AMTU insists extension of UNICEF facilities to hill areas
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network

Imphal, October 23 2013: All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU) has apprised the chief secretary of Manipur for the extension of UNICEF facilities to the hill districts of Manipur.

AMTU leaders headed by its president DP Panmei and general secretary Romeo Bungdon met the chief secretary today and briefed him on the former's memorandum to UNICEF official Ms Karim Hulshof in April this year.

On April 5 this year, AMTU had highlighted the "devastating future" of the children of insurgency infested Manipur in its representation to Karin Hulshof, UNICEF representative to India, who was in Imphal on a two-day visit as a "State guest.

The tribal body had urged the UNICEF representative to open a nodal office of UNICEF in Manipur in order to uplift the conditions of the impoverished children of the State.

"Socio-economically feeble children of Manipur in general and rural tribal children in particular have devastating future since they could not (have) access to proper education due to poverty and food insecurity flanked by insurgency," said AMTU president DP Panmei and its general secretary Romeo Bungdon.

The memorandum had painted a socio-demographic picture of Manipur for the benefit of the UNICEF representative, which it said is a "cultural mosaic delta of 35 ethnic tribes" .

Underscoring the plight of the children of conflict State of Manipur, the tribal rights body stated that in "militia-torn" State of Manipur, education and health care are managed by private players, making it immensely expensive for poor people to have access to the services.

The supplementary reasons for triggering the sorry state of affairs are absence of UN programs in the region and the limited economical resources of subsistence agriculture in the State, it had said.

"That, owing to such critical social affairs, many children have fallen victims of child trafficking and flesh trade, being enticed by malicious rackets in the pretext of providing them free education, employment, food and cloths," said the memorandum, adding that poor and destitute children and orphans including HIV/AIDS affected people are the ones most vulnerable to the crime.

AMTU had therefore urged the visiting delegation led by Karim Hulsholf to "bestow upliftment packages concentrating on the targets of education, nutrition and health by providing separate and free children hospitals and destitute homes in selected rural areas and to open UNICEF nodal office in Manipur" .

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