Members of the Manipur Women Gun Survivors’ Network in Imphal on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, April 26: A small gift of a sewing machine from a Samaritan to a woman whose husband was slain in cold blood has sewn up a humanitarian movement to provide succour to victims of violence in Manipur.

“An entire family dies even when a solitary bullet is fired at someone. In the killing fields of Manipur, stories of suffering heaped on families through acts of violence are legion,” said Binalakshmi Nepram, a New Delhi-based Oxfam consultant whose roots are in Imphal.

Take, for instance, the story of Kumar Mutum of Ukhrul, who was abducted and killed by unidentified people a couple of years ago.

Since that incident, it has been a relentless struggle for survival for his widow, Lucy Jajo, and the couple’s only son, Lanchenba.

The countless Lucy Jajos and Lanchenbas in this state have all been created by the “gun culture” of militant outfits and petty gangs. It is a culture that has been in existence ever since insurgency struck roots in Manipur more than four decades ago.

Thanks to conscientious citizens like Nepram, women widowed and children orphaned by violence now have hands to hold for comfort and an organisation to go to for help when in distress.

The Manipuri Women Gun Survivors’ Network was formally launched today appropriately with a discussion on controlling the proliferation of small arms.

The programme was organised in collaboration with the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms and the New Delhi-based Control Arms Foundation of India.

“The objective of forming the network is to gather support from Manipuris living in India and abroad and collectively help the kin of those slain by gunmen,” said Binalakshmi Nepram, the secretary-general of the foundation.

The network is the brainchild of Nepram, who decided to do something for people affected by violence after a deeply moving personal experience. “I decided to form the network after a youth, Akham Budhi, was killed at Wangoi in Thoubal district in December 2004. The family’s grief left a deep imprint in my mind,” she recalled.

After returning to New Delhi, Nepram bought a sewing machine and gifted it to Rebika Devi, the youth’s widow, through her parents in Imphal. “I then started networking with people to purvey aid to the families of people who were gunned down in similar circumstances,” she said.

The gun survivors’ network will, however, not function as an NGO. “We are not an NGO. We are just a group of committed people who believe in helping the survivors and controlling the use and spread of small arms,” Nepram said.

Network co-ordinator Reena Mutum said the network would provide equipment like sewing machines to widows of victims and their relatives. “We are also thinking of establishing dairy farms for them,” she added.

It is estimated that over 10,000 people have been killed in the state over the past four decades.

“The law of the jungle prevails on one hand and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act poses a different kind of threat on the other. Anybody who does not belong to either side does not feel safe,” Mutum said.

Inaugurating the programme, former member of the Manipur Human Rights Commission, Yambem Laba, called for collective efforts to halt the gun culture not only in Manipur but also in the rest of the Northeast.