Context:

The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh against massive hunger and starvation among 65,875 Chakmas and Hajongs, because of their exclusion from the “economic package for vulnerable sections in these difficult times of Covid-19 pandemic.

About:

• The Chakmas and Hajongs are citizens of India. The Chakmas and Hajongs are ethnic people who lived in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, most of which are located in Bangladesh.
• The Chakmas and Hajongs, originally residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of former East Pakistan, had to flee when their land was submerged by the Kaptai dam project in the 1960s.
• Buddhists by faith, the Chakmas faced religious persecution in East Pakistan along with the Hajongs, who are Hindus.
• Out of those who reached India, most of them were Chakmas and only 2,000 were Hajong.
• The groups entered India through what was then the Lushai Hills district of Assam (today’s Mizoram).
• While some stayed back with Chakmas already living in the Lushai Hills, the Indian government moved a majority of the refugees to present-day Arunachal Pradesh.

Rights and Risks Analysis Group

• The Rights & Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) is an independent think-tank based in New Delhi.
• It conducts risks analysis to prevent violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms with a specific focus on the threats to the rule of law and democracy.
• It provides early warnings on impending conflicts and analysis of policies and programs of the State and non-State actors contributing to the proliferation or perpetuation of conflicts.
• Its special focus remains to change the current narrative on counter-terrorism.