NWU calls to end harassment of women
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, December 21 2023:
While condemning all activities amounting to discrimination of the Naga populace especially hapless women, Naga Women Union (NWU) has appealed all concerned to put an end to acts of breaching the human rights immediately.
In a statement, NWU president Ch Pricillia Thiumai said: "The Christmas celebration is approaching fast and is at hand.
In-spite of high and elated mood of celebration to welcome the saviour, Christ our Lord, the unbridled and unchecked prevalence of indulgence to coercive behaviour by armed miscreants in various parts and localities of state disguised as taxation, which is not less than extortion, in the name of the prevailing situation is sounding a call to darker and grimmer Manipur at a time when every sane and good people is striving for the restoration of peace" .
In the guise of the status quo, armed malefactors and miscreants creating chaos in the valley and hills have not spared, targeting the ladies belonging to Naga community, physically harassing and abducting them to unknown locations by armed miscreants is not acceptable at all by human right agencies and global communities, she stated.
The incidents of threats and abductions for ransom of innocent civilians, especially women are villainous acts that will not serve the larger aspiration of the state and the nation, the NWU president stated, while also cautioning that the notoriety will lead to nowhere but deep prejudices to whichever community the armed miscreants belong.
Pointing out that the armed miscreants operating in groups or units, as reported, are undertaking a serious yet unwarranted route to calamitous doom for the state of Manipur, Pricillia Thiumai remarked that it is not good to be forgotten that a thing which seems good for one is harming the other.
In the like manner, extortions and abductions taking place is not a sign of civilized society, she added.
The offensive conduct of interference in work, a threat impacting the victim's self-esteem and mental health, is punishable under certain sections of IPC, the president reminded, adding that women are not commodities or stuff which can be compensated with money.
The long lasting solution is to give room for judicial expedition and punish the offenders legally according to the degree of their crime, she conveyed.
The NWU said that many women have been harassed on different occasions in the frame of ethnic conflict that started on May 3, 2023 .