Manipuri women
no doubt occupy a special place in the
history of the land, and perhaps Manipur is
the only place in the world which celebrates
two Nupi Lans. Manipur is also the only
place in the country where we can see a
market place run exclusively by women, in
the form of Khwairamband bazaar and the
present stand off between women folks and
the State Government over the proposal to
construct a new market complex at
Khwairamband bazaar can be directly
attributed to the importance that the
history of the land accord women.
Meira Paibis have become a powerful lobby
group and it is no wonder that for any
people's movement to succeed the
co-operation and involvement of the women
folks are highly needed. A look at the
manner in which the Government had to roll
back its hastily announced decision to lift
prohibition from the State is a telling
example. However we need a closer look to
really understand where the Manipuri women
stand in today's social set up today. A few
days back we received an interesting article
from a woman, a lawyer and a women rights
activist to boot (the article will be
published soon).
Dealing with a wide range of subjects
ranging from domestic violence, polygamy, to
the double standards in which women are
viewed in our society, the article also
raises certain points such as the exclusive
rights reserved for the son of the family on
the Phammen (this is the right portion of
the house which is exclusively reserved for
the eldest male of the family and only a son
can inherit this sacred place from the
father). The article goes on to question
where women of Manipur fit in the larger
scheme of society in the face of the largely
held belief that women in Manipur are better
off than their counter parts in other parts
of the country !
To be frank we do not have any satisfactory
answer to the question posed in the article
but yes we do agree that equality is a
concept that is yet to take root as far as
the women folks of Manipur are concerned.
Yes we do have the powerful Meira Paibi
movements but can we really and truthfully
say that women have a say in the decision
making process? How many women MLAs have we
produced since Manipur attained Statehood in
1972? How many women MLAs have been inducted
in the Council of Ministers since then?
These are questions that we have to ask
ourselves now. We also need to remind
ourselves of the rising crime graph and
atrocities against women in our society.
Rape and sexual molestation is no longer an
alien subject today.
Here we can also raise the point why we feel
it is important to protect the identity of
any rape victim? Just recently, the report
of a minor girl being sexually assaulted was
reported in all the State dailies and all
the dailies thought it wiser to protect the
identity of the rape victim. There is
nothing wrong in taking such a measure, but
doesn't it somehow reflect on the mentality
of the society as a whole?
Why should it
take some courage and guts for rape victims
to come out and lodge their complaints
against the perpetrators of the crime? We
feel these current thoughts reveal in more
ways than one our perception and attitude
towards the status of women in the Manipuri
society. Equality? Excuse us but we think we
still have a long way to go before we can
even say that the Manipuri society has
evolved a system for the fairer sex to catch
up with the male species. |
