How we started

North East Network was initiated during the preparatory process of the World Women’s Conference held in Beijing (China) in 1995. It coordinated the participation of women from North East to the Conference. For NEN, it was most important to highlight women's voices and their concerns which were heard, perhaps for the first time, at such a global forum.

It was in March 1995 that NEN was formally registered under the Society’s Act of 1862. Its initial move was to meet with women activists and development workers in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland. In a strategic move to develop a road map for NEN’s activist approach, the organisation addressed issues of local concerns, lack of access to state support services, human rights violations, gender inequalities and conflicts within the region.

Today NEN engages in issues of health rights, conflict resolution, promoting local skills for livelihoods, good governance and natural resource management in the states of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland. NEN’s knowledge is based on the voices of women in North East India. It has also gained well from its partners at national and international levels, who became a part of NEN’s journey of activism.