof.Sushil Kumar Sarker are the present president and vice president of the Forum.
A press note issued on the occasion says that the weak and marginalized sections of the society are always victimized by the state and non-state actors. As an example, the press note pointed out the incidents of ethnic conflicts of 2008, serial blast of October 30, 2008, NRC related killings in Barpeta on July 21, 2010, internal displacement people etc. The Assam Justice Social Forum will work to seek justice on the above and similar issues and will advocate and lobby with the government and other bodies.
To empower women in cooperation with men, Assam Social Justice Welfare Forum too was launched which is headed by Renu Begum as President and Jannatun Naim as vice president.
Several speakers who spoke on the occasion included Hafiz Rashid Choudhury, advocate Gauhati High Court, R.D. Lal, senior advocate of Gauhati High Court, Tridip Pati Sinha, Aminul Islam and many others.
Several agendas for future action were adopted in the meeting. They include proposals to pressurize government on the issues of immediate upgradation of NRC, restoration of the voting rights of the D-voters of Assam, Internally displaced people in BTAD area, provision for adequate teachers and infrastructure to schools situated in the riverine areas of Assam, providing identity cards and financial compensation to people affected by the soil erosion , innocent Indian citizens being victimized as “Bangladeshis’, ensuring human rights for the people who are detained in the foreigners detention camp in Goalpara and implementation of Sachar committee report etc.