India bowed down in shame yet again as a disturbing video from Manipur sent shockwaves down the spine of every Indian. The incident took place on May 4, 2023, but the horrific video has emerged only now on social media platforms. The video, which records the incident from the Meitei-dominated valley district of Thoubal, shows two women being paraded naked by a mob of men. In a statement, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum said the atrocities had been committed in a village in the Kangpokpi district against women from the Kuki-Zo tribal community.
One woman is in her 20s and the other is in her 40s. In the video, they can be seen being made to walk naked down a road, encircled by a mob. Some of the men are seen dragging the women to a paddy field and forcibly groping them. The police complaint filed by a relative alleges that the men allegedly gang-raped the younger woman. The disheartening incident took place more than two months ago when the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki communities had just erupted in the state.
One of the survivors, who luckily escaped, said. “When we resisted, they told me: ‘If you don’t take off your clothes, we will kill you’. Then as she obeyed them to “protect herself”, the men allegedly slapped and punched her.
She added that the men dragged her to a paddy field near the road and asked her to “lie down” there. “I did as they told me, and three men surrounded me… One of them told the other, ‘Let’s rape her’, but ultimately they did not.”
The FIR alleges that a third woman was also forced to take off her clothes but is not seen in the graphic video.
One of the survivors in the video said, “Manipur’s Police were present there, but they didn’t help us.”
Another survivor said that she saw four policemen sitting in the car and looking at the violence. “They didn’t do anything to help us,” she said. Her father and brother were killed in this mob attack.
The Centre is under pressure to take speedy action against the offenders and provide justice to the women to regain some of the confidence of the people of Manipur, particularly the minority Kuki population. The incident has sparked outrage across India.
Politicians from all political parties have denounced the assault.
On Thursday, PM Narendra Modi broke his silence on the matter and said, “What has happened to daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven, guilty will not be spared.” In a conversation with a reporter during the Monsoon parliament session, he added, “This a shameful incident for any society…who did this and who is responsible is another issue but this has put our nation to shame. I appeal to all chief ministers to tighten law and order. Whether it is Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh or Manipur…the issue of a woman’s honour is above all politics.”
But it’s skeptical whether this heart-wrenching incident will be left untouched by the dirty politics.
Assaulting women has become a cruel battle-winning strategy for toxic masculinity. Do we see any days without crime against women? Be it sexual assault and rape, domestic violence, dowry death, acid attacks, human trafficking, honour killings, and online harassment, women are often objectified.
In India, a woman is raped every sixteen minutes. The family involved in the Hathras rape Case (2020) is still awaiting justice. A 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by four upper caste men. She died two weeks later in hospital.
Rape-related crimes against women have risen by a stupendous 70.7 per cent (from 11.6 per 100,000 cases in 2001 to 19.8 in 2018) according to a 2022 report by the Public Health Foundation of India.
India continues to witness gruesome crimes against women.
The government makes all the promises and policies for crime against women but the country has once again failed to save its women from predators, objectifying women.
The gruesome video of these women might not let you sleep for nights but will the women of the country ever feel assured that it would not happen again?
