Future of displaced students affected by Manipur violence at stake

Imphal: Fifteen-year-old Pushpa Karam fears that she will not be able to do well in her Class 10 exams next year.

Her house in the Torbung Bangla area of ​​Manipur’s Churachandpur district has been destroyed in the recent communal violence.
Karam is taking shelter along with 42 other school-going students and their families at a relief camp in Kunbi area of ​​neighboring Bishnupur district. She is forced to miss maths and English tuitions.

“I am afraid that I will not do well in the Class 10 board exam next year, which may affect my dreams of getting admission in a good school in Imphal,” said Karam.
Karam is among the nearly 4,000 school-going students affected by the recent communal violence in Manipur. About 1,000 of them are displaced in the affected areas of Churachandpur and neighboring Bishnupur district, while the rest are from Imphal East district and Moreh city, officials said.
While the students fear that their school year may be lost because they will not be able to return to their schools in the affected areas, the immediate concern of their parents is that they have a permanent place to live.

“All my books, study material and even school documents were in my house, which got burnt. My father says we can’t go back to Churachandpur now. I don’t know where I will go to school,” she said. ‘ said 15-year-old Anu Arom Chanu, a student of Don Bosco School in Churachandpur.
She is taking shelter with her family in a community hall in Moirang in neighboring Bishnupur district.

Seventeen-year-old Namoijam Tomba Singh from Torbung Bangla area of ​​Churachandpur said that his chances of getting into a coveted course or job at the end of the academic year have now diminished.
“With the uncertainty of where we will be living along with my academic year, I really don’t know how I will prepare for the various exams for NDA entrance, merchant navy, etc. that I am appearing for. was planning to be,” said Singh, whose parents were daily wage earners.
Moirangthem Shyam of the People’s Progressive Union, who organized the relief camp in Kunbi, said that the affected students should be admitted to the nearest government school as soon as possible so that their academic year is not lost.
Officials said at least 73 people were killed, 231 injured and 1,700 houses, including religious places, burned down in recent ethnic violence that rocked the northeastern state.

Clashes erupted in Manipur on May 3 after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organized in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
The violence preceded tensions over the eviction of Kuki villagers from reserve forest land, which led to a series of smaller protests.

Meiteis constitute about 53% of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley. The tribals – Nagas and Kukis – constitute another 40 percent of the population and live in the hilly districts.
About 10,000 army and paramilitary personnel had to be deployed to restore normalcy in the northeastern state.

Curfew has been relaxed for various periods in 11 affected districts, including from 5 am to 3 pm in Imphal East and West districts.