Keywords

Crime , Discrimination , society , stigma , Women

1 . INTRODUCTION

The trend analysis of crimes against women at the global level is not an alien one but aboriginal and structural to any society. While considering the number of incidents received at the global level, it illustrates the gravity of this scourge and its phenomena in nature. The UN made an estimate that in 2016, around 35 per cent of women are said to have reported and undergone physical and/or sexual violence. Additionally, it is revealed that at the world level, an inmate partner or family member carried out 47% of murders of women (Chakraborty, 2019). In India, “though there has been an uninterrupted discourse and discussion on the subject of crimes against women over the various centuries, governments and society are yet to evolve a cast-iron system to deal with the crime and criminals against women.” Since 1971, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has collected data on rape cases that shown a 14 times-increase from about 2 thousand cases in 1971 to 38 thousand cases in 2016. Domestic related violence till the recent past has always remained unavailable and invisible (Ibid.). 

There is a general perception that the common people used to differentiate between the genders frequently and they keep priority and preference to the males over the females unsuitably. It is sad to see women facing lots of problems in our society including the evils that led to forming a stumbling block for the female population. The rules and regulations related to patriarchy made women inferior to men. The birth of a girl child is regarded as a burden in different sections of society who is less permitted and sometimes denied to see what is going on in the outside world. In the 21^st century, such psyche is still feasible when women have, possibly and convincingly, proved to be strong leaders in every field. In every field, starting from academics, business, economy, and politics to the day-to-day activities of household chores, extraordinary women leaders have revolutionized the world in the areas which were until comprehensively managed by men in recent times. Though there have been many developments and progress at the world level, till recently every girl is somehow discriminated in almost every single area starting from most households to every chore of society. It is noted that the birthing of a baby boy is considered as a great omen while the birthing of a baby girl is not welcomed. The process of abortion through sex-selective abortion stays to be pursued despite having restraints through the Prenatal Diagnostic Technique Act of 1994. According to 2011 Census, the child sex ratio is at the minimum that has constantly been with just 914 girls out of 1000 boys. Moreover, such bias sustains in every visible feature. Whether in education, health, protection or participation, people usually looked upon the girl child unfairly. There is inadequacy of the significance of empowerment of women in the Indian society. It is quite proved from the available data that there is a gruesome description of female feticide, discrimination of girl child and gender bias.

It is generally believed that though women used to be the sufferer of some of the common crimes like ‘murder’, ‘robbery’, cheating’, etc., but those crimes which are directly explicitly linked with women or gender-specific crimes are portrayed as ‘Crimes against Women’. It is grouped into two classes: Crime Heads under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Crime Heads under the Special and Local Laws (SLL). Efficient number of new legislations for these crimes were made along with amendments from time to time in order to control these crimes productively (Seam, 2015). 

In India, as per the Crime in India Report 2018, a total of 5074634 cognizable crimes comprising 3132954 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 1941680 Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes were recorded in 2018. In spite of indicating an increase of 1.3% in registration of cases over 2017, yet, the crime rate based on lakh population has reduced from 388.6 in 2017 to 383.5 in 2018. In 2018, there was an increase of 2.3% registration of cases under IPC but there was a decrease of SLL crimes 0.1% over 2017. 61.7% was the percentage share of IPC though the percentage share of SLL cases was 38.3% out of the total cognizable crimes in 2018. The bulk of cases covered by the crimes against women of the total IPC crimes against women, were enrolled as ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ (31.9%) followed by ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (27.6%), ‘kidnapping and abduction of women’ (22.5%) and ‘rape’ (10.3%). The rate of crime based on the lakh women population is 58.8% in 2018 as compared with 57.9% in 2017 (NCRB, 2019).

Generally speaking, the status of women in Manipur is considered to be high in respect of their social conditions. They played a crucial role in the polity, economy and socio-cultural practices of the state like any other women of any countries in the world. Theoretically, they have been given much respect and honour in the Manipuri society but on the contrary, lots of violence happened against women. For example, they played a pivotal role in the state’s movement against the British colonial authorities in 1904 and 1939 (first and second Women’s Uprising Movement) under the leadership of Meitei and Pangal women for economic and political reasons. They also had an important part in the socio-cultural activities of the state (Shah and Khan, 2019). 

There are a number of cases of domestic violence, sexual harassment, the culture of rape, molestation, physical assault, kidnapping, cheating in the name of marriage and domestic crimes against women over the issues of dowry and some other petty issues. There is a huge public hullabaloo over the issue of different incidences of crimes against women in the state. One of the causal factors of this situation is the men themselves. Reports of incidences of violence against women amounting for killing have been on the rise in recent times. The present state of conflict situation has also compounded the problem. Increasing crime against women is an escalating problem in Manipur. The Manipuri women have encountered multifarious sorts of brutalities based on gender which encompasses rape, molestation, kidnapping, intimidation, cheating on the pretext of marriage proposals and job opportunities and various types of verbal, psychological, sexual harassments and abuse of women including eve-teasing. The feeling of maltreatment and convalescence of the Manipuri women was deepened by the above-mentioned actions which led to both physical and psychological agony and vulnerability.

2 . DATA AND METHODOLOGY

This paper is based mainly on secondary source of data. To see the trend of crimes against women, data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) has been used. Few live examples of such crimes are discussed to picture the degree of crimes against women in the state. A simple statistical tool with the help of Microsoft Excel has been used to calculate R² value and linear regression by fitting a trend line in the scatter graphs of all categories of crimes.

3 . CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN

The crimes against women in Manipur during 2016 and 2018 have increased manifold despite the reduced number of crimes of murder in the same period as per the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) Report. As per the record of NCRB, the state which has the lowest rate of crimes out of the northeastern states was Nagaland. The statistics showed that the state recorded 105 crimes against women in 2016, 79 in 2017 and 75 in 2018, but the state with the highest number of crimes against women in the northeastern states was Assam having 20869 in 2016, 23082 in 2017 and 27728 in 2018. On the other hand, Manipur recorded 253 crimes against women in 2016, 236 in 2017 and 271 in 2018. At the national level, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against women with 59,445 in 2018 while Maharashtra stood in the second spot with 35497 in 2018. Out of the total recorded crimes against women, domestic violence by a husband or his relatives contributed the highest at 31.9 per cent in 2018. In the same year, it is recorded that there were 27.6 per cent cases of rape attempt, 22.5 per cent of kidnapping and 10.3 per cent of rape (The People’s Chronicle, 2020).

The report also showed that the number of murder cases in Manipur was in a declining trend from 2016 to 2018. There were reports of 78 murder cases in 2016, 63 in 2017 and 52 in 2018 in Manipur. By looking at the overall perspective in India, it shows the opposite figure.  In 2018, there were registered 29017 murder cases but in 2017, it had 28653 murder cases only. By comparing the data of two years, it has been observed that there was a 1.3 per cent rise from the former year 2017 to 2018. The crimes related to violence show a declining trend as compared to the last three years such as 911 cases in 2016, 834 in 2017 and 685 in 2018, respectively. There were records of 29 cases of cybercrimes in 2019 which showed a declining trend as compared to 74 cases in 2017.  However, it was only 11 in 2016. In India, its figure is 27248 in 2018 out of which 15051 cases are related to fraud motive and the other figure of 2030 is related to sexual exploitation. The cases of kidnapping and abduction indicated an increase in number i.e., 10.3 % in 2018 when 105734 FIRs were listed. Similarly, as compared to 2016, this number increased in 2017 based on the report of NCRB. The total number of cases of kidnapping and abduction is 105536 which include 24665 male and 80871 female persons. The data of the NCRB 2018 report showed that of 63356, there were 15250 male and 48106 female children and there were 42180 adults in which 9415 and 32765 were male and female adults, respectively. In the same year, the number of juveniles is 38,256 who were in the age group of 16 to 18 involved in different crimes. The number of reported missing persons is 347524 of which 123339 are male, 223621 female and 564 transgender.

Table 1 shows a huge number of cases related to various crimes against women in different districts of Manipur such as Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur and other districts of Manipur (Ibid.). Moreover, there are certain unreported cases of crime against women in the state of Manipur.

The impacts of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958 in India particularly the states of Jammu and Kashmir and North-eastern regions such as Assam and Manipur are huge and enormous in number. It has been giving much severe influence and implications on the women and children of the Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Manipur regions. In this context, every community faced the consequences of this kind of draconian acts, particularly the women and children of every community. They have been used as prostitutes or comfort zones by both militants and security forces (WHRVM, 2008). They have also been used as arms carrier from one place to another place by both insurgent groups and security forces. It can be argued that they were regarded as instruments of enjoyment and unhappiness by both the government forces and militant groups. During the time of conflict situation in Manipur, irrespective of any reasons, an enormous number of women, particularly widows and young married ones, belonging to any community have been utilized as the carrier of arms and ammunitions while shifting from one camp to another camp. The women of Manipur have usually faced physical abuse and violence, mental torture and other physical stress over the issue of any male persons who were arrested by the security forces on bare scepticism of leaking information either to the militants or security forces that led to even rape and molestation (Devi, 2014). The root of the causal factor of this problem is that the cases of extreme torture and brutal rape of the Manipuri women particularly the newly married ones, virgins and pregnant ones have arisen the common people of the state and given them a new momentum to assert themselves independently for fighting against the security forces and even some sections of militant groups. They thought that they would like to get azaadi from the yolks of security forces as well as the insurgent groups but this would not be possible until and unless the AFSPA is removed from such regions. They started doing suicides after facing gruesome activities such as rape. It is truly pictured from the clear example of one of the Naga sisters, Rose Ningshen from the Phungyar sub-division in Ukhrul district who committed suicide at her own house kitchen ceiling on 6^th March 1974 on account of rape by two Border Security Forces (BSF) officers, namely Captain Niki and Major Bomdion, on 4th March 1974 as she could not bear the trauma that led to end her life. Still, justice has not been delivered despite making many efforts to get justice but in vain. Her post-mortem report has not been publicly and judiciously exposed till today. Her family members faced a lot of shameful and disgraceful activities in the village. Such incidents made a spark-line in both the electronic and print media that those security forces who are posted in the village for the security of village and villagers are now involving in the heinous crime of rape and molestation. Similar incidences are in existence as are evident from the incidents of H. Indubala Devi and Memcha Devi and it left their deprivation of liberty which affected the physical harm and psychological harm as a result of over much of the security forces (Devi, 2014).

Another incident of rape and molestation is the case study of tribal women in the Oinam village of Senapati District of Manipur where some Assam Rifles were being killed by the insurgent groups in 1987 that led to wider scale operation in the village area. It affected the village women particularly in the form of physical assault and abuse by the security forces. It has continued in the years to come. Many cases of women who were raped took place in both the hill and plain areas of Manipur. For instances, Miss K S Martha on July 9, 1981; Memcha Devi on September 9, 1980; three women including a pregnant on July 11, 1987; the shooting of Irom Ongbi Bino Devi who was pregnant on  April 26, 1980; N. Ahanjaobi on August 1, 1996; N. Sanjita in 2003; Th. Manorama on July 11, 2004; a Nepali housewife; M. Thambal Sana Devi on April 27, 1980; one pregnant woman S. Piyaibee Devi on May 28, 1980; Luingamla on January 24, 1986; Roma Devi on  September 19, 1995; O. Amina Devi on April 5, 1996; Ksh. Prabhahini on May 3, 1996 and N. Sandhyarani Devi on July 6, 1996 (Ibid.; Devi, 2009; Singh, 2004).

There were some indelible marks while considering the impacts of the riots towards the weaker sections of society particularly the women and children in the state of Manipur. They carried the entire burden of the family when the rioters could not find the male persons after searching every house. They used to get badly affected in the form of severe physical assault, abuse, sexual harassment, rape and molestation as a result of the riots. This is quite a fascinating and genuine concern. The problem is that of responsibility of the family. This is evident from the riots taking place in the state of Manipur. For example, when the Naga-Kuki riots happened in 1993, lots of people from both sides had been killed and especially the women and children faced the consequences (Devi, 2009). Many people deserted the place. The state was turned into a burning state. Each person started distrusting the other. This riot destroyed immeasurable properties including domestic animals, storeroom for rice and others properties. Further, another riot is that when the ‘unfortunate’ incident of May 3, 1993 riots happened between the Meitei and Pangal over the issue of a ‘misunderstanding’ which occurred on May 2, 1993, that three Meitei youths namely Moirangthem Biramani Singh from Moirang Sunusiphai, Moirangthem Shyam Singh from Heirok Litan Makhong and Phurailatpam Bisheswar Sharma from Heirangoithong Maibam Leikai belonging to the People’s Republican Army (PRA) had come to Lilong Sambrukhong, a Muslim-dominated area, to retake a sum of Rs. 13,000/- which they had paid to Md. Adon Mia from Lilong Sambrukhong for taking one small arm who could not give it. Over this issue, they demanded to return the money paid for the arm. Being refused, they tried to take away the YAMAHA motorbike belonging to Adon Mia (Report of the One-Man Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice D. M. Sen, 1993) and many people got seriously injured in this riot and were also killed from both sides especially the Pangal one. Lots of properties had been destroyed and burnt. Among the killings caused by this riot, many of them belonged to women and children. It is reported from the One-Man Commission Report (Ibid.) made under Justice D. M. Sen that around one hundred Pangal and four Meitei were killed. Many Pangal women were killed, molested and raped as a result of the riots, as is evident from the Purum Village, Imphal East District (Das, 2008).

Figure 1. Trend of crime against women

4 . TREND OF CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

It has been observed that the rate of crimes against women in Manipur has increased day by day though there has been tight Civil Society Organizations (CSO), women vigil groups and women police forces. Some of the scholars who are experts on gender issues believe that the causal factors that fueled the crimes against women in Manipur are misuse of technology, delayed delivery of justice, poverty-stricken economy and imposition of the controversial and draconian acts such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958, etc. The other problems are the lack of human rights and gender equality education in police training and the non-implementation of gender issues awareness in education (Sharma, 2012).

Total cognizable crime against women in Manipur has been rising rapidly in the last few years. A perusal of table no 3 shows that it increased from 74 in 2000 to 304 in 2012 but decreased slightly to 271 in 2018. Despite being accorded respect and honor at home and adorned on the public platform, in recent years, women have been more and more at the receiving end of escalating violence to which there is no limit, both in the public domain and private arena of the family. The man-woman relationship in society continues to be dominating-dominated. Much of the violence in the public sphere has been a direct result of the conflict situation in the state which is accompanied by an atmosphere of vagueness, fear and insecurity to aggression (Singh, 2019).

5 . COGNIZABLE CRIME

A cognizable offence or case is defined as the one that may be inspected by an officer-in-charge of a police station outside the law of a judge. He can incarcerate a person regardless of an accreditation.An urgent action can be taken by the police after receiving a formal complaint in any of the crimes connected with such crimes that can visit the scene of the crime, observe the facts, seize the convict and incriminate him before a court of law which has power in such issue. Cognizable crimes are mainly classified as those crimes which are taking place either under the ‘Indian Penal Code (IPC)’ or under the ‘Special and Local Laws (SLL)’.

A perusal of table 3 shows that total cognizable crime against women in Manipur increased from only 74 in 2000 to 304 in 2012 but decreased to 271 in 2018.  However, if we see the trend line of the same crime, it increased steeply with an R² value of 0.85 and a linear regression equation of y=14.174x-28257. The high positive coefficient of determination (R²) shows that the rate of increase in the total cognizable crime against women in Manipur is highly significant with chances of increasing more with a good prediction of high dependable variable i.e., y value (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Cognizable crimes

6 . KIDNAPPING AND ABDUCTION

In Manipur, the rise of the case of kidnappings and abductions was closed to 50%. Based on the data given by the police department of the state in 2004, 199 cases of abduction were listed as total in various police stations of different districts of the state like Imphal West, Thoubal, Imphal East and Chandel districts. The overall kidnapping cases in Manipur in 2003 were 136. In Manipur, there has been a major trend of kidnapping for ransom. Who led in such trends? Such major trends were led by the insurgents by kidnapping businessmen and Government officials intermittently. In spite of having no official source of confirmation regarding the exact amount of money paid yearly, the sources from the police say that it could manage hundreds of crores of rupees.

Kidnapping and Abduction is not necessarily the gender-based crime that can be categorized as a crime against women but such crime is still high among the women. It increased only from 24 in 2000 to 125 in 2013 (Table 4). The trend line shows that there is an imbue increase in such crime among the Manipuri women. The coefficient of determination (R²) shows that there is a highly significant relationship between the growths of the crime of such categories with time in the state. There is also a good prediction of further increase with high regression equation value (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Kidnapping and abduction

7 . RAPE CASES

The issue of rape and murder has been considered as a culture of an epidemic in the state of Manipur. One of the general perceptions in each case of violence against women is the brutality and inhumane characteristic of the aggression which gives a grim picture of the prevailing conditions of women in the state. An appraisal of such brutal incidents indicates that the civilian population as well as the military (both state and non-state actors) has taken to the culture of violence and the militaristic method of settling down issues in the society. Their lives have been severely affected to such an extent that in both the hills and valleys of the state while doing their day-to-day chores, many women have been tortured and raped. The security personnel often violate the dignity of women which is a violation of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and the right to live with human dignity. There are various instances where the raped victims conceal their awful stories because of the fear of being stigmatized by society. The case of Manorama (Gaikwad, 2009) that led to the much-publicized naked protest was the instrumental way for large scale protest against the military troupes. It is certain that whenever there is an attack on the security forces by the insurgents, a combing operation is conducted in the adjoining areas, which eventually dislocates the normal life of the people and instils the fear of rape, torture, humiliation, molestation, illegal detention and disappearance of the civilians of the state. Not only this, there are cases where the Manipuri women have been condemned as informers of the army personnel by the militants and given punishment by way of bullet injury on the limbs and even killed. Thus, the womenfolk of the state are victims at the hands of both the state and non-state actors. Violence has become a way of life with an ever-increasing incidence of different forms of violence against women in this small state. What is necessary is the collective people’s movement involving many women organizations to deal with the issue of crimes related to women effectively. Such an engagement has become all the more essential on account of the frequent incidences of violence of the body of the women and her life in every step. To combat the menace of violence against women, a women-specific movement is the need of the hour. If the women community is centrally put in the context of a broader frame of a gender-specific evaluation, it will not only be a step towards women empowerment but also towards justice. Such empowerment will provide them with the means to defend and protect themselves from all kinds of violence committed by not only armed personnel (state as well as non-state) but also male civilians. Despite the rich and long tradition of women’s movements for socio-economic and political causes, there has not been any gender-centric women’s movement in Manipur.

The story of rape and murder in Manipur is not new. There are numerous events of rape and murder in the state. For instance, the case of Manorama’s rape and murder is to be mentioned. After this, some of the heinous crimes of rape and murder happened in the Pangal community. A former student of Maharaja Buddhachandra College namely Miss Wasima daughter of Md. Janamuddin of Yairipok Tulihal Heirong Road, Thoubal district was allegedly raped and thrown into a roadside canal near Irong Cheshaba Salam Achouba Thumukon under Mayang Imphal Police Station of Imphal West district on Tuesday morning over some personal heated arguments between the victim and the accused five months back related to nikah ceremony of the accused. As per the FIR is concerned, the exact cause of the death is not known but after enquiry, she was raped and murdered by the accused by blowing to the victim’s face, pushing her down on the ground and strangulating her. The culprit took off the strings on the hoodie worn by the deceased victim and tied both her hands and feet behind her back, before dragging the body and throwing it into the nearby canal. The main culprit was Sheikh Warish who was the son of late Md Hesamuddin of Lilong Dam Makha and later on, he hanged himself in jail. Still, the case is not being closed and police investigation is at a continual phase.

Another shocking incident of allegedly raping a 17 years-old girl happened at Sangaiyumpham Pulleipokpi Salam Macha under Thoubal Police Station of Thoubal district on August 11, 2020. It is reported that the main accused has been identified as Md. Sidiq Ali, 37, son of Md Sadali, a resident of the Sangaiyumpham Pulleipokpi Salam Macha. The incident happened when the victim was going to buy some pieces of stuff from his shop and he enforced the girl and raped her. Despite lodging a police complaint and having lots of pressure through different resolutions at the local and district levels from different organizations, women organizations and clubs including Mairelkhul Youth Development Association, still, justice has not been delivered for such a heinous crime.

Quite recently, the rape and murder of one 14 years-old girl Washila from Mayang Imphal Bengoon, Imphal West District, Manipur are worth mentioning. The main accused persons are given as Mohammad Maza Khan alias Arish S/o, Sikander, Heibong Makhong Mathak Leikai under Mayang Imphal Police Station, Imphal West District, along with Md Salim Khan, 21, son of Md Majahar Cheshaba of Heibong Makhong Mathak Leikai; Md Noor Mohamad, 20, son of Md Kalam of Heibong Makhong Mathak Leikai; Md Faij alias Mohamad, 22, son of Md Sanayai of Mayang Imphal Bengoon Mamang Loukok who are still in police custody. There was much hue and cry over this incidence of brutal rape and murder savagely. Such a story made anybody cry and people could not understand how and why it happened. According to the report given by the police, a passer-by briefed them regarding the girl who was lying senseless. First of all, she was at the beginning carried to the Mayang Imphal Public Health Centre and then, she was shifted to RIMS for further treatment. However, the girl was dead at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the RIMS. Dr Arun Kumar Singh, medical superintendent at RIIMS, refused to disclose the exact nature of the girl’s injuries but just simply said that the girl seemed to have died of excessive bleeding. Why this heinous crime happened is because the victim was carried away in the name of elopement by the main accused Arish with his co-accused and the family of Arish rejected the match. They assaulted her, raped and murdered her in cold blood near Heibong Makhong Yendow Palli under the Mayang Imphal Police Station. They were booked under IPC Sections 376 and 302, on rape and murder respectively and the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012. Police investigation over this issue is going on till date.

Rape cases, in Manipur, have increased from only 8 in 2000 to 72 in 2013 (Table 5). The trend line shows a steep increase with an R² value of 0.78 and a linear regression equation of y=3.9257x-7847.1. The high positive coefficient of determination (R²) shows the rate of increase in rape in Manipur and it is highly significant with chances of increasing more and more (Figure 4). These are some cases related to rape in the state of Manipur which has been recorded by the concerned department. There might be thousands of such crimes of the same nature which might not be recorded as the victims are not able to open up such things due to the fear of stigma and discrimination in society.

Figure 4. Rape cases

8 . CASES OF MOLESTATION

Again, the case of molestation is very common in the state. Hundreds of such cases are there but only a few are recorded as the victims are not capable to come up with these kinds of harassment to them as they fear social stigma and discrimination.

The cases of molestation in Manipur have increased from only 18 in 2000 to 70 in 2007 but decreased to 59 in 2013 (Table 6).  However, if we see the trend line of the same crime, it still increased gently with an R² value of 0.19 and a linear regression equation of y=1.6242x-3217.4. The low positive coefficient of determination (R²) shows that the rate of increase is not significant enough (Figure 5). But the reality may differ from this picture as hundreds of such cases have not been recorded and hence not coming into the picture. Thousands of such cases may not be recorded as such things are quite common in the state. Fear of discrimination and stigma in society is taking the future of girls, the parents and for that matter, the girls themselves conceal such things that happened with them.

Figure 5. Molestation cases

9 . CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that the crimes against women in India in general and Manipur in particular, have increased on a massive scale seeing the historical trajectory of violence in the state itself. It has become a social norm in every society today. Some of the case studies show that violence in all forms against women has become a spontaneous one or not the one which needs to be pondered upon and to be removed from the society of Manipur. The root cause of it might be the patriarchal mindset which is to be rooted out from the state itself through consultation on a wider scale. Many of the scholars believe that the status of women in Manipur is high on a theoretical basis but practically, it can be observed that subordination of women takes place frequently in the state. The degree of it seems to be high in the rural areas rather than the urban areas of Manipur. In a patriarchal society like ours, violence against women occurs in every step of life in different forms -mental, physical, economic, emotional and sexual.Though women are involved in agricultural production, paid employment and household activities, still, women are usually excluded from formal decision-making institutions, particularly the political and administrative affairs of the state. However, until and unless, there is no freedom of expression in the field of politics, economy and decision-making institutions, there has always been a patriarchal component and mindset that will reign strong and supreme despite the highly respectable status of women. Reports of incidence of violence against women amounting to killing have been on the rise in recent times. The present state of conflict situation has also compounded the problem. Increasing crime against women is an escalating problem in Manipur. Women of Manipur from different communities such as Meitei, Pangal and Tribes have experienced multiple forms of gender-biased atrocities including rape, molestation, kidnapping, intimidation, cheating on the pretext of a marriage proposal, elopement and job opportunities and various types of verbal, psychological, sexual harassment and abuse of women including eve-teasing. The feeling of maltreatment and convalescence of the Manipuri women was deepened by the above-mentioned actions which led to both physical and psychological agony and vulnerability. Such social engineering activities act as catalysts that have sometimes emerged and manufactured in social media in the medium of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and other forms to suit the interest of the mainstream society. The above-mentioned trend analysis of crimes against women shows the Manipuri women as victimization of the victim. They have often preyed on diversified models of reported crimes and violence. However, their strength and endurance necessitate the determinant factor of bread and butter for their entire household. Though they possess such vigor, the Herculean task of the entirety of catastrophe and suffering remain on their shoulder.

Tables

Figures

Conflict of Interest

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

References