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Peace
Binalakshmi Nepram. Credit: Nobel Women Initiative
NEW DELHI, Jan 27 2026 (IPS) – It was Christmas eve: some two decades ago. Binalakshmi Nepram was a witness to the killing of a 27-year-old.
In utter disbelief, she saw a group of three men dragging the victim from his workshop. Within minutes, he was shot dead.
“Every day three or four people are shot dead in Manipur’s ongoing conflict. Thousands have died and many women widowed and children orphaned. And those who survive look into a scarred future. This must end,” she said.
When Nepram contributed 4,500 Indian rupees to buy a sewing machine for the victim’s wife, Rebika, the intervention was just the beginning. Since then, there has been no looking back. The date is etched in Nepram’s mind and psyche: December 24, 2004.
Now, two decades later, when she was unanimously elected Vice President of the International Peace Bureau, it was a befitting tribute to her crusade for peace: a recognition of the work her organization, the Manipur Gun Survivors Network, has done to rescue and uplift women from the trauma and agony that they face because of armed conflict.
Nepram has been at the forefront of providing the necessary healing touch to those affected by the violence perpetrated by mindless individuals.
She has also co-founded the Control Arms Foundation of India to focus on gender-based violence and end racial discrimination in India.
Currently, Nepram is chair of the Rotary Satellite Club of International Peace, an initiative that led to the establishment of the International House of Peace in Japan. She is also an associate at Harvard University and she is researching and leading work on Indigenous approaches to peacebuilding to help resolve some of the entrenched global conflicts.
“Good research should be the foundation of good policies and social action,” she says.
A globally recognized Indigenous scholar and a peace builder, Nepram is the first Indigenous person from the Indian state of Manipur to be appointed to this prestigious post. In the past, she has served on the IPB Board for two terms. As Vice President, she will hold this position until 2028.
With 400-member organizations spanning 100 countries, the International Peace Bureau or IPB is a Nobel Peace Laureate; 14 of its officers have been recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Founded in 1891, the IPB is one of the oldest Peace Organizations. It was awarded the Nobel in 1910.
Hammering a vision of a world without war, the IPB focus is on reducing funding for the military sector and disseminating those funds for social projects.
In her role as Vice President, Nepram would focus on strengthening global coalitions for peace and disarmament.