IMPHAL, Mar 21 : Women need not hide within the four walls. They need to come out, as it is high time they spoke out their problems and faced the challenge, said Dr. Ch Jamini, chairperson of the Manipur State Commission for Women.
She gave the statement today as chief guest at the inaugural function of the two-day state level seminar on ‘Women’s empowerment and development with special reference to Manipur’ which was organised by Manipur College, Imphal and sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research, North Eastern Regional Centre, Shillong and directorate of university and higher education, government of Manipur.
Dr. Jamini further stated that as far as Manipur was concerned almost half of the population were women. They performed so many duties in the household and were also learned scholars making their empowerment a must.
She also said that women need to be educated as they don’t know their rights if they are not educated.
A souvenir was also released regarding ‘Women’s empowerment and development with special reference to Manipur’ today both by the chairperson Dr. Jamini and Justice WA Shishak, Retd. chief justice of the High Court and former chairperson of the Manipur Human Rights Commission.
WA Shishak said that women in Manipur are sufficiently empowered. The Meira Paibis are strong but not strong enough to deal with harassment, he said while adding that we have highly qualified professional women in different fields. There are good number of nurses, women teachers, lawyers etc. and all are doing very well in their respective positions, he said.
The only thing required for women’s empowerment is the spirit of participation, he said.
Several distinguished delegates, academicians, and research scholars presented papers relating to women’s empowerment and development.
S Benjamin Nattar of the Manipur College, Imphal and today’s convenor said that “empowerment” was one of the fashionable word these days used by various bodies like international agencies, national governments, local governments, political parties, NGO’s, academicians etc.
In Manipur both in the valley and the hills women enjoyed a comparatively better position than their counterparts in the rest of the country. One can notice a number of indicators of women’s empowerment prevalent in Manipur, he said.
The strength of Manipuri women became visible in the Nishaband in 1960’s which again gave rise to the institutionalization of Meira Paibis, he said adding that women of Manipur have excelled in various fields like performing arts, sports and games, hospitality sector etc.
Internationally renowned persons like N Kunjarani, MC Mary Kom and many others are examples of empowered women, and the others need to follow their example, he said.