Students in violence-hit Manipur face uncertain future ahead

Fifteen-year-old Pushpa Karam fears she will not be able to perform well in the class 10 examinations next year. Her home in the Torbung Bangla area in Churachandpur district of Manipur has been gutted by the recent ethnic violence.

Karam is taking shelter in a relief camp in the Kunbi area of neighbouring Bishnupur district, along with 42 other school-going students and their families. She has been forced to miss her mathematics and English lessons. “I fear I won’t perform well in the class 10 board examination next year, which might affect my dreams of enrolling in a good school in Imphal,” Karam said.

Karam is among around 4,000 school-going students who have been affected by the recent ethnic violence in Manipur. Of these, around 1,000 have been rendered homeless in Churachandpur and affected areas of neighbouring Bishnupur district, while the remaining are from Imphal East district and Moreh town, officials said. While the students fear they might lose an academic year as they will not be able to return to their schools in the affected areas, their parents’ immediate concern is to have a permanent place to stay.

“My books, study materials, and even all school documents were in my house, which was burned.” My father says we cannot return to Churachandpur anymore. I don’t know where I will go to school,” 15-year-old Anu Irom Chanu, a student at Don Bosco School in Churachandpur, said. She is taking shelter with her family in a community hall in Moirang, in neighbouring Bishnupur district.