Thinking about women
- The emerging scenario -

Amar Yumnam *

The recent seminar on the indecent representation of women in media organized by the State Commission for Women has had at least a positive fallout. It has made the thinking public to refocus its attention on the issues surrounding women of the land.

Whether it leaves an impact on the policy public of the State is a different issue; the biggest tragedy of the land is the absolute disconnect between the thinking public and the policy public. In a land where sending paper invitation is considered to be incurring an apradh, we have an administration flourishing in self-aggrandizement and non-concern with the public.

Whatever It Is: Whatever the case, the onus is now on the thinking public of the land to articulate the emerging issues confronting our women. We now need to broaden our canvas to cover the entire gamut of issues facing our women right across the world.

Here I would like to recall the recent unfortunate case of our non-resident girls found dead in her room in Mumbai. This immediately takes us to two facts.

First, the movement of our boys and girls at an increasing rate to outside the State is a reality today. They are first moving mostly for education, and then finding a placement for themselves in places where jobs are expanding. Indeed, Manipuri boys and girls are one of the fastest globalising, both in national and international perspectives, youths in the world.

Secondly, our youths are smart, and the girls are competitively beautiful. This makes them capable of finding a place for themselves anywhere under the sun, while the beauty naturally has the power to draw unwanted attentions as well. Well for the non-resident youths, what pleasantly amazes me is the speed with which they are developing skills to master the world around them wherever they are.

The movement of our youths to outside the land of their birth has already started having the secondary impact of taking their younger brothers, sisters and relatives along to their places of job and study.

Back Home: The point I am driving home is that brain drain is indeed happening in this land of ours. We have been saying routinely and just routinely that youths are the future of the society. We should remember here that youths are the present of the society as well. They are not only the future but now too.

While majority of the youths leaving their place of birth for education and ultimately not returning are characterised by two qualities. They are the ones capable of carving a niche for themselves anywhere they are.

Besides they are the ones characterised by self-confidence. These are exactly qualities on which any society is to be founded upon. Our competent youths are sustaining and diversifying the developmental aspects of every place whereby they are.

I would now like to dwell on the youths staying back home. While the remittances from our people are becoming significant, what matters most for the contextual land are those remaining home.

In this context, I would put the sportspersons of the land in a different category. Though they too look for opportunities leaving this land on the strength of their own capabilities, they have been bringing laurels to the land. There are also youths endeavouring sincerely to somehow eke out a living through positive means only.

Excepting these youths, there is now developing a very deadly characteristic among the majority of the youths today. While those who could find jobs outside the land have done so, those remaining at home and presumably educated youths are indulging in activities unbecoming of youths on which to found a society.

Majority are pretending to be close to the organisations fighting for definite causes, and resorting to threats as means to make themselves relevant. Further, many supposed to be pressure groups have as well sacrificed their original mission and characters. They have also started increasingly claiming to be close to the organisations working for an ultimate cause of the land.

The problem is not with this. The trouble and the tragedy is that these have as well started behaving and acting as if they are the agencies for delivering justice and making the presumably educated youths somehow intrude into institutes through means foul rather than their innate qualities. The indulgence in such behaviour is more marked among male youths rather than female youths.

The Tragedy: So the tragedy of the land in so far as youths are concerned is two-fold. First, quality youths are leaving the land and that to at an increasing pace. Secondly, the youths remaining home are developing dubious characteristics.

An appropriate answer to these problems requires an application of mind by the policy public, which is like asking for an impossibly tall order in our land.