New Delhi   

A plea for peace and welfare

NEW DELHI: Twenty-one organisations from across the country have come together to appeal to the Government to go for welfare instead of warfare.

In a parallel event to the Defence Expo-2010 starting this Monday, these organisations, representing civil society, are gathering for “Delhi disarmament events and conference for an arms trade treaty,” which will focus on the consequences of arms trade and the way military spending is prioritised over the well-being of the people.

For the next four days meetings, workshops, peace vigils, concert and an experts’ conference will be organised in the city.

“The event is dedicated to providing and distributing information on why development will depend on disarmament. It is also aimed at mobilising informed public opinion and to inspire non-violent action that will be a major contribution to the growth of a culture of peace,” said Binalakshmi Nepram, secretary general of Control Arms Foundation of India, a non-government organisation spear-heading the event.

As part of the event, a music for peace concert was organised at Alliance Francaise de Delhi this Sunday along with a poetry-cum-dance performance based on the poems by the Iron Lady of Manipur Irom Sharmila and a performance by Susmit Bose.

“The performance by contemporary dancers was an exploration in movement of an unpublished poem by Irom Sharmila, gifted to the choreographer Charu Shankar, when Irom was under arrest at a hospital ward at All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in 2006. The poem speaks of Sharmila’s first experience of flying, written in the flight from Imphal to Delhi, and is a deeply introspective poem about how a woman of her strength views her own inner struggle. The dance is an ode to the deep friendship between the two women and to the respect Charu feels for Sharmila’s strong belief in peace and the respect Sharmila feels for dance and the arts,” said Aanchal Kapur of Kriti, an NGO participating in the event.

The other events to be held as part of the programme include a peace march to Parliament starting at Jantar Mantar on Monday. Apart from the various conferences and other events peace vigils will be held every day in front of India Defence Expo 2010 at Pragti Maidan, from February 15 to 18.

“India’s military spending was the 10th highest in the world in 2007, yet India has not been able to tackle poverty and malnutrition even after 61 years of Independence. The Indian military budget is eight times the budget for clean water and sanitation, this when several lakh Indians die every year due to diarrhoea. When people are dying of poverty and bad sanitation, what protection will arms provide them? The global trade that fuels the epidemic of armed violence is not subject to international regulation. The arms industry is unlike any other. It operates without regulation,” said Ms. Nepram.

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