Pobon Gogoi

Protecting women's rights is predominantly adjudicated within a particular society and state. Society and state entail the laws and legislations for the protection of rights. In India's last 75 years of independence, the Constitutions, laws, and government decisions tended to ensure the rights and privileges of women. Along with the fundamental rights and different articles of the constitution, nineteen laws have been enacted to protect and preserve women's rights. But still, the conditions of the Indian women are in a marginalized position. Over time some new problems and shortcomings cropped up with new vigor and density. Thus, this study is an attempt to analyze them empathically and elaborately with new thoughts and views.

The government of Assam has introduced several welfare schemes for the welfare of the people of Assam since 2016. These schemes aimed at to give different benefits to the people who are living below the poverty line and socially underprivileged section. The kinds for benefits include cash, kinds, subsidies, and other forms of support including medical care, loan subsidies, health care, insurance, etc. The students, youths, BPL families, women, senior citizens, farmers and peasants, the unemployed etc. are the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes. The offering of benefits is commendable and allencompassing effort of the government but the political motive is also occupied too. The major political motive is intended to win voter's support during elections. The ruling BJP party in Assam and its alliance partners exploited these initiatives to gain political mileage. Thus, this study is an intellectual exercise to comprehend the political motive of the ruling political party(s) in garnering elector's support. As such, this discussion is hypothetical in nature because an assumption is made to delineate the possible support of the electorates in future elections of Assam. Out of the different factors leading to determine the voting behaviour of the electorates and welfare schemes may become one of them which can shift the mind-set of the voters.

The trends of feminist movement of the world in the 21 st century arrived at a new dimension. The feminist movement of the 19 th and 20 th centuries addressed some rudimentary as well as semiadvanced issues of patriarchal societies and nations which somewhat attained its goals. The feminist movements started at Western developed countries in the 19 th century shifted to the developing and underdeveloped Asian and African countries in the 20 th century focusing on new issues and movements. However, society is in a dynamic process of moving towards a new dimension at this post-modern era, hence, some new issues have mounted in the 21 st century. Thus, in order to understand the dynamics of the feminist movement, the researchers, academicians, and feminist have tried to understand these issues and trends in new outlooks and orientations. The issues raised by them are so pertinent that need to be studied empirically with scientific temperaments. Further, the feminist has also made some new endeavours to address the newest issues of the women. Thus, this study in an academic exercise to understand the new trend that cropped up in the 21 st century.

The reservation in educational institutions and jobs for SC and ST communities of India initiated by our founding fathers of the Constitution passed 72 years and it is extended to next 2030 years in a periodic interval of 10 years terms. The novel objective was to uplift the underprivileged sections of people by facilitating reserve quota in jobs and education which was later included to OBC people. During this period it was scrutinized by different scholars and policy makers and the question of rationality was evaluated. Some of them opined positively in favour of it while others negatively. Thus this paper is an academic exercise to identify the positive and negative aspects leading to political intervention of reservation. The study concealed within India and debates on reservation system in greater domain of political system is analysed.

Assam movement is an anti-foreigner's movement launched by the dissidence of Assam against the illegal migrants. The illegal migrants are those who comes from prior East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, some from Nepal. There were political, economic and social base of this movement. The agitators demand for 3D's i.e. Detection, Disenfranchisement and Deportation as the people of Assam can protect their cultural identity and demography from the threat of foreign nationals. The subsequent period of the movement was 1979-1985. Geographically, the movement was confined to the Brahmaputra Valley which has been traditional homeland of Asomiyas and the people who were participated in this movement. The movement started in 6 th November 1979 under the leadership of All Assam Student Union(AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad(AAGSU) and officially ended on 15 th August,1985 after signing a historic 'ASSAM ACCORD 1985'.Initially, the movement was conducted most disciplined and peaceful manner but the evolvement of ethnic tension and anti-election seeds had given birth of violence. That violence lead to extreme threat to human security, as human security is a non-traditional security that pose threats to the survival and development of a sovereign state and human kind. The air of Assam mingled with violence mob with individual killing and bomb attack as well as communities pitting against each other. Many people had died, the women and the children were main victims of the movement. This paper discusses the Assam movement, its genesis and how it had affected the security of life of the people.

Since the formation of the BJP government in the state of Assam, numerous welfare schemes have been implemented to ensure the welfare of the poor people. These welfare schemes have been transmitted through cash, kind, and necessary services. During the last seven years, the government of Assam unleashed huge amounts of money to the beneficiaries from the exchequer. Primarily distributing benefits to the needy is a noble effort but if the objective has gone beyond the noble cause is questionable. It is observed in Assam that the welfare schemes executed by the state government are somewhat politically motivated and intended to secure political advantage. The BJP-led state government has targeted the underprivileged section of people, who have no political awareness, to gain support in the future election for the fixation of the rule of BJP in Assam. However, the researchers and intellectuals of Assam consider the matter from a different perspective and advocate that investing the public money for the overall betterment of the state if it is used to gain political mileage by the ruling political party for fulfilling their narrow interest is objectionable. Thus, this study is an academic exercise focusing on the identification of different determinants leading to political advancement and critical appraisal identifying the negative impacts of the politicization of welfare schemes.

Northeast India is a multi-ethnic diversified region of India.Since past years the ethnic groups of this struggle for their independence to protect their distict ethno-cultural identity.Among the various tribes Nagas of Nagaland develop a sense of nationalist consciousness to establish their selfdetermination and freedom.Due to hegemonic role of the Indian state they have been consistently urging their so called demand of 'Nagalim' or 'Greater Nagaland'. Through a carrot and stick policy, the Indian state tried to ensure that majority of indigenous ethnic communities living in the Northeast join the Indian federation. The Nagas, considered by the colonial rulers as backward tribes, however resisted the assimilative policies of the Indian state. By invoking the right to self-determination on the basis of their `distinct' ethnic identity and `unique' history, the Nagas defied the Indian state that sought to make them a constituent part of the post-colonial Indian Union.Therefore Nagas have been indulging in the autonomy movement with its many insurgent organisation as well as with numerous peace talks but until the present time there is no solutions of long term Naga's struggle.This paper tries to show the long term self determination and freedom movement of Nagas from the mainland India.

The Manipur is now in a hotbed of violent ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kukis. The ethnic clashes begun after the verdict given by Manipur High Court. The honorable court urged the state government to recommend the proposal to the Union Ministry to consider the ST tag to the Meiteis. The All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM) organized the 'Tribal Solidarity March' on 3rd May to protest against the High Court verdict. Demographically the Meiteis are the majority with 53% population but not considered as native inhabitants. Therefore, they constantly demanded the Schedule Tribe status. But the other tribal communities opposed the inclusion of the Meiteis as tribal or ST status. The state government role was not active to control of the situation.

The left political parties of Assam are playing a vital role in the election politics which have participated in Parliamentary and Assembly elections since independence. During the long journey of election politics of India and Assam, the left parties are passing through a trajectory mode where their support base quite satisfactory up to 1978. Later, the support base is reduced tremendously with decline of vote sharing. Being the ideologically strong political parties, the left have lost its support from the electorates due to certain shortcomings. Thus, this paper is an academic exercise to identify the factors responsible for the chronic decline of left political parties in Assam's electoral politics. Further, this study is intended to identify the prospect of left political parties of Assam in future elections. The prospects leading to revival of left parties of Assam in the future are considered important because of the success of democracy. The conglomeration of different factors prominence to revitalize the Marxist ideology against capitalist system is still considered relevant today. Hence, to study the challenges and prospects of left political parties' in Assam, an analytical approach is used to verify the facts. It is hoped that an in-depth study on electoral politics of left political parties of Assam will certainly tap the research gap on the issue and will provoke further empirical study on the subject.

The parliamentary election will be held in April 2024 for the formation of the 18 th Lok Sobha in India. The NDA and INDIA alliance have already started campaigns all over India by adopting different strategies to win the confidence of the electors. The NDA allies consist of 38 national and regional parties and the INDIA alliance of 26 national and regional parties are consisted. In this great ally, the regional parties of Assam excluding AGP (which is the ally of NDA) also started their race with certain activities primarily holding public meetings, enhancing party membership, news hoardings, creating public opinion against the ruling government, news briefing, etc. They are primarily focused on strengthening the party base at the grassroots level. Thus, this paper is an academic exercise to understand primarily the prospects of regional political parties in future elections like the 2024 Parliamentary election and the 2026 Assembly election. In connection with this, the researcher will attempt to evaluate the advantageous and disadvantageous position of the regional parties of Assam excluding AGP.

The Panchayatiraj Institutions (PRIs) are the instrument through which women's empowerment can be ensured. The PRIs are the grassroots administrative mechanism intended for the development of rural areas and their people. The people include both men and women. But whatever the arrangement prevalent in India creates more opportunities for women counterparts living in rural areas. Since the last 75 years of independence, the legislative obligations have initiated different women-friendly processes which assured the enhancement of women's empowerment. Different women-related schemes as well as laws were framed and passed to endorse women's empowerment. Further, women's empowerment is relatively interconnected with the development of the nation. Being an agrarian country, India needs help from almost half of its population to increase agro-based products. It is assumed that if women are empowered then the GDP will increase more. In regards to participation in socioeconomic and political fields, it is expected that women will more vibrantly participate in the process and a modern society will be established. Considering all the above elements in mind, the researcher endeavours to analyze the PRIs which will provide opportunities to enhance the empowerment of women. The critical observations, pros and cons, limitations of PRIs, and prospects are the primary concerns of this paper. There are different research studies, journal articles, and books that deal with this subject but nobody has analyzed from liberation of women from a poverty and suppression point of view. It will provoke the upcoming researcher to justify the arguments empirically in different states and places of India.