Imphal: For Meitei children living in a relief camp set up in a girl’s college at Imphal’s Akampat, a government school located just metres away has become a source of comfort.
On 3 May, ethnic clashes broke out between the non-tribal Meiteis and tribal Kukis in Manipur. In the violence that continues to be reported since, over 150 people have been killed and several thousands displaced.
Among the many displaced were the children now living at Ideal Girls’ College. To these children, already burdened with horrific images of people trying to flee as their homes were swallowed up by flames, the Eastern Ideal High School in Imphal’s Singjamei Wangma signifies normalcy. Within its walls, they make friends, talk to teachers, play games, study, and for a few moments, forget their trauma.
The Manipur state school education department has asked all district and school authorities to allow displaced students to be enrolled in state-run and government-aided schools. As a result, Eastern Ideal High School has welcomed over 199 such students, all of them striving to adapt to a new environment.
The relief camp they come from shelters over 700 Meiteis — all driven out of their homes in Moreh. And after spending a day at school, it’s back to the camp at Ideal Girls’ College, Akampat.
“Sometimes they cry and express their longing to go back home. In those moments, we reassure them that we will all return soon,” Samananda, a Meitei who lives at the relief camp and also volunteers there, told ThePrint. “I don’t have the heart to tell them that we are never returning. I can’t tell them that their houses too were reduced to ashes. They are too young to understand.”
At the camp, everything is shared — whether it’s cooked meals, watching television or each other’s stories. There’s strength, and solace, in numbers.
Through a series of photographs, ThePrint’s national photo editor Praveen Jain offers a glimpse into the lives of Meiteis who were displaced from their village in Tengnoupal’s Moreh.
