Rapes galore but not a single chargesheet : Waiting for the lady from UN
- Sangai Express Editorial :: April 23, 2013 -

A whistle stop visit, it is going to be. To be precise, arrive here on April 28 and then leave the following day.

But time or the longevity of the visit is not the point here. It is the purpose of the visit that will count and to make it count, it is imperative that the unalloyed, lucid truth is laid bare, however ugly and uncomfortable that would be.

The timing is also extremely significant and opportune. Women raped and killed, raped and let off, killed and abandoned, minor girls brutalised in the most inhuman manner, all these and more have been stories which have been hitting the pages of the State newspapers in the last few years and it is against this backdrop that UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Ms Rashida Manjoo will land at Imphal on April 28.

It is this which is significant. It is in acknowledging the importance of the visit of the UN official, that The Sangai Express has been publishing a series of stories, all related to crimes against women.

The discerning readers would have noted that the stories were published on April 16, April 21, April 22 and now April 23.

Not surprisingly, one common strand that runs through all these stories is the utter failure of the law enforcing agencies, read the State police, in taking up any concrete steps to nail the culprits.

In all the four cases, not a single charge sheets have been filed. The most that have been done is to round up some suspects, with no one exactly knowing what has happened since then.

Such cases must be numerous and what little The Sangai Express can do to bring the real state of affairs before the visiting UN official will be done in the coming days. Stories will be collated.

Family members will be interviewed and if possible appointments will be sought with police officers, those who come higher in the pecking order. Crimes against women are the pits.

Add the lethargy and sheer indifference of the law enforcing agencies to take such cases to its logical conclusion and here lies exposed the great sham that has been enacted in the land which gave the Meira Paibi movement to the world and a place where a day is set aside as Nupi Lan every year.

It remains to be seen how effectively the stories of all the women who have been battered, maimed, raped and killed are presented to the UN official, when she arrives here, but try, all should to give a clear cut picture of where women actually stand in the social and political milieu of the place.

Of the four stories The Sangai Express has covered so far, not a single charge sheet has been filed.

Lethargy, inefficiency or sheer indifference to crimes against women ?

Such a fact needs to be brought before the international forum and who better than Ms Rashida Manjoo, who is scheduled to submit the final findings of her understanding of the situation here as well as her recommendations to the forthcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

A society which has for long been living in a state of denial, camouflaged by hypocrisy of placing the womenfolk on the pedestal in public, but subjecting them to the most inhuman crimes and cruelty in private and law enforcing agencies which have just refused to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and Manipur has earned the dubious distinction of being a place where half or somewhere near half of her population do not feel safe anywhere, whether inside the confines of their homes or outside.

It is this reality which should be presented to the UN official. More stories are in the pipeline and it will be published as a run up to the visit of Ms Rashida Manjoo.

Time also to question what worthwhile job the State Commission for Women has done to jolt the establishment to the plight of women in the State.

Or is the Commission there just to pander to the needs of some people who have long retired from service but need to remain in the public domain ?

This is certainly not the way to deal with issues concerning the safety and security of women.

Let the true picture be presented before an official representing an international body.