The hypocrisy of it all : Viewing women via Nupi Lan
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 13 2011 -

Series of sensitisation programme against violence on women and children on. Protest staged against inaction of the police in the case of an alleged murder of a housewife in Thoubal district.

Another allegations of foul play raised against the husband and his family members by the natal family members of a housewife who passed away under contradictory claims.

A woman hit by a bullet on her leg in a scuffle between menfolk. The Chairperson of the State Commission for Women declaring not too long back that lack of manpower has dealt a big blow on the effectiveness of the Commission.

Nupi Lan day celebrated in all its grandeur with the Government having declared December 12 as a State holiday but only four MLAs turning up for the State sponsored function.

This in short sums up the story of today's women of Manipur and where she stands in the social structure as well as in the Government's overall scheme of things.

Following the news reports of the sensitisation programme on violence against women and children in the backdrop of the larger than life portrayal of women as meira paibis and in the annual do religiously observed as Nupi Lan will read like a tightly woven script of the Manipuri society where hypocrisy and double standard figure high.

The meira paibi movement and the annual do of Nupi Lan on December 12 both combine to weave a social structure where women occupy a significant status.

The impression thus conveyed is a state where the place of women in society is in near perfect rhythm with the historic uprising launched by women folk against the artificial scarcity of rice in Manipur many decades back while the meira paibi movement has come to be synonymous with all the resistance and fight against social evils such as drug abuse and alcoholism as well as against the authoritarian measures adopted by the Government.

It is little wonder then that the most recognised face against the controversial Armed Forces Special Act is not a man but a woman Irom Chanu Sharmila and the term meira paibi has progressed from being a noun to a verb signifying not only a group of women torch bearers (literally speaking) but a movement.

This is one face of the womenfolk of Manipur and a flip of the coin will expose the other side which is nothing less than the underbelly of where actually women stand in today's Manipuri society, with the term Manipuri here encompassing each and every single community residing in Manipur. It is not at all related.

Yet it is a damning statement on the security of women that in the morning of the very day when the State was gearing up for the grand Nupi Lan function a woman sustained a bullet injury in a scuffle that was otherwise between menfolk.

Whether it is at the hands of security forces or the militants, it has always been a case of women bearing the brunt of the conflict situation in the State and while violence against women is not unique to Manipur, what stands out prominently is the point that the violence against women is perpetrated under a veil of hypocrisy.

The high rate of mortality of the girl child has been mentioned in one of the sensitisation programmes underway and more than anything else this should at least serve to blow away the myth of female empowerment.

Herein lies exposed the ugliness and hollowness of putting womenfolk on a pedestal when viewed through the prism of Nupi Lan or the meira paibi movement.

That revolutions are made of the womenfolk marching through the night with torch in their hands defying curfew seems to be remembered only at the convenience of those who define what social mores are.

For every meira paibi that society produces, double that number of women are physically battered within the confines of their homes. High mortality rate of the girl child is significant only when viewed in comparison with the data available for the boy child.

Malnourishment of the girl child should be understood in comparison with the boy child or else it should have been malnourishment of children without the gender specifics.

These are but only a few examples that come to mind and the hypocrisy and double standard of society become all that more palpable