1984: PUDR Report on Sikh Genocide, Women Survivor Stories Wins Award

The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)—one of the earliest civil society bodies to respond to the 1984 Sikh Genocide and co-author of the seminal report Who Are the Guilty?—has released its new report Delhi 1984: A Long Aftermath on the denial of justice to the victims. The report is an attempt to bear witness to this long aftermath of 1984 and its three key dimensions include—the four decades of Commissions of Inquiry and Committees and Special Investigative Teams; the role of the police and judiciary and the entire criminal justice system (in and since 1984); and recording the journeys and lives of the women survivors of 1984. The report records struggles of women as survivors and witnesses, their struggles for justice, and the human cost of these struggles. The report mentions, 'Only 20 cases are being fought in court out of approximately 650 First Information Reports registered against perpetrators of the massacre.' In its conclusion the report says, 'The impact of the carnage can be gauged through how families have spiraled deeper into a web of poverty and precarity. The question of justice therefore varies across generations.’ It says that while for the direct victims, the carnage has come to be ironically identified with the abuse of the legal justice system, for their children—who have carried the psychological, material, and sociological burdens of the carnage, and make up the 'second generation'— securing access to secure and dignified work has been the largest challenge. For the teenagers and adolescents today, the 'third generation', ensuring access to quality education along with a clear path towards upward socio-economic mobility remains the largest priority. Justice, if it is to be served, must be attuned to such nuances while striving to enable the people to secure it.’ Meanwhile, The Quint’s documentary The Kaurs of 1984 has won the Laadli Award 2025 for Web Documentary (English)–North. According to The Quint, 'this is a recognition that belongs first to the women who refused to be erased' (earlier coverage).