Mukundan C Menon

Mukundan Chembakasseriyil Menon, also known as Mukundan C. Menon (21 November 1948 – 12 December 2005), was a human rights activist in India. He helped found a number of India's national non-governmental human rights organizations, including People's Union for Civil Liberties and Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO) in Kerala.

Early life and education

Menon was born on 21 November 1948, at Chembakassery Veedu in Wadakkanchery in Thrissur district. He was the youngest son of Pulippara Achutha Menon and Chembakassery Kalyanikutty Amma. His siblings were Saraswathi, Parvathi, Prof. Sulochana (all late), Kamalam, Kumari, Gangadhara Menon, and Aravindaksha Menon.

He completed his studies at a local school and later at St. Thomas College, Thrissur.

Career

After graduation, he moved to Delhi, working as a freelance journalist from 1969–70. He formed the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and started a public awareness campaign in Delhi.

Menon worked with the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights in Delhi for the release of the prisoners of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and campaigned to save the lives of the two tribals Kista Gowda and Bhoomaiah, who were ultimately hanged during the emergency. This work led to his own incarceration during the emergency years (1975–77). After his release, he edited the journal 'Third World Unity' between 1978 and 1980.

As the Delhi State secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, he addressed issues related to the death penalty, preceding the Supreme Court directive that the death penalty be used only in the rarest cases. He continued his work in the human rights movement in Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram, where he worked as a journalist.

Menon's work included reporting on massacres in Bhagalpur (1980), as well as the massacres of Sikhs during 1984. He acted as a mediator during the Ayyankali Army's Palakkad District Collector hostage situation on 4 October 1996. From 1981 to 1993, working as an investigative journalist based in Hyderabad, he reported on various significant events.

From 1994, Menon became involved in the human rights movement in Kerala. He was elected Secretary of the National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO), an umbrella organisation of human rights groups, in 1997. He worked closely with Human Rights Watch (USA), People's Watch Tamil Nadu, and South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (Bangalore). In 1999, he received a Human Rights Award from the Middle East Malayali Association.
/ref>

Menon was a regular columnist for Al Jazeera Media Network, Al Jazeera, Rediff News, Indian Currents, Meantime, Thejas, and The Milli Gazette. Menon wrote for Thejas fortnightly and ultimately became an editorial consultant and the Resident Editor of Thejas Daily. Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, editor of The Milli Gazette, upon learning of Menon's death, said, "We are shocked to know of the untimely demise of our friend Mr. Mukundan C. Menon. He was a great fighter for human and civil rights in this country".

He spoke against police atrocities and issues related to tribal people, Dalits, and backward communities. His work covered issues like excessive police brutality, the death of Thangal Kunju and others in police custody in Alappuzha, and several other human rights violations.

Menon wrote against Hindutva fascism, which led to accusations of being a terrorist sympathizer by Sangh Parivar dominated media. He was imprisoned during the Indian Emergency period. As a human rights activist, Menon condemned the role of the security forces in human rights violations and the high level of impunity that benefited those responsible for human rights violations.

He died on 12 December 2005.

Mukundan C Menon Award

The National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations awards the Mukundan C. Menon Award annually to human rights defenders, artists, writers, and environmental activists actively involved in defending the rights of the people. The award was instituted in honour of Menon soon after his death.

Past winners:

Personal life

He married Lalitha Samuel in 1973 and had three sons together. Lalitha died in 1986 after giving birth to their third son. Eight years later, Menon remarried a woman from Thiruvananthapuram.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menon, Mukundan C.
Activists from Kerala
Malayali people
Journalists from Kerala
1948 births
2005 deaths
Indian human rights activists
People from Thrissur district
20th-century Indian journalists