Binalakshmi Nepram working for peace and freedom in Manipur

Binalakshmi Nepram is a humanitarian, author, and female activist for the advocacy of gender rights and women-led disarmament movements with the objective of arresting gun culture and bringing about peace for her home state of Manipur in particular and northeast India in general. For her contributions in this field to Manipur and northeast India she is known by the epithet "The Face & Voice of North East". Nepram has established many institutions such as the Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI) in 2004, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network (MWGSN), Manipur, and Secretary General Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI). On the disarmament issue she opines, "You cannot shoot an unarmed person. This goes for both the State and non State actors... nonviolence will win at the end." Forbes named Nepram as one of its "24 Young Minds to Watch out for in 2015", and the Action on Armed Violence of London listed her among the top 100 influential people in the world actively pursuing a reduction in armed violence. 

 

 

LYRICS: 

When your own governments against you 
War is all you've ever known 
Corruption undermines everything 
Votes are bought and sold 

Armed gunmen drive through the streets 
AFSPA says they do that you please 
Your own military, is adversarial 
Who do you turn to for peace? 

There's nothing to say 
Only to sing 

Hing-min-ashi Eikhoi, Apun ba na yaiphare 
Hingminashi Eikhoi 

Hingminashi Eikhoi, Mit-kap thok-lo mayam 
Hingminashi Eikhoi 

Hingminashi Eikhoi, Apun ba na yaiphare 
Hingminashi Eikhoi 

No one sheds tears for Manipur 
Or the forgotten North East of India 
Hidden away, people shot every day 
Quietly one by one 

With bullets fired from Western-built guns 
Who profits from peace? 
Keep going no one will know 
When will the winds of change blow? 

There's nothing to say 
Only to sing 

Hing-min-ashi Eikhoi, Apun ba na yaiphare 
Hingminashi Eikhoi 

Hingminashi Eikhoi, Mit-kap thok-lo mayam 
Hingminashi Eikhoi 

Hingminashi Eikhoi, Apun ba na yaiphare 
Hingminashi Eikhoi