1993: President, United Nations’ Youth Organization (UNYO), UP Chapter.
1993: Founding member of Bachapan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) along with Mr. Kailash Satyarthi and others.
1996: Founded People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) along with Shruti, in association with Dr. Mahendra Pratap (Historian), Vikash Maharaj (Musician), GyanedraPati (poet) to work on child labour free village.
1996: Dr. Lenin was severely beaten and physically tortured at the hands of Indian paramilitary force, the CRPF on 17th July, 1996 while participating in a protest demonstration to demand the liberation of bonded child labourers and their rehabilitation. The case was later taken up by Amnesty International and NHRC.
1997: Dr. Lenin on child labour issue in India published in Time Magazine
http://lenin-shruti.blogspot.com/2010/05/lenin-in-time-magzine.html
1997: Novib published about the activities of Lenin
http://lenin-shruti.blogspot.com/2010/05/lenin-in-dutch-magzine.html
1998: Organized, coordinated, and participated as Core Marcher in Global March against Child Labour.
1998: Fair Play Campaign against use of child labour in Indian Sporting Goods Industry. The campaign forced FIFA, ICC (International Cricket Council), World Federation of Sporting Goods Industry and Reebok to prohibit the use of child labour in the production of their industrial goods.
1999: Founded Jan Mitra Nyas, a public charitable trust, for carrying out work on crucial issues of governance and Human Rights in five adopted villages near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
2001: Awarded the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurship and change maker by Ashoka: innovators for Public based in Washington, DC. http://india.ashoka.org/fellow/lenin-raghuvanshi
2001: Elected to the Executive Council of Voice of People (VOP, 25000 membership), a state wide people’s alliance to highlight and bring into national focus the politics of marginalized communities in India.
2002: Campaigned and mobilized at State and national level for prevention of torture.
2002: Appointed member of District Vigilance committee on Bonded Labour under Bonded Labour abolition Act 1976 by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh.
2004: Created Model Village “people Friendly Village” to enable and amplify the voice of the marginalized.
2004: Organized Benaras Convention in order to assert the discourse on the politics of marginalized people in the national mainstream. The convention attended by thinkers and activists across the nation unanimously declared that the City of Varanasi was the symbol of Shraman Sanskriti (culture of the working classes) as opposed to that of the Brahminical Sanskriti (Culture of the feudal classes).
2004: Established Bunkar-Dastkar Adhikar Manch (Forum on rights of the weavers and artisans) to give voice to their plight in an organized manner. The forum has membership of 3000 people and has been able to make Planning Commission of India commit Rupees One Thousand crores for their rehabilitation. This body is led by indigenous leaders and is self-supporting.
2004: Conceptualized and formed the Varanasi Weavers Trust along with eminent economist and Ashoka fellow from Srilanka, Dr. Darin Gunasekara. The trust envisages creation of a decentralised mode of production with a social control over capital for the weavers. The Planning Commission of India and Government of Uttar Pradesh have taken note of the objectives of the trust and are in the process of giving concrete shape to the idea respectively.
2004: Founded the Musahar-Nut Adhikar Manch (Forum on Rights of Musahars and Nuts). Musahars and Nuts are the most marginalized untouchable castes in the hunger infested districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Advocacy at national and international fora has succeeded in prioritizing hunger in government expenditure policy. Active mobilization of the poor Dalits has forced various political parties to include the empowerment of Dalits in their electoral manifestos. The liberation from social inhibitions has resulted in creation of Martyrs’ domes in villages where hunger deaths occurred and this has helped in creating a pool of indigenous hunger activists among the poor. The District administration of Varanasi has sought Rupees 6.75 crores to fight prevailing hunger situation among Musahar localities in the district. As a result of PVCHRs’ pressure, the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Act was amended to include a clause which directed each local self-governing bodies of the village to allot fund to the amount of Rupees one thousand to mitigate emergency hunger situation.
2005: Conceived and convened People’s SAARC at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The objective was to bring the issues faced by the people of SAARC countries on to a common platform and forge a forum based on people to people relationship to fight against the evil designs of caste, communal, ethnic, and fascist forces in the region. The most important declaration read, “We cherish and uphold the Rule of Law, sovereignty of the people, a system of governance that ensures devolution of power, People’ right to self-rule and control over resources.” The Convention led to the formation of South Asian People’s Forum (SAPF) of which Dr. Lenin was elected as the coordinator. The core committee comprised of PVCHR (India), INSEC (Nepal), People’s Forum for Human Rights (Bhutan), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, LOKOJ (Bangladesh) and Wiroslokh Institute (Srilanka).This convention also triggered off a series of similar conventions across the SAARC countries. Two major outcomes of the convention were the inclusion of Afghanistan in the SAARC, and the inclusion of civil society voices in the decision making process adopted in the Dhaka declaration in SAARC, 2005.
2006: Founded Rozagar Haq Abhiyan (Right to work campaign) along with AIM, Parmarth, GSS, Musahar Manch for monitoring the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Uttar Pradesh.
2006: PVCHR’s leading work on torture victims resulted in Dr. Lenin being appointed as State Director of National Project on Prevention of Torture funded by European Union and FNSt.
2006: In the context of international advocacy along with AHRC, PVCHR achieved the rare distinction of being an organisation whose grass root work was recognised and reported by the UN Special Rappoteur on Racism and Xenophobia. In the same year three out of four cases reported from India in the report of representative of Secretary General for Human Rights defenders were part of the PVCHR work.
2007: Drafted along with Faisal Anurag the vision paper for NAFRE Peoples’ Movement, an alliance of representatives from 16 states of India. This paper presented a road map for civil society movement drawing from the past experiences of traditional working class of India from the perspective of caste.
2007: Established Folk School for Dalits in Belwa region.
2007: PVCHR and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) along with 210 NGOs across the state conducted the Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW). The objective was to sensitize the electors about the governance processes. By providing background information of the candidates, UPEW facilitated for the citizens of Uttar Pradesh to make informed choices. Dr. Lenin, coordinator of UPEW, successfully ran a media campaign and managed to bring the issue of criminalization of politics to the centre stage.
2007: Dr. Lenin received 2007 Gwangju Human Rights Award from May 18 Foundation of South Korea along with Ms. Sharmila Irom of Manipur.
2008: Developed Testimonial Model for the torture survivors in India with Dr. Inger Agger PhD, International Development Consultant, Psychologist, Denmark
2008: Received ACHA Star Peace award from Association for Communal Harmony in Asia USA along with B. M. Kutty, Karachi, Karamat Ali, Karachi, Pakistan and MubashirMirza, Sadiqabad from Pakistan.
2008: Director for the Association for Communal Harmony in Asia USA
2008: Participated as co-presenter along with Dr. Inger Agger and Dr. Peter Polatin on testimonial therapy: experiences of India in An evidence –based International Conference: rehabilitating torture Survivors on December 3-5, 2008 at Copenhagen, Denmark.
2009: Part of the formation of “National Alliance on Testimonial Therapy” (NATT) in the national consultation on “Testimony to improve psychosocial wellbeing and promote advocacy for survivors of torture and organized violence”. It was formed by the Panellists to be used further for testimonial therapy in India.
2009: Secretary cum Director for the Association for Communal Harmony in Asia USA.
2009: Co-author of Testimonial Therapy: A Pilot Project to improve Psychological Wellbeing among Survivors of Torture in India published in Volume 19, No. 3, 2009 of Journal ‘Torture’ published by IRCT.
Link: http://www.irct.org/Admin/Public/DWSDownload.aspx?File=/Files/Filer/TortureJournal/19_03_2009/Testimonial%20therapy%20p204-217.pdf .It also published in library of Inter-American Court of Human Rights (http://www.corteidh.or.cr/index.php/en/about-us).
Please read: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/r23530.pdf
2009: He is of the view that the glorification of encounter specialists by the media and the establishment has to stop if extrajudicial killings and torture are to end. Activists such as Raghuvanshi and organisations such as the PVCHR and the NHRC have raised their voices on these lines for long, but they are yet to get a positive response from the political establishment. http://www.frontline.in/stories/20091009262002700.htm
2009: Received threat on his work www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/1446
2009: Participated in Asian Folk School at Gwangju, South Korea organized by May 18 Foundation.
2009: Lenin Raghuvanshi as a guest speaker in workshop on topic “empowerment and grass root strategies in human rights work” organized by Zebra organization (http://zebra.or.at/22events.php?sub=3&page=2&lang=en) in Graz, Austria.
2010: President of the Association for Communal Harmony in Asia USA
2010: India Today, Hindi edition profiled him as one of five most influential persons in province of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
2010: Participated in 2010 Gwangju Asia Forum from May 17-23, 2010 at Gwangju, South Korea.
2010: Received Usmania Award from Madarsa Usmania, Bazardiha, Varanasi in India for the development and welfare of education.
2010: City council of Weimar in Germany selected for 2010 International Human Rights Award.
2010: Participated in the National Seminar on Human Rights and Human Development and presented a paper (along with Ms. Shirin Shabana Khan) on “Impact of testimonial therapy and folk school on the survivors of torture and organized violence” organized by social work Unit, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mahatama Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, Chitrkoot, Satana, MP and sponsored by University Grants Commission (UGC) from 22-24 January 2011 at Chitrakoot.
2011: Lenin Raghuvanshi’s book on Dalits in Independent India published by Front page publication.
For detail please visit given below URL:
2011: Under the leadership of Dr. Lenin, PVCHR had intensified its advocacy campaigns in raising the voices of marginalised people in the pursuit of policy changes at varying levels http://www.pvchr.net/2010/07/prevention-of-torture-bill-2010.html.
Such visibility of the organization had provided the leverage for its positioning and proactive role in relation to the Torture Prevention Bill.
http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Torture/prevention%20of%20torture%20bill%202010.pdf
It is significant to note that Dignity Institute provided substantial inputs to the draft bill on Torture Prevention in India that PVCHR had utilized in its policy and advocacy interventions. PVCHR maintains that effective torture prevention mechanisms should include in particular an effective witness and victim protection system, an independent investigative body, a separate mechanism to register the complaints of torture and mandatory sanctions of public officers found to have obstructed the victim’s access to justice. Acting decisively to eradicate torture and bring the policing system under the effective framework of the rule of law will be a test for the resilience of democracy in India. It is by its ability to develop laws as a shield against abuses of power that the citizens of this country will be able to judge the capacity of their state to respond to their aspirations.http://www.pvchr.net/2011/11/report-of-select-committee-on-ati.html
2011: Lenin Raghuvanshi wrote an article “An Overview of the Human Rights Issues in India” in book State Violence and Human Rights in Asia published by May 18 memorial foundation, South Korea. http://www.518.org/upload/board/0022/20120423130237.pdf
2011: Establishing Neo dalit movement as new non-violent peoples movement to formulate positive conflict resolution all different identities against injustice, culture of silence with impunity, neo liberalism and communal fascism. http://www.pvchr.net/2012/03/women-folk-school-on-neo-dalit.html
2012: Lenin Raghuvanshi was appointed as a member of the NGO core group. http://www.nhrc.nic.in/Documents%5CNGO_CORE.pdf in the first meeting he shared “Right of rehabilitation of torture survivors in the UN in context of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability” http://www.nhrc.nic.in/Documents/Minutes%20of%20the%20Core%20Group%20of%20NGOs%20on%20%2010.02.12.pdf
2012: Dr. Lenin along with Yap Swee Seng (ED, Forum Asia) participated in Bali Democracy Forum (www.bdf.kemlu.go.id) as a first CSO representative on behalf of Forum Asia as observer. Please see the link about program: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-08/gillard-co-chairs-bali-democracy-forum/4361358
2012: Under the leadership of Dr. Lenin Jan Mitra Nyas, a public charitable trust for PVCHR received ISO 9001: 2008 Certification for quality management system.
2012: Under the leadership of Dr. Lenin, PVCHR launched neo dalit campaign http://www.pvchr.net/2012/03/women-folk-school-on-neo-dalit.html and organized meeting with various stakeholders against torture which is a milestone in anti –torture peoples’ campaign in India
2012:Dr. Lenin received Karamveer Award
http://karmaveerglobalawards.com/images/Awards%20Bookle%208th%20highres.pdf
2013: Dr. Lenin was awarded “Tarun Bharat Paryawaran Rakshar Samman” (Tarun Bharat Environment Protection Award) for his contribution to include water right as human rights by the Swedish Ambassador in India. The award has been instituted by Tarun Bharat Sangh and the famous Indian water man Shri Rajendra Singh, Raman Magasaysay Awardee.
2013: Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi has been tirelessly working to develop torture free model villages in the selected 70 villages in eastern Uttar Pradesh in India. http://www.practiceinparticipation.org/documents/947/137/promoting-a-psycho-legal-framework-to-reduce-torture-and-organized-violence-in-india
Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi and his organisation PVCHR has been involved in successfully implementing the EU funded project “Reducing police torture against Muslims at the grass- root level by engaging & strengthening Human Rights Institution in India.” http://www.pvchr.net/2013/12/the-trend-of-rising-torture-based-on.html
2013: Lenin Raghuvanshi was elected as a co-ordinator of South Asian Network against Torture and Impunity (SANTI) to handle the Secretariat on behalf of PVCHR in the fourth consultation organized in Dhaka from 22-23, 2013
2013: Lenin Raghuvanshi was selected in European Union Visitor Programme (EUVP) to Brussels, Belgium http://www.euintheus.org/what-you-can-do/participate-in-our-programs/european-union-visitors-program/
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.522631651112928.1073741832.373787955997299&type=1
2014: Lenin Raghuvanshi presented paper titled ‘Crisis of democracy and the Caste System in India’ during the International symposium on ‘Globalisation and the Crisis of Democracy’in Gwangju Biennial, South Korea
2014: Dr. Lenin conceptualized Banaras Convention to promote and celebrate pluralism and inclusiveness and on 9th August organized Banaras Convention in Kabir Chaura Math, Varanasi. http://www.pvchr.net/2014/07/banaras-convention-for-comprehensive.html
2015: Lenin was invited at the Global Tolerance Forum in Drammen, Norway where he voiced his strong opinion on the contemporary political situation in India, showed deep concern about increasing hold of fundamentalist and extremists elements in Indian society. https://www.saddahaq.com/global-tolerance-forum-at-norway
2015: Dr. Lenin presented paper Testimonial Therapy in India: Hope, human dignity and honour for survivors in the 2nd Global Meeting on the Testimony: Memory, Trauma, Truth, Engagement Project at Oxford, United Kingdom.https://www.saddahaq.com/testimonial-therapy-in-india-hope-human-dignity-and-honour-for-survivors
2015: Dr. Lenin spend 20 days in Germany https://www.saddahaq.com/my-20-days-in-germany
2016: Dr. Lenin was awarded M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award, 2016 for his contribution in struggle for the rights of marginalized community, particularly the dalits and adivasis. Recognizing his contribution for the promotion and protection of the children’s rights, Wockhardt foundation selected him as a Child Rights Activist of the year 2016 in a nationwide online voting.
Dr. Lenin received the life time honorary membership to the internationally acknowledged Human Right Activist, Founder and Executive Director of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), for his long lasting unique friendship and sustainable cooperation between the PVCHR and the Indo-German Society Affiliate Remscheid.
http://www.vigilindia.in/2016/08/mr-lenin-raghuvanshi-gets-ma-thomas.html
http://wockhardtfoundation.org/popular-awards/humanright-default.aspx
https://www.saddahaq.com/mr-lenin-raghuvanshi-gets-the-ma-thomas-national-human-rights-award-2016
