Context and intervention:

In December 2019 protests against the unconstitutional implementation of the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) erupted across India. Protests were met with unprecedented State violence that included illegal custodial detention and torture of Muslim underaged boys. Anti-CAA protests were met with police brutality and hate speech. The Polis Project was approached by student organizers, who asked for support in tracking the growing Police violence against citizens. As a response, the Polis Project researchers set up an anonymous system to track, log, and document instances of State violence against the protestors, from illegal detentions and use of tear gas to custodial torture and surveillance. Mapping the ecosystem of violence, its abettors and enablers helped understand how dissent was being crushed through administrative and policing techniques. Since then, the project has expanded to document the violence during the Delhi pogrom in February 2020.

The current phase of the Watch the State (WTS) research, therefore, focuses on documenting and analysing violence, structural oppression, and human rights violations perpetrated by the State and its enforcement agencies against minorities in the context of the COVID-19 lockdown. The Polis Project seeks to bring to light such excesses and to establish the gaps in transparency and accountability between the State and its citizens with particular attention to India’s minority communities.

The Watch The State project has collected data related to violence witnessed during the various phases of the coronavirus- related lockdown in India, including:

• Police violence: the police enforced lockdown measures using violent methods
• Executive orders: executive orders by the central and state governments such as enforcing the Epidemic Diseases Act (1897), the National Disaster Management Act (2005) , including various arrests and detentions of citizens that were found to be violating lockdown orders (we believe such acts of violence against citizens by the state are not the way to enforce a lockdown during a public health crisis)
• Judicial action: The orders by the judicial bodies of the country that have taken action against the government’s harmful actions and in some cases the government’s inactions such as during the plight of the migrant workers who were forced to walk hundred of kilometers home due to lockdown measures being implemented without any warning.
• Surveillance and privacy violations: Various state governments have implemented surveillance measures that invade privacy of citizens and have led to data leaks of private details of citizens. These include the rise of technology-based solutions such as mobile applications that citizens are forced to download.
• Violence against and non-COVID-19 deaths of migrants walking home, healthcare workers, journalists and other citizens who have experienced violence by the hands of the state.
• Crimes against minorities reported during the lockdown: crimes against Muslims, Dalits, and citizens from India’s north-eastern states have been reported. They have been stigmatised and blamed for the spread of the diseases solely based on their faith or their physical appearance.

Suchitra Vijayan, the Executive Director of The Polis Project, spoke at the Rights Con conference panel 2020 about the Watch The State project. Francesca Recchia was part of a panel discussion at the Milli Archives Consortium for the International Archives week. The project is also presented on the Human Rights Defenders Hub website.

The Polis Project aims to continue working and expanding the scope of this project. The general public can help with raising awareness of the Watch The State project by amplifying our work on social media and contributing to the organisation. You can support The Polis Project at: Patreon | Facebook | Website