Binalakshmi Nepram-Mentschel

Binalakshmi Nepram-Mentschel was born in the state of Manipur in India’s Northeast region state, bordering Myanmar. She is a writer-activist who is spearheading work on making disarmament a movement and meaningful issue. In 2004, Bina co-founded India’s first civil society organization dedicated to conventional disarmament issues, the Control Arms Foundation of India. And in 2007, Bina launched the Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network. Bina was awarded a Ploughshares Fellowship in 2004 to work on small arms mitigation in northeastern India and the 2006 WISCOMP Scholar of Peace for her work on women and disarmament issues.
Bina has authored two books, South Asia’s Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms Proliferation in India’s Northeast and Meckley, a historical fiction based on the conflict in Manipur and an edited volume titled India and the Arms Trade Treaty.