India

Conict and Youth Rights in India
Haans J. Freddy
Conict and Youth

Rights in India
Engagement and Identity in the North East
Haans J. Freddy
Department of Political Science
Madras Christian College
Chennai, India
ISBN 978-981-10-3068-0 ISBN 978-981-10-3069-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7
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To My Beloved
Father Dr. K. John Freddy
FOREWORD
Dr. Haans J Freddy, a gifted researcher with a moral and empirical

sensitivity, was my student for ve years both as an undergraduate and
post-graduate student in Political Science in Madras Christian College,
Chennai, India. Incidentally, I was a student of his father, the late Mr.
John Freddy in Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School,
Chennai, whose air for English was remarkable and who was highly
respected. A lifelong learner, Dr. Haans obtained an ICSSR fellowship
to pursue post-doctoral studies and I was privileged to be his guide.
Hence, my long-standing association both at the personal level and with
his academic endeavours justies my happiness and pride in writing this
foreword.
His latest book, Conict and Youth Rights in India: Engagement and
Identity in Northeast, is a treasure for political scientists, sociologists,
human rights activists, researchers working in northeast India and more
generally for the youth of India. This book integrates insights on the social
and emotional characteristics of the youth in India and specically those in
the northeastern states.
The book provides valuable information about the unstable period in
the life of an individual between childhood and adulthood and highlights
both the personal aspect of the youth, like biological maturity, and the
social aspects, such as the changing relationships, work, leisure and many
more. Social exclusion, minority syndrome, insurgency and ethnic rivalry
have given rise to new methods of militant activity and pose ever-changing
threats in northeast India. Poor governance and lack of economic devel-
opment have transformed militant outts into terrorist entities. In this
vii
viii FOREWORD
new age of global interconnectivity and interdependence, it is necessary to

provide assurance for youth that their visions and dreams can become a
reality. This book is a good step in that direction.
This book is primarily designed to assist educators, policy-makers and
social activists who are interested in nding a way to end the conict and
to restore the rights of the youth in northeast India. The book is signi-
cant in the sense that it brings to prominence the neglected aspirations of
youth and their forced role in the conict in northeast India. This book is a
compendium of concrete examples for integrating northeast India with
India at large.
After establishing a theoretical foundation, the book attempts to iden-
tify youth rights, the conict in northeast India, examines the participation
of the youth in that conict and specic rights of youth in northeast India.
The three main criteria for essential for development the youth of north-
east India namely, Survival, Acceptance, and Dignityare thor-
oughly analysed. I am very sure that the reader will be guided
systematically to understand the issues of the youth and their larger
implications in the northeast India. Youth have not only been agents of
socio-economic change, but they have also been victimized in war and
manipulated to become combatants. The reader will encounter reective
thinking with regard to youth rights in general. The book can be seen as a
manual for youth rights in northeast India. It could also provide a road
map of a new northeast India that fosters positive developments in the
elds of education, infrastructure, industry and tourism.
Madras Christian College S.D. Christopher Chandran

PREFACE
It has been a privilege for me to write this volume. What started off as a
brief engagement with the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth
Development a premier organization of the Ministry of Youth Affairs
and Sports, Government of India, through a Lectureship in the Institute
became an inspiration for writing this volume. This volume is the outcome
of a postdoctoral fellowship granted by the Indian Council of Social
Science Research, New Delhi.
Youth studies have in recent times received considerable importance.
With debates surrounding on the exibility of the concept of youth, many
scholars have contributed to understanding of the period of youth both as
a biological and sociological construct. Youth who are generally consid-
ered as the future generation and when research on them has advanced our
understandings of the concept, it has placed on them a variety of issues
which can be of importance for their development.
This volume captures a variety of issues which arise due to the problems
faced by youth. It raises the question of youth rights in the context of
north-east India. The chapters in this book examine the concept of youth
where denitions and the concept of youth is examined in detail. Youth
rights which are of utmost importance for the successful transition into
adulthood is given priority while examining the conict in north-east
India. Youth rights are the rights of young people. It is an important
concept in movements responding to the oppression of young people,
with advocates of youth rights promoting youth participation, youth/
adult partnerships, and achieving ultimately, intergenerational equity.
The need to increase attention and concern on the rights of youth is
ix
x PREFACE
beyond controversy. The rationale for making a convention on the rights

of young people has been increasingly debated with some in favour and
others against it. Current challenges to ensuring the access of youth rights
stem from these debates and overarching questions. Examining these
debates and questions, there seem to be some issues relating to youth
rights which need to be answered denitively.
While there are specic instruments which cater to the needs of chil-
dren, women, physically disabled, etc., there seems to be one aspect which
has not received much attention Youth Rights. Although there have
been some efforts towards better protection and enhancement of youth
rights, yet it is still under represented in the debates which surround
human rights. More particularly youth rights in the context of conict
situations require attention as it is in those situations that their rights are
severely infringed upon in many ways. This volume seeks to introduce to
the reader why youth rights are important and need to be taken into
consideration and how young people in conict situations are denied
their specic rights. In the chapters that are in this book, an effort is
made to provide theoretical explanations as to why youth participate in
conict using the binary of the greed and grievance perspectives. In this
context, the case of north-eastern India is very interesting where the
region has experienced armed conict which has been in many cases
termed as low intensity conicts, where youth play a signicant role in
insurgent movements in the region. Interestingly many of the insurgent
movements in north-east India were predominantly started by youth who
were dissatised with state policies which were adopted towards the region
in the post independence era of the Indian state. The book also provides a
brief overview of the conicts in north-east India where the cases of
Assam, Nagaland and Manipur are examined to explain insurgent move-
ments in the region in which youth have engaged in the conicts to a large
extent.
North-east India has been examined by most scholars as a theater of
insurgency and conict. However, numerous studies which have been
conducted in this context have ignored the concept of youth while analyz-
ing such conicts. Youth in north-east India have played a signicant role
in the conict and there has not been much effort made in this direction to
understand their motives to engage actively in the conict. Youth in this
region have joined rebel organizations or insurgent groups in order to
confront the state to achieve some form of redressal towards the grievances
which are present among the people of north-east India. On the other
PREFACE xi
hand they have joined insurgent groups to demand secession from the
Indian union. This book is an attempt to briey understand and analyze
the role youth have played in conict and the consequences of conict
over their rights in the region. Thus, the book offers an alternative lens to
understand the conict in north-east India. The chapters in the book are
arranged to understand the concept of youth and its importance and the
idea of youth rights. It also provides a brief overview of conicts in north-
east India which has survived over ve decades despite the Indian govern-
ments efforts to establish peace in the region both through military force
and through negotiations with insurgent groups. Further, it moves into
examining youth participation in conict in north-east India where causal
explanations are provided. It then examines youth rights in the region and
nally concludes with a few suggestions drawn from earlier models which
had been framed and initiated with regard to those regions specic needs
could be adopted in similar ways.
Haans J. Freddy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to the LORD

JESUS for his love and support during a very difcult phase of my life
that I went through while writing this book. I extend my sincere thanks
to my father, the late Mr. K John Freddy, who was my source of inspira-
tion for writing this book. A sincere note of thanks also goes to the
Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, which generously
provided me with the grant for the project through a Post-Doctoral
Fellowship. I owe a special word of thanks to Ms. Sara Crowley
Vigneau for taking an interest in this work and bringing it to Palgrave
MacMillan. My sincere thanks to Dr. C. Joshua Thomas, Deputy
Director, Indian Council of Social Science Research-North Eastern
Regional Council, Shillong, for all his kind words of encouragement
and support through his center towards this project.
A special mention has to be made of Dr. Lawrence Prabhakar Williams,
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Madras Christian
College, who encouraged and supported me immensely while writing
this book. I am grateful for the kind response of my friends as well as
those strangers I met while writing this book. I would like to especially
thank Dr. K. Debbarma, Dr. R. Borgohain, Prof. B.J. Deb, Dr. Biju
Kumar, Dr. Thongkholal Haokip, Dr. Hariharan, Dr. A. Subramanian,
Dr. K. Palani and Dr. S.D. Christopher Chandran.
A sincere word of thanks to Dr. Allen J. Freddy for his kind words of
encouragement, love and support. My Mother, who was a great source of
support and encouragement, needs a special note of thanks.
xiii
xiv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Words do not sufce to express my sincere gratitude to my wife KLiu,

who supported and encouraged me through the long hours of work away
from home. And to my sons Raphael and Zacchaeus, who have always
been a source of happiness in difcult times a big thank you.
CONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 Understanding Youth Rights 13
3 Conict in Northeast India: An Overview 25
4 Youth Participation in Conict in Northeast India 41
5 Youth Rights in Northeast India 57
6 Conclusion 69
Bibliography 75
Index 87
xv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
UN United Nations
NNC Naga National Council
NSCN-IM Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland/Nagalim-Isak and
Muivah
NSCN-K National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Kaphlang
NER North Eastern Region
NEC North Eastern Council
PLA Peoples Liberation Army
KNA Kuki National Army
ULFA United Liberation Front of Asom
BLTF Bodo Liberation Tigers Front
US United States
ILO International Labour Organization
WPAY World Programme of Action for Youth
UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
AYC African Youth Charter
AUC African Union Commission
OIJ Judicial Investigation Organization
AFSPA Armed Forces Special Powers Act
UNLF United National Liberation Front
PREPAK Peoples Revolutionary Army of Kangleipak
AASU All Assam Students Union
AAGSP All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad
NDFB National Democratic Front of Bodoland
BLT Bodo Liberation Tigers
BTC Bodoland Territorial Council
xvii
xviii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
IBRF Indo-Burma Revolutionary Front

NDFB-S National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit
NDFB-RD National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Ranjan Daimary
NDFB-P National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Progressive
KLNLF Karbi Longbri North Cachar Liberation Front
NSCN-KK National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khole Khitovi
UPF United Progressive Front
KNO Kuki National Organization
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
URF United Revolutionary Front
KCP-L Kangleipak Communist Party-Lamphel
KYKL Kanglei Yawal Kanna Lup
AMSU Adi Mishing Students Union
ANEFASU All North Eastern Frontier Agency Students Union
APSU Arunachal Pradesh Students Union
ANSAM All Naga Students Association Manipur
KSU Khasi Students Union
NPMHR Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights
NSF Naga Students Federation
UCM United Committee of Manipur
ATTF All Tripura Tiger Force
UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientic and Cultural Organization
MDG Millennium Development Goals
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 4.1 Causes for youth participation in conict in northeast India 46

Fig. 4.2 Means through which youth engage in conict in northeast
India 47
Fig. 5.1 Problems faced by youth in northeast India 64
xix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Peace accords in northeast India 31
xxi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Abstract Over the last four decades or more, young people have been the
subjects of an enormous amount of research both in developed and devel-
oping countries. In general, the research on youth is assumed to constitute a
separate and signicant category of people non-adults. The problematic
nature of transition from childhood to adulthood is a central and recurring
theme in the research on youth which often confronts the fundamental
difculty in categorizing this period based on biological aspects and social
processes. The idea of youth has differing meanings across the globe
depending on their social settings. Thus, this chapter is an examination of
the concept of youth and the various meanings attached to it at the global
level and at the local/regional level.
Keywords Youth Youth studies Concept of youth Social construction

of Youth
This chapter is an examination of the concept of youth and the various

meanings attached to it at the global and the local/regional level.
Over the last four decades or more, young people have been the subject
of an enormous amount of research both in the developed and developing
countries. In general the research on youth is assumed to constitute a
separate and signicant category of peoplenon-adults. The problematic
nature of being a youth and the even more problematic nature of the
The Author(s) 2017 1

H.J. Freddy, Conict and Youth Rights in India,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7_1
2 CONFLICT AND YOUTH RIGHTS IN INDIA
transition to adulthood is a central and recurring theme in the research on

youth. Assumptions inherited from developmental psychology relating to
stages of development, identity formation, normative behaviour and the
relation between the social and physical maturation are found in the extant
literature on youth. Yet very little work has been done to make clear the
theoretical basis on the categorization based on age. Researchers on youth
studies have stressed this point continuously (Wyn and White 1997). In
1968, Allen stated that a reassessment of the concept of youth is necessary,
specically that stability is created in society through social change, which
explains the relationships between different age groups and not the rela-
tions between ages (Allen 1968). However, three decades later, Jones
challenged this point and argued that from a sociological perspective the
concept of youth had yet to develop a framework to explain the different
experiences that young people pass through when interacting with differ-
ent social groups during their transition from youth to adulthood.
Further, she argued that it would be misleading to emphasize the qualities
of youth per se as they are neither a homogenous group nor a static one.
Instead, she argued that the idea of youth can be conceptualized as an age-
related process (Jones 1998). This implies that the focus in the examina-
tion of youth should not be on the inherent characteristics of young
people themselves, but on the construction of the idea of youth through
social processes such as education, family and the labour market, and the
specic ways in which young people engage with these institutions accord-
ing to their historical circumstances (Wyn and White 1997). Growing
awareness amongst researchers on youth as a process has brought into
question the universality of the term youth. For example, Liebau and
Chisholm (1993) have suggested that European youth do not exist.
They stress the point that cultures and economies are framed differently
in European nations, so young peoples experiences across European
countries and regions are completely different from each other. They
further argue that material objectives and subjective interpretations of
culture, society and circumstances shape the way young people grow up
in the region (Liebau and Chisholm 1993). In this context Wallace and
Kovacheva (1995), while speaking about youth in Europe, state that the
experiences of youth are being deconstructed as transitions in life in
relation to age are given less priority. The asymmetry between biological
and social processes is a signicant issue in youth research. While the
concept of age generally refers to its biological aspect, more broadly
speaking, the meaning and experience of age and ageing are subject to
1 INTRODUCTION 3
historical and cultural processes. On the one hand, objective measure-

ments of an individuals life span can be made according to the passing of
time, while on the other, cultural understandings about the stages of life
provide social meanings to the process of ageing. Specic social and
political processes provide the framework within which cultural meanings
are developed. Youth and childhood have had and continue to have
different meanings, depending on social, cultural and political circum-
stances. Research on young peoples lives in the United States suggests
that the ideals of a happy and safe childhood and the innocent period of
youth are myths built around social concerns and priorities in capitalist
countries (such as the United States and European countries). However,
in stark contrast, Boyden also showcases the grim realities of trafcking
and sexual exploitation of children in South East Asian states such as the
Philippines and Thailand, the crimes committed against youth in
Argentina and the repression and detention inicted on young people in
South Africa due to apartheid (Boyden 1990). More importantly,
Boydens work reveals that children in some countries are expected to
work, not only to generate income but also to gain those skills required to
lead a successful adult life.
The nature of youth as socially constructed becomes more obvious
when seen from a global perspective (Wyn and White 1997). The idea of
youth as a universal stage of development and transition was and remains
an inappropriate concept for a large proportion of the worlds young
people. While varying experiences of youth may exist, a universal concept
of youth is important because it enables us to understand some of the
complexities of social change and the intersections between institutions
and personal biography. In this context, youth is most usefully seen as a
relational concept, referring to the social processes whereby age is socially
constructed, institutionalized and controlled in historically and culturally
specic ways (Tyyska 2014). It may be useful to refer here to earlier
arguments over the concept of gender, as there are similarities. The con-
cept of sex roles was constructed to provide a framework for understand-
ing on social limitations which men and women face in the society. While
the concept of sex roles offered useful descriptions and a signicant basis
upon which to base strategies to address gender inequalities, it had serious
drawbacks. The idea of distinct sex roles failed to provide any insight into
he relationship between men and women when such a categorization was
constructed socially. However, eventually, the concept of sex roles was
replaced by a stronger argument which placed gender as a relational
concept in which power was placed at the center. When gender is seen in
this relational context, it draws our attention to the ways in which relations
between femininities and masculinities are constructed. In this context,
femininity and masculinity are not two different categories, and they
cannot be examined independently of each other. Davies (1993), for
example, in her study shows how boys maintained a gender-based dualism
through denigration of the opposite sex, frequently drawing attention to
purportedly negative behaviours associated with women. Thus, Davies
provides us with an example where being masculine involves maintaining
a hierarchical order in which being male carries with it greater value.
Franzway and Lowe (1978), Edwards (1983) and Connell (1987) have
provided several useful discussions and extensive analyses of the limitations
of the categorical approach to gender relations.
The concept of youth is relational in nature and has meaning largely in
relation to the concept of adulthood. An idealized and institutionalized
concept of youth supposes the eventual arrival of adulthood, for which
youth is seen as preparatory. At the same time youth is not seen simply as a
decit of the adult state but as a period when young people require
guidance, training and expert attention in order to ensure the successful
transition from youth to adulthood.
The concept of youth, understood as a relational concept, brings power
relations to the forefront. For the purposes of our analysis, this dimension
is important in understanding the experiences that different groups of
young people have while growing up. The general perception that
young people are a threat to law and order portrays young people as
more powerful than they really are. Although they have rights as citizens,
these rights are relatively easily denied, and young people do not have the
opportunity to express their needs regarding institutions in which they
have the most at stake, such as education (Wyn and White 1997). In
everyday life and language, the concept of youth is associated with the
state of being young, more particularly with that phase of life between
childhood and adulthood. The words youth and young are sometimes used
interchangeably. Although they appear to mean the same thing, the term
youth when used in the plural has a broader meaning. Youth is a word
which carries with it a great deal of baggage. The baggage includes ideas
about unruly young people often maleoperating in groups and, at the
very least, being a nuisance on the streets (Spence 2005).
Though it is often used, the term youth is therefore not a neutral
description of young people. If it is not used critically and carefully, it
1 INTRODUCTION 5
brings with it predominantly negative assumptions about the behaviour

and character of young people both as individuals and in groups. Being
young is a natural biological phase in the life cycle associated with the
transition from childhood to adulthood (Seymor 2013). This concept of
youth is connected not only with a biological state, but also with a
connection with society; that is, it has both a biological and social mean-
ing. As individuals grow up within a particular social context, they occupy
particular places within any given society. The experiences of young
people and the meanings attached to the term youth are derived directly
from the social, political and economic positions occupied by young
people as much as they are from their biological development (Bennett
2007). In this context the meaning of youth and the baggage attached
thereto shifts and varies in time and place. Being young is experienced and
understood differently today than it was in the past, and there are con-
siderable differences and implications in these understandings in different
regions of the world (Spence 2005).
Youth as a social concept has thus both historical and spatial dimensions.
Within time and space, societies are structured in a way that individuals and
groups occupy different social positions and undertake different social roles.
Often social structures reect the distribution of wealth and power, and this
distribution affects different groups of people unequally. In relation to
youth, for example, being a young prince brings with it an entirely different
status and identity, social behaviour and different expectations and oppor-
tunities than does being a working class youth earning a minimum wage as a
construction worker. Therefore, even though it is possible to identify some
common biological markers of being young, there is no one universal set of
meanings which can include all young people. In other words, the concept
of youth is a generalization which cannot be taken to represent the complex
experiences of being young in any given situation.
Nevertheless the meanings attached to the concept of youth, and the
manner in which the term is commonly used, does say something about
dominant attitudes towards young people. These attitudes in turn affect the
perceptions of youth and the way in which they are treated. More particu-
larly, youth is itself as a group affected by differing access to wealth and
resources. This is partly related, on the one hand, to legal age barriers which
dene access to social opportunities such as voting, employment and welfare
housing benets, and on the other, partly related to the notion that youth is
a period of learning, apprenticeship and training and skill development in
the path to becoming an adult (Henderson et al. 2007).
The concept of youth is one which suggests similarities amongst people

belonging to a similar age group, and this concept is used as the basis for
creating social rules and institutions which emphasize these similarities.
This affects the way in which young people construe and comprehend
what it is to be young. Thus, youth is therefore a real social as well as
biological experience. However, there can be no truly universal experience
of youth, as the reality of life for young people is dened according to
different factors such as wealth or power by different categories such as
class, gender or citizenship status. Understanding something of the com-
plex relationship between the concept of youth and the different realities
of young peoples lives can help us to understand the world in which
different young people live (Wallace and Cross 1990).
The need to dene youth is important in order to the group we are
trying to research, understand and eventually develop a policy for. As is
noted elsewhere in this book, denitions and understanding of youth will
reect the biases of those doing the dening. Sociologists, youth workers,
and policy-makers all have their own different notions of what constitutes
youth, and many of these understandings are at variance with the ways in
which young people see themselves (Ceislik and Simpson 2013). Similarly
varying conceptions of the period of youth are historically and culturally
documented by writers and researchers on youth. The category of youth as
it is understood today is a relatively recent phenomenon developed during
the eighteenth century, as evidenced by historical studies in Western
societies, although discussions of youth have been noted as far back as
the classical period of Greek society. With the rise of Western modernity
the idea of an intermediate stage of life between childhood and adulthood
came to be commonly seen as youth. Prior to the 1800s, childhood was
seen to merge into an early form of adult independence between the ages
of 11 to 12 as children took on waged employment and greater duties
around their homes (Ceislik and Simpson 2013, p. 3).
Marshall and Bottomore (1992) state that the past two centuries in
Western societies have contributed essentially to the gradual expansion of
the youth phase as the socio-cultural denitions of dependent childhood
became more clearly demarcated, producing a notion of youth as an inter-
stitial phenomenon which exists between the dependency of childhood and
the autonomy of adulthood. During the late nineteenth century and for a
good part of the the twentieth century, the development of adult citizenship
rights such as voting, education, housing and employment helped dene
the many facets of the transition from youth to adulthood and with it the
1 INTRODUCTION 7
contours of the career routes and status passages that youth travel to realise
adult independence (Coles 1995, Jones and Wallace 1992).
The late nineteenth century in Western societies marked the end of
child labour and the separation of employment from the domestic sphere.
Commentators noted the emergence of common characteristics and
experiences of young people; in particular, discussions on the develop-
mental features of youth and the inevitable storm and stress that accom-
panied this period of identity formation and movement through status
passages to adulthood were presented by G.S. Hall (1904) and Erickson
(1968). Key to these early ideas of adolescence was the notion that youth
represented a time of ux when individuals had some time to experiment
with ideas and identities as well as the actual routes they might take
through life. Nevertheless, it is important to note the fact that most
young people in the twentieth century have found their lives to be heavily
inuenced by class, race and gender processes that dened much of their
early lives and set limits to what they might turn out to be as adults. In the
early nineteenth century, Parsons (1942) and Mannheim (1952) noted
the similarities which youth shared as a group (ideas, culture and life
chances) while also noting the contrasts between youth and adults,
which helped our understanding of the possibility of generational conicts
(for a clearer understanding, see Cohen 1997).
Afuent societies have through the latter part of the twentieth century
witnessed the extension of youth from age 14 or 15 to the early twenties and
beyond as many young people spent longer periods of time in educational
institutions and job training and delayed their entry into full-time work or
employment, family and household formation. For many, such delays are a
result of unemployment, poor quality of available work and social exclusion.
Recent researchers have talked of a boomerang generation of young
people in their twenties and thirties who have tried to secure work and
independent housing only to nd themselves returning home because of
unemployment and the high cost of housing. Thus, the state has signicant
control over the youth phase because of its inuence on education and labour
markets. Governments have increasingly called for upgrading their citizens
skills to help create knowledge economies where all workers acquire higher
levels of education (Lauder et al. 2006). As a result, over the past 50 years we
have witnessed the signicant extension of compulsory education: whereas
previously most young people left school at 13 to 14 years of age, now they
are engaged are in full-time education until the age of 18, and a majority are
pursuing higher education until the age of 21.
In recent years the study of youth has predominantly employed deni-

tions of youth transitions and youth identities that offer us an analytical
overview of the youth phase. Generally, transitions are understood to
include manifold pathways into adulthood in relation to key aspects of
young peoples lives, including education and employment, intimate rela-
tionships and friendships, housing and leisure. Commentators have also
suggested that some routes, such as education and employment, are funda-
mental for structuring other pathways during this transition (Roberts
2003). In recent years writers belonging to afuent societies have discussed
the breakdown of once heavily structured and predictable transitions along
class and gender lines and hence have moved from using concepts such as
careers and routes that denote (Banks et al. 1992) transitions to descrip-
tions that convey greater uidity, such as navigations and niches (Evans and
Furlong 1997). Understandings of youth transitions as developed by
scholars tend to be socially constructed, and they reect the strong inu-
ence of culturally and historically specic events such the de-industralisa-
tion of many European countries in the 1980s and the 1990s and the
economic growth and cultural transformation of many cities in developing
countries during the rst decade of the twenty- rst century (Farrar 2002).
Scholars on youth studies have also developed models of young peoples
social identities that contribute to our ways of understanding youth. Prior
to the 1970s, our understanding of youth in relation to their class, race and
gender positioning in the wider society tended to be quite crude
(Mungham and Pearson 1976). However, more recently, such under-
standings have been superseded by concepts of youth identities that dene
young people as existing through multi-faceted, processual notions of the
self, where individuals create hybridized identities through identity work
and identity performances (Bennett 1999, 2005). Today social-media
interactions via the web and other forms of digital media and the diasporic
migratory experiences of many young people have inuenced these devel-
opments in identity theory. Scholars still acknowledge the powerful way
that economics, social relationships and cultural formations frame youth
identities. However, many commentators speak of the loosening of con-
ditioning processes so that young people have more space and opportunity
to create their identities across what were once rigid and impermeable
boundaries (Pysnakova and Miles 2010). Young peoples hybrid selves
are also understood in relation to a greater sensitivity to the reexive
processes in the so-called internal conversations and self-monitoring that
we all participate in and that make up or daily lives. Young people today
1 INTRODUCTION 9
are more conscious then of their self-identity than the previous generation
compelled to be so because of globalisation and the risks associated with
itand are thus mindful of the ways that one can pursue life projects and
seek out self-development (Beck 1992, Giddens 1991). Any denition of
youth today thus needs to be sensitive to the effect that these historical
processes such as individualisation and de-traditionalisation have had on
how young people conceive and live their lives.
While denitions of youth vary from country to country, for statistical
purposes, the United Nations denes youth as those persons between the
ages of 15 and 24 years, without prejudice to other denitions by member
states (Horschelman and Blerk 2012). According to the International
Labor Organisation Convention Number 138, youth begins when a per-
son reaches the age of 15. The Commonwealth Youth Programme denes
youth as those in the age group of 1529 years. Many countries interpret
the achievement of age majoritythe age at which a person is given equal
treatment under the lawas the entry from the state of youth to adult-
hood. However, the operational denition and nuances of the term youth
vary from country to country, depending on the specic socio-cultural,
institutional, economic and political factors (Johal et al. 2012).
Eisenstadt (1956) dened youth as the period of transition from child-
hood to full adult status with full membership in the society. As a stage of
human development, youth is a phase of high expectations, high risk-
taking and great enthusiasm; and, therefore, this group is a strong force to
reckon with in society. They can be mobilized to achieve physical targets
(eg., war) and for psychological purposes by utilizing their capacity for
sacrice, courage, endurance and initiative. Youth is also a period of
training and acquisition of skills. Rosenmayr (1972) identied ve con-
ceptual approaches to dening youth: (i) youth as a stage in the individual
life-cyclepsychological and biological growth; (ii) youth as a social
subsettypes of behaviour in roughly determined age ranges; (iii) youth
as an incomplete statea period of transition between childhood and
adulthood; (iv) youth as a socially structured generational unit certain
common experiences of circumstances and generating activities; (v) youth
as an ideal value conceptidealism, alertness, traits called youthfulness
(Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development 2012).
Pierre Bourdieu (1978) said, la jeunesse nest qu un mot (youth is
just a word). Words cannot be taken in such an uncritical manner because
words and even articial constructs have social meanings and have real
effects. Challenging questions arise about the meaning of words in any
discussion of youth practice, policy or research, including issues related to

the social and historicalas well as politicalimplications for our under-
standing of young peoples lives (Chisholm et al. 2011).
The United Nations proclaimed 1985 as International Youth Year, which
laid the foundation for social and political thinking on youth matters. A
decade later the General Assembly adopted a global youth policy drafted as
the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and beyond
(WPAY). This was with the intent to ensure that governments be more
responsive to the aspirations of youth for a better world. Since then there has
been considerable growth in the recognition of the importance of youth
participation in the process of decision-making (Denstad 2009). Young
peoples participation strengthens their commitment to and understanding
of democracy, which may lead to better outcomes of policies and pro-
grammes. Three important justications for a greater voice and participation
of young people across a variety of institutional settings and policy areas are
(i) young people are entitled to proper nurturing, protection and respect
along with the right to participation; (ii) improved services for young people
require that their opinions be well negotiated and represented; (iii) participa-
tion should help in the development of young people both at the individual
level and in society as a whole (Delgado 2015, Head 2011). In the present
scenario, there is a need for youth to come together and present themselves
as a potent force to remove social, political and economic inequalities.
Society building, which includes facilitating social mobilization, managing
differences and overcoming and ensuring transparency and accountability of
government and social institutions are the main roles expected from youth.
In order to help us understand youth in the context of northeast India, it
is necessary to provide a brief description of the region. Popularly known as
the northeastern region or the northeast, this region in India comprises
eight states: namely, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura (Lo 2015). In the year 1947,
Sikkim became a protectorate of India and was made into a full state in
1975. The northeast region is connected with the rest of India by the
Siliguri corridor of West Bengal (NCAER 2012). Rich in natural resources
and covered with dense forests, this region receives the highest rainfall in the
country, with large and small rivers owing through the land, and is a cache
of different ora and fauna. Diverse in cultures, customs, languages and
traditions, northeast India is home to multifarious social and ethnic groups.
Democratic ideals and a belief in the value of discussion prevail among
northeastern tribes; and the people of northeast India have high self-esteem,
1 INTRODUCTION 11
which makes them averse to accepting the diktat of the so-called others.
Although such a description of northeast India seems to present an idealized
view, this region has been experiencing ethnic conicts, low productivity
and market access, poor governance and lack of infrastructure.
Governments inability to address problems caused by the regions remote-
ness, seclusion and backwardness has provided fertile ground for breeding
armed insurgencies and various other conicts in the region related to
identity and ethnicity (Goswami 2010, Singh 1987). What make the region
distinct from the rest of India are the assertions of various ethnic identities
and the attitude of the state in containing ethnic extremism (Bijukumar
2013). Management of public affairs in northeast India has been of much
interest in recent years and a great deal of attention has been focused on
violence among tribal groups and the brutalities committed by security
forces and the insurgency. There has been no analysis of issues that are of
signicance to the youth living in such conditions. Therefore, it is important
to note that youth in northeast India have become either active participants
in the conict or its victims. This research, thus, is designed to study the
rights of youth in the context of conict that is present in the region.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Beker, Jerome and Henry W. Maier. 2014. Developmental Group Care of Children
and Youth: Concepts and Practice. New York: Routledge.
Bendit, Rene and Marina Hanh Bleibtreu, eds. 2008. Youth Transitions: Processes
of Social Inclusion and Patterns of Vulnerability in a Globalized World.
Stauffenbergster: Barbara Burdich Publishers.
Best, Amy L. 2007. Representing Youth: Methodological Issues in Critical Youth
Studies. New York: New York University Press.
Bradford, Simon. 2012. Sociology, Youth and Youth Work Practice. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Burkhart, Roy A. 1938. Understanding Youth. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury
Press.
Cote, James E. 2014. Youth Studies: Fundamental Issues and Debates. New York:
Palgrave MacMillan.
Delgado, Melvin. 2012. New Frontiers for Youth Development in the 21st Century:
Revitalizing and Broadening Youth Development. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Dubios, David L. and Michael J. Kracher, ed. 2005. Handbook of Youth
Mentoring. London: Sage Publications.
European Commission and Council of Europe. 2014. Perspectives on Youth: 2020

What do you See? Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
France, Alan. 2007. Understanding Youth in Late Modernity. New York: Open
University Press.
Furlong, Andy. 2009. Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood: New Perspectives
and Agendas. New York: Routledge.
Hansen, James C. & Peter E. Maynard. 1973. Youth Self-Concept and Behavior:
Counseling Youth Series. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hart, Stella. 2009. The Problem with Youth: Young People, Citizenship and the
Community. Citizenship Studies 13(6): 641657.
Hilnger, Messias DeAnne K., et.al. 2010. Societal Images of Youth:
Representations and Interpretations by Youth Actively Engaged in their
Communities. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 21
(1): 159178.
Kehily, Mary Jane, ed. 2007. Understanding Youth: Perspectives, Identities and
Practices. London: Sage Publications.
Lesko, Nancy and Susan Talburt. 2012. Keywords in Youth Studies: Tracing
Affects, Movements, Knowledges. New York: Routledge.
Sukarieh, Mayssoun and Stuart Tannok. 2016. On the Political Economy of
Youth: A Comment. Journal of Youth Studies 14(1): 675691.
Wright, Katie and Julie McLeod. 2015. Rethinking Youth Wellbeing: Critical
Perspectives. New York: Springer.
Wyn, Johanna and Cahill Helen. 2015. Handbook of Children and Youth Studies.
New York: Springer Reference.
CHAPTER 2
Understanding Youth Rights
Abstract Since the evolution of the idea of human rights, it has witnessed
extensive growth and development which addresses almost all issues which
are of concern to humanity. Human rights in general apply to all human
beings regardless of age; however, there has been a rise in the specicity
with reference to the rights of different categories of human beings on the
basis of age. This chapter examines youth rights as an important concept in
movements responding to the oppression of young people, with advocates
of youth rights promoting youth participation, youth adult partnerships,
and achieving ultimately intergenerational equity. This chapter also exam-
ines regional youth rights instruments such as the African Youth Charter
(AYC) and The Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth. It
also provides a brief analysis of the Declaration of the Rights of American
Youth.
Keywords Youth rights African Youth Charter Ibero-American

Convention on the Rights of Youth Declaration of the Rights of
American Youth Rights of Youth
INTRODUCTION
We cannot put something into a vessel which is already full. Such is the
case with the idea of youth rights, as there is extant literature on human
rights which is inclusive of the rights of all human beings regardless of age.

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7_2
From its inception, the idea of human rights has witnessed extensive
growth and development, addressing almost all the issues which are of
concern to humanity. From the rights of the child to the rights related to
the environment, the idea of human rights has been expanded and pro-
vided with international mechanisms and instruments for its protection at
the global as well as the national level. The word rights refers to a legally
enforceable set of expectations with reference to the states behaviour
towards rights bearers. This is important because rights bearers are mem-
bers of groups legally recognized and entitled to make claims to protection
and support based on the principle of reciprocity (Woodiwiss 2005).
Human rights in general apply to all human beings regardless of age;
however, there has been a rise in the specicity with which human rights
have been categorized on the basis of age. Recognizing that such categor-
ization of rights could enable policy-makers to address the issue of rights
of individuals belonging to a particular age group more specically and
effectively, the United Nations decided that it needed to be more specic
about the rights of youth. The United Nations further recognized that
young people have special needs and are vulnerable to exploitation by
adults.
Youth rights is an important concept which encompasses movements
that have come about in response to the oppression of young people
movements which challenge epephiphobia and adultism and advocate the
rights of youth and seek to promote youth participation and youthadult
partnerships, with the ultimate goal of achieving intergenerational equity
(Bartollas 2014). The need to increase the attention paid to the rights of
youth is beyond controversy. Current challenges to ensuring youth rights
need to be answered denitively. Questions of concern in this context
include, how would the rights which pertain specically to youth be
different from those provided in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)?
and, what are the ways in which specic rights of youth are missing in
existing societal/governmental mechanisms/instruments? A number of
key arguments favour a rights-based approach to youth policy develop-
ment and practice: youth rights are completely different from the rights of
the child and those specied in various universal mechanisms on human
rights and thus need to be addressed specically according to the needs
and aspirations of youth. Existing human rights instruments do not fully
guarantee the rights of youth, as existing instruments do not address issues
relating to youth empowerment and development. As long as laws treat
2 UNDERSTANDING YOUTH RIGHTS 15
youth as different entities, their rights also need to be emphasized speci-

cally, separately and differently. Placing an emphasis on youth rights may
help to distribute power between generations more equitably. Thus far,
the inconclusive nature of the idea of youth rights has resulted in no
consensus on the specic set of rights which are of particular importance
to youth, with the result that a specic mechanism on youth rights often
overlapped other instruments and frameworks (Chandran and Freddy
2015).
What makes such a categorization of rights more difcult is the varying
nature of the concept of youth across the globe. Conceptually speaking, if
youth is considered as a biological construct, then there are very limited
contradictions as most nations in the world have some uniformity. On the
other hand, if the concept of youth is taken in the context of a social
construct, there is much variation across regions of the world. What is
considered as youth in Europe may not be the same as it is in some
countries in south Asia, for example, where in some regions individuals
are considered to have moved into adulthood only when they are married.
However, over the years there have been some initiatives which have put a
specic focus on youth rights and their development. Three such impor-
tant instruments/frameworks in this context are (i) the Declaration of the
Rights of American Youth, (ii) the African Youth Charter (AYC) and
(iii) The Ibero-American Convention on Young Peoples Rights. Before
we discuss these three mechanisms a brief examination of the rights of
youth is necessary.
The need to recognize young people as a specic category with specic
needs has received considerable attention in recent times. Contemporary
youth movements emphasize that young people deserve to be given equal
rights and respect. The 1960s witnessed youth movements centered
around the notion of the inherent worth of marginalized groups such as
African Americans. However, youth movements in recent times have been
more generally accepted by various sections of the society vis--vis the
youth movements of the 1960s. The recognition of young people as a
group who had specic rights and should be considered seriously as
students, citizens and criminal defendants led to the notion that adults
who were in authority could be held accountable if they failed to recognize
those rights held by youth. This was one of the most important achieve-
ments of the 1960s. Youth movements during the 1960s had two over-
lapping strands: (i) youth participation in broader social movements and
(ii) youth activism, which had a direct inuence on youth-related issues
(Hefner 1998). On the one hand, young people played a key role in the
adult-led civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, feminist and gay
movements, the underground press and various politically left groups in
which they participated alongside adults. On the other hand, young
people were more directly involved with problems related to education,
student rights, the creation of alternative programs for youth, enfranch-
isement and various other legal rights of minors (ibid.)movements
which helped profoundly in altering laws and attitudes towards youth
and more particularly in changing the services offered to youth (ibid.).
Youth rights are different when compared with the general idea of
human rights as they address rights which are specic to individuals
belonging to a particular age category (generally between 15 and 35).
Youth rights are different vis--vis child rights as they acknowledge the
evolving capabilities of young people alongside the evolving nature of the
society in which they live. In the context of traditional youth rights, young
people and their adult allies have advocated for youth rights belonging to
three broad categories (i) provision, (ii) protection and (iii) participation.
An exhaustive list of traditional youth rights include the rights to abuse-
free living, creativity, education, employment, food access, health care,
recreation, shelter, movement and voting (Fletcher 2014).
Adam Fletcher (2014) also identies a list of non-traditional rights
which young people require. These rights relate to (i) age discrimination,
(ii) curfews, (iii) behaviour modication camps, (iv) civic youth engage-
ment, (v) criminalization, (vi) arbitrary age limits for driving and alcohol
consumption, (vii) income generation, (viii) the educational system,
(ix) entertainment, (x) juvenile justice, and (xi) media representation.
As a group of people going through the transition from childhood to
adulthood, youth face certain difculties and challenges. These specic
challenges and difculties are the subject of youth rights. In this context it
is important to ask, is there an international mechanism or law which
directly addresses the human rights of youth? If one does not exist, should
it? If it does exist, does it adequately remove obstacles that prevent youth
from exercising their rights equally? These are key questions in which the
world is moving in general towards better promotion and protection of
human rights.
As already noted, there is no legal denition of youth. However, for the
purposes of this discussion, we will classify as youth all individuals around the
globe aged 1534. This assumption, however necessary for this discussion,
does pose difculties. For example, according to certain other commonly used
criteria, there is an overlap between youth and children. According to the

Convention on the Rights of the Child, all those under age 18 are considered
children. What is interesting and also confusing is the fact that by some
denitions youth are also included in the age group 1518. Coupled with
this is the fact that people aged 1518 are also commonly referred to as
adolescents. Certainly, people between the ages of 15 and 18 have much in
common with those under 14. In fact, those in this age group frequently do
not wish to be identied as children but, rather (at least), as adolescents.
Moreover, the Committee on the Rights of the Child prepared a general
comment on the implementation of child rights during early childhood, and
has also initiated the preparation of a new general comment on the Rights of
Adolescents, thus evidencing these specicities (Angel 2015). However, we
must recognize that in the process of the development of a specic framework
of rights, attention needs to be paid to characteristics and barriers, such as
social, cultural, political and economic considerations, that prevent certain
groups from the full enjoyment and exercising of their rights.
In such a discourse, referring to an international law of youth rights also
means addressing the eventual need for a specic mechanism addressing youth
rights which would be universal in nature. This also means questioning
whether youth are in a situation where structural vulnerability in the exercise
of their rights, derived either from their personal characteristics or from social,
cultural, economic or political conditions, requires the adoption of specic
measures to avoid discrimination and to ensure the enjoyment of their rights
equally. In this context, we have to distinguish between two different situa-
tions in which young people might nd themselves vulnerable: (i) the exercise
of rights that are specic to youth but recognized for all persons, (ii) the
exercise of rights that should be equally exercised by any age group, but for
which young people have special difculties because of their age.
It would be easy to talk of the rights of youth which are poorly
regulated by the international law of human rights or simply ignored
by any of the literature on rights. Two good examples in this context are
the rights to political participation and social engagement. These activ-
ities involve the process of decision-making and engaging in matters
related to social developments. In light of the preceding section, it is
imperative to ask whether a specied mechanism of youth rights has been
developed. So far, two regional treaties and a declaration have been
published, as already noted: (i) the Ibero-American Convention on the
Rights of Youth and (ii) the African Youth Charter (Angel 2015) and a
Declaration of the Rights of American Youth.
THE AFRICAN YOUTH CHARTER

Referring to the rights, freedoms and duties of African youth, the African
Youth Charter was the rst legal framework made on the African continent
which supported policies, programmes and actions directed towards youth
development. This framework was adopted and recommended for ratica-
tion and implementation by governments and heads of state throughout
Africa. The need for adopting such a charter for African youth was justied
in the African Union Strategic Planning 20042007 document, which
sought to ensure that this framework be given priority. The drafting
process, which took place between September 2005 and May 2006,
employed a very interactive approach, which included youth leaders in
Africa, ministers in youth affairs, partners and all stakeholders. On 2 July
2006, the process was nalized and adopted by heads of state in Africa.
The adoption of the African Youth Charter was a legal and institutional
response to issues related to youth development and empowerment in
Africa (Agossou 2012).
Some of the key features of the African Youth Charter (AYC) are
(i) institutionalisation of youth participation in political debates and
decision-making in processes related to development of youth at the
regional, national and continental levels; (ii) emphasis on the strength-
ening of capacity-building programmes which have a direct impact on
young leaders in Africa; and (iii) creation of space for dialogues for the
exchange of ideas related to youth development, which in turn enables
framing relevant policy-making towards development through educa-
tion, training and skill development (ibid). Twenty-eight African coun-
tries ratied the charter as of 13 July 2011; and since January 2012,
Tanzania and the Central African Republic have ratied it and are
expected to submit their respective instruments of ratication to the
AUC Legal Ofce. Many of the countries which have ratied the
charter have implemented its provisions while framing their national
youth policy, including young people in various youth programmes,
which has enabled participation of youth in developmental activities and
also in the political arena and decision-making processes. In this con-
text, special funds have been allocated towards projects related to youth
development (Chandran and Freddy 2015).
The AYC provides clear denitions of youth and categorizes minors as
those persons aged 1517 within the broader denition of youth, which the
AYC denes as those between the ages of 18 and 35. Article 1 of the charter
outlines obligations which state parties have to undertake legislative and

other measures that would make the provisions of the charter legally bind-
ing in nature. Article 2 prohibits discrimination with regard to the enjoy-
ment of the rights contained in the charter. It also guarantees young
persons belonging to marginalized and indigenous groups the freedom of
religion, culture and language. Article 23 provides gender equality. The
AYC contains articles which relate to civil and political rights adapted
towards youth (Art. 39, 18) (Mahidi 2010). The charter also contains
provisions for the preservation and enhancement of economic, social and
cultural rights of youth. However, these are specic to African youth and
not relevant in many other regions of the world. This reects the fact that
there are pressing problems related to hunger in Africa which may not be
present in most countries of the world (Art. 1316, 19, 20). In the context
of education, the charter provides for the elimination of harmful social
practices such as female genital mutilation (Art. 25) (ibid.). Article 11
concerns the idea of youth participation. It enlists the help of governments
to enable varying levels of participation, including the parliamentary and
decision-making processes. The AYC also contains provisions for the pro-
tection of youth from the negative effects of war and conict. While this is a
commendable effort, it falls short of the expected levels of direction, as it is
too vague in terms of its implementation. The charter only makes the
directive that state parties shall condemn and prevent the participation of
youth in armed conict, recruitment into armed groups and sexual slavery
(Art. 17) (ibid.).
The AYC has also outlined the duties of youth whilst enumerating the
rights of young people. All youth in Africa have their duties and respon-
sibilities towards their family, society and the state, including the interna-
tional community. The duties of youth, however, are vaguely framed in
the AYC and are not binding in nature. The AYC has listed many rights
and responsibilities of youth; however, not many are specically different
from those listed in the UDHR. Article 11 on the participation of youth is
credible and has a potential to enhancement of youth rights. The AYC has
made provisions for the economic, social and cultural rights which are
more specically relevant to Africa while covering a broad spectrum of civil
and political rights which are very hard to categorize in the context of
youth at the global level. Although the AYC is a very broad instrument
and for obvious reasons more specic to African society, some of its
provisions may apply to certain countries under specic condition across
the world (ibid.).
THE IBERO-AMERICAN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF YOUTH

The Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth was signed by
the member states of the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ) in
Badajoz, Spain. In March 2008, the Ibero-American Convention on the
Rights of Youth came into force after it was ratied by Costa Rica,
following Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Spain.
While the OIJ is not a prominent organisation vis--vis the American
Union, the Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth adds an
interesting aspect to the subject, as Portugal and Spainboth countries
from the European Unionare signatories and Spain has ratied it
(Mahidi 2010).
The convention is the only international treaty which sets out specic rights
for young people between the ages of 15 and 24; and it also recognizes such
individuals as strategic actors in development. The convention has 44 articles,
which focus on the political participation and the sexual and reproductive
rights of youth, while also providing the right to be a conscientious objector,
among others (Mahidi 2010, Chandran et al. 2015). In the Preamble of the
Convention a reference is made to the World Programme of Action for Youth
(WPAY) as its source of inspiration. It also provides the motivation for a
specic convention on the rights of youth, as young people form a social
sector with specic characteristics and identies that they encounter challenges
in the context of education, employment, health, environment, social and
political participation, access to information, family, housing, leisure, culture
and sport. The age grouping that is specied in the convention is considerably
more limited than that of the AYC, covering only those persons aged 1524
(Art. 1) (Mahidi 2010). At the outset, the convention species rights which
are general in nature, such as the states obligation to adopt measures that will
ensure the full enjoyment of those rights specied in the document. Article 4
of the convention stipulates the right to peace and a life without violence,
which is plausible. Its seeks to achieve this through educational programmes in
which youth will be the primary stakeholders. Article 5 creates a provision for a
ban on discrimination regardless of race, color, origin, place of birth, eco-
nomic condition, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion and physical
abilities or disabilities (ibid.).
Chapter 2 of the convention contains provision relating to civil and
political rights and is borrowed from the universal instruments but tar-
geted towards the benet of youth (Art. 91318) (ibid.). The right to life
has a specic focus on youth as the charter bans the use of the death
sentence for delinquents, which is a signicant contribution aimed at the

rights of youth. Closely linked to the right to peace is the right to con-
scientious objection, which makes states obliged to avoid obligatory mili-
tary service of youth. The charter also prohibits the engagement of youth
below 18 years of age in military hostilities (Art. 12) (ibid).
Following the section on civil and political rights is the section on
economic, social and cultural rights (Art. 22, 2429, 3133) (ibid.).
Going beyond the rights to education, the convention provides for pro-
gressive sexual education, which is particularly noteworthy in the context
of youth. According to the charter, it shall be the obligation of the state to
provide sexual education at all levels in order to achieve young peoples
full acceptance of their sexual identities. Condentiality with regard to
sexual and reproductive health is included in the convention which aims at
strengthening young peoples autonomy. The convention also encourages
youth exchange programs between countries (Art. 34(1) (ibid.). The nal
chapter places obligations on member states to report on request to the
SecretaryGeneral on their national youth policies and their effective
implementation (Art. 36) (ibid.). The Ibero-American Convention on
the Rights of Youth is more specic vis--vis the AYC, and includes a
limited reporting procedure which is more advantageous when it comes to
implementation at the national level (ibid.).
THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF AMERICAN YOUTH

One of the earliest instances of youth rights receiving attention was
through the Declaration of the Rights of American Youth, which asserted
that young people experienced certain specic problems that must be
brought forward. This declaration was adopted during the historic
Second American Youth Congress in Detroit, Michigan, on July 47, by
1205 delegates from 835 youth organisations who represented approxi-
mately 1,350,000 American youth.
On 4 July 1935, the young people of America assembled in Congress
and presented this declaration, which put forth rights which were specic
to young people of America during that time. In this they stated:
We declare that our generation is rightfully entitled to a useful creative, and

happy life, the guarantees of which are: full educational opportunities, steady
employment at adequate wages, security in time of need, civil rights and peace.
The declaration included those rights which were specically directed

towards young people, such as the (i) the right to life, (ii) liberty
(iii) and happiness (for a more clear understanding see the American
Declaration of the Rights of Youth).
The period of youth is when an individual develops his/her sense of
identity and adopts a personal value system. This process is made up of
promises, opportunities, challenges and risks. The powerful challenges that
are taking place in todays world make the transition to adulthood more
difcult, as this phase represents a critical stage of life. Hence, it is important
to address young people, their life situations and their specic needs with a
rights-based approach. Young people need to move ahead into adult life and
assume autonomous existence through the exercise of a number of rights,
including the right to democratic participation; further education and train-
ing; employment, housing and social protection; as well as access to informa-
tion (COE 2009). Despite increasing acceptance that youth rights are
complicated by many social, cultural and political hurdles, recognition is
also growing that such rights are important for the development of youth.
Participation is about having the right, means, space, opportunity and neces-
sary support to participate and inuence decisions and to engage in actions
and activities that contribute to building a better society. To fully participate
in society, young people must be provided with the necessary opportunities
and the platform to voice their opinions in a representative democracy.
Hence, measures like educational programmes which sensitize youth to the
process of decision-making and civic participation are necessary (ibid.).
Azzopardi, Andrew. 2013. Youth: Responding to Lives: An International Reader.
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
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CHAPTER 3
Conict in Northeast India: An Overview
Abstract This chapter provides readers a brief overview of conicts in

north-east India. The conicts in each state of north-east India are exam-
ined with specic interest being directed towards the conicts in Assam,
Manipur and Nagaland. This chapter provides a historical account of the
emergence of conict which can be seen as a continuance of the colonial
policy of alienation and segregation of the people living in the region from
the rest of India. The Indo-Naga conict which began in the mid-1950s,
the emergence of the ULFA and the conicts in Manipur are important in
this context. The demands for secession, autonomy and territorial integra-
tion of those inhabited areas of ethnic communities to states in the region
have also caused conicts in the region.
Keywords North-east India Conict in north-east India NSCN

ULFA Ethnic conict in north-east India
Conicts in northeast India has never been so easily comprehended. Many

of the conicts in the region have lingered for more than a half-century,
since the independence of India, and have become more complex
(Phanjoubam 2016). Northeast India consists of eight states: namely,
(i) Arunachal Pradesh (ii) Assam, (iii) Manipur, (iv) Meghalaya, (v)
Mizoram, (vi) Nagaland, (vii) Sikkim and (viii) Tripura. After the inde-
pendence of India, the northeast region consisted of the state of Assam,

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7_3
and the union territories of Manipur and Tripura. In 1971, following the
North-Eastern Areas (Reorganization) Act, the northeastern region
became a signicant administrative concept with the formation of the
North-Eastern Council (NEC). In 1947, Sikkim became a protectorate
of India, and in 1975 it became a full state in the Indian Union (Singh
1987). Inhabitants of the Northeast, who are a conglomeration of about
475 ethnic groups and sub-groups, speak approximately 405 dialects
(Bhaumik 2009). Even a cursory examination of the colonial background
demonstrates its ubiquity and its effects, even after the dismantling of the
colonial empire more than ve decades ago, which has played out in a
dramatic and tragic fashion. The colonial legacy can be viewed in two
lights: (i) collective historical trauma and (ii) a causal variable that con-
tinues to have an impact on the ways in which the outlook of states has
changed, post-decolonization (Miller 2013). Bengal was conquered by
the British East India Company in 1757. To the northeast of Bengal was
the Brahmaputra river valley, which was predominantly inhabited by the
Assamese. In the year 1826, this region was brought under the control of
the British East India Company through war with Burma (now called
Myanmar). After the British crown took control of the region, many of the
hill areas and some plain zones were designated as tribal and were closed to
immigration and kept under the control of distinct administrative regimes.
Additionally, both Bengal and Assam were interspersed with the princely
states, which included Bhutan, Nepal, Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura, Cooch
Behar and the Khasi states. The British also claimed certain parts of the
Himalayas but never ventured into the more hilly and mountainous areas.
Thus, such a setting of the colonial map reected and reinforced tremen-
dous political and ethno-linguistic heterogeneity (Lacina 2009). Between
the years 1874 and 1934, colonial policies segregated the region, where
tribal populations were administered under the category of non-regulated,
backward or excluded areas. Such categorization of the region prevented
all outsiders from entering these areas except those who obtained special
permission from the government under the Inner Line Regulation of
1873. An extension of this regulation to almost all hill areas created a
frontier within a frontier, which highlighted the political and cultural rift
between the people of the plains and the tribal people living in the hill
areas. These factors created a situation where the tribal areas were
excluded from the administrative patterns which existed in other regions
of the country. The Government of India Act of 1935 also continued
with this policy of exclusion and the overriding effects of which were
3 CONFLICT IN NORTHEAST INDIA: AN OVERVIEW 27
twofold. The integration of the many tribes and communities which could
have been facilitated by the British was lost, on the one hand, while, on the
other, tribal communities continued to be excluded from the socio-poli-
tical developments taking place elsewhere in the country. Thus, the exclu-
sionary policies which existed during the colonial rule, and continued to
exist post-independence, created conditions for ethnic conicts due to
unequal and unbalanced development of the region. The response of the
Indian state to these problems was the creation of autonomous districts
and regions which were often identied with tribal afliations through
constitutional measures such as the sixth schedule. Many of these regions
subsequently became full states, which resulted in demands by many of the
tribes living in the region for similar arrangements for homelands
(Upadhyay 2006).
Geographically the northeastern region of India is connected to India
with a narrow strip of land known as the Siliguri corridor, or otherwise
known as the chicken neck. Any historical analysis of this region would
reveal that it has been host to a multitude of ethnic groups whose char-
acteristics and value systems would direct the social, economic and poli-
tical interactions which are important to them. Understanding such issues
are crucial and would affect those tasked with solving the regions pro-
blems. It is indicative that the people now living in the region have come
to inhabit a land characterized by perpetual migration. The migrations
which are ethnic in nature can be categorized into the mongoloid groups
belonging to greater Tibet, Mongolia and China; the Mon Khmer groups;
Aryans; Negritos; and Dravidians from the west, among others
(Mukherjee 2005).
Historically the northeastern region of India has never been part of the
Indian union. However, this region was forcefully annexed by the British
(Bhaumik 1998). Ever since the independence of India in 1947 this
region, which is multi-ethnic, has been vociferously demanding secession
(Innoue 2005, Vadlamannati 2011). Northeast India is commonly stu-
died by most scholars as a theater of insurgency and counter-insurgency.
There is often a tendency among policy-makers and social scientists to
want to look at the different states of the region as northeast. However, it
must be taken into account that the problems in northeast India are
complex and different from each other. No doubt these states share in
common problems which are predominantly related to insurgency, yet it
would be too simplistic to draw such conclusions (Misra 2000, Freddy
2016). However, for the purpose of this book, it is well to limit the focus
towards insurgency and such other related problems in the states of north-
east India. It should also be noted that the following passages will include
issues which relate to conicts which have had a bearing over territory and
other such related issues. Post- independence India has been witness to a
host of separatist and insurgent movements. However, it has not lost any
of its territory despite the multitude and magnitude of these secessionist
movements. Not only were these movements new to the Indian state, but
also they required an untested government and military which had to
adapt to a form of political warfare in which they had little or no experi-
ence at all. These movements were not only new to the Indian republic but
were also some of the ercest insurgent movements which the South Asian
region had ever experienced (Ladwig 2009). In this chapter, the objective
is to introduce the reader to conicts in northeast India. It does not
engage in a critical analysis of conicts but provides an overview of con-
icts in northeast India. In this it is noteworthy to identify the three
important insurgencies in the states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland
which started in the aftermath of independence of India in 1947. By the
year 1970, the region became host to a variety of insurgent movements
which were aimed at achieving secession and autonomy, more particularly
in the context of the Nagas and the Assamese. The early 1990s witnessed
all states, with the exception of Sikkim, plunging into some sort of
insurgent activity, which forced the government of India to recognize
these movements as low-intensity conicts. Much of the conict has
been attributed to the failure of the Indian government to recognize
ethnic and cultural specicities during the formation of the states; and
the delineation of the states themselves was a predominant issue which led
to discontent with the Indian state and the assertion of northeastern group
identity (Das 2007). Additionally, the government, instead of addressing
these issues amicably, resorted to the use of the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958 to contain the situation. This act, which is
viewed as a draconian measure by most scholars, enabled the security
forces to launch counter- insurgency operations with impunitywhich
has resulted in numerous human rights violations and increased resent-
ment towards the Indian state. These movements, although diminished
considerably, are still active in the region. Besides separatist violence in the
northeast, there have been inter-ethnic tensions and violence over
resources and territory. These tensions have been a cause for concern for
the state, as it has been pulled in different directions and has not been able
to provide solutions. As a consequence, protests, strikes, public curfews
and economic blockades by public organisations that act on the directions

of insurgent groups have become common in the region (Sandham 2005,
Shimray 2004). What is more interesting to note here is that the very
people who have never appreciated the presence of the Indian state have
become dependent on it to provide solutions to issues relating to territor-
ial integration such as greater Nagaland, among others.
Chief among the longstanding conicts between the state and insur-
gent groups has been the Naga conict. The Naga struggle, which started
as a demand for autonomy in order to safeguard the Naga Way of Life,
soon turned into an insurgency led by the Naga National Council (NNC)
in the early 1950s (Misra 2000). The self-perception of the Naga national
identity was manifested through the formation of the NNC, which spear-
headed the separatist movement of the Nagas and continues to identify its
guerrillas as national workers (Bhaumik 2009). In terms of military might,
the National Socialist Council of Nagaland/Nagalim-Isak and Muivah
(NSCN-IM) has been the most formidable force in the region.
Organisations such as the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA),
Bodoland Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF), United National Liberation
Front (UNLF) (Manipur), Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), Peoples
Revolutionary Army of Kangleipak (PREPAK) and the Kuki National
Army (KNA) have also been active in their respective states. Apart from
these organisations, there are numerous smaller such outts present in the
region. It is interesting to note that the number of militant organisations
in the region is extraordinary (Baruah 2002).
The Nagas invoked the right to self-determination because of their
distinct ethnic identity and unique history to justify their demand for
secession from the Indian union. Initially, the movement was primarily
one of peaceful protests, but eventually the Nagas resorted to armed
struggle to achieve independence from the Indian union. Contrary to
the expectations of the Indian political leadershipthat the insurgent
movements could be suppressed through military force by the Indian
armythe Naga movement has continued for over ve decades. Thus
this led to a shift in policy by the Indian government with regard to the
insurgency during the 1990s, and several attempts were made to establish
peace in the state. These initiatives, which were undertaken by the govern-
ment of India, led the cease-re agreements with the NSCN-IM in the
year 1997 and with the National Socialist Council of NagalimKaphlang
(NSCN-K) in the year 2001. The most recent of these negotiations was
the Naga Peace Framework, which was agreed upon between the
government of India and the NSCN-IM in 2015 (Srikanth and Thomas

2005, Goswami 2015). However, behind these peace negotiations
remains a host of problems which relate to the territorial integration of
greater Nagaland and the inter-tribal and inter-group rivalries between
Nagas and other ethnic communities living in neighbouring states and
which pose challenges towards achieving peace in the region (Srikanth and
Thomas 2005). The demand for the integration of Naga-inhabited areas
has been a sticking point in terms of peace negotiations in which Assam,
Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have categorically rejected the territorial
division of their states with regard to greater Nagaland A list of peace
initiatives undertaken in the region is presented below (Table 3.1).
As already noted, the process by which the Indian state was put
together after it achieved independence often through force provided
room for resentment to grow among those nations that were historically
independent before colonial rule in the region. In the northeastern part of
the country, during the amalgamation of the region, issues of critical
importance such as power sharing and governance, demarcation of feder-
ating units and economic development were left unaddressed by the
Indian government to a large extent. Along with the continuation of the
exclusionary policies adopted by the Indian state, this subsequently
resulted in conicts within various ethnic communities and against the
Indian union, which seems to have become the norm in the post-colonial
period of India and more particularly in the northeastern region. Assam in
particular has witnessed numerous conicts of varying intensity, which
range from mass civil disobedience, which was a by-product of longstand-
ing grievances against the state, to armed insurgency, which favoured
secession from India and communal violence that also resulted in genocide
and ethnic cleansing (Goswami 2014). Conicts arising from grievances in
the state of Assam emerged in the early 1970s due to the Indian govern-
ments reluctance and ultimate failure to prevent the inux of refugees
into the state after the formation of Bangladesh in the year 1971. The issue
of Bangladeshi refugees, who were illegal in most cases, was a matter of
concern for the people of Assam, as they feared demographic swamping
and loss of identity for the Assamese people. The Assamese raised their
concerns and protested against the reluctance shown by the Indian gov-
ernment to curb refugee inux from Bangladesh through a mass civil
disobedience movement that started in 1979 and continued till the
Assam Accord was signed in 1985. Simultaneously with the civil disobe-
dience movements in Assam, militant organisations emerged that adopted
Table 3.1 Peace accords in northeast India

Date Accord Parties to the accord Features
1947 Naga-Akbar Akbar Hydari Governor Nagas were given a measure of

Hydari Accord of Assam and Naga autonomy for ten years, but the
National Council terms of autonomy were not
classied, and conict
continued
1960 Sixteen-Point Government of India Created the state of Nagaland.
Agreement and Naga Peoples The Naga National Council,
Convention which was underground,
refused to recognize the
agreement
1975 Shillong Accord Governor L.P. Singh of The underground organisations
Nagaland and the surrendered, but the Accord
Underground was seen as not benecial to the
Organisations Nagas.
1985 Assam Accord AASU &AGSP Immigrants who entered Assam
representatives, Union between 1 January 1996 and 24
Home Secretary & Chief March 1971 were to be
Secretary of Assam registered under the Foreigners
Act, their names deleted from
the voters list for ten years and
restored thereafter. Those who
had previously been departed
but re-entered would be
expelled. All who immigrated to
Assam state after 25 March
1971, would be deported under
IMDT ACT, 83
1986 Memorandum of Government of India Mizo National Front and
Understanding and Mizo National Front Afliates give up violence and
leader Laldenga demands for secession. They also
give up links with TTNU, PLA
and other armed groups.
Statehood is granted.
1988 Memorandum of Tripura National Restoration of tribal lands and
Understanding Volunteers and prevention of further alienation.
Government of India Reorganisation of the Tripura
Tribal Areas Autonomous
District Councils (TTAADC) to
include tribal areas and exclude
non-tribal areas. State
boundaries also secured.
(continued )
Table 3.1 (continued)

Date Accord Parties to the accord Features
1988 Darjeeling Hill Gorkhaland National Sikkim is separated. Statehood

Accord Liberation Front, West demand is dropped but not
Bengal State and removed completely from its
Government of India political discourse. Ghising
keeps raising issues about states
of Darjeeling vis--vis Nepal
and about administrative level
of DGHC. Also, since the
DGHC is not coterminous with
the district, a diarchy exists in
Darjeeling.
1993 Memorandum of All Bodo Students Surrender and rehabilitation of
Understanding Union, Assam State ABSU cadres in return for
Government in the establishment of Bodoland
presence of Government autonomous Council.
of India Ministers and
Chief Minister
1993 Agartala Tripura Government and Renews commitment to
Agreement the All Tripura Tiger recognizing the TTAADC and
Force provides cultural safeguards for
Tripuris.
1994 Memorandum of Mizoram State Chinlung Hills Development
Settlement Government and Hmar Council established.
Peoples Convention
1995 Memorandum of Assam State Government (i) Karbi Anglong District
Understanding and representatives of Council becomes Karbi
community Anglong Autonomous Council.
organisations of the (ii) RabhaHasang
Rabhas, Karbis, Tiwas Autonomous Council, Tiwa
and Mishings Autonomous Council and
Mishing Autonomous Council,
which were not territorial were
established.
2003 Bodo Territorial Government of India, Bodo Territorial Council
Council Assam Government and established, plus cultural
Memorandum Bodo Liberation Tigers provisions.
2005 Memorandum of Mizoram State Government agrees to
Understanding Government and BRU repatriate displaced Reangs in
National Liberation Tripura. The Mizoram
Front Scheduled Tribes list will now
list Reangs as BRUs.
Source: Swarna Rajagopalan (2008)

the agenda of secessionism. Among them the United Liberation Front of

Asom (ULFA) emerged as the leading and most powerful such organisation
in the state; indeed it is still active in Assam. The ULFAs primary objective is
to achieve an independent federal Assam where all ethnic communities can
co-exist vis--vis the Assam movement which had a different impact on the
people in the state, where every ethnic community had already begun
claiming its own ethnic identity on the basis of which they also started
demanding separate ethnic homelands (ibid.). The idea of secessionism
was present in the minds of the people of Assam, albeit in a very rudimentary
form that seemed to have appeared in various important regional movements
such as the language movement (1960), renery movement (1967), the
movement for medium of instruction (1972) and the anti-foreigner move-
ment (19791985) (Mahanta 2013). The emergence of the idea of seces-
sionism in Assam is rooted deeply in the states history. During the framing
of the Indian Constitution, a section of the Assamese elite expressed their
inclination towards secessionism. This was due to the fact that the Assamese
elite feared that within the framework of the Indian Constitution, their
legitimate interests would not be protected (Phukan 1996).
As already noted, the Assam movement seemed to have been the catalyst
and also laid the foundation for the growth of the independence of Assam
which was led by the ULFA. Although many writers have expressed serious
doubts over the democratic nature of the Assam movement, it still remains
the single most popular mass movement in the post- independence history
of India. A strong emotional attachment towards their (Assamese) identity
and culture led many to support this movement (Mahanta 2013). It is also
interesting to note that the role of the Indian state in suppressing the Assam
movement during the elections of 1983in the state where more than 130
people lost their lives as a result of police fusillades and other forms of state-
sponsored violencehelped in pushing the Assamese towards the idea of a
separate state. Even though the Assam Accord was signed in 1985, displea-
sure, discontent and the lack of condence of the Assamese people in the
leadership of the Congress in the centre was already shaken (Misra 2000).
In all this, the government of India was well aware of the happenings and
the growth of secessionism. The Home Minister of India on 14 March
1983 said in Lok Sabha, that posters and leaets with slogans have appeared
from the beginning of the movement which clearly indicate the minds of the
people who have been involved in the movement. A few slogans raised were
(i) We shall have our country with blood of martyrs, (ii) When Assam will
be free, (iii) India has no right to rule Assam, (iv) the Assam region
should think of an independent United State of Assam after separating from

India and (v) Indian dogs leave Assam. The above statements/slogans,
along with the many similar leaets, were circulated among the people of
Assam. Although the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the All Assam
Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) denied any form of Association with
these activities, they never condemned such initiatives (Sethi 1983).
Over the years since its formation the ULFA has developed links with the
NSCN-IM and its leader Paresh Baruah reportedly met with Osama Bin
Laden in Karachi during a visit to Pakistan in 1996. Earlier in the 1990s it
developed links with some ofcers of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) and also
with the ISI. The ULFA has a number of training camps in Bangladesh where
its members are trained. In Assam it was not only the ULFA which was
militant in nature, but there were other militant organisations which were
ethnically motivated such as the National Democratic Front of Bodoland
(NDFB) and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT). The NDFB also is a militant
organisation with similar objectives vis--vis the ULFA. However, the con-
trasting demands of the ULFA and the NDFB can be seen in their ideological
differences. The ULFA aimed at creating a separate state for all ethnic
communities living in Assam while the NDFB was formed in order to create
a separate autonomous region for the Bodos in Assam. Later this objective of
the NDFB turned to securing a sovereign state for the Bodos called
Bodoland. This organisation was led by Ranjan Daimary. The NDFB claimed
that the Assam Accord signed by the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) favored the
Assamese and did not meet the demands of indigenous people living in
Assam. Among those targeted by the NDFB were the Migrant Muslims,
Bangladeshis, Nepalis and Santhals. The NDFB has carried out ethnic cleans-
ing activities in the Bodo region through arson, bombings, extortion, kidnap-
pings and looting of non-Bodos (Barua 2006). Another militant organisation
of the Bodos was the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) also known as the Bodo
Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF) which was established in the year 1996. The
objective of the BLTF was to create an autonomous district council along the
southern banks of the Brahmaputra and to include the Bodos of the Karbi
Anglong district into the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (ibid.).
On 6 December 2003, the members of the BLT surrendered, which marked
an end to the insurgent movement. On 7 December 2003, an interim
executive council consisting of 12 members formed the Bodoland
Territorial Council (BTC) in Kokrajhar district of Assam through which the
demands of the BLT were met and a Memorandum of Settlement (MOS) for
the creation of BTC was made (ibid.).
In terms of conict or insurgency in northeast India, the state of

Manipur has seen signicant levels of violence ranging from insurgent
violence, terrorist attacks, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, bandhs,
economic blockades etc. The violence and unrest in Manipur today
began in the early 1970s. However, the genesis of this conict must be
traced back to the closing years of the 1930s when Manipur was not a part
of the British Empire and remained a native state. The Maharaja (king) of
Manipur who was cruel and avaricious created wrong economic policies
which resulted in the great famine in the state. In this situation it is worth
noting that the Manipuri Womens Uprising (Nupi Lan) of 1939 was a
watershed event which seems to have laid the foundations for the present
agitations and insurgent movements in Manipur. Irabot Singh who was
the son-in-law of the Maharaja joined the womens uprising with the
intent of overthrowing the king from his throne to make Manipur an
independent republic. In the words of Homen Borgohain, it was in the
soil of Manipur that the seeds of secession were sown for the mongoloid
race who inhabited the northeastern region and the man who was behind
this was Irabot Singh (Borgohain 1982) (for a more clear picture of the
political and religious transformation of the people of Manipur see Homen
Borgohain 1982).
When the state of Manipur was merged with the Indian union, the
people of Manipur due to their distinct cultural heritage and ancient
civilization desired that they be treated equally with that of other
Indians. However, the Indian government remained insensitive to the
desires and demands of the people of Manipur (ibid.). Among the insur-
gent groups which have been active in Manipur, Meiteis led the United
National Liberation Front (UNLF) and has been the oldest and most
active insurgent group in the state. The group was established in 1964
under the leadership of Areambam Samendra Singh, whose objective was
to establish an independent and socialist Manipur through armed struggle.
In the 1990s the group took to social reformation activities against ram-
pant alcoholism, drugs, gambling and drug peddling. Along with the
UNLF, the 1990s also saw the formation of other insurgent groups,
such as the NSCN-K, ULFA, the Kuki National Army (KNA) and the
pan-Mongoloid coalition called the Indo-Burma Revolutionary Front
(IBRF). The UNLF has been at war with the NSCN-IM, which is being
accused for having created conict in the state of Manipur because of its
demand to include the four districts of Manipur (Mao, Senapati, Ukhrul
and Tamenglong) into the state of Nagalandwhich the UNLF is
critically opposed to. It has also accused the NSCN-IM of instigating the
rst Naga-Kuki bloodbath of 1993 (Vidisha 2006).
Other insurgent groups in Manipur are the Kuki National front, which
has been active in terms of the demands of the Kuki groups. The Peoples
Liberation Armys objective is to bring all major ethnic groups, such as the
Meiteis, Nagas and Kukis, together to ght for an independent state of
Manipur (ibid.).
Conicts in northeast India are diverse in nature, with each state having its
own complexities. However, the response of the state towards such issues has
been to use brutal force in order to contain violence (Prabhakara 2007). The
Indian approach towards establishing peace in the region has been the
extensive use of military force to contain the violence committed by the
insurgent groups. But what made the insurgent movements inch towards
peace seems to have been a combination of Indias diplomacy with Bhutan
and Bangladesh, the grass-roots empowerment of communities in northeast
and state intelligence and policing, which has proved to be successful to some
extent. Shifts in the policy of the government in negotiating peace in north-
east have been noticed since the NDFB-S killed about 70 civilians in Assam in
December 2014. The government of India has now decided that it will not
engage in peace talks with any outt involved in killing civilians and will treat
such groups as terrorists. Such hard resolve has resulted in the beginning of
full-scale operations against the NDFB-S, in which arrests of senior leaders
and more than 30 cadres and some commanders were achieved.
Engaging in peace talks with insurgent groups in northeast India has been a
frequent method used by the government of India to resolve conicts in the
region. Virtually almost all insurgent groups or factions in the region have
entered into some form of truce with the government of India. Some of the
major northeast insurgent outts engaged in talks are the United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland
Progressive (NDFB-P), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland
Ranjan Daimary faction (NDFB-RD), the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills
Liberation Front (KLNLF) in Assam and the National Socialist Council of
NagalandIsak Muivah faction (NSCN-IM) in Nagaland. A ceasere agree-
ment has been signed with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
Khaplang faction (NSCN-K) and the National Socialist Council of
NagalandKhole Kitovi faction (NSCN-KK) in Nagaland and a Suspension
of Operation (SoO) agreement with the United Progressive Front (UPF) and
Kuki National Organisation (KNO) in Manipur. Also, a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) has been signed with three Meitei insurgent groups in
the ManipurUnited Revolutionary Front (URF), Kangleipak Communist

PartyLamphel (KCP-L) and Kanglei Yawal Kanna Lup (KYKL) (ibid.).
On 5 February 2011, the ULFA announced that it was willing to hold
talks with the Government of India, respecting the wishes of the people of
Assam (Mathur 2011, p. 269). Not only did the ULFA want to acknowl-
edge the larger sentiment of the public, but it also had little support for the
outts goal of a sovereign state, and it was the best remaining choice it
could look forward to. The early 1990s and the 2000s were a difcult
phase in this regard, as the ULFA was a group that was difcult to
negotiate with. The outt found safe haven in neighbouring countries
like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal along with the tacit support of the ISI
from Pakistan (South Asia Terrorism Portal 2001).
The most violent of these years of insurgent activity came in 20072009,
when serial blasts in 2008 by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland
(NDFB), which targeted civilians, marked the transition from insurgency to
terrorism. Such acts also showcased that rebels in the state had lost their
mandate and resorted to violence against civilians in order to create fear.
As already noted, as a result of the diplomatic efforts undertaken by the
Indian government, a renewed hope towards creating sustainable peace and
opportunities for economic development for Assam and the northeast region
was now possible. Bhutan, which was rst unwilling to engage in armed
operations to destroy approximately 30 militant camps in its territory,
launched Operation All Clear in 2003 to root out all insurgent camps
following the killing of Bhutanese civilians in Bhutan by these insurgents,
as they posed risks to Bhutans as well as Indias internal security (Mazumdar
2005). The operation, along with the logistical support of the Indian army,
destroyed all the camps, killing or arresting approximately 650 insurgents
(ibid.). Since then Bhutan has been sealed off from insurgency and has been
a reliable partner in countering insurgents and sharing intelligence.
Bangladesh adopted a change in its support for the insurgents (ULFA
and NDFB) following the re-election of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Wazed, who played an important role in handing over insurgent leaders
such as Arabinda Rajkhowa (ULFA) in December 2009 (Hindustan
Times 2010) and Ranjan Daimary (NDFB) in May 2010, which also
resulted in the seemingly better bilateral relations between India and
Bangladesh (TOI 2010). Northern Myanmar remains a home for the
National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) and some of the remaining
factions of the ULFA. While the NSCNs role in Nagaland has diminished
considerably, Myanmar still serves as a breeding ground for insurgents in
some of its territory, which includes Meitei groups of Manipur. The

Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty signed between India and Myanmar
shows that efforts are underway and a framework has been prepared for
the investigation, prosecution, prevention and suppression of crime
including crimes relating to terrorism (Times of India 2010).
Counter-insurgency operations which were intensied by the Indian
Army and the Assam Police during the years 20072009 crippled the
operating capabilities of the elite category A and C of the ULFA,
which led to their surrender (Hussain 2008). Similarly, in May 2009,
the Assam Police arrested Pradeep Terang, Chairman of the Karbi
Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), which led to the
surrender of many of its cadres (Mathur 2011: 275; Das 2010).
The Indo-Naga peace framework signed between the Centre and
NSCN(IM) on 3 August 2015 is signicant in the context of building
peace in northeast India. It was also signicant because it has shown the
exibility and realism in the approach adopted by the NSCN in terms of
resolving the conict and its willingness to alter the earlier goals of
complete sovereignty and greater Nagalim to the acceptance of a consti-
tutional framework in which provisions for greater autonomy for the
Naga-inhabited areas were made through the establishment of autono-
mous district councils. The demand for the integration of greater Nagalim
had been a sticking point in negotiations in which Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam and Manipur had categorically opposed division of territory from
their respective states. It is in this context that the government of India
made a proposal for a supra-state structure in 2011. This involved the
granting of greater autonomy for Naga-inhabited areas without territorial
division of the other states. Signing the accord also meant that the support
provided by the civil society to the NSCN(IM) had persisted on a peace-
ful path to conict resolution in Nagaland (Goswami 2015).
Shifts in the policy of the government in negotiating peace in the
northeast has been in evidence since the NDFB-S killed about 70 civilians
in Assam in December 2014. The government of India has now decided
that it will not engage in peace talks with any outt involved in killing
civilians and will treat such groups as terrorists. Such hard resolve from the
Centres end has resulted in the beginning of full-scale operations against
the NDFB-S, in which arrests of senior leaders and more than 30 cadres
and also some commanders were achieved.
It is interesting to note that the conict in northeast India has sustained
itself over ve decades since the independence of India. The Indian
governments approach towards the conict and insurgency seems to be

containment of violence, which is seemingly equated with peace in the
region. However, lack of development in the region and failure to address
the needs of the people in this regard has enabled insurgent movements to
sustain themselves. In this context, youth belonging to the region have
been undergoing various difculties in terms of their education and
employment and also suffer from various forms of harassment due to
punitive regulations such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which
has caused extreme hardships both for young people and the general public
at large. The following chapter examines youth participation in conict and
provides causal explanations in this regard. The chapter uses the binary of
greed and grievance perspectives to explain such engagement of youth in
conict. It also examines youth organisations in the northeast and their role
in conict in the region.
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Bareh, Hamlet. 2001. Encyclopedia of North East India. New Delhi: Mittal
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Bhaumik, Subir. 2008. Insurgent Crossre: North East India. New Delhi: Lancer
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Biswas, Prasenjit and C. Joshua Thomas. 2012. Construction of Evil in North East
India: Myth, Narrative and Discourse. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Biswas, Prasenjit and Chandan Suklabaidya. 2008. Ethnic-Life Worlds in North
East India: An Analysis. London: Sage Publications.
Chaube S.K. 1999. Hill Politics in North East India. New Delhi: Orient
Longman.
Ganguly, Rajat, ed. 2013. Autonomy and Ethnic Conict in South and South East
Asia. New York: Routledge.
Hussain Monirul. 2005. Coming Out of Violence: Essays on Ethnicity, Conict
Resolution and Peace Processes in North East India. New Delhi: Concept
Publications.
Nag, Sajal. 2003. Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Sub-nation-
alism in North East India. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.
Saikia, Jaideep. 2005. Frontier in Flames: North East India in Turmoil. New
Delhi: Viking Publications.
Xaxa, Virginius. 2008. State, Society and Tribes: Issues in Post Colonial India. New
Delhi: Pearson Education.
CHAPTER 4
Youth Participation in Conict

in Northeast India
Abstract In recent years there has been a gradual shift in the perception
that youth are victims of violence to youth as a threat to security and
stability. Youth have been generally described as either passive victims of
or as active participants in violent conict. More importantly there have
been numerous assertions that a surging youth population or youth bulge
along with unemployment, urbanization and other factors could lead to
the participation of youth in violence or conict. Often youth, especially
male, are depicted as security threats. In this context, this chapter sets a
framework that can perhaps better explain why youth participate in con-
ict in north-east India, highlighting briey youth movements in the
region.
Keywords Youth and conict Youth in conict Youth bulge
INTRODUCTION
The dawn of the twentieth century marked unprecedented changes in
social, cultural and political changes which were so radical that they
transformed the characteristics of modern society and politics. The
Post Victorian Generation a term used to refer youth led cultural, social
and political movements was a turning point in modern history. This
period can also be considered important as it was in this time that socio-
historical forces interacted with generational conict to produce

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7_4
astonishing levels of youth movements and activity. Youth movements

occur when young people as a self-conscious group, challenge existing
patterns of social and political order, band together and attempt to
modify the course of human history as their generational mission.
Historical generations involve both intergenerational and intragenera-
tional forms of conict. In other words it is when youth movements
typically challenge the adult society, a number of opposing groups
emerge and compete among themselves over certain social cultural and
political goals and the means to achieve them (Braungart and Braungart
1989, p. 55, 56). This chapter sets a framework that can perhaps better
explain why youth participate in conict. It also makes a brief survey of
youth movements in northeast India.
WHY YOUTH PARTICIPATE IN CONFLICTSOME CAUSAL

EXPLANATIONS
Youth in many developing nations are engulfed by conict and post-
conict situations and face circumstances which signicantly alter their
lives and future prospects. In recent years there has been a gradual shift in
the perception that youth are victims of violence to youth are a threat to
security and stability. Youth have been generally described as either passive
victims of or active participants in violent conict (Sommers 2006, p. 5).
More importantly, there have been numerous assertions that a surging
youth population, or youth bulge, along with unemployment, urbaniza-
tion and other factors, could lead to the participation of youth in violence
or conict. Simplistic assertions about the negative roles of youth are often
made without a full understanding of the linkages between youth and
violent conict. Additionally there is a tendency to think of youth as a
factor in violent conict while ignoring their many positive contributions,
which include their potential role in sustaining the social fabric and peace
as well as their survival in difcult environments. Often youth, especially
male, are depicted as security threats (Kaplan 1996, p. 16). These descrip-
tions were supported by Samuel P. Huntingtons argument that societies
are particularly vulnerable to violent conict when youth comprise at least
20 per cent of the total population (Huntington 1996, pp. 259261).
While there might be some statistical evidence available connecting large
youth populations to the risk of their participation in armed conict, it can
also indicate those countries which are dangerously close to plunging into
4 YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN CONFLICT IN NORTHEAST INDIA 43
violent conict. Further, it can also provide the means to prioritize when
and where governments and other actors can involve youth to prevent the
occurrence of violent conict (Hilker and Fraser 2009, p. 3).
While the claim that youth bulges cause violent conicts has a long
history, it has received more attention since the 11 September 2001
attacks as a way to explain current political instability (Urdal 2004,
p. 1). The available literature on youth bulge focuses on spontaneous
and low intensity unrest like non-violent protest and rioting. However, it
also suggests that youth bulges may increase the likelihood of more
organized forms of political violence like internal armed conict (Urdal
2012, p. 1). Violent conict as a result of a youth bulge can be explained
using two dominant and competing theoretical traditions, one focusing
on opportunity and the other on motive. Both perspectives are macro-
level frameworks which look to explain decisions of individuals to join or
participate in violent conict by focusing on economic, political and
social factors. According to what is often described as the greed per-
spective (which has its roots in micro-economic theory), rebellions
might arise as rebels aspire to capture wealth and resources extra-legally
(Collier and Hoefer 2004, p. 564). According to this perspective,
individuals will opt to join rebel groups only when the potential gain
expected by joining the groups yields high returns in comparison with
expected costs (Collier 2000, p. 94). If economic agents are actuated by
self-interest, then it must be demonstrated why individuals choose war
over other alternatives for income generation. Thus, the greed perspec-
tive is based on economic motivations for violence and criminality.
Groups motivated by greed in general do not show any interest in
protecting the state or the rights of its people, but simply have the intent
to loot (Murshed and Tadjoeddin 2009, p. 90).
On the other hand, there is the motive-oriented or grievance perspec-
tive, which is drawn from the relative deprivation theory and tends to see
the outbreak of political violence as a means to redress economic or
political grievances (Gurr 1970, p. 223). Much of the literature focuses
on this perspective of grievance, where lack of political will to address
issues faced by large youth cohorts crowding the labour market and
agglomerated in urban centers paves the way to political violence
(Choucri 1974, p. 83; Braungart 1984, p. 7). Civil wars which happen
in the context of grievances are mainly found in societies that are multi-
ethnic or multi-religious. Here the political exclusion or victimization of
particular groups can occur, especially against groups which are a minority
(Collier and Hoefer 2002, p. 13).
Diverse arguments in the available literature on violence and crim-
inality explain why there is higher propensity of youth to engage in
violence vis--vis other groups. Most conceptions and analyses of youth
in conict settings have had a tendency to address the challenges youth
encounter or the vices they indulge in. Such observations depict youth
either as direct perpetrators of violence or as its victims. Although such
descriptions are supported with substantial evidence, they have in most
cases ignored the distinctive potential of youth, including their ability
to take the initiative. What is lacking is a focus on the positive aspects of
youth engagement in post-conict societies (Mutisi 2012, p. 100).
According to Drummond-Mundal and Cave, focusing on the vulner-
abilities of youth is a limiting perspective that denies youth the oppor-
tunity to inuence their own lives and futures whilst overlooking their
right to participate and their potential to contribute to peacebuilding
(Drummond-Mundal and Cave 2007, p. 72). Undeniably, youth
possess assets such as resilience, curiosity, intellectual agility, innova-
tiveness, vision and the capacity to help others (Apfel and Simon 1996,
pp. 911). There are a number of reasons why it is crucial to consider
youth as potential contributors in conict situations. While the argu-
ment that youth are at the front lines of conict can be made, it also
implies that youth possess the capacity to drive social and political
transformation (Hamilton 2004, p. 4; Ellisson 2014, p. 28).
OVERVIEW OF YOUTH MOVEMENTS IN NORTHEAST INDIA

Time and time again the frequency with which students or youth have
been at the forefront of opposition movements has captivated the atten-
tion of scholars and researchers globally. Youth mobilization has been
prominent in most movements directed towards political reform around
the world. However, the motivations, shape and impact of such engage-
ments vary signicantly. Despite the continuing manifestation of youth
participation in protests or conicts, little theoretical or comparative
research has been conducted to determine the impacts of such activism
(Weiss et al. 2012, pp. 1, 2). The process of globalization has meant
greater awareness of human rights abuses; environmental degradation;
political, social and economic injustices. One consequence has been
youth activism: movements emerge as a response to such grievances
which youth have witnessed within their societies (Koffel 2003, p. 117).
Participation of youth in politics has not just been a recent phenomenon
but is a fact of modern history. A review of the available literature on youth
activism in the West reveals large-scale participation of youth in the
revolutions of Austria, Russia (the Bolshevik Revolution), France and
Germany (Ahluwalia 1972, p. 52).
In the context of northeast India, it is worth noting that each of the eight
states has experienced signicant youth movements or activism. It would
also be interesting to note that northeast India has been a hotbed of student
movements, which in some occasions were large in scale (Baruah 2002a,
p. 27). Student or youth movements in northeast India are characterized by
ethnic mobilization, cultural autonomy and exclusive possession of the local
resource base. The youth of northeast India have passed through different
ideological climates such as liberalism, conservatism and nationalism,
among others. Alongside these ideological differences, the youth of this
region have also perceived threats such as demographic imbalance, relative
deprivation and loss of cultural identity (Chakrabarti 2008, pp. 96, 97).
What is important and needs to be understood in the context of north-
east India is that youth organisations appear mostly in the form of student
coalitionsto name a few, the Northeast Students Organisation, Assam
Students Union, Manipur Students Federation, All Manipur Students
Union, Kuki Students Association, Democratic Students Alliance of
Manipur, Kangleipak Students Association, Naga Students Federation,
Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights, Naga Students Union and
many others are engaged in conict either directly or indirectly. It is
important to note that the youth organisations are capable of crippling
daily life by calling for strikes, protests and mass rallies and also through
their direct involvement in violence. Student activism has in recent times
gathered momentum and has had a signicant, almost worldwide role in
many spheres of national politics. The student community has become one
of the most inuential groups in society and has been persistently articulat-
ing youths political, economic and social needs in order to have such issues
resolved. Student movements have also become successful at mobilising
people and have now been recognised as a world phenomenon. They have
become more organised, widespread and at times violent, and have had a
great impact on policy-making targeted towards youth development (Deka
1996, p. 1). In northeast India, the formation of ethnically based youth
organisations has been instrumental in enabling the growth of nationalism
among different ethnic communities and sub-nationalist groups. Student
movements in northeast India seek to address socio-economic backward-

ness and the demands for political accommodation of different ethnic
groups and to preserve the regions diverse ethno-cultural identities. At
times these movements have had secessionist overtones or made separatist
demands (Baruah 2002b, p. 1; Das 2012, p. 3). Youth movements in
northeast India have emerged as a strong force which seek to full youths
aspirations and maintain their rights, including safeguarding their language,
literature, and sociocultural heritage as well as preserving and maintaining
their distinct ethnic identity. Another goal of such movements has been to
create a separate political arrangement or political space to foster overall
development of their respective ethnic communities within the existing
polity. It is interesting to observe that youth from states where there is
political unrest and violence have voluntarily joined insurgent groups or
have been vociferous in their demands for secession from the Indian
Union (Ray and Aggarwal 1996, p. 154) (Fig. 4.1).
It can also be noted that many of the rebel organisations in northeast
India were started by young people who cited grievances against the Indian
state as the reason for the creation of their groups. It is also interesting to
note that these rebel organisations enjoy in most cases the support of
student unions and the local public living in the region. A brief examination
of youth movements may help us understand the reasons why youth in
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
..
rty en
t
gy ty n re e.
e o ci tio u ar
ov ym e ol h ni ra ss rs
ne e
P pl
o id Et pr be
l ge r
em
em
litica e ee
Un om P m
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Fa
Fig. 4.1 Causes for youth participation in conict in northeast India

northeast India participate in conict either directly or indirectly. Studying

youth movements in northeast India, scholars have emphasized their social
formations and observed certain commonalities as well as distinct socio-cul-
tural variations among the various ethnic groups living in the region
(Chakrabarti 2008, p. 91). Thus, an examination of the youth movements
in each state in northeast India would be interesting as a means to understand
their participation in conict in the region. A detailed study of the youth
movements in northeast India would show that very often they have assumed
the character of social movements, as suggested and dened by Wilkinson:
A social movement is a deliberative collective endeavour to promote change

in any direction and by any means not excluding violence, illegality, revolu-
tionary or withdrawal into utopian community. A social movement must
evince a minimal degree of organisation, though this may range from a
loose, informal or partial level of organisation to the highly institutionalized
and bureaucratized movement and the corporate group. A social move-
ments commitment to change and the raison dtre of its organisation are
founded on the conscious volition, normative commitment to the move-
ments aims and beliefs and active participation on the part of members and
followers (Wilkinson 1971, p. 27).
It will also enable a better understanding of what youth demands are in the
region and what means youth have resorted to achieve such demands. While
there is abundant literature on insurgency in the northeast, there are only a
few works that focus on movements with youth as major contributors
(Fig. 4.2).
100
80
60
40
20
0
Youth Students unions Protests; Bandhs; Joining insurgent Civil society
organizations Strikes groups
Fig. 4.2 Means through which youth engage in conict in northeast India
Most insurgent groups in the region started off as student or social

movements with a focus on social issues and later went on to engage in
violent conict. The following sections present a brief survey of such
movements in northeast India.
ASSAM ALL ASSAM STUDENTS UNION (AASU)

Youth movements in Assam have been, in most cases, successful and effective
instruments of changebe it in educational, social, cultural or political
contexts. Apart from the involvement of youth in national movements,
student movements have been active in Assam since 1899, when youth
agitated for the establishment of a college for higher education, which led
to the founding of the Cotton College in Guwahati in 1900. The Oil
Renery agitation of 1957 led to the establishment of the oil renery in
Guwahati in 1962. Youth movements also brought about major changes in
terms of economic issues and food security in 1967. In 1972, a student
movement led to the creation of the Guwahati University Academic
Council, and the 19791984 agitation brought about radical change in
the politics of Assam through the establishment of a new government
headed by the student leader (Deka 1991). The Assam Movement, which
was spearheaded by the All Assam Students Union (AASU), is perhaps the
most successful one in the history of youth movements in India, as it was
capable of mobilising mass support to capture the state power through the
democratic electoral process. According to the AASU, The simmering
discontent has today erupted in a form of mass movement. It is no longer
a movement today it is a mass upsurge. Indeed a mass upheaval.
The AASU took shape in the late sixties in post-independence India as an
unorganised student cluster including broader social groups. Comprising
mostly students from the state of Assam, the organisation is democratic in
nature and has adopted the principles of non-violence propounded by
Gandhi, involving itself in protests and rallies calling attention to societal
concerns. Since its inception, the AASU, besides expressing its concern for
the development of the state, has spearheaded movements on issues relating
to language, medium of instruction, illegal foreign migrants and educational
opportunities. AASU has also worked for mutual unity among the various
ethnic communities of the state. AASU has worked to bring socio-political
concerns to the fore and raise awareness among greater Assamese society.
AASUs activities in the state have changed the attitude of the government of
India and people from other parts of the country.
UNITED LIBERATION FRONT OF ASSAM (ULFA)

Secessionist movements existed in Assam but in a very rudimentary form.
As already noted these sentiments appeared and took form in various ways:
the language movement, the oil renery movement, the movement relat-
ing to the medium of instruction and the anti-foreigner movement. These
movements could be seen as some of the causes for the emergence of the
United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in the late 1970s. ULFAs
emergence could also be seen as possessing an anti-Indian or anti-Delhi
attitude due to the large presence of north Indian Hindi-speaking people
living in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh who showed little regard for the culture
and social practices of the local tribes. ULFA began as a movement against
the domination of the Hindi- and Beagali-speaking people living in the
region. There are also other issues which facilitated the growth of ULFA,
such as unemployment, oods, poverty, underdevelopment, corruption,
dominance of non-Assamese in the business sectors and army and police
atrocities (Mahanta 2013, p. 216). ULFAs metamorphosis can be cate-
gorised into ve phases (i) 19791984 (emergence and growth); (ii)
19851990 (stabilisation and populist measures); (iii) 19911996
(Indias offensiveOperation Bajrang and Rhino); (iv) 19972000
(ULFAs retaliation); (v) ULFAs change in attitudes towards the use of
terror after 2001 (Sultana 2013, p. 181).
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
In the year 1947, youth belonging to the Adi and Mishing tribes of
Arunachal Pradesh (earlier known as the Northeast Frontier Agency), estab-
lished the rst students union, known as the Adi-Mishing Students Union
(AMSU), which had its headquarters in Pasighat. Those who were involved
in the founding of this students union were students at the Sadiya
Government High English School. Daying Ering was the founder
(President) and Martin Dai and Oshong Ering were the general secretary
and treasurer of the union, respectively. Others who were involved in estab-
lishing the students union were Talom Rukbo, Obang Dai, Tajum Koyo,
Sushen Pao, Yonggam Legu and Toi Dai (Nag 2007). The Adi-Mishing
students union through its regular meetings sought to create awareness
regarding social change and the importance of education in the minds of
young people. Similar activities were undertaken by branch students unions
in their respective areas and resulted in the formation of the Galong-Adi and
the eastern Adi branch students unions. Following the creation of many
branch students unions, AMSU renamed itself the All-Northeastern
Frontier Agency Students Union (ANEFASU) in Pasighat, which is in the
east Siang District. In 1972, after the creation of the union territory,
Arunachal Pradesh, the ANEFASU again renamed itself as the All
Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU); and with the elevation of
the students union, which would represent the all students of the state, the
responsibilities and the burden of the union increased. Ever since, the
AAPSU has been the apex body with links to almost all educational institu-
tions in the state and with those students who were living outside the state.
The year 1979 proved to be a watershed in the history of student movement
in Arunachal Pradesh, as it marked a drastic change in the approaches used
earlier in terms of strategy, tactics and functioning towards the government.
Until 1979 the student movement had limited itself to appealing to the
government through petitions, engaging with the government through
partnerships and drawing the states attention towards the problems of
students in particular and also the state and the people in general. The
creation of the union territory had its corollary effects, and the demands of
the AAPSU became specic and broad. A few important demands made by
the AAPSU were as follows: (a) a clear solution to the AssamArunachal
boundary problem, (b) identication and deportation of foreign nationals
from the state and (c) withdrawal of land allotment permits and trade licenses
from non-Arunachalees, including effective checks against inltration of
foreign nationals. In 1980, for the rst time in the history of students
movement in Arunachal Pradesh, the AAPSU called for a two-day bandh
(strike) in support of their demands. Taking notice of the current situation,
on 23 April 1980 the government of Arunachal Pradesh aired a radio broad-
cast from the Dibrugarh (Assam) station of All India Radio in which the then
Chief Minister, Gagong Apang, persuaded the students to refrain from the
path of agitation by explaining his governments stand on the demands
placed by the AAPSU. However, the AAPSU was not satised with the
response of the government to their demands and increasingly resorted to
agitation in subsequent years. The demands of the AAPSU, placed through a
memorandum, included its previous demands and as well as newer ones,
such as reservation of 80 per cent of government jobs for Arunachalees and
stopping allotment of contracts to non-Arunachalees, among others (ibid.).
In support of these demands, AAPSU organised a series of bandhs from 17
to 27 August 1982. In the meantime, agitation against foreign nationals
begun by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) had taken the shape of a
mass movement. This movement started by the AASU and seemingly

inspired the AAPSU, lent its support to the Assam agitation against
foreign nationals by launching a movement in 1982 demanding the
deportation of Bangladeshi nationals from the state whilst also pressing
the Arunachal government to accede to its demands (Singh 2010). The
issues of immigrants and foreign nationals which the AAPSU and the
AASU faced were more-or-less identical problems; and this also helped in
establishing a concord between the two students unions (Prasad 2007,
Singh 2010, Dhar 1998).
MANIPUR
In Manipur, interpreting developments in the light of armed conicts and
violence is common due to the vivid presence of insurgent groups in the
state. As already noted, it is the law-and order situation which contributes
to the slow pace of development in the state, as well as the presence of
insurgent groups, which hampers social initiatives. Among the insurgent
groups operating in Manipur are the National Socialist Council of
Nagaland (IM) and (K), Kuki National Front, Peoples Liberation Army,
United National Liberation Front and Kangleipak Yaonlup Kanba Lup
among others. In Manipur, insurgency has almost become the order of the
day. Today, NSCN (IM), the biggest insurgent group in Northeast India,
is operating in Nagaland, North-Cachar and the hill areas in Manipur. It is
leading the insurgency under the guidance of one of the associates of the
late A. Z. Phizo, who had propagated the demand for the independence of
Nagaland (Singh 1960). Insurgency in Manipur is directly linked with
educated unemployed youth. Most of the members of the insurgent
groups are within the age group 1530. In the case of Manipur, three
major groups which have engaged directly in insurgent movements in the
state need attention: (i) Meitei, (ii) Kuki and (iii) Naga.
MEITEI-LED YOUTH MOVEMENTS

In Manipur the idea of secession started when a group of Meitei youths
headed by Hijam Irabot demanded the freedom of Manipur from Indian
occupation. This group later evolved into the United National Liberation
Front (UNLF) in 1964 under the Leadership of Arambam Somorendra
Singh. The UNLF, which is the oldest insurgent group in Manipur,
started as a social organisation and later took up arms in the 1990s calling
its armed group the Manipur Peoples Army, with the objective of estab-
lishing an independent socialist state of Manipur. The UNLFs demand
was to establish an independent nation-state of Manipur, to be exclusively
for the Meiteis. Another group with similar demands is the Peoples
Revolutionary Government of Kangleipak (Narayan 2012, p. 132).
KUKI-LED YOUTH MOVEMENTS

It must be noted that all discussions of the role of insurgent groups in north-
east India reveal a signicant number of young people in these groups. Kukis,
too, have their own insurgent groups with a large number of young people
involved in their activities. Kuki-led groups primary objective is to secure a
separate state or union territory for the Kuki community and the unication of
all Kukis living in different regions in the new homeland called Kukiland. The
Kuki National Front (KNF) was formed under the leadership of Ranco
Thangboi Kuki on 18 May 1988, primarily to counter the NSCN-IM hege-
mony in the Kuki-inhabited areas (SATP 2001). The proposed Kukiland
according to KNF is contiguous with Manipur Nagaland and Assam. It
comprises the whole districts of Chandel and Churachandpur and parts of
Ukhrul; Senapati (Sadar Hills); Tamenglong districts, including a portion of
Imphal valley; Thoubal and Bishnupur districts and also the Kuki-inhabited
areas of Nagaland and Assam. KNF operates in the hill districts of Manipur,
particularly Sardar Hill (Senapati), Churachandpur, Tamenglong and the
Ukhrul districts. While generally, in the context of Kuki demands, it has
been for the unication of all those areas inhabited by Kukis (which is opposed
by the Naga groups very strongly), there are conicts within the Kuki sub-
groups themselves where the sub-groups have opposed preferential treatment
within the Kukis.
NAGA-LED YOUTH MOVEMENTS

While students unions have been major contributors in social develop-
ment, the All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM) has been
engaged actively in conict and other developmental issues pertaining to
the Nagas living in Manipur. ANSAM has been an inuential group which
has successfully organised economic blockades and strikes (bandhs), along
national highways 39 and 53, which are the only lifelines connecting the
state with the rest of India (Chakravarti 2012). ANSAM has also voiced its
concerns over the multiple checkpoints prevalent in the Naga-inhabited
areas of Manipur which cause many hardships for people living in the
region. ANSAM has spearheaded the banning of the script training pro-
gramme which is being sponsored by the Manipur Governments educa-
tion department. The students organisation has also declared the initiative
a challenge to all Nagas in Manipur and vowed that the programme will
not be permitted in the Naga areas of the state.
Manipur experienced mild forms of student protest even during the
colonial period, and this suggests that such movements have deep roots in
the region. In 1946 the All Manipur Students Federation was founded and
organized ve conferences which have been the hallmark of student politics
in Manipur. The conferences concluded with the following demands: (i)
establishment of a responsible government in Manipur, (ii) development of
rural areas and the municipality of the Imphal region, (iii) creation free
primary education, (iv) establishment of new schools and colleges; (v)
proper facilities for students, (vi) combination of the administration of the
hill and valley people and (vii) human rights (Arun 2001, p. 47, 48).
MEGHALAYA
The Khasi Students Union and The Garo Students Union are important
civil society actors in the state of Meghalaya (Rahman 2011:132). The
Khasi Students Union (KSU), which is a premier student organisation in
the state of Meghalaya, was founded on 20 March 1978. It is an associa-
tion of students belonging to twelve colleges afliated with the
Northeastern Hill University. At its inception, the motto of the KSU
was For the Welfare of the State and Community; this was later changed
to Mait Shaphrang Khlur Ka Ri, which means Strive Ahead Children of
the Soil. The constitution of the KSU, which was adopted on 18
December 1981, fostered the spirit of unity, love and mutual help
among the youth/students of the state of Meghalaya, and also included
a rm stand on protecting the fundamental rights and the freedoms of
each member of the state. Lastly, it also stated that the KSU would not
take part in politics of religious matters.
The KSU amended its constitution on 4 April 1993, during the Khasi
National Awakening, when the objectives and their demands which
needed to be addressed by the government were included. It listed
among its various demands the need for improving the infrastructural
facilities in government medical, engineering and agriculture colleges.
Respect for the Khasi language, culture and tradition of the Khasi nation
were to be awakened. The demands also included that the children of the
soil have full control of the economy of the state. The last of the nine
objectives averred the need to achieve peace in the Khasi region within the
framework of the Indian Constitution.
One interesting fact about the Khasi Students Union is that it functions
more like a pressure group than a student organisation. However, most of
its interest has been focused on the welfare and problems and needs of the
student community in the state. It derives its support from the society and
functions more like a student organisation. Further, in order to achieve its
demands the KSU has adopted various agitational strategies such as
bandhs, hartals (general strike), protests, blockades and raising black
ags against the state (Nongkynrih 1998, p. 124).
The modus operandi of the KSU and other tribal students organisa-
tions in Meghalaya involves addressing contentious and electorally unre-
warding positions that national parties may shy away fromfor
example, against institutionally preventing the inux of outsiders,
anti-mining and power projects and re-instituting the inner line permit
regime in Meghalaya. The KSU has built itself a reputation that hinges
on the possibility of violence combined with genuine popularity and
legitimacy in the public imagination. Defending its strategy, the KSU
has said that it always tries peaceful protests rst; violent action is
precipitated by the inaction of the political powers-that-be and the
failure of political parties to adequately respond to the demands of
people (Sirinate 2009, p. 19).
MIZORAM
Following the independence of India, Mizoram faced the dual issues of
proselytization and colonialism and the introduction of important struc-
tural and functional changes in Mizo society (Downs 1983, pp. 14, 15).
Many youth and student organisationssuch as the Young Mizo
Association, the Khristian Thalai Pawl, and also the Mizo Zirlai Pawl
have been working as instruments of systemic or structural control
(Chakraborty 2008). These groups have been working to build the ideal
Zo Christian state by prohibiting the consumption of liquor and drugs,
controlling sexual behavior, monitoring prostitution and promoting
HIV/AIDS awareness within Mizo society (Chakraborty 2010, p. 508).
The Mizoram Students Union played an important role in facilitating the
return of peace in the state (Deb 1998, p. 128).
NAGALAND
There are two major youth movements in the state of Nagaland: (i) the
Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) and (ii) the Naga
Students Federation (NSF) (Mao 1998, p. 140). The NPMHR, founded
in 1978, was the rst democratic organisation in the statethrough its
works the brutal repression of the people living the state was made known
to those living in other parts of the country (Haskar 1985, p. 2201). The
right to live and work; the unication of Naga-inhabited areas; the right to
propagate ones beliefs; freedom of movement and from socio-economic
exploitation, political domination, military repression, arbitrary arrests and
detention; opposition to anti-democratic practices and the dismantling of
institutions and social values which legitimize and perpetuate such prac-
tices as well as working against the imposition of alien legal systems are
some of the objectives on which the NPMHR has organized protests in
Nagaland, mostly using non-violent methods (Mao 1998, pp. 140, 141).
Several other civil society organisations, such as the Naga Hoho, Naga
Mothers Association (NMA), Naga Students Federation (NSF), the United
Committee of Manipur (UCM), among others, have come to play signicant
roles in Naga civil society. To conclude that the student groups in Nagaland
are directly engaged with insurgent groups in the state would be too sim-
plistic. However, there are instances where these organisations have joined
together for a common cause (Srikanth and Thomas 2005, p. 70).
TRIPURA
Originally known as the All Tripura Tribal force, the All Tripura Tiger
Force (ATTF) was founded on 11 July 1990. Initially a small group of
tribal extremists, who primarily operated in the north and south of
Tripura, they gradually started mobilizing tribal youth in Tripura and
emerged as a formidable terrorist group with enhanced repower in the
state. Over the years, the ATTF has formed or associated themselves
with smaller groups such as the Tripura Tribal Youth Force, The
Tripura Young Rie, Tripura Lion Force, Tripura National Army and
Tripura Liberation Organisation. However, most of these groups have
ceased to exist. More than 1600 cadres surrendered by March 1994,
under an amnesty scheme offered by the State Government of Tripura
(Kumar 2016). A group of ATTF cadres which did not surrender
revived the ATTF. It was subsequently banned in April 1997 under
the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (SATP, 2001).
Boyden, Jo and Joanne de Berry. 2004. Children and Youth on the Frontline:
Ethnography, Armed Conict and Displacement. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Daiute, Colette, Zeynep Beykont, Craig Higson-Smith and Larry Nucci. 2006.
International Perspectives on Youth Conict and Development. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Forbrig, Joerg. 2005. Revisiting Youth Political Participation: Challenges for
Research and Democratic Practice in Europe. Strasbourg: Council of Europe
Publishing.
Kakar, Sudhir and Kamala Chowdhary. 1970. Conict and Choice: Indian Youth
in a Changing Society. New Delhi: Somaiya Publications.
Maytok, Thomas, Jessica Senehi and Sean Byrne. 2011. Critical Issues in Peace
and Conict Studies: Theory, Practice and Pedagogy. New York: Lexington
Books.
Muncie, John. 2004. Youth and Crime. London: Sage Publications.
Nilsson, Ann-Charlotte. 2013. Children and Youth in Armed Conict. Leiden:
Martinus and Nijhoff Publishers.
Roche, Sophie. 2014. Domesticating Youth: Youth Bulges and their Socio-Political
Implications in Tajikistan. New York: Berghann Books.
Seifert Kathryn. 2014. Youth Violence: Theory, Prevention and Intervention. New
York: Springer Publishing Company.
Yohanna, Yael and Reuben Markosyan. 2013. Youth Transforming Conict.
Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
CHAPTER 5
Youth Rights in Northeast India
Abstract This chapter examines youth rights in north-east India, and

argues that youth in north-east India are victims to the prevalent violence
in the region. Categorically there has been no study undertaken in the
context of youth rights. There has been extant literature on human rights
and womens rights in north-east India. However, what has been missing
in the region in this context is the rights of young persons living in the
region. Youth rights in north-east range from a peaceful society to the
development of the region. In the survey undertaken, youth revealed that
a peaceful society is required for their existence and survival. For the youth
of north-east India, Survival, Acceptance and Dignity are the three
main criteria which underlines their attempts towards development.
Keywords North-east India Youth rights in north-east India Youth

rights in conict situations
In the context of youth rights in northeast India, there is credible

evidence that the youth of the region are victims of the violence
prevalent in the region. There has been no study undertaken of youth
rights per se. There is extant literature on human rights in general and
womens rights in northeast India; however, what has been missing is a
study of the rights of youth living in the region. In a survey undertaken
in all states of northeast India, the need for a long-term mapping of the

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7_5
problems of youth and their rights was found to be essential. After the
survey, the rights of youth emerged as one of the most important issues
in the region.
Youth rights in the northeast range from living in a peaceful society to
participating in the development of the region. In the survey, youth
expressed their belief that a peaceful society was required for their
existence and survival. For the youth of northeast India, Survival,
Acceptance and Dignity are the three main criteria which underlie
their development. The three above-mentioned concepts are important
for the youth of northeast India and need elaboration. These issues are
examined in this chapter.
Youth rights are of utmost importance for young peoples survival and
their transition to adulthood and adequate self-sufciency. In the pre-
vious chapters, the reasons that youth participate in conict in the north-
east region of India were discussed. Further, the chapter on youth rights
argued for a framework of youth rights to be established at the global
level. A brief examination of the two regional instruments showed that
there is a potential for such developments. While some aspects of these
instruments are specically formulated to address issues affecting youth
in their own regions, certain provisions are in fact globally applicable to
all nations. For example, the right to participation, as specied in both
the African Youth Charter and the Ibero-American Convention on the
Rights of Youth, is a notion which could have serious impacts on youth if
implemented in many developing nations. This is not to imply that all
developed countries grant youth the right to participation, but the
developed countries have at least transcended the social and cultural
restrictions which have impeded youth participation in civic affairs and
have started exploring various methods of implementing measures aimed
at fullling the rights of youth. While drawing their inspiration from
various international and universal instruments of human rights, the two
regional instruments on youth rights also enlist various civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights which youth require. It is expected
that because of these measures the future generations will have better
opportunities to complete a smooth transition from childhood to adult-
hood. Although such measures adopted at the regional levels are impor-
tant, one aspect which may be of concern in these instruments (the AYC
and the Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth) is how
the rights of youth in conict-ridden societies need to be taken care
of. It must be noted that although both instruments have addressed
5 YOUTH RIGHTS IN NORTHEAST INDIA 59
prevention of the engagement of youth in armed conict or conscription

into military service, they are vague and have not specied how states
should behave towards youth in conict situations. This is important,
since in many countries where there is internal strife youth are major
actors in the conict either directly or indirectly. Such issues are also
important for many young people who do not participate in the conict
in any way. The issue here is that youth become targets of both state
forces as well as rebel groupsin the rst case as suspected insurgents
and in the second as traitors (either because they do not support the
insurgent movement or act as informers to state agencies). These issues
are noteworthy in societies which are conict-ridden.
Northeast India is a region which has experienced conict due to its
history, ethnic strife, underdevelopment, corruption and insurgency
among other factors. This region is generally studied by scholars as a
theatre of insurgency and counter-insurgency. The relationship between
the people living in the northeast and those Indians living on the other
side of the narrow corridor is marked by a high degree of alienation. The
continuity of colonial attitudes, integration through force, illegal migra-
tion, relative deprivation, ethnicity and cultural nationalism have all con-
tributed to the emergence of violent conicts which have lasted for over
ve decades (Rajagopalan 2008). Both the state governments and the
central government have signed numerous peace accords with the insur-
gent groups in the hope of bringing an end to the violence in the region
(see chapter 3), the most recent of which was the signing of a peace
framework between the NSCN-IM (Goswami 2015).
A critical evaluation of the 13 peace accords signed between the state
and insurgent groups suggests that these initiatives have not been able to
contain violent movements or bring lasting peace in the region. Almost all
agreements made have directly conicted with the interests of the many
ethnic communities or even with the interests of the states present in the
region. Most talks have not been inclusive, and they contain no provisions
for dealing with the core issues which need to be addressed in order to
change the prevailing conditions in the region. The continuing ability of
insurgent groups such as the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
and the NSCN-IM to operate, along with other large groups, raises
questions regarding the political will and sincerity of the government
and these groups intentions with regard to reducing armed violence in
the northeast. The numerous peace accords which have been signed in
northeast India have facilitated redistribution of authority through the
creation of territorial or non-territorial means of representation and self-

governance. The patterns of the peace accords which have been signed
have shown that by the creation of many administrative councils, a groups
status can be upgraded, thereby providing more room for negotiation
between conicting parties. It should also be noted that devolution of
power remains a real problem, and mere creation of administrative units
does not guarantee viability, resource independence and autonomy
(Rajagopalan 2008).
The British administered Indias northeast as an imperial frontier and
treated it as a buffer zone between the Bengal plains and the highlands of
China and Burma. They avoided imposing direct administration over much
of the multi-ethnic, polyglot area and only in Assam did the British make
investments in tea, oil and timber. After the British left, India sought to
integrate the region into the national mainstream, which provoked violent
opposition to federal control and assimilation. Guerrilla warfare emerged as
the favourite form of resistance, and now, over ve decades after the
independence of India, more than 70 insurgent groups still remain active
in northeast India. They continue to battle Indian security forces for inde-
pendence but some have settled for extensive autonomy (such as Mizoram).
The ethnic rebel armies often ght each other, mainly over homeland
demands and scarce resources (Bhaumik 2007). The beginnings of the
ethnic conict in northeast India can be traced back to the Assam
Nagaland border Dispute (Jeyaseelan 2008). Since Nagaland was formed
in 1963, tension between Assam and Nagaland has prevailed for over two
decades, during which the boundaries of the two states remained contested
(Chasie and Hazarika 2009). In order to contain the violence which was a
consequence of these issues, the Indian government used its military might
to suppress such conicts in the region in which innumerable civilians were
caught in the crossre (Das 2007).
Almost all the states in northeast India except Sikkim are currently
experiencing some form of insurgent violenceamong them, Assam,
Nagalnad, Manipur and Tripura have witnessed what could be categorized
as low-intensity conicts, particularly between 1990 and 2000 (ibid.). In
such conditions the assumption that civilian rights are violated is plausible.
However, what is more important is that youth (who are the future of
society) growing up in such situations become direct victims of the conict
and have their rights violated. In this chapter the rights of youth in the
northeast region of India are highlighted. For this purpose it is important
to understand (i) the problems faced by youth in general, (ii) the problems
faced by youth in northeast India and (iii) how these problems affect the
rights of youth in the region.
A discussion of the problems of youth involves two factors: (i) those
characterizing the nature of the problem in relation to its content and
magnitude and (ii) those that relate to what is considered a problem. The
rst criterion suggests that the problems of youth may be of three types,
namely, economic, social and psychological. The second criterion points
to the problems faced by youth who are living in urban and rural areas.
Despite these categorizations it must also be noted that these issues over-
lap in certain conditions (Singh 1960). In other contexts the problems
faced by disadvantaged youth in many countries have come to be recog-
nized as important within the realm of public policy. Youth who are from
low-income families or minority groups, youth living in conict-ridden
societies and youth from broken families face hurdles impeding their
success and transition to adulthood which will have serious negative
implications for the future of any society. Listing the problems faced by
disadvantaged youth is easy. Poor educational opportunities, poor health
care, high-crime environments and unemployment are only some of the
problems disadvantaged youth face on a daily basis. The difculty with
these issues is documenting them across a wide range of contexts. Coupled
with this is the difculty in measuring the extent to which interventions
can alleviate such conditions (Gruber 2007).
Although todays youth have advantages, they also face a complex
evolving world where major challenges coexist with opportunities. Fierce
competition affects the marketplace and its rules and practices. Lacking the
requisite knowledge and skills to adapt to the changing social and eco-
nomic environment, youth are often in vulnerable situations. Limited
knowledge and poor access to health services related to the prevention
of HIV infection, drug use and other health risks further exacerbate the
situation (United Nations 2007). Access to proper educational facilities is
another major problem which youth face. Education is not only a basic
right, but also a link that promotes equality, growth and conscientious
participation in society. Many international treaties and mechanisms stress
that education is a key factor in development. It is assumed that a nations
social, economic and cultural situation can be enhanced through educa-
tion (United Nations 2010). Raising the level of education has been
linked to advancements in other key areas, such as productivity, social
mobility, poverty reduction, building citizenship and social identity.

Raising the level of education also provides individuals with the opportu-
nity to get a decent job thereby reducing poverty and providing for gender
equality and youth empowerment. UNESCO recognizes that education is
important for youth, as it enables them to develop their capabilities and
helps them improve their professional and technical skills. This is a funda-
mental aspect of the right to education that plays a crucial role in the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (LHomme
and Hendriquez 2010).
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the crisis of
youth unemployment is worsening. The population of young people is
three times larger than that of adults, which increases their likelihood to be
unemployed. The ILO also warns of a scarred generation, one that is
facing a dangerous mixture of unemployment, increased levels of inactivity
and engagement in more dangerous jobs, coupled with a rise in inequality
and poverty in many developing countries (ILO 2011).
An increased unemployment rate among youth is representative of both
personal misfortune and a lost opportunity for national and global eco-
nomic development. Long-term youth unemployment entails long-term
consequences, as it affects young peoples condence levels and resilience
in dealing with labour market pressures and setbacks that are inevitable
because affected youth begin with weaker early-career credentials
(Manpower Group 2012a). According to the ILOs Global Employment
Trends 2011 update, youth unemployment has increased from 11.8 to
12.7 per cent between 2008 and 2009the largest recorded increase in
one year. Between 1998 and 2008, the overall rate of youth unemploy-
ment increased from 0.2 per cent (100,000 persons) per year, while
between 2008 and 2009 it increased by 5.3 per cent (4.5 million persons)
in a single year. The United Nations estimated that by the end of 2010,
there were at least 75.8 million unemployed youth (ILO 2011; Chithung
and Ali 2015; United Nations 2012). It is often argued that high youth
unemployment in developing countries represents a lost opportunity for
economic transformation; and the existence of high numbers of unem-
ployed youth contributes to increased political and social instability
(Manpower Group 2012b).
In the context of India, which has the worlds largest population,
66 per cent of the total population is under the age of 35. According to
the 2010 population statistics, one in ve young people is Indian. Much
has been made of the demographic dividend that occurs when the
percentage of the working-age population increases: that is, there is auto-

matically a decrease in the dependency ratio (the number of children and
aged people who are supported by the employed individual). This has
been an important feature of the success stories in Asian societies and more
particularly in East Asia, where development grew rapidly during the latter
half of the twenty-rst century. However, failure to provide conditions
that would guarantee jobs for the ever-increasing population of young
people (i.e., the youth bulge) poses the risk of creating a demographic
disaster (Mitra and Verick 2013).
Among the important problems which todays youth are facing is educa-
tion and employment. But to conclude that these are the only problems
faced by young persons would be wrong. Youth often face drug abuse,
alcoholism and the lure of joining rebel organisations. In many developing
countries in south Asia there is the problem of youth joining insurgent
movements. What makes them join rebel groups? Limited educational and
employment opportunities are factors that lead youth to participate either
directly or indirectly in conict. It must be noted that both education and
employment are complementary. Limited opportunities for education
clearly imply less opportunity for securing a decent job. This leaves youth
frustrated, and they look for alternatives by joining rebel organisations which
provide them with income, although this carries high risks. The table below
illustrates the fact that youth in northeast India face problems that have a
signicant impact on their development (Fig. 5.1).
Youth unemployment in northeast India is a signicant problem in the
region, and it is important to examine the causes which contribute to this
problem. In most cases, while the youth in northeast India afrm that
conict is one of the factors which hamper infrastructure development,
which in turn results in unemployment. In terms of infrastructural under-
development, it is a common argument that investment in the region is
very low due to the presence of conict. Investors are also skeptical about
investing in the region, as the presence of numerous insurgent groups
poses a serious personal security risk as well as a risk to their investments
thus creating a situation where limited opportunities for income genera-
tion are made available to youth.
In response to conict, the states initiatives in containing the violence
through the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which enables
security forces to act with impunity, creates a condition where the rights of
youth are severely infringed. Security forces in the region often enter
homes and arrest young people under the slightest pretext. Such legislative
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Poverty Unemployment Lack of AFSPA Lack of
educational freedom
institutions due to conflict
Fig. 5.1 Problems faced by youth in northeast India
measures have also increased the rate of human rights violations in the
region particularly among youth as young people are more passionately
attached to insurgent movements or are more easily coerced into partici-
pating in conict.
YOUTH RIGHTS IN NORTHEAST INDIA

Diverse problems exist in northeast India, where the problems faced by
youth in the context of education and employment are a consequence of
the on-going conict and insurgency present in the region. Northeast
India, which is home to more than 260 different tribes that speak a
number of languages and dialects is host to numerable conicts and
problems. Young women are raped by army personnel, mothers wait in
vain for their missing sons, children wait for parents who dont return, and
much more (Meitei 2012). These are only some of the common problems
in the northeastern states.
In the context of youth rights in northeast India, there is credible
evidence that the youth of the region are victims of the violence prevalent
in the region. While there is extant literature on human rights in general
and womens rights in particular in northeast India, no specic study of
youth rights has been undertaken. In a survey undertaken in all states of
the northeast, the need for a long-term mapping of the problems of youth
and their rights is essential. After the survey, the rights of youth emerged
as on of the most important such issues have in the region.
Youth rights in the northeast range from living in a peaceful society to
participating in the development of the region. In the survey, youth
expressed their belief that a peaceful society was required for their exis-
tence and survival. For the youth of northeast India, Survival, Acceptance
and Dignity are the three main criteria which underlie their development.
The three above-mentioned concepts are important for the youth of north-
east India and need elaboration.
Survival, according to the youth of the northeast means the absence of
conict and the removal of various forms of counter-insurgency measures.
Although many young people had a favourable attitude towards the
insurgent groups in the region, they also said that they had grown weary
of the conict as it has halted development in the region and also has been
a hindrance for the people living in the region. This is also due to the fact
that because of the presence of underground movements, the state has
institutionalized the use of force to counter insurgent movements in the
region. Survival according to many meant that there should be adequate
educational facilities. Next came employment opportunities for the youth
in the region. Almost all respondents said that if there were an absence of
conict, then there would be increased opportunities for education and
income generation. Many youth of northeast India migrate to other
metropolitan cities in India, where the absence of conict has given
them adequate space for professional and technical skill development.
Many were also of the opinion that it was a hard decision to move back
to their own homes, as it provided less or relatively very limited opportu-
nity for economic development and income generation. This had further
implications related to their smooth transition to adulthood. Delays in
employment meant that there was a delay in beginning/starting a family
for the youth living in the region. If provisions of the AYC and the Ibero-
American Convention on the Rights of Youth were to be applied in
northeast India, one could easily conclude that there are serious setbacks
to the rights to peace, education and employment, despite the fact that the
Indian Constitution has laid down directives for the right to education for
all of its citizens. While India has laid down such clear directives, northeast
India has in most cases been a scapegoat, and development has been
delayed for various reasons, such as conict, the governments inability
to prevent violence, the states non-responsive behaviour regarding the
demands of the people living in the region and the states total disregard of
human rights, which stems from certain provisions of the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act. Corruption and nepotism have also been cited as
contributing to the violation of youth rights in northeast India, because
it reduces merit-based recruitment in the region.
The second feature of youth rights is the idea of Acceptance.
Acceptance for the youth of northeast India means the acceptance of their
culture, ideas and demands for the development of the region. Youth, as
noted in an earlier chapter, have taken up many social issues aimed at
addressing the needs of youth in the region. Although the culture of the
youth of northeast India is very different from that of other parts of India,
youth of the northeast expressed that their ideas are not accepted by adults
within their own communities. There is a strict hierarchical pattern to the
relationship between adults and youth. However, adults in the region do
not force youth to submit to their wishes. Acceptance of the youth of the
northeast India also means that the people living outside the region aban-
don nave ideas about the people of northeast. The general conception of
the people of the northeast by other Indians is that they are violent people,
and there is a certain amount of suspicion in their minds. We are not violent
people but fun-loving and people ghting for the legitimate rights to be
guaranteed by the Indian state to the people living in the region, said one
respondent.
Dignity for the youth of northeast India is the consequence of
Survival and Acceptance guaranteed to the people living in the
region. The concept of human dignity encompasses the idea of recog-
nition, and the principle of human dignity afrms to all human beings
that such an experience is possible (Lebech 2014). In general, the
concept of dignity enjoys wide acceptance all around the world, which
signies it is a basic ethical and legal principle, as it draws upon the
universal experience of the dynamics of recognition (Obengo 2016). It
thus is clearly in every individuals interest that each human being be
respected based on the principle of human dignity. In other words
human, dignity has an inalienable value which is signicant to humanity.
The principle of human dignity is attached to the idea of a universal
afrmation where human beings have the highest value, a universal state-
ment with no limitations either in space or in time. The term human
dignity seems to have emerged slowly from a context where human beings
were accorded signicant importance (Azuawusife 2009). The 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a testament to the currency
of both terms. However, systematic use of the term human dignity had
not been subjected to any philosophical investigation prior to the

Declaration. The idea of human dignity ows from the human rights
tradition, which is specied in this document. The inherence and inalien-
ability of human rights for all individuals is the basic principle on which
human dignity is understood to rest. Thus, in northeast India, the recog-
nition of the rights of youth placed emphasis on the dignity of the youth
of the region (Lebech 2014).
In conclusion, the issue of youth rights in northeast India is a rather
important topic which needs greater attention. The national youth
policy has little to contribute to the development of the youth of
northeast India. Youth rights in northeast India can be assumed to
mean development of the youth of the region. These young people
need such specic emphasis in terms of rights, as theirs is a society
ridden with conict and rife with cultural and social practices which
often hinder their development.
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CHAPTER 6
Conclusion
Abstract Programming for youth in areas that are affected by violent

conict has seen a signicant increase over the last decade. The challenges
encourage more sustained dialogue between agencies about the effects of
conict on youth and about how current practices t within larger trends
in youth programming in conict-affected areas, such as their assessment
and evaluation. A key lesson from modern world history is that young
people act as engines of socio-political change, if not always its primary
energy and the mass power to get wheels turning for divergent roles in
conict situations. Not only are they victimized by war, they are also
manipulated and pulled in as combatants, ideologues, political thugs etc.
Opportunity for armed mobilization is immense, yet youth seeking non-
violent roles often are left isolated and unsupported. The chapter is the
conclusion of the book where some suggestions are provided for the
engagement of youth in decision-making. Youth participation at various
levels is given importance which could help address the issue of youth
rights in north-east India.
Keywords Youth rights Youth rights in conict situations
Youth studies in contemporary times have received immense attention,

and problems relating to young peoples development and transition to a
successful adulthood have been given priority. In this context, it is impor-
tant to examine youth living in difcult circumstances where conict has a

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7_6
signicant impact. Recently, a number of debates have emerged about

youth rights which seek to ensure the rights of human beings both in
general and in specic contexts as a means of ensuring better protection
and promotion of youth rights across the globe, for example, through
instruments such the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
among others.
The study of human rights has been undertaken by a wide range of
scholars from diverse elds in the social sciences who seek to understand
the forces behind human rights violations and the means by which such
violations can be prevented. Scholars are attempting to capture the
dynamics of the issue and are seeking to explain the variations that are
present in different examples of human rights violations. Such research
presents a host of fascinating questions that lend themselves to both in-
depth, single-case studies and comparative analyses. I posit that such
research provides valuable insights into the factors responsible for human
rights violations and in turn leads to the creation of a more effective
mechanism for the protection and promotion of human rights at the
local/regional level. In this context it is important to encourage research
that seeks to comprehend and unpack the specic factors responsible for
human rights violations in nations across the globe. Acknowledging the
plurality of factors which explain the causes of human rights violations,
scholarly debates are centered around ethnicity, authority, transparency,
accountability, democracy, state repression, terrorism, insurgency and
preservation of territorial integrity.
Research on human rights in present times includes issues relating to
womens rights, rights of minorities, environmental rights, rights of the
child and other related topics. In general terms, human rights apply
equally to everyone, regardless of age. The United Nations, however,
decided that they needed to be more specic about the rights of youth.
They recognized that young people have special needs, and that they are
generally more vulnerable to exploitation than adults. This is an important
concept in movements responding to the oppression of young people,
with advocates of youth rights promoting youth participation and youth/
adult participation and partnerships aimed at ultimately achieving inter-
generational equity. The need to increase attention and concern on the
rights of youth is beyond controversy. The discourse on the subject has
been increasingly active with some in favour of youth rights and others
against them. Current challenges to ensuring youth rights stem from these
debates and the overarching questions raised therein.
6 CONCLUSION 71
In recent times there seems to have been increasing importance

accorded to the implementation and guaranteeing of those rights required
for the fullment of the development of the younger generation. Major
governing bodies of the United Nations and the European Commission of
Human Rights have adopted numerous conventions, declarations, stan-
dard minimum rules and resolutions relating to youth rights and respon-
sibilities. The status of youth rights is somewhat nebulous and the rights
pertaining to youth that are mentioned in nations constitutions are often
quite vague and general in nature. The concept youth rights is compli-
cated by the perception of many that young people are the property of
their parents. Two dominant perceptions of youth are that (i) they are
passive consumers of the democratic process who need protection from
laws and policies that could be harmful to their development, and (ii)
youth pose a threat to the social and civic order. Youth participation in
conict situations is often viewed as unjustied rebellion. Young people
especially young malesbreaking the law have been at the center of the
criminal justice theatre for a long time now. Housebreaking, street crime
and drugs have provided the motifs for an image of youth out of control.
Youth are most commonly depicted as either passive victims of trauma or
active security threats. The impact of armed conict on the rights of youth
and children is mentioned in the United Nations General Assembly
Report. Supplementary studies conducted by Graca Machel suggest that
even children who have not been victims or who have not actively engaged
in conict suffer from deep emotional distress and such individuals require
psychological support. Additionally, children who have lived in conict
situations are predominantly depicted (especially males) as threats to
security. Robert Kaplan (2000), in his examination of youth engagement
in conict in West Africa, has suggested that young men who are out of
school and unemployed are loose cannons, who can engage in violent
activities which provide recourse to income generation. While debates
persist about the role of youth in conict-ridden societies, it is often
accepted that youth are either victims, survivors or threats to security.
Young people have unfortunately gained the spotlight in situations where
they are seemingly engaged in internal conicts. Such an image has been
fostered by governments across the globe, not only to justify policies
related to law and order, but also to highlight the issue of social disinte-
gration. Young people have assumed diverse roles, for example, as acti-
vists, but more often they emerge passively as a response to human rights
abuse or environmental degradation or simply to voice their concerns
about economic, social and political injustices or development which they

experience. Globalization, in the form of global links and well-publicized
campaigns, has enabled young people to gain awareness of injustices
occurring worldwide. Thus, it is important to make programming in
terms of youth development vitalyet challenging.
In northeast India, where conict is ubiquitous, youth have played
diverse roles. They have emerged as an important force in response to
the injustices meted out by the government in the region. Youth move-
ments in the region have engaged both directly and indirectly in the
conict and have put forth demands for structural changes and reforms
for the people living in the region.
Relative deprivation and other grievances in the region have often
invited violent protests and conicts which have been aimed at securing
a separate independent state for the inhabitants, who belong to diverse
ethnic backgrounds. In such a situation, where youth have often been
ignored in almost all spheres of political engagementwith the exception
of their extensive engagement in violent armed conict by the existing
armed groupsthe issue of youth rights in northeast India poses a serious
challenge which needs to be addressed effectively by the government of
India. The Indian government has been able to contain violence in the
region, and it seemingly is satised with the notion that containment of
violence is sufcient to establish peace in the region. Though this might
seem to be a rst step towards establishing sustainable peace, it seems to be
inadequate when seen in the context of development of youth who are
living in the region. While the people of the region are in favour of
containing violence, there is no agreement that peace is simply the con-
tainment of violence. Often the young people of northeast India live under
a fear psychosis, which in many cases hinders their full development.
An examination of human rights in the context of youth in northeast
India suggests that their rights are being severely infringed due to the
existing conict. It is also interesting to examine conicts in the region
through an alternative lens, with a focus on the engagement of youth in
conict or in peace-building efforts a view that has been mostly ignored
by those interested in researching or examining the problems in order to
suggest policy solutions to the existing conditions. It is unfortunate that
most scholars have ignored this aspect of youth, whose interest is of
utmost importance as they are the future generation and their interests
should be considered in order to facilitate a peaceful transition into adult-
hood and self-dependence. It is also worth noting that youth have not
6 CONCLUSION 73
been involved in the many peace-building efforts which have been under-
taken in the northeast. Youth rights include the rights to participation in
the decision-making process, but in most cases their engagement has been
sidelined.
In the context of northeast India it might be useful to consider working
out a policy similar to that of the European Framework Convention on
Youth Rights. This is important in the context of northeast India as well as
the south Asian region, as almost all nations have a national youth policy
directed towards the development of the youth of the region. However, a
rights-based approach towards youth development must be initiated with
specic reference to those regions which are aficted by conict and armed
insurgencies.
India, which has a population of about 40 per cent youth, needs to
include a new framework focusing on the rights of youth in universities by
drawing examples from regional mechanisms such as the African Youth
Charter and the Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth.
While these two frameworks have been codied according to the specic
needs of their regions, one issue seems common for all nations across the
globethe right of youth to participation. This aspect is particularly
important in the context of northeast India. Further, certain provisions
of the Declaration of the Rights of American Youth are also important.
This Declaration suggests that youth have a right to a society free from war
and to a peaceful existence so that they can pursue their development
without any hindrance. Thus, These issues are also important when the
rights of youth in northeast India are taken into consideration.
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INDEX
A Corruption, 49, 59, 66

Accountability, 10, 70 Counter Insurgency, 2728, 38,
Adolescents, 17 59, 65
Adultism, 14 Cultural Nationalism, 59
Africa, 3, 18, 19, 71
African, 15, 18, 19
African Youth Charter, 15, 1719, D
58, 73 Declaration Of The Rights
Allen, 2 Of American Youth, 15,
American Youth Congress, 21 2122, 73
Apprenticeship, 5 Democracy, 10, 22, 70
Armed Forces Special Forces Act, 28 Developmental Psychology, 2
Arunachal Pradesh, 10, 25, 30, 38, Discrimination, 16, 17, 19, 20
4951
Assam, 10, 2526, 28, 30, 3334,
3638, 45, 4852, 60
E
Epephiphobia, 14
Ethnic Cleansing, 30, 34
B Ethnic, 1011, 2630, 3334, 36,
Biological, 2, 5, 6, 9, 15 4548, 59, 60, 72
Bodoland Liberation Tiger Force, 29 Ethnicity, 11, 46, 59, 70
Bolshevik Revolution, 45 Ethno-Linguistic, 26
British East India Company, 26
F
C Female Genital Mutilation, 19
Child Rights, 16, 17 Femininity, 4
Civil Disobedience, 30 Feminist, 16

DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3069-7
88 INDEX
G M
Gay Movements, 16 Manipur, 10, 2526, 2830, 3538,
Genocide, 30 45, 5153, 55, 60
Globalization, 44, 72 Masculinity, 4
Government Of India Act Of 1935, 26 Meghalaya, 10, 25, 5354
Greek, 6 Mizoram, 10, 25, 54, 60
Grievance Perspective, 39, 43 Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, 38
Grievances, 30, 39, 43, 44, 46, 72
Guerrilla Warfare, 60
N
Nagaland, 10, 25, 2830, 3638, 51,
H 52, 55, 60
Himalayas, 26 Naga National Council, 29
Nepotism, 66
North-Eastern Areas (Reorganization)
I Act, 26
Ibero-American Convention On The North-Eastern Council, 26
Rights Of Youth, 17, 2021, 58,
65, 73
Impunity, 28, 63 O
Indian Constitution, 33, 34, 54, 65 Oil Renery Agitation, 48
Inner Line Regulation, 26
Insurgency, 11, 2730, 35, 3739, 47,
51, 59, 64, 65, 70 P
International Labor Organisation, 9 Parliament, 19
International Law, 17 Peoples Liberation Army, 29, 36, 51
Peoples Revolutionary Army Of
Kangleipak, 29
J Post Victorian Generation, 41
Jones, 2, 7
Judicial Investigation
Organization, 20 R
Juvenile Justice, 16 Relational Concept, 3, 4
Relative Deprivation Theory, 43
Royal Bhutan Army, 34
K
Kuki National Army, 29, 35
S
Sexual Slavery, 19
L Sikkim, 10, 2526, 28, 60
Liberalism, 45 South Asia, 15, 28, 37, 63, 73
INDEX 89
T Y
Transparency, 10, 70 Youth Activism, 15, 4445
Tripura, 10, 2526, 5556, 60 Youth Bulge, 42, 43, 63
Youth Development, 9, 18, 45,
72, 73
U Youth Empowerment, 14, 62
United Liberation Front of Asom, 29, Youth Participation, 10, 14, 15, 18,
36, 59 19, 22, 39, 4156, 58, 6971
United Nations, 9, 10, 14, 29, 35, 51, Youth Rights, 1322, 5767,
61, 62, 70, 71 7073

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Conict and Youth Rights in India

Conict and Youth

ISBN 978-981-10-3068-0 ISBN 978-981-10-3069-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016963285

The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

Dr. Haans J Freddy, a gifted researcher with a moral and empirical

new age of global interconnectivity and interdependence, it is necessary to

Madras Christian College S.D. Christopher Chandran

beyond controversy. The rationale for making a convention on the rights

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to the LORD

Words do not sufce to express my sincere gratitude to my wife KLiu,

2 Understanding Youth Rights 13

3 Conict in Northeast India: An Overview 25

4 Youth Participation in Conict in Northeast India 41

5 Youth Rights in Northeast India 57

IBRF Indo-Burma Revolutionary Front

Fig. 4.1 Causes for youth participation in conict in northeast India 46

Table 3.1 Peace accords in northeast India 31

Keywords Youth Youth studies Concept of youth Social construction

This chapter is an examination of the concept of youth and the various

The Author(s) 2017 1

transition to adulthood is a central and recurring theme in the research on

historical and cultural processes. On the one hand, objective measure-

brings with it predominantly negative assumptions about the behaviour

The concept of youth is one which suggests similarities amongst people

In recent years the study of youth has predominantly employed deni-

discussion of youth practice, policy or research, including issues related to

European Commission and Council of Europe. 2014. Perspectives on Youth: 2020

Understanding Youth Rights

Keywords Youth rights African Youth Charter Ibero-American

The Author(s) 2017 13

youth as different entities, their rights also need to be emphasized speci-

criteria, there is an overlap between youth and children. According to the

THE AFRICAN YOUTH CHARTER

outlines obligations which state parties have to undertake legislative and

THE IBERO-AMERICAN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF YOUTH

sentence for delinquents, which is a signicant contribution aimed at the

THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF AMERICAN YOUTH

We declare that our generation is rightfully entitled to a useful creative, and

The declaration included those rights which were specically directed

Conict in Northeast India: An Overview

Abstract This chapter provides readers a brief overview of conicts in

Keywords North-east India Conict in north-east India NSCN

Conicts in northeast India has never been so easily comprehended. Many

The Author(s) 2017 25

and economic blockades by public organisations that act on the directions

government of India and the NSCN-IM in 2015 (Srikanth and Thomas

Table 3.1 Peace accords in northeast India

1947 Naga-Akbar Akbar Hydari Governor Nagas were given a measure of

Table 3.1 (continued)

1988 Darjeeling Hill Gorkhaland National Sikkim is separated. Statehood

Source: Swarna Rajagopalan (2008)

the agenda of secessionism. Among them the United Liberation Front of

should think of an independent United State of Assam after separating from

In terms of conict or insurgency in northeast India, the state of

the ManipurUnited Revolutionary Front (URF), Kangleipak Communist

some of its territory, which includes Meitei groups of Manipur. The

governments approach towards the conict and insurgency seems to be

Youth Participation in Conict

Keywords Youth and conict Youth in conict Youth bulge

The Author(s) 2017 41

astonishing levels of youth movements and activity. Youth movements