Subjecting women to harassment : The social hypocrisy should go
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 05 2015 -

Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam was bang on target. Though not all women may agree with him, he was not off the mark in asserting that it is mostly women who have been subjugating and violating the rights of other women.

The classic understanding of the mother-in-law comes to mind here.

This is something much more than what is portrayed on the big screens or the movies and in most cases, it is women who are known to ride rough shod over women.

And in many cases it is women who do not welcome the birth of a girl child. Says something profound about the status of women in the family as well as in society.

How did this come about ? No easy answer here and while it is women who are mostly responsible for discriminating their own gender, it also says something profound about society as a whole.

This is specifically true in Manipur, where women are placed on a pedestal in the public domain but are subjugated in their domestic lives. The hypocrisy is overwhelming.

This is not to absolve the men, for they too are responsible for keeping women under subjugation.

There may be no dowry deaths in Manipur but women are still kept under a tight lease.

And the first step towards making the place more meaningful for women is to admit that women here continue to be treated like second class citizens.

The social mindset needs a drastic overhaul.

That this should be happening in a place which gave the meira paibi movement to the world and sets aside a special day as Nupi Lan every year and the hypocrisy becomes all that stark.

Moreover Manipur is the only place to have an Ima Keithel, a market place run and managed solely by womenfolk.

Even today women of Manipur continue to bring laurels to the State.

Mary Kom and L Sarita are names in the world of women boxing and there are others too who have managed to compete with the best in the world.

Despite these, women here continue to be at the receiving end.

The Sangai Express does not have the official data, but a look at the daily newspapers should be more than indicative that crimes against women continue without a check.

Rape and molestation have become more and more routine and this says something sick about the mental makeup of the people.

Eve teasing may not qualify as a ‘crime’ but in many way such a culture is also indicative of the way womenfolk are viewed in today’s society.

Top this up with the observation that in many cases, it is women themselves who are mainly responsible for subjecting women to subjugation and harassment and this says something significant.

A complete overhaul of the mindset is necessary and womenfolk should take the lead in bringing some positive changes.

As stated earlier, it makes no sense to place women on the pedestal in public and subject them to all sorts of harassment in private.