Imphal, January 24 : Can you believe that in this land of Nupi Lans and Meira Paibis, there are many young women who have been cast out by their families and are spending the night sleeping on the floor of verandahs of shops and gullies in the Bazar area because they are addicted to drugs or indulged in flesh trade or are living with HIV ? .
This is the truth and the reality of many young women who have been dubbed 'Lamhenbi' by their family members.
They have no place to stay and spend the night outside, and in the process are exposed to the harassment of armed personnel.
Even if they want to give up such lifestyles and manage to give up their drug habit after undergoing treatment at some drug rehabilitation centres and acquiring vocational training, the reluctance of their near and dear ones to accept them and the discrimination demonstrated lead to self imposed low esteem and constrain them to continue to live in the wilderness.
On the other hand, howsoever notorious a young man might be in the society, there is always a place for them in the family and the society.
They would find a plateful of rice when they return home and a bed to sleep and would inherit the family properties when their parents pass away.
However it is a different story for the women.
They get no assistance, either from their family or society , thus forcing them to drift apart further from their families and the society at large.
This is the story of Bina (name changed on request) .
"After I was chased out from my house, I have been spending most of my nights either at the hotels of my friends or on the verandahs of shops and gullies in the Bazar," 35-year old Bina said while talking to The Sangai Express.
Bina is of the view that most of the women drug addicts and commercial sex workers in Manipur have become so in their efforts to find a road to save themselves from poverty or atrocities in their families.
Talking about herself, Bina recalled that she had been married off at a young age by her stepmother and father.
However as she could not bear children, her husband and in-laws started ill treating her.
Subsequently, her husband married another woman and she had to return to her parental home.
After coming back to her parental home, Bina started working in a house at Kakhulong in assisting brewing local wine to earn money for her sustenance.
'While searching for a means to earn atleast some money for my sustenance, I took up brewing wine.
For brewing one pot of wine, I was given Rs 30 and at the maximum three such pots could be brewed'', she informed.
But on the flip side, while getting along with others in the same profesion, Bina started drinking and gradually went on to taking drugs.
She also started a road side hotel of her own.
But it did not last.
As the meagre income she was earning was not enough to meet the demand of her drug habit, she also got in to the flesh trade and contracted HIV.
Determined to keep give up her drug habit and lifestyle of a commercial sex worker, Bina had undergone treatment a rehabilitation centre under the Ministry of Human Resource Development many a time.
In this regard, Bina said that as long as she was staying and undergoing treatment at the rehabilitation centre, she could stay away from drug and also learn vocational training.
But once she came out of the rehabilitation centre, she returned to her old habit as she has nowhere else to go.
On the plights of the female IDUs in Manipur, project co-ordinator of SASO/Alliance Female IDUs (FIDUs) Chandragini explained that even if all the possible assistance are being extended to the FIDUs who come to SASO, the greatest problem is the absence of a night shelter home for these women.
So abandoning of the FIDUs by the family members could become the main factor behind their continued drug abuse and indulge in flesh trade.
Chandragini further informed that starting from truck drivers to policemen and Army personnel and even teenaged boys are going to these women as their customers thus increasing the chances of spreading HIV among the general population.
''So if we are stop spread of HIV, the support of the family in rehabilitating these FIDUs and sex workers is very much essential'', she said.
She also emphasised on the need for setting up a night shelter home for these cast out women.
It may be noted here that in accordance to the Sentinel Surveillance Report of MACS, among the high risk groups the rate of HIV prevalence among female sex workers accounts for 11.6 percent in Manipur.
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