This book is expected to enrich practitioners in social work, particularly those with a keen interest in the human rights and development scenario in Manipur. The focus of the book is to examine how the people of Manipur have been deprived of the third generation of rights, namely the Right to Development. It also seeks to understand the conscientiousness of the people and their perceptions towards human rights in general and thus covers the broad spectrum of insurgency, education and gender as key variables. The volume attempts to examine how these issues are entwined with one another, thus creating a portrait of the state Manipur is in today.

Ratna Huirem is an economics graduate from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. She obtained her Masters degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University in Social Work. She also completed her Ph.D. from the same University where she had worked on Human Rights, intrigued and disturbed as she was around the time of her study with the human rights scenario in Manipur, where she hails from. This book is the outcome of her doctoral work. The author is presently a faculty member in the Department of Social Work, Assam University, Silchar. Prior to this she had been engaged in research with NGOs in Maharashtra. She had also worked at the reputed National AIDS Research Institute, Pune. Besides this, she had worked in the Social Enterprise Cell at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai. Thus her research and teaching career spans over more than a decade with a thrust on social work. Her major areas of interests are ethnicity, gender and health. She is on the editorial board of the bi-annual journal published by the Department where she currently serves. She has also edited two volumes of the journal and has written several articles in peer reviewed journals. She is a member of NAPSWI.