Writer, Civil Rights Activist
Founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, Control Arms Foundation of India &
Convener, Northeast India Women Initiative for Peace
Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, born in the state of Manipur located in India's Northeast region is a writer, humanitarian and civil rights activist spearheading work on making women-led peace,security and disarmament a movement and an issue that is meaningful to people's lives. She is author of five books namely Poetic Festoon (1992), South Asia's Fractured Frontier : Armed Conflict, Narcotics & Small Arms Proliferation in India's Northeast (2003), Meckley : A Historical Fiction on Manipur (2004), India and Arms Trade Treaty (2008) and Where are our Women in Decision Making on UNSCR 1325 (2016). Ms Nepram also authored several research articles and papers published in major universities in India and around the world.
In 2004, Ms Nepram co-founded India's first civil society organization which is working on conventional disarmament issues, namely the Control Arms Foundation of India. And in 2007, in order to help thousands of women who are affected by gun violence in her home-state Manipur, Ms Nepram launched the Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network. She has represented Indian civil society in various women and disarmament meetings held at United Nations in New York, Geneva and also in various global fora in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, UK, Norway, Brussels and many other countries. She is the first woman from Manipur and Northeast India to address the United Nations General Assembly several times.
Ms Nepram is recipient of Dalai Lama Foundation's WISCOMP Scholar of Peace Award,2008, the international Sean MacBride Peace Prize, 2010; CNN IBN Real Heroes Award, 2011 and her team Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network won "Indian of the Year "Award in Special Achievement category same year. In 2013, London based organization Action on Armed Violence named Ms Nepram as “100 most influential people in world working on armed violence reduction”.
In Jan 2015 Forbes (India) listed Binalakshmi Nepram in 24 "Young Minds of India that Matter" and India’s largest circulated Femina Women’s Magazine honoured her with Femina Women Awards 2015 on 23 March 2015 followed by Young Women Federation of Indian Commerce and Industries “Young Women Achievers Award 2014-15” for her work with 20,000 women survivors. She was also awarded with "Women Have Wings" Award from USA in 2016 and Jijabai Women Empowerment Award 2017 given by Delhi University.
She regularly tweets at @BinaNepram having over 5,00,000 followers and more.
