Sairem Rameshwori Devi, a 24-year-old Meitei woman, was welcomed along with her newborn baby by the coordinators of a relief camp in Manipur’s Imphal on August 7. Still in pain as she bore stitches from the birth, she moved slowly while holding her daughter, climbing up the stairs to a room where a few more new mothers and pregnant women were staying. Struggling to get onto the bed, she sat holding her stomach with one hand and her baby with the other and started feeding her. There were about 10 beds in the room and another 10 in an elevated section. Many newborns were sleeping in the beds all covered up, not bothered about the fuss around them.
Many other Meitei women like Sairem Rameshwori Devi have been staying at a relief camp run by the Manipur unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The camp is situated in the Imphal Valley region that has been dominated by Meiteis since May, when ethnic violence first erupted between the majority Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribal communities, with the death toll figures reaching at least 187 and over 50,000 people displaced as of August 6. The camp in Imphal is run exclusively for pregnant Meitei women, who can stay there for up to 10 or 15 days after childbirth, before moving to another relief camp.
Thanil, a baby who is merely 10 days old, is expected to join her grandmother and elder sister in another relief camp in a few days. Her 26-year-old mother Iren Bam Ranibala recalls what happened in her village Morbung on May 6, when she was seven months pregnant.
“The houses nearby started burning. There was fire everywhere. I was so scared, I held on to my three-year-old child and started screaming. The next day, we were shifted to a community hall. From there, volunteers of this camp brought me here as I was pregnant,” Iren Bam Ranibala told TNM. “My husband stayed back to guard the village along with other men. All our other family members are displaced and staying in different relief camps,” she said. She also said that she had no hope of getting back the life that she had before May, before the violence broke out.
She said that in her village Morbung, the Kuki and Meitei population was almost equal in number, and had coexisted without strife until May. “My husband worked as a driver. I stayed at home, doing small-scale farming, rearing chickens etc. We had many Kuki friends, and we all hung out together, sharing meals in each other's houses, studying and playing together. Now I don't even know where they are. Are they in other relief camps? Are they even alive?” Iren Bam Ranibala asked.
Every other woman in the camp had similar heartbreaking stories to tell. They are worried for their unborn or newborn babies, wondering whether they will even have a family to go back to.
Shantimala Chanu, Sunita Leima, Khaidem Thombi and many others whom TNM met at the camp had similar stories to tell, of displacement and fear.
Thirty-year-old Thombi from Serou village reached the camp a month ago. As she fled, she saw one part of her house burning. She said she has continued to have nightmares since then, and was worried if that would affect her baby who was yet to be born. “But I was happy to give birth to a healthy baby. She is only eight days old now. I will have to move to another camp in a few days,” Thombi said.
Her husband, who used to work as a carpenter, also returned to the village to guard it, like Iren Bam Ranibala’s husband. “They are protecting our village. My mother-in-law is also part of a group of Meira Paibis (‘Women Torch-Bearers’, a women-led movement in Manipur),” she said. The Meira Paibi movement has been around for decades, once known for their iconic civil rights protests and for taking up various social causes. Today, vigilante groups of Meitei women including the Meira Paibis have been playing an active role in the ongoing ethnic clashes. Some of them have also been accused of enabling violence against other women and blocking security forces’ transport of essential supplies for Kukis in the hill districts.
At the Imphal relief camp, many of the Meitei women are naming their newborns after the surname Langambi, which means ‘victorious’ in the Meitei language.
“We take care of the women usually until the ‘ipantaba’ ritual. In the Metei tradition, ‘ipantaba’ is performed on the sixth day after birth, for the well-being of the newborn and the mother. We do the ‘sasthi puja’ before they return to their homes or go to a relative’s home," Rajkumar Noingdrenkhomba, president of the BJP Manipur’s OBC (Other Backward Classes) Morcha and also the coordinator of the camp told TNM, adding that while a majority of the Meiteis are Hindus, if any Christian Meiteis come to the camp, they perform rituals as per their beliefs.
There have been repeated demands for Manipur Chief Minister and BJP leader N Biren Singh’s resignation or the imposition of President’s rule in the state from various quarters including Opposition leaders across the country, but the Union government has refused to act on them. Ahead of the upcoming Assembly session expected to begin on August 21, ten tribal MLAs have announced that they will not attend it, citing security constraints as the Assembly is located in Imphal. The ten Kuki-Zomi MLAs, seven of whom are from the BJP, had earlier submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking to set up posts equivalent to that of chief secretary and director general of police for the five hill districts where Kukis have been residing since the violence broke out.
Since the violence broke out in May 2023, the relief camp has accommodated more than 87 pregnant women. Nearly 42 children including a pair of twins were born to 39 mothers at the camp in three months. The first baby was delivered on May 22, and the mother and child left the camp on June 6.
Manipur Dispatches: Our reporters Prajwal Bhat, Haritha John and Bhuvan Malik are in Manipur to provide you with exclusive, in-depth ground reports that delve into the heart of the matter, highlighting the real issues underlying the current conflict. If you believe that human rights violations in a distant land should be a topic of conversation in this part of India, support our intrepid truth-seeking mission. Contribute here
Watch: A sense of hopelessness in Manipur’s relief camps