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Women of Manipur do not suffer from the kind of exploitation and suppression
encountered by their peers in other parts of the globe. But, we must hasten to
add, this does not imply that they do not suffer from any kind of exploitation.
The nature of exploitation of woman in Manipur is specific to the place and
shaped by historical experiences unique to her that a superficial observer will
never be able to appreciate it.
Economic Role
It is an accepted fact at the society-wide level and also corroborated by
statistical facts that women in Manipur perform very important economic roles.
But the problem lies in connection with the real appreciation and valuation of
the activities.
Traditionally women here have been performing many handloom and handicraft
activities besides the usual household chores. Now the beauty of the scene in
Manipur is that women have been both producers and sellers themselves. Besides,
they have been sellers of the products of male activities as well. Still
further, women here have historically possessed the knack of enjoying or
partaking in the activities of the male. They have been allocating their time,
while performing a perfect mixture of these activities, with such an efficiency
that as time went on, all these activities came to be recognized as ones meant
for them and them only.
It was in such a society that modern census was introduced with all the concepts
inherent in the work but alien to the society of the place. Since women have
been performing their activities subtly and efficiently, in due course of time,
the official acceptance of the economic importance of women declined. This was
the turning point in the modern plight of Manipuri women in general. Women had
to pay a price for a type 1 error of being negative when it should be positive.
This is borne out by the fact that, when one examines the census, women's
economic contribution gets blunted. But the picture alters if we study the
results coming out of surveys looking at the specific activities being performed
by the sexes in both rural and urban areas.
Modern Plight
The modern plight of Manipuri women lies in the fact that they continue
performing the tradtional activities, but in the context of armed conflict
situations and declining official support to them. In the framework of common
development policy and strategies, the genuinely specific requirements for
attending to the needs of faciliatating the performance of their activities were
completely ignored. The cumulative effect of this is the official ignorance of
the governance, even at the local level, of the need of women. The best example
of the official ignorance or rather the official suppression of woman's rights
to an enabling environment for performance of their role can be seen daily at
the tug of war between the women vegetable vendors and the local police in the
marketplace of Imphal. While any women vegetable vendor would be disturbed and
thrown out at will, the male vendors with trolleys will be left untroubled.
The reality, however, is that the male vendor occupies about six times the space
required by a woman vendor. I am aware of a young and stunningly charming woman
vegetable vendor, from whom I used to buy vegetables with academic and personal
interests and who ultimately joined the oldest profession, unable to cope with
the daily police riots. Besides, the general situation of the marketplace is
such that those sectors demarcated for women are the most unattended ones
hygienically or otherwise.
The armed conflict situation has now forced the women to come to the frontline,
as to be active is the wont of the Manipuri women.
The official result of the armed conflict is that the budgetary proportion of
the expenses on social sectors, particularly those impigning on the interests of
women, has declined and that on security forces has risen. This has had the
second round effect of the administration still unable to cater to the
fundamental hygienic and such needs of women in the State. Further, there is now
emerging an economic divide between the women in the rural and urban areas of
such a small State. As time goes on, the familial, societal and official
recognition of the women's economic role is declining without a commensurate
reduction in the works performed by them.
- Other articles in the January Opinion
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