IDPD delegation in Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

Ludhiana, December 11, 2017: A seven member delegation from Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) from different parts of the country including Dr Arun Mitra - Co President International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), Dr S S Soodan-President, Dr Satyajit Kumar Singh-Senior Vice President, Dr Shakeel Ur Rahman-General Secretary, Dr Jeetendra Singh-Secretary of IDPD, Dr Bibha Singh and Dr Yahya Khan participated in the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in Oslo, Norway on 10th December 2017. Expressing joy at the award as a recognition to the anti nuclear movement, various groups gathered at Oslo said that it is time to not just rejoice the award, but for commitment to work hard to make all the nine nuclear weapons states join the treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons (TPNW) passed by the UN General Assembly by 122 vs one vote on 7th July 2017. The ICAN was launched as a group of various peace movements around the world on 23rd April 2007 as an idea conceived by the IPPNW to build a broad movement for nuclear disarmament. It now has 468 partners with IDPD as one of them. Various researches have shown that even a limited nuclear war using 100 Hiroshima sized bombs will put 2 billion people at the risk of starvation and death. Total number of nuclear weapons on earth at present is estimated to be about 17000 which can put all the flora and fauna at the risk of extinction. Such catastrophic effects must not be allowed and therefore the nuclear weapons must be abolished for good. For this the ICAN has organised several civil society meets around the world on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. This ultimately convinced the UNO to discuss the issue and succeeded in getting the TPNW through.
It is imperative that there should not be any escalation of tension in Indian subcontinent and all efforts should be undertaken to maintain the peace in the region. The IDPD has reiterated commitment for a nuclear weapon free world.