Degree Prasad Chouhan

Adivasi Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh (India)

 For the past 15 years I have been working at the grassroot level for the Rights of Dalits and Indigenous communities mainly in the State of Chhattisgarh in Central India. In the course of my human rights work, I have handled issues related to the land rights of Adivasi communities, forceful displacement, encounter/extra judicial killings, custodial deaths and illegal detention and torture and attacks on minorities. I have also worked on issues related to human trafficking and migrant labourers in Raigarh, Saraguja and Jashpur Districts in Chhattisgarh and near by states Odisha and Jharkhand. As a part of Adivasi Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Sangarsh, a community group set up by Adivasi villagers to respond to the alleged unlawful dispossession of their land by the two companies, we organised the mass filing of 98 criminal complaints. Those complaints were filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (SC ST POA), a special law to protect Dalit and Adivasi rights, in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Special Police Station. Over 100 civil cases are still pending before the Sub Divisional Court level seeking restoration of the land under 170 (b) of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code.

I have been targeted by police in the last 10 years for my work against human rights abuses by the government and private corporations. As a HRD from marginalised community I face severe threats and intimidation. Police has registered fake cases against me under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. I have been detained, arrested and languished in the jail/ prison for months.