Manipur is a cauldron of strife, made worse by frequent excesses by security forces, granted impunity by a law–the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)–that provides them immunity from prosecution and has been in operation for 36 years, 10 more than in Kashmir.
More than 20,000 widows in Manipur have lost their husbands to extra-judicial killings by either state or non-state forces, and a large number of widows here are HIV positive following an HIV epidemic that gripped the state in the 1990s. More than 700,000 educated youth are unemployed because there are few industries and private enterprises; young Manipuris stream out into India’s largest cities, their education, fluency with English and neat demeanour offering them employment across the country.
Manipur also has the lowest percentage of women drug users living with a partner or spouse (12%), an indicator of their social and economic vulnerability. According to several studies on drug use among women, the primary reasons for initiation are stress, tension, and the influence of friends, spouse or sexual partners.
Of the 236 women registered with the Nirvana Foundation in Imphal, where Boinu now lives, 205 are sex workers. For more than half of Manipur’s women addicts, drug peddling and sex work are the primary sources of income, according to the 2015 UNODC study–again, the highest in the northeast.
