Unknown to many, Human Rights Defender Irom Singhajit was a class apart and his ultimate sacrifice for the cause of humankind will remain etched in our hearts and minds. Simple and unassuming, he was a volunteer in a NGO and who carried out social work activities in rural areas as Agriculture Officer in Citizen Volunteer Training Centre (CVTC) during the late 80s.
Irom Singhajit was born on April 28, 1959 in Porompat. He is the fourth child among nine siblings of Late Irom Nanda and Irom Sakhi. Life was peaceful and when suddenly it was taken by storm started a fast-unto-death strike by youngest sister and poet Irom Chanu Sharmila after the infamous Malom massacre. And the rest is history. His sister Irom Chanu Sharmila dubbed as the Iron Lady of Manipur fasted for 16 years and lived on through nose-feeding till she renounced her fast and went on to marry.
After his younger sister’s fast for the cause of human rights he was forced to leave his job to join the cause of which he knew so little. After leaving CVTC, he started supporting his youngest sister, IromSharmila’s struggle for the repeal of AFSPA from the day one of her fasting in 2000 throughout her 16 years of fasting till it ended in 2016.
To many, he was just a minor actor in the fight for human rights while everyone forgot that he had to forego his means of livelihood as a volunteer of CVTC to support his sister. But, he was a warrior not less than Irom Chanu Sharmila in the fight for human rights.
In 2007, he went to Korea to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights on behalf of his sister Sharmila. Soon after returning from Korea, he and other prominent local activists started an organisation, Just Peace Foundation (JPF) and was involved in organising the ‘Festival of Hope Justice and Peace’ across Manipur to disseminate message of peace and justice inviting several dignitaries from India and abroad including Indonesia, South Korea, Nepal, etc. He attended the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland at least 3 times in 2015 and 2016 to deliver a message of gross human rights violation and the repeal of AFSPA in Manipur and elsewhere.
As a result of his generous spirit and pleasant personality, he was loved by many. His influence will forever remain in the lives of all who knew him. His life will forever be cherished in the lives of her children, family and friends.
One never knows the persons behind successful persons or acknowledge the contributions of the people in the background who helped and sacrificed their lot to uplift the person whom they love or cherish or idolize. Great men do not forget such backroom boys and chose to celebrate them at the time of their glory. But such people are rare, and chose to forget who had helped lift them to the altar. And as such, we would be failing in our duty to idolize IromSinghajit, the man behind the Iron Lady.
