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Behind Manipur violence, a ‘war on drugs’ that wasn’t

The most widely available drug in Manipur is a shimmering red-and-white powder that the residents in the valley areas of the state call ‘Thum Morok ’ or salt and chilli. It has replaced the deadly white powder ‘Number 4’ heroin, which was originally produced in factories run by the druglord Khun Sa of the Shan State Army in Myanmar. In the 1990s, Sa had 10,000 armed cadres, and operating from the Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, he accounted for 25% of the world’s heroin production.

The relatively newer Thum Morok , a variant of the purer 'Number 4', entered the market in the last two decades. It is now also produced locally in Manipur in ‘mobile factories’ or semi-settled drug production units that churn out heroin powder that costs as little as Rs 100 a gram, one-fifth of the price of one gram of ‘Number 4’ heroin.

This has led to an increase in the number of drug addicts in rehabilitation centres in Manipur, say government officials and activists working to reduce drug addiction. The state’s 105 drug rehabilitation centres are almost always at full capacity and the average age at which youngsters get addicted has decreased substantially from 20-21 years when the powder first made its appearance to around 14-15 years, with even high school students becoming addicts now.

These developments come at a time the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has claimed that it is fighting a ‘War on Drugs’, a publicised crackdown on narcotics and, in particular, the cultivation of poppy, a plant that is a major source of raw opium used in manufacturing heroin. The anti-drug initiatives were one of the main poll planks of the BJP when it rose to power in 2017. The issue has also become a topic of discussion during the current ethnic conflict in Manipur with the tribal Kuki community claiming that the drive is solely concentrating on targeting hill-based farmers who grow poppy and not taking on drug cartels that finance them.

The state government led by N Biren Singh has announced the removal of 15,000 acres of poppy fields, mainly in Kuki-dominated hill areas, and the arrest of over 2,500 people involved in drug-related cases since 2017. But in conversations with those working on drug rehabilitation as well as those involved in the production and sale of the drugs in the state, TNM has found that even as the state claims to wage a ‘War on Drugs’, the supply of heroin continues unabated and the price of the drug in the market has only reduced.

This is even as the ongoing conflict has continued for more than three months claiming over 160 lives and displacing 50,000 others. Many believe that the funding of underground armed groups in the region is linked to the drug trade and is one of the reasons for the brutal nature of the conflict. Those involved in the fight against drug abuse at the grassroots level say that an entire generation of youngsters in the region are at risk.

While it is difficult to ascertain when heroin was first introduced in Manipur, there are instances showing its use as early as the 1980s. Manipur’s location in the north-eastern corner of India made it a convenient route for drugs from the Golden Triangle – an area at the tri-junction of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar – which is home to a thriving narcotics industry.

Before the emergence of Thum Morok , the most popular drug in the region was ‘Number 4’ heroin. “I tried ‘Number 4’ for the first time in 1985,” says Thangkhansut, a 59-year-old recovering drug addict in a rehabilitation centre in Churachandpur, a hill district. The name ‘Number 4’ refers to the fourth stage of refinement, which is the purest form of heroin.

At the time, Thangkhansut was 21 and worked in the border town of Moreh, close to Myanmar, helping transport timber to different areas in Manipur. “I remember we were curious what it would feel like. And after the first puff… we were soon taking three hits a day to help us get through work,” he says. He would spend Rs 30-50 everyday to buy ‘pieces’ of the powder at a time when his daily earnings were only Rs 100.

Drug rehabilitation centre in Imphal, Manipur

'Number 4' heroin was synthesised from opium, a narcotic substance, extracted from poppy plants grown in Myanmar's Shan state in this period. “It began due to the junta (Myanmar army) changing its policies over ethnic insurgencies in the 1990s and becoming more flexible about narcotics,” says Homen Thangjam, an Imphal-based political economist who has carried out field research on the Indo-Myanmar narcotics trade.

By the 2010s, a ripple effect was observed in Manipur with the proliferation of poppy fields in the hill areas of the state where the Kuki population lived. Writing in a paper titled ‘Rise of Alternative Agriculture-Poppy Cultivation’, Homen says, “Today, no hill district of the state is free from poppy cultivation.”

When TNM visited Kangpokpi district this week, farmers were open to discussing their illicit crop. “The paddy crops in our village failed two years ago and around ten families shifted to cultivating poppy. They got the seeds from a seller in Sajik Tampak (in Chandel) and the plants popped up,“ says Paokam Kipgen, a village chief from Saikul. “To those unaware, it looked like a colourful field of flowers,” he says.

Almost all village chiefs like Paokam who have lived through several conflicts in the region have a story to tell of being displaced when armed groups battled each other or against the army.

The Kuki community practises jhum or shifting cultivation, by which patches of forest land are burned to cultivate crops like rice and maize. Both crops are water intensive and require careful transplantation in the rains.

There are few job opportunities available in rural areas of Manipur outside of agricultural work and the state regularly records a high unemployment rate. The Union government’s annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PFLS) in 2022 showed that the state has a high unemployment rate of 9%, more than double the national average of 4.1%, and higher than all the other states in the region.

A hill range in Imphal East district in Manipur

So poppy, a low-risk cash crop, became a lucrative alternative to farmers because it took only four months from planting to harvesting the plant’s sticky, intoxicating sap. The bounty was both portable and hugely profitable. “A year’s harvest would fit in a pouch and if we are lucky, the profit from cultivating one acre of land could run into lakhs,” says Paokam. “Brokers come to buy raw opium as soon as it is harvested,” he says.

Homen’s research shows that a 1.75 acre poppy field can grow 5 kg of opium that is worth as much as Rs 6.5 lakh, five times the cost of cultivation. Farmers also say there’s a long list of people that they need to pay off with their earnings including village chiefs, local police, and the militant group active in their village.

Even though poppy plants are grown mainly in Manipur’s hill districts, the opium trade also involves Meitei Hindus, Muslims, Nagas and Nepalis from the valley. Manipur police data showed that 2,518 people have been arrested in drug-related cases since 2017. Of them, the highest – 1,083 – are Meitei Pangals, a valley-based ethnic group that follows Islam, followed by Kukis – 873, and Meiteis – 381.

In 2019, the state police busted five ‘mobile factories’, which process and churn out heroin, either Thum Morok or another adulterated version of heroin called ‘brown sugar’. Four of the laboratories were in Thoubal district, in areas dominated by Meitei Pangals. The other was in Kangpokpi district, where heroin worth Rs 165 crore was seized during a raid on the residence of two men from the Naga community.

Despite efforts by the police to close down laboratories producing heroin, many of them continue to operate, say civil rights groups. “Most of the people arrested got out on bail and restarted their laboratories, this time more discreetly,” says Mohammed Habibulla, secretary of the Anjuman Islah-E-Muashra, which worked with the Manipur police on the raids in Thoubal.

Those who are caught are only a small part of the supply chain involved in the drug trade. “The lower level peddlers are getting disproportionate attention from the police but the kingpins are the ones profiting from the processed drugs,” says a former police officer. “It is hard to ascertain who they are with evidence but it is clear that these financiers come from all the major communities,” the former officer says.

Kuki and Zo groups opposing Chief Minister Biren Singh say the ‘War on Drugs’ waged by the Meitei-led government is a ruse to uproot their communities, adding that the conflict has been used to further this narrative. Their distrust is rooted in years of opposition to Biren Singh’s policies going back to 2015. At the time, Kuki-Zo groups opposed Biren Singh, then in the Congress-led state government, over three key bills that encompassed the identity, land rights, and livelihood of Manipur’s residents – the Protection of Manipur People Bill, Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Bill, and Manipur Shops and Establishments Bill.

“The first bill sought to define a Manipuri as someone who came to the state before 1951. The two other bills sought to take powers in relation to land use and businesses away from autonomous district councils (ADCs) and entrust them to the state government,” says H Mangchinkhup, an academic from Churachandpur who was the chief convener of the Joint Action Committee against Anti-Tribal Bills. ADCs were established to address concerns of under-representation from tribal areas when the state was formed in 1972. “There was little or no consultation with tribal communities over these bills,” he says.

Village volunteers defending a village in Saikul, Manipur

After Biren Singh joined the BJP and became Chief Minister in 2017, versions of these bills have turned into reality, says Mangchinkhup. It was around this time, from November 2018, the state government began publicising its anti-drug campaign.

“Many Kuki villages have supported the campaign against drugs but there is a need to target those who are profiting from the drug trade," says Hejang Misao, who runs the non-profit Inside Northeast in Kangpokpi district. "Only then can the ‘War on Drugs’ hope to succeed,” says Hejang.

The drug trade in Manipur also involves processed heroin from Myanmar entering the state through its 400 km long international border. This route through Manipur’s hill and valley areas has been at the centre of conflicts and civil insurgencies in the past with dozens of armed militia fighting each other, or against the state. "This is because a lot of money is involved," says Lieutenant General L Nishikanta Singh (retired).

The Golden Triangle is second only to the Golden Crescent, the areas covering the mountainous peripheries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the production of opium in the world. Major Indian cities including New Delhi receive opioid drugs like heroin from one of these two regions.

The last time there was violence of this scale in Manipur was arguably during the Kuki-Naga conflict in the 1990s, and the reason for the clash was, among other factors, control over the drug trade. “The two groups wanted to control Moreh, the highways, and Dimapur,” says  Lt Gen Nishikanta (retired), who was posted in Manipur during the conflict.

Moreh, a town close to the Indo-Myanmar border, was a convenient spot to transport smuggled drugs from Myanmar into India, and Dimapur in Nagaland, which had the only railway station in the state for over 100 years until 2022, was an important transit point to transport the drugs within India. Control over the highway checkposts was crucial to allow drugs to pass through.

“The Kuki community raised their armed groups – Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and Kuki National Army (KNA) –to oppose the Nagas in this period of conflict and even though they suffered more casualties, the Kuki groups considered it crucial that they managed to retain Moreh,” says Lt Gen Nishikanta (retired).

Even today, the Manipur state government’s rhetoric in its ‘War on Drugs’ claims that Kuki militant groups, which allegedly harbour “illegal” immigrants from Myanmar, are helping the local population residing in the hills grow poppy and extract opium. The Chin people of Myanmar and the Mizo people of Mizoram are kindred tribes of the Kukis.

In an interview in March, CM Biren Singh said it in as many words. “These people (the Kukis) are encroaching everywhere, whether reserved forests, protected forests, doing poppy plantations, and drug business.” Hoardings put up around Imphal drive home the same message, and a term often repeated by Meitei academics and civil society groups is ‘narco-terrorist’ in apparent reference to the Kuki community.

Hoardings denouncing poppy cultivation in Uripok, Imphal, Manipur

While Kuki militant groups have publicly denounced the cultivation of poppy, an article by a police officer in 2019 stated that the drug trade is a major source of income for some groups. Lunsieh Kipgen, who is currently Manipur’s Inspector General of Prisons, wrote, “There are credible inputs that some armed groups irrespective of Suspension of Operation (SoO) and non-SoO groups are sponsoring poppy plantations to fund their organisational requirements.” An SoO agreement stipulates that armed groups will surrender their weapons, join peace talks, and stay in designated camps.

Kipgen, a Kuki himself, further added, “Certain hill-based non-SoO armed groups were not only expressing their open support for poppy cultivation but also threatening to confront groups that try to obstruct poppy cultivation.”

Poppy fields in Manipur are not limited to Kuki areas alone but are also seen in Ukhrul and Chandel, which are Naga-dominated districts. The Manipur police stated in a release in May 2023 that it had cleared 15,496 acres of poppy fields since 2017, of which 84% were in Kuki-dominated areas and 15% were in Naga-dominated areas.

However, activists say that the state government’s anti-drug initiatives, while focusing on clearing poppy fields, is yet to establish the total area of poppy cultivation in the state. Lunsieh Kipgen wrote that the fields destroyed are less than a third of the total area of cultivation. The anti-drug campaigns are also viewed with suspicion because on most occasions, suspected drug lords have been able to escape arrest and scrutiny.

An example of this was the case of former BJP member and alleged drug lord from the Kuki community, Lhukhosei Zou, who was arrested in June 2018 in one of the biggest drug-related raids in Manipur history. The police officer who led the raid, Brinda Thounaojam, who is now an opposition politician with the Janata Dal (United), later revealed in a court affidavit in 2020 that Chief Minister Biren Singh attempted to shield Zou from arrest. Zou spent around six months in jail before he was released on bail.

Brinda believes the Chief Minister attempted to slow down the case because of financial and political considerations. “Zou was the right-hand man of the CM’s wife Olice, who is also an MLA. He is from the Kuki community and their votes are important to get Olice elected,” says Brinda.

Brinda Thounaojam, politician with the Janata Dal (United) in Manipur

Similar concerns have been raised by others including a BJP legislator belonging to the Meitei community. In May this year, MLA Khwairakpam Raghumani Singh wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the seizure of opium from two Meitei men by the Delhi Police in February 2023. He felt that “a well-connected family and very powerful political families (were) involved” in the drug trade in Manipur.

“The anti-drugs campaign is a selective assault on certain groups of people while protecting others close to the ruling disposition. It is clear that the narcotics trade has continued despite the state’s campaign,” Brinda says.

The outcome is the cheap and easy availability of drugs and an increasing number of drug addicts in the state’s rehabilitation centres. TNM’s visits to at least six drug rehabilitation centres, three each in the hill and valley districts, showed that all centres were operating at nearly full capacity.

The last available data for drug users in the state is a 2019 study by the Union Ministry of Social Justice which recorded 34,344 injecting drug users in Manipur, more than any other state in the region. “These are just injecting drug users. The overall number of addicts recorded in 2019 was over 1 lakh,” says Konsam Saroja Devi, Deputy Director, Social Welfare Department. “We estimate the number of drug users has only increased in the last four years,” says Saroja.

Records maintained in drug rehab centres show the price of heroin has dropped drastically in the state. ‘Number 4’ heroin used to cost as high as Rs 3,000 per gram 10 years ago. It is now down to Rs 500 per gram. The price of Thum Morok in comparison has fallen from as high as Rs 800 to Rs 300 per gram in the valley areas in the same period. In the hill districts, the price of a similar drug that the locals call ‘brown sugar’ costs only Rs 100 per gram.

The reduction in the price and the increase in the availability of heroin, especially Thum Morok , has coincided with youngsters as young as 14 becoming addiction risks.

Sam, 24, currently recovering in an Imphal-based drug rehabilitation centre, hardly remembers the first time he injected heroin after he was offered a hit by his seniors in high school. “All I remember is that I vomited continuously,” Sam says. “I couldn’t stand it… But the next time I tried it, I felt like chasing that feeling. It was as though all my problems had vanished,” says Sam. “Even after high school was over and my friends moved on, I continued to chase that feeling,” he says.

“Some of my friends like to play football or watch action movies but I like to wear my headphones and listen to rock music when I inject myself. A lot of Linkin Park and Slipknot,” he says. “I never thought that I was addicted.” Like many others in rehab now, Sam has not been able to hold a job and has depended on his parents to fund his drug addiction.

Others like Kapsuanmung, 19, currently at a drug rehabilitation centre in Churachandpur, were pushed into drugs due to socio-economic vulnerability. “I used to work as a construction labourer in Imphal and once I was addicted, I could not stop myself from taking hits. Even when I earned only Rs 300-400 in a day, I would make sure I kept money aside to buy two or three hits,” says Kapsuanmung.

Even the number of women taking drugs has slowly increased. “There is at least a level of acceptance about men becoming drug addicts. Women are chased out by families,” says Jess, a 25-year-old former drug addict who is now working at a community centre fighting drug abuse in Imphal. Survived only by her father, she says she was sent to a drug rehab far from home when her addiction was discovered. “I felt like there was no one to open up to when my addiction became known,” says Jess.

Almost all younger addicts interviewed say their choice of drug was Thum Morok .

Unlike its purer cousin which induces a euphoric high that lasts four hours, Thum Morok is a milder heroin that makes one feel lethargic and sleepy with a high that lasts for, at most, an hour.  “It is still better than nothing since it gives a kick,” says Sam. “I have tried injecting it ten times a day to keep the high going,” he says. “For addicts, the only question everyday is where is our next hit coming from.”

Capsules with the Thum Morok powder

Activists argue that the ‘War on Drugs’ should acknowledge the scale of drug addiction in Manipur. “Poppy cultivation is only one part of the challenge,” says RK Nalinikanta, a former drug user, and president of the Community Network for Empowerment, an Imphal-based organisation working to reduce drug addiction. “The state is fighting a ‘War on Drugs’ without knowing how many people are affected by this issue. How will we know down the line if we have made any progress?,” he asks.

“More importantly, people who inject drugs are viewed as criminals,” says Nalinikanta. “We should be viewed as victims of drug trafficking and this issue should be considered a public health issue instead of a criminal one,” he says.

“Especially now that it (heroin) has become accessible to everyone and not just the rich,” he says. “Just like salt and chilli.”

All photographs by Bhuvan Mallik

Manipur Dispatches: Our reporters Prajwal Bhat, Haritha John and Bhuvan Malik are in Manipur to provide you with exclusive, in-depth ground reports that delve into the heart of the matter. If you believe that human rights violations in a distant land should be a topic of conversation in this part of India, support our intrepid truth-seeking mission.  Contribute here.

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Behind India’s Manipur conflict: A tale of drugs, armed groups and politics

The drug trade has played a significant role in the political landscape as well as in heightening the conflict in Manipur.

Sugnu, India – Ratan Kumar Singh, a 58-year-old high school teacher, never imagined he would be happy to see armed fighters, or “revolutionaries” as he called them. But on May 28 last year, Singh welcomed them to his town of Sugnu in Manipur, a state in India’s northeast corner bordering Myanmar.

For nearly three weeks, the small town had managed to dodge the ethnic violence between the Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribespeople that had engulfed the rest of the state since May 3. But that day, four people were killed in the area and 12 injured as bullets found their way from surrounding hilly regions and from a camp dominated by the Kuki-Zo community.

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“Then they started burning our houses. Our reinforcements, including the police and our civilian volunteers, started firing back. It was only when the revolutionaries came that we succeeded in overcoming the other side,” Singh told Al Jazeera.

“We were never for gun violence… but when we saw the revolutionaries and other Meitei volunteers come on that day, we cried [out of happiness] because we knew we would be safe.”

The fighters who came to defend Sugnu were, like him, ethnically Meitei.

Eleven months on, the conflict has killed 219 people, injured 1,100, displaced 60,000 and divided the state into ethnic territories. Armed groups have been fighting battles using sophisticated weapons and explosives in rural parts for territorial control even as more than 60,000 armed forces of the federal government and the state have so far failed to bring a durable end to the violence.

Each episode of violence and killing has punctured the claims of bridging divides that prime minister and right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narendra Modi made during an election rally two years ago when he was campaigning for re-election of his party’s chief minister, N Biren Singh, a Meitei.

“From ‘blockade state’, Manipur is paving the way for international trade. Our government has launched… campaigns to bridge the gaps between the Hill and the Valley,” he said during the rally.

Modi was referring to the historical discrimination felt by tribal communities, including the Kukis, who live on the hillsides and feel that the Meitei community is economically more prosperous than them and are in the majority in the smaller valleys and the capital, Imphal. Modi said Chief Minister Singh’s policies had fostered a more integrated relationship between the hill and valley communities.

It appeared true at the time. In several parts of the hills, the civil society and the rebel groups of the Kuki-Zo community canvassed for Chief Minister Singh, and top politicians of the tribal community lined up for tickets from his party.

Chief Minister Singh swept the elections. In his second tenure beginning 2022, the BJP won five of the 10 state assembly seats from the Kuki-dominated hill constituencies. BJP legislators (MLAs) from these constituencies increased to seven after two of the Kuki MLAs who had won on Janata Dal United tickets defected to the governing party in September 2022. Two out of seven MLAs became ministers in his cabinet.

However, two years later, Modi and Singh’s claims bit dust, with Manipur witnessing unending ethnic violence between the Kuki and Meitei people, arguably, the longest-running ethnic conflict the country has witnessed in the 21st century.

Now, as the state prepares to vote in national elections on April 19 and April 26, those divisions have become entrenched, with a resurgence in armed groups formed along ethnic lines, as the first part of this series showed. It also revealed a presentation by the Assam Rifles that listed several factors that played a role in igniting the conflict: illegal immigrants from Myanmar, the demand for Kukiland, political authoritarianism and ambition of Chief Minister Singh and his war on drugs among others.

A joint force of Police, Forest & MR carried out a Poppy destruction drive at Tora Champhung Hill Range under Ukhrul district. 16 hectares of illicit poppy fields were destroyed, 20 huts burned, and other infrastructures such as pipeline connection, fertilizers, salt,… pic.twitter.com/8S2YE7MiZI — N.Biren Singh (Modi Ka Parivar) (@NBirenSingh) November 15, 2023

The war on drugs first played a significant role in the political landscape and later in fuelling the conflict in Manipur. This concluding part of the series investigates how the drug trade and politics over it have roiled Manipur.

The war on drugs

In 2018, still in his first term as chief minister, Singh announced his war on drugs.

“Thousands of hectares of land are used for poppy cultivation in areas near the international border with Myanmar,” he told the media.

Poor economic conditions, lack of job opportunities and easy availability of drugs had led to a high number of drug addicts in the state, he said.

He was not wrong. Manipur sits adjacent to the infamous “Golden Triangle”, an area in Southeast Asia covering civil war-torn Myanmar. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines the region as one of the “biggest drug trafficking corridors in the world”. Heroin, opium and synthetic drugs like methamphetamine from the region are “feeding the whole of the Asia Pacific [region]”, the UN said.

The spillover of the trade into Manipur has an old history.

“The drug trade has caught up in Manipur in the last 15 years. [Recently,] the US, other Western countries and the United Nations [have] started going after Myanmar and the Golden Triangle,” Lieutenant General Konsam Himalay Singh, a Meitei, who retired in 2017, told me.

He added, “As a result, the Golden Triangle extended towards the West [into Manipur]. It was accelerated by the armed groups who found easy money.”

He was referring to the array of armed rebel groups of different ethnicities, including the Kuki and Meitei fighters, that proliferate in Manipur and are involved in the drug trade across the porous borders with Myanmar.

By several accounts, the drug trade has seen a rise over the past two decades.

“During the ’90s and ’80s, there were only some hotspots in Manipur where drugs were sold. Now, it is found everywhere” across the state, said Maibam Jogesh, co-convenor of the 3.5 Collective, a coalition of 18 civil society groups campaigning against the drug and alcohol menace.

Jogesh, who also heads the Users Society for Effective Response – one of the oldest community organisations of drug abuse victims in the state – said their field workers had found poppy cultivation in the hills of Manipur as far back as 2006.

“In the last six to seven years, manufacturing units have come up in several parts of the state, even Imphal,” he added. The locally made, cruder version, called Thum Morok – the Meitei phrase for salt and chilli – came to replace the “Number 4″ heroin, which was produced in Myanmar.

In mid-December, “the cost of Thum Morok was 500 rupees per gramme [$6 per 0.03 ounces]. Compared to this, 20 years ago, you could buy Number 4 from Myanmar for 1,200 rupees per gramme [$14.40 per 0.03 ounces],” Jogesh added.

As a result, the number of drug users also increased.

Back in June 2023, Manipur police’s then-superintendent of Narcotics and Border Affairs and current police superintendent of the Bishnupur district, K Meghachandra, told me, “There is cultivation in the hills. Now in the valley, a lot of processing units have been established, particularly in the Thoubal and Bishnupur districts,” which adjoin the hill areas. “The processing units [of brown sugar] are mainly in the Muslim areas,” Meghachandra said. He added, “In Imphal, Meiteis are the transporters.”

According to the data he shared, of the 2,518 arrests made in drug cases since 2017, 873 were “Kuki-Chin” people, 1,083 were Muslims, 381 were Meiteis and 181 were “others”.

That month, sitting inside a shanty house in a corner of the Churachandpur district, which is dominated by the Kuki-Zo community, I met a few poppy cultivators.

“I switched to poppy cultivation in 2014 because in those days a kilo of chilli was 50 rupees to 60 rupees [$0.27 – $0.33 per pound]. I couldn’t depend on that. The cost of living is high and I have seven kids,” said one of the cultivators, who didn’t wish to be named.

Today, the drug economy accounts roughly for 700 billion rupees per year ($8.37bn), but only about 20 billion rupees to 25 billion rupees ($240m to $300m) of drugs are intercepted annually, which is less than 5 percent, said Himalay Singh.

The government does not officially put out such estimates, so Al Jazeera could not verify these numbers. But in February 2020, the authorities said, over two and a half years, the government had seized drugs worth more than 20 billion rupees ($240m) and busted five drugs manufacturing makeshift factories in Manipur.

For a tiny state with a population of about 2.72 million people and an annual economy of slightly more than 400 billion rupees ($4.78bn), this is a significant haul. According to an answer to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha, 1,728kg (3,909 pounds) of heroin was seized from across the country in 2021 and 2022, which going by the typical retail price of heroin as reported by the UNODC in 2021, was worth $213.24m.

Five months after the chief minister announced a war on drugs, his wife was accused of having connections to an alleged drug lord from the Kuki-Zo community. The claim came from no less than the additional superintendent of police in the Narcotics and Affairs of Border Bureau, Thounaojam Brinda, who later resigned.

In an explosive affidavit to the Manipur High Court, she accused the chief minister of pressuring her to drop the case against an alleged “drug kingpin”, BJP leader and former head of Autonomous District Council (ADC), Lhukhosei Zou.

Brinda, in the affidavit – which Al Jazeera accessed – said she had received a call from then vice president of the Manipur BJP, Asnikumar Moirangthem, a Meitei, on the morning after a raid at Zou’s quarters was reported to have yielded 4.595kg (10 pounds) of heroin powder and 280,200 Yaba (methamphetamine) tablets.

“He told me that the arrested ADC chairman turned out to be CM’s second wife Olice’s [SS Olish] right-hand man in Chandel and that Olice was furious about the arrest,” she wrote in the affidavit and added, “He told me that CM had ordered that the arrested ADC chairman be exchanged with his wife or son and to release him.”

Zou, who had jumped bail, was later acquitted of all charges. All those named by Brinda in her affidavit have denied their role in the drug trade before the courts and in public statements, and none have been convicted of any offences.

The Reporters’ Collective’s questions to the chief minister’s officers, S S Olish and Asnikumar Moirangthem, about the allegations remained unanswered.

In her affidavit, Brinda claimed the authorities caught a small fry while giving a pass to “high-profile drug lords with political connections and politicians themselves”.

The Kuki-dominated hills border Myanmar, and there are recorded cases of the border region being used as routes to funnel drugs just as in other hilly parts of Manipur and other states bordering Myanmar.

“A trade of this volume can only be run with political patronage. In Manipur, politicians, traders and insurgent groups are part of the trade,” a senior retired police officer familiar with intelligence operations in the region told me.

What is audacious is Manipur has one of the largest presence of paramilitary forces, the army and intelligence in the country.

When asked if suspicions over security personnel being involved in the drug trade could be true, Himalay Singh said, “I can’t rule out any individual.”

The retired police officer, too, said, “Moreh [an Indo-Myanmar border town] has been a critical point of smuggling, extortion or loot by security forces.”

Al Jazeera couldn’t verify this independently. But, back in 2022, a Manipur policeman and an Assam Rifles soldier were arrested in Guwahati with banned Yaba tablets worth 200 billion rupees ($2.4bn). According to news reports at the time, the consignment was being smuggled from Moreh.

While it is unclear if any disequilibrium in the drug trade could have led to the crisis, the first part of this series looked at the immediate causes of the conflict based on a presentation by the Assam Rifles on the Manipur conflict.

In fact, Moreh has come to be the most recent flashpoint in the conflict between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities with intermittent fighting taking place there since the end of December. This took a drastic turn on January 17 with a 20-hour gunfight ensuing between Kuki fighters and the Manipur police commandos.

In February, India scrapped the Indo–Myanmar Free Movement Regime (FMR) where residents within 16km (10 miles) of the border had been allowed to cross without a visa, using just a border pass, a move vehemently opposed by the local Kuki-Zo and Naga groups.

With accusations against him petering off, Biren in 2022 claimed again his war on drugs was going well. In January 2022, in a post on X, the chief minister said the government had destroyed 110 acres (about 45 hectares) of poppy cultivation in the hills.

A year later when the conflict began in May 2023, several Meitei civil society organisations gave the drug trade a communal colour by claiming that drug running was largely the business of the Kuki community. On social media, the Kuki community at large was targeted as “Narco Terrorists”. The trope caught on.

Meanwhile, the rift between his party’s elected representatives in the state assembly from the Kuki and Meitei communities came out in the open. The Kuki political leaders accused the chief minister of communalising the state and targeting their community by supporting new Meitei armed groups, Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun.

These were the same MLAs who, with the overt support of the Kuki armed groups, had backed Chief Minister Singh in 2022.

“They are part and parcel of tribal politics. If someone wants to fight elections, you need to have their blessing. After the candidates they sponsor get elected, they [the armed groups] get different contracts [from the government],” said a political observer in the state who declined to be named because of concerns for his safety.

As the ethnic conflict intensifies, both rebel groups and political leaders from the Kuki community, who once allied with the Meitei chief minister, are now visibly distancing themselves.

Unlike the 2019 general elections when it fielded a Kuki-Zo, this time the BJP does not have a candidate for the Outer Manipur seat, which covers the hill districts. But in its campaign for the Inner Manipur (valley) seat, it says its focus is on saving the “indigenous people of Manipur” by fencing the Indo-Myanmar border, ending the Free Movement Regime, the “identification of illegal immigrants”, among other issues that have played into the conflict so far.

Demand for a separate state

Despite holding Biren Singh responsible for the ethnic conflict, Kuki leaders within the BJP have not yet resigned either from his cabinet or the party.

During this period, various Kuki-Zo civil society groups have emerged as prominent advocates for their community’s rights and demands. One of the key demands these groups have consistently rallied around since the onset of the conflict is the establishment of a separate administration, cleaved out of Manipur. This proposition was initially put forth by 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs, seven of whom belong to the BJP.

“Unfortunately, they [the Centre] have been trying to play it down and my reading is that they have been trying or are really buying into Biren [Singh]’s narrative,” said a Kuki-Zo legislator who didn’t wish to be named.

When asked if they planned to resign from the party, the MLA said, “If today I resign from the BJP, the party … will disqualify me from the assembly,” he said, adding, “The majoritarian government is interested in making most or some of the BJP’s members resign and conduct a by-election.”

Considering the anger against the Meitei community, and particularly against Biren Singh, it seems impossible for a candidate endorsed by the state chief minister to win a by-election in the Kuki-dominated hills.

But the MLA hinted otherwise. “Our people being tribals, if there is a by-election they will have a field day splitting people along party lines. That is what they wanted and that has been how politics has been played in India.”

In the upcoming elections, no Kuki-Zo candidates are contesting. All the candidates in the fray for the Outer Manipur seat are Naga with the BJP backing the Naga People’s Front candidate.

The layers of Manipur politics, the linkages between the political elite and their interests across ethnic divides, defy a simpler image of a clash between two communities.

Gun-toting men, young and old, now sit and guard their villages from the neighbouring Kuki and Meitei villages. Every few days, there are headlines on gunfire exchanges and deaths.

According to a retired police officer, who is familiar with intelligence gathering in India’s northeastern states, this kind of “low-grade violence is more dangerous”.

“These are indications that people are being recruited and trained,” he said. Asked what this conflict would spell for the illicit drug trade, he said, “In times of instability, trans-shipment and running becomes more active.”

“The Meiteis can’t go to the hills, and the Kukis can’t come to the valley. But the drugs can still go everywhere,” said Jogesh of the 3.5 Collective.

Angana Chakrabarti is an associate member of The Reporters’ Collective.

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‘War on Drugs’ Campaign- Means to End Drug Trafficking in Manipur?

Progress and development are slowly but steadily taking place in Manipur, focussing on physical connectivity, new infrastructural projects, promoting tourism, and building new educational institutions and other related parameters to facilitate a secure life and prosperous economy. This will further contribute to empowering the state and the people as a platform for India’s Act East Policy by connecting with Southeast Asian (SEA) nations and beyond. Nevertheless, this new light at the end of the tunnel gets perturbed due to the widespread prevalence of drug trafficking via the porous Indo-Myanmar Border (IMB) and the increase in the number of drug users in the state . Drug trafficking is not a new trend in the state; however, the unprecedented rise of poppy cultivation raises a red signal that adversely impacts the northeast regions (NER) and the rest of India.

Drug mafias or drug kingpins have developed a strong network with Manipur and Myanmar to smuggle poppy out to Golden Triangle and vice versa. To uproot such detrimental threats from the soil, the state government launched campaigns such as ‘Nisha Thadoklasi’ and ‘War on Drugs in 2018. Under this campaign, the Chief Minister of Manipur, Shri Nongthombam Biren, aimed to destroy illegal poppy cultivation in hill regions, curtailing its distribution and trade using coercive and non-coercive methods [i] . However, the recent confiscation of drugs, a total of 44.5 Kg of ‘World is Yours (WY) tablets, aka ‘party drugs’ worth Rs 9 crores and another few Kg of WY tablets of Rs 5 crores in May and August 2022, respectively in Tengnoupal district of Manipur, bordering Myanmar [ii] exemplified that it is an issue that needs serious actions. There is no estimate of those unrecorded confiscations. Given the complexity of the problem, will the ‘War on Drugs’ campaign be a solution to the problem in the state?

Tobacco products, Ganja (marijuana), Alcohol, Opium, Spasmo Proxivon ( SP), Methamphetamine (WY), Codeine cough syrup, Pseudo-Epherine etc., [iii] are some of the easily accessible drugs available in the state. Among all, opium, methamphetamine and heroin are illegally transported from Myanmar through Lashio, Mandalay and Bhamo to Manipur and Mizoram via Moreh and Champhai,   respectively [iv] . In Manipur, drug trafficking remains no longer a local trade; it has become a multi-national business involving drug mafias from countries such as China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal [v] . Similarly, other northeastern states bordering Myanmar have clandestine networks to carry out this illegal and notorious business. Figure 1 shows the diagrammatic illustration of the nucleus of drug trafficking in northeast India. From this point onwards, it further circulates the smuggled drugs to the rest of the country.

Figure 1: Nucleus of Drug Trafficking in Northeast India

Source: Pushpita Das (2018), “Security Challenges and the Management of the Indo-Myanmar Border”, Adapted by Author

Figure 2 illustrates drugs that affected NER, mainly those sharing borders with Myanmar.

Figure 2: Impact of Drugs in Northeastern States

Source: https://socialjustice.nic.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/Magnitude_Substance_Use_India_REPORT.pdf

The massive growth of illegal poppies in remote areas of Ukhrul, Senapati, Kangpokpi, Kamjong, Churachanpur and Tengnoupal districts of Manipur [Vi] , with massive investments by drug mafias has resulted in urea shortage in the state [Vii] . To control the same, the Manipur Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) department reported that 963 drug traffickers, including 768 men and 195 women, were detained between April 27 and June 2019 under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act [Viii] . Law Enforcement agencies destroyed 1,420 acres of poppy plantation between 2020 and February 2021 [iX] . In the same year, Chief Minister N Biren Singh rewarded total cash of Rs 10 lakh to a village in Ukhrul district for voluntarily destroying poppy plants grown in the village [X] . Nevertheless, the problem persists. Hence, this coercive method does not seem effective in the long run until the government looks at the root causes of the problems and the reasons that push people to take the wrong path.

Socio-economically, the poppy cultivators belong to the most underprivileged section of society. They constantly struggle for basic amenities for their survival. Therefore, they are compelled to grow poppy because it is a profitable occupation, easy to grow along with other crops with the availability of cheap labour. Poppy cultivation is a ‘magic potion’ for them to get rid of their poverty [XI] , while the investment comes from drug kingpins [XII] .

Nevertheless, destroying poppies using a coercive method is not the right approach. This approach failed in countries like Afghanistan when the Taliban tried to ban opium in the country; the same happened in Thailand and Laos [XIII] . Instead, adopting alternative methods such as introducing development livelihood programmes for the cultivators to cultivate new crops such as ginger, cardamom, and lemongrass as substitute crops to replace poppy, facilitating proper rehabilitation, and a fair amount of compensation [XIV] [XV] without targeting them as ‘poppy victims’ will gradually reduce the production of opium in the state [XVI] . This alternate method has been a successful approach in the aforementioned three countries. It will have a’ balloon effect’ without offering any alternatives and compensation for their crops, wherein the farmers will shift the poppy cultivation to the remotest areas [XVII] . Similarly, the drug mafias and drug kingpins will find other ways to continue their business by building a new and more robust network with producers, smugglers and traders.

Reports have shown the increasing instances of alcoholism and drug addicts rising ‘ to cope with the frustration in life due to lack of opportunities, poverty, unemployment, broken family or sometimes for self-amusement or to accompany friends [xviii] . Drug addicts or abusers are mostly the state’s youth since these substances are readily available at low prices. Therefore, the government must pay proper attention by looking at the inadequacy of social institutions to curb and prevent the youth from indulging in this risky habit [xix] . The usage of opium is engrained in the customs and traditions of the Manipuri society since raw opium and ganja were used as medicine or painkiller during childbirth or for religious purposes in ancient times [xx] . In addition, alcohol too is used in various social functions though it has been banned since 1991. However, the recent legalisation of liquor sales in 2022 led to dissatisfaction and demand for the government to reconsider this decision. Therefore, abolishing alcohol and eradicating illegal drug smuggling will be an onerous task if the government focuses only on coercive methods. The nexus of politicians with drug mafias involved in drug trafficking must be checked with necessary actions to uproot it entirely from society.

The government must focus on the development of the people, enhance their skills, and provide them with jobs and other related necessities in their lives. Along with stringent laws for illegal drugs and their associated activities, all sections of the society, including the local population, civil society organisations, political class, student unions and Meira Paibi/Women Torch Bearers of Manipur, should come together and fight against this societal evil. In addition, the IMB needs to be checked since the source of the influx of illegal drugs in the state comes from this porous border. Revision of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) is required with the effective functioning of the Integrated Check Post (ICP) and Land Custom Station (LCS) at the border. Otherwise, a new Golden Triangle will be emerged in India’s northeast region, reigniting the dormant insurgency with drug-induced finances. Lastly, Manipur, a potential pivot for India’s Act East policy connecting India with SEA nations, will become an insurmountable security challenge if the problem of drug trafficking is not tackled seriously.

[i] ’Nisha Thadoklasi”, Manipur Govt Declares war on drugs’, mygov, 31 July 2019, https://blog.mygov.in/nisha-thadoklasi-manipur-govt-declares-war-on-drugs/

[ii] K Sarojkumar Sharma (2022), “Rs 5 crore party drugs Seized in Manipur’s Tengnoupal District, 1 Held”, The Times of India, August 28, 2022, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/imphal/rs-5-crore-party-drugs-seized-in-manipurs-tengnoupal-1-held/articleshow/93827388.cms

[iii] “Magnitude of Substance Use In India (2019)”, https://socialjustice.nic.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/Magnitude_Substance_Use_India_REPORT.pdf

[iv] Pushpita Das (2018), “Security Challenges and the Management of the Indo-Myanmar Border”, Startegic Analysis, 42, 6 (2018), Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09700161.2018.1557932?needAccess=true

[v] “Drug Smuggling from/through Manipur”, E-Pao http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=news_section.editorial.editorial_2021.Drug_smuggling_from_through_Manipur_TSE_20211122

[vi] Lily Sangpui and Jenny Kapngaihlian (2021), “ The Quest to End Illicit Poppy Cultivation in Manipur: Examining the War on Drugs Campaign”, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 56, Issue No. 32, 07 Aug, 2021, https://www.epw.in/engage/article/quest-end-illicit-poppy-cultivation-manipur

[vii] “Manipur: Congress Poll Observer Accuses Government of Diverting Urea Supply to Poppy Cultivation (2021)”, https://www.northeasttoday.in/2021/09/01/manipur-congress-poll-observer-accuses-government-of-diverting-urea-supply-to-poppy-cultivation/

[ix] “1420 Acres of Illicit Poppy Plantation Destroyed in 2020-2021, Sentinel, 11 January (2021) https://www.sentinelassam.com/north-east-india-news/manipur/manipur-1420-acres-of-illicit-poppy-plantation-destroyed-in-2020-2021-

[x] Prasanta Mazumdar (2021), “Maniour govt diverting urea for poppy plantations, claims Jairam Ramesh, The Indian Express, https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/aug/31/manipur-govt-diverting-urea-for-poppy-plantations-claims-jairam-ramesh-2352363.html

[xiii] David Mansfield and Adam Pain (2005), “Alternative Livelihoods: Substance or Slogan? Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Briefing Paper Series

[xiv] Ngamjahao Kipgen (2019), “ Why Farmers in Manipur Cultivating Poppy?”, Economic and Political Weekly, https://www.epw.in/engage/article/why-are-farmers-manipur-cultivating-poppy

[xv] K Sarojkumar Sharma (2017), “Lemongrass to replace illegal poppy farming in Manipur”, The Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/imphal/lemongrass-to-replace-illegal-poppy-farming-in-manipur/articleshow/58237749.cms

[xvii]  Ibid

[xviii] Sanjenbam Jugeshor Singh (2022),”Menace of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse in Manipur”, The Frontier Manipur, April 23, 2022, https://thefrontiermanipur.com/menace-of-alcoholism-drug-abuse-in-manipur/

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Manipur's War on Drugs and the Government's Perception Problem

26 Dec, 2018    ·   5538

Anjali Gupta considers the Biren Singh's government's policy framework to deal with the complex challenges posed by the state's historic drug problem

Anjali Gupta

Manipur’s Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced a ' war on drugs ' soon after he assumed power in March 2017. Measures undertaken by the government so far include incarceration of drug peddlers and establishment of a fast-track court to try those accused. Further, the Indian Army and Assam Rifles have been approached to assist in the eradication of poppy cultivation. The government has been rehabilitating and encouraging poppy farmers to switch to alternative crops like lemon grass and avocado to replace poppy cultivation.

While Manipur has had a historic drug problem and several governments have attempted to battle its consequences, this commentary will look specifically at the three elements of the Biren Singh government's strategy - identified as supply-side, demand side, and crop replacement - adopted under the aegis of its so-called 'war on drugs'. It will argue that the current policy features some departures from the past, but until there is a change in perception in terms of how the drug issue itself is viewed by those making policy, no solution will be entirely appropriate.

Monitoring Supply

According to Abid Hussain, tribe secretary of the All Lilong Anti-Drug Association (ALADA),  while drugs like Spasmo Proxyvon and  Nitrosun 10 come from within the country, heroin and ‘World is Yours’ (WY) are brought in from Myanmar by peddlers in Manipur. Anti-narcotics officials have arrested 600 drug peddlers and destroyed 1,837 acres of poppy plantation over 36 places in Manipur in the past year. The sum total of poppy cultivated-area demolished could have produced opium valued at a total of INR 128 crore.

Under successive governments in Manipur, arrests under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (ND &PS) Act 1985 have only grown in the past two decades. The current government's decision to establish the long-demanded fast-track-court to facilitate speedy trial of offences relating to ND&PS is a positive development. Earlier there was a single fast-track court for both crimes against women and those related to ND&PS, which led to delays in judicial proceedings.

Whether eradication, interdiction or arrests, actions aimed at reducing supply-side motivations are focused on stopping the flow of drugs across or within the borders of the state. However, there is thus far no empirical evidence that proves if any of the supply-controlling measures has led to a reduction in the levels of opium cultivation . Since the price of opium cultivation is negligible compared to the high market price of refined drugs, refiners have had every incentive to offer a high enough price to farmers to revert to poppy cultivation.  

Diminishing Demand?

The implementation of the Scheme for Prevention for Alcoholism and Substance (Drugs) Abuse 2015, includes awareness generation, identification, counselling, treatment and rehabilitation of addicts. Theoretically, this was a good move because it expanded the scope of viewing illegal drug use from merely a criminal offence to also a health issue.

However, the implementation of this scheme has not brought about a change in reality. Rather, reports suggest an increase in the number of young addicts and injected drug users (IDUs) including women-related drug abuse cases in Manipur. There are around 22 rehabilitation centres in Manipur to treat drug addicts. Most of these are located in Imphal, which ignores the diffused spread of drug use across the state.  

The government has been advised to develop harm-reduction policies to replace the current zero-tolerance policy, and recognise the certainty that some addicts will continue to use drugs irrespective of the possibility of harsh penalties. A stronger community-based outreach programme would be a useful move in this regard, so the focus is not limited to curing addicts alone but also working towards community mobilisation against illegal drug use.

Crop Replacement Alternatives

Opium production is seen as a viable livelihood by farmers given the relative underdevelopment in Manipur. The Singh government's efforts to subsidise the supply of good quality seeds and providing expertise and financial support to farmers were taken by previous governments as well. However, continuing failures faced by the same set of steps suggest the existence of shortfalls through several governments.

Certain measures have been suggested to prevent past policy failures. These include provision of support to market the cultivated yield for better remunerative prices and preventing middleman exploitation, guaranteeing minimum support price for the yield, and finally, encouraging non-agricultural income generating activities in illicit cultivation areas to diversify sources of farmer income.

The Singh government has not yet taken up these recommendations in the present policy framework. In other words, Singh's initiative shifts focus from one crop to another while not taking into account proposals for more holistic measures forwarded by civil society groups. A lack of incentivisation to farmers equals a lack of movement from illicit crops to licit ones, which will ultimately only hinder Singh's 'war on drugs'.

Illegal drug abuse in Manipur is no longer just a health problem - it has evolved into a complex socio-political challenge. The Biren Singh government's initiative has made some policy departures from the past, but not enough to bring about tangible change. Under the present policy, seizures and arrests have become more harsh and rapid, a separate fast track court has been established, and lemon grass has been proposed as an alternative to rehabilitate poppy growers. However, the fixation with harsh criminalisation and abstinence-based rehabilitation remains. The importance of how a problem is viewed, thus, is as critical as finding an appropriate solution to the drug problem in Manipur.

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" YOUTH ADDICTION TO DRUGS AND SOCIAL INTERVENTION – AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF MANIPUR STATE " . * A. KENNEDY

The young generations are the worst victims of evils of drug addiction. Substance abuse as a social phenomenon is all the more worrisome because of its prevalence among youth. Over the last two decades or so, countries all over the world have seen an alarming rise in the incidence of substance abuse amongst the most productive and crucial section of its population. The young people are in their perennial search for happiness and they find a shortcut to happy life in drugs. But before realizing that they are chasing shadows, they get trapped in and in the end the futility of their search stares at them on the face. This paper deals with Causes of Drug use, impact of drug usage, and the need for intervention and the methods of prevention of drug addiction.

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The phenomenon of Street children is neither new nor confined to any particular region. Different societies, have over the decades been responding to the situation in their own styles. While at some places the problem is being tackled in a systematic manner, in many other situations the responses have just been ad hoc. The mental makeup of an adult is to a substantial extent the product of the environment in which he or she has grown as a child. Differences in attitudes to life, personal traits, value system and even skills can often be traced back to physical and socio-economic milieu surrounding of the child in its formative years. Factors like the availability or lack of protective family care and affection, of various necessities and luxuries and access to various facilities like education, health- care, recreation etc all have a contribution to make towards the growth of a person’s personality and shape his or her future life.

The complexity of HIV/AIDS related stigma is often cited as a primary reason for the limited response to this pervasive phenomenon that refers to prejudice, discounting, discrediting and discrimination directed at persons perceived to have AIDS or HIV, as well as their partners, friends, families and communities. Although stigma is considered a major barrier to effective responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, stigma reduction efforts are relegated to the bottom of AIDS program Priorities. HIV/AIDS has had a devastating impact at individual, household and community levels. AIDS has challenged several aspects of contemporary social life and conventional approaches to health care. The social and medical responses to diseases have probably not been challenged so intensely for a long time. Social implications of HIV/AIDS are perhaps the serious most threat and hurdle to human development. Stigma profoundly affects the lives of people with HIV/ AIDS. In the present study, we focus to identify the impact of society on HIV positive men and women clients living in Delhi. We also explore the impact of stigma on health and healthcare among HIV positive clients in our sample. We discuss implications of HIV related stigma for the mental and physical health of HIV Positive women and men and suggestions for possible interventions to address the stigma among the society.

Adolescent health and nutrition status has an inter-generational effect. Therefore, adolescence isone of the important stages of the life cycle in terms of health interventions. Adolescence is a critical transitional period that includes the biological changes of puberty and the need to negotiate key developmental tasks, such as increasing independence and normative experimentation. The Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health programme which is at the heart of flagship programme National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is introduced to generate awareness about the health issues of adolescents apart from other goals. The aim of this programme is to protect the lives and safeguard the health of women, adolescents and children, through constant innovation and collaboration of interventions. The aim of this paper to highlight components of the programme meant to help the adolescents to meet their mental, social and emotional needs.

As far as India is concerned, the provisions relating to Capital Punishment are embodied in Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. Indian Penal Code is the substantive law, which suggests the offences, which are punishable with death sentence. Criminal Procedure Code is the procedural law, which explains the procedure to be followed in death penalty cases. This article discusses the need of abolition of Capital Punishment in India. In the present scenario, when 140 countries have abolished death penalty, it is need of the hour in India to do the same.

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Manipur violence: What is happening and why

Ethnic violence has plunged the small Indian state of Manipur into what many have dubbed a state of civil war as the two largest groups, the majority Meitei and minority Kuki, battle over land and influence.

Shocking video emerged this week of an attack in May when two Kuki women were paraded naked by Meitei men shortly after their village was razed, in the latest use of terror against women in the region.

Where is Manipur and who lives there?

The hilly north-east Indian state sits east of Bangladesh and borders Myanmar. It is home to an estimated 3.3 million people.

More than half are Meiteis, while around 43% are Kukis and Nagas, the predominant minority tribes.

What is happening?

At least 130 people have been killed and 400 wounded in violence that began in May . More than 60,000 have been forced from their homes as the army, paramilitary forces and police struggle to quell violence.

Police armouries have been looted, hundreds of churches and more than a dozen temples ruined, and villages destroyed.

How did it start?

Tensions boiled over when Kukis began protesting against demands from the Meiteis to be given official tribal status, which the Kukis argued would strengthen their already strong influence on government and society, allowing them to buy land or settle in predominantly Kuki areas.

But there are myriad underlying reasons. The Kukis say a war on drugs waged by the Meitei-led government is a screen to uproot their communities.

Illegal migration from Myanmar has heightened tensions. There is pressure on land use from a growing population and unemployment has pushed youth towards the various militias.

Who is fighting whom?

Meitei, Kuki and Naga militias have for decades fought one another over conflicting homeland demands and religious differences, and all sides have clashed with India's security forces. The latest flare-up, however, is almost entirely between the Meitei and the Kuki.

"This time, the conflict is strictly rooted in ethnicity, not religion," says Dhiren A Sadokpam, editor of The Frontier Manipur.

Who are the Kuki and Meitei?

The Meitei have roots in Manipur, Myanmar and surrounding areas. The vast majority are Hindu although some follow the Sanamahi religion. The Kukis, mostly Christian, have spread across the north-east of India, and many of those in Manipur can trace their roots back to Myanmar too.

Meiteis mostly live in the Imphal valley, while the Kukis live in the surrounding hills and beyond.

Why are women being attacked and humiliated?

The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi says the video is the latest example of rape and sexual assault being used as instruments of violence in conflict, which can often worsen into a spiral of revenge attacks.

According to local media, the attack in May came after fake reports a Meitei woman had been raped by Kuki militiamen. This unleashed "a new, deadly cycle of reprisal violence on Kuki tribal women allegedly by Meitei mobs", The Print says.

What is the central government doing?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had remained silent on the violence in Manipur up until the video of the 4 May attack emerged this week. He said the incident had "shamed India" and that "no guilty will be spared... what happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven".

But many Indians are asking why it has taken so long for him to comment publicly on Manipur.

The Indian government has deployed 40,000 soldiers, paramilitary troops and police to the region in an attempt to stem the latest round of violence. So far, it has resisted calls from tribal leaders to impose direct rule.

But the violence continues to spread and force more villagers from their homes .

Who runs Manipur?

Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which governs India, also runs the state government in Manipur, led by N Biren Singh, a Meitei.

The Meitei also control 40 of the regional parliament's 60 seats despite totalling 53% of the population. The Kukis say that Mr Singh's recent war on the cultivation of poppy for the heroin trade targeted Kuki areas.

Mr Singh's government accused Kuki insurgent groups of inciting the community.

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Great highs and astounding lows: The drug problem among Manipuri women

Manipur had the highest percentage of female injecting drug users (28.2%) among all northeastern states..

Boinu was about 21 when she fell in love and decided to get married. It seemed a better option than living with indifferent relatives who gave her shelter after the death of her divorced parents – an alcoholic father and a sick mother.

A lanky girl with a solemn face and raspy voice, Boinu (she uses one name) lived on India’s far, eastern edge, in the town of Churachandpur, where the plains meet the hills in one of India’s most diverse and conflict-ridden states, Manipur.

A year later, her husband had brought home another woman, and a distressed Boinu returned to her relatives. She spent the next many weeks in her room, bursting into tears every now and then, and seldom eating or talking to anyone. When some friends offered her a syringe packed with heroin, she took it.

“It’s not like I had anything else working out for me,” she said. “Soon, I was injecting heroin four times a day.” Each injection, done among friends who did the same, usually meant about three grams, or “shots”, of the drug, each Rs 100 – money she got from her relatives.

Boinu, now 29, is one of 236 female injecting drug users registered with the targeted intervention project of an NGO in Imphal, Nirvana Foundation, which aims at preventing HIV among drug users. For two years, she has been coming here for shelter, medical checks or just to talk. Boinu has been a sex worker for six years, using her earnings to buy drugs, unable to kick her habit, and living on the streets with no family or social support.

There are hundreds of such drug users across the state. Among them are teenagers, teachers, mothers and – the latest victims – school girls. Their stories are important to India because this is a province where the country’s much-discussed but slow-moving emancipation of women is moving from theory to reality. But years of relentless conflict, stress and collapsing governance are nullifying these advances.

Perks and perils

A girl child born in Manipur is more likely to not be killed at birth; more likely to be educated; more likely to be working as an adult; more likely to survive childbirth and more likely to not be the victim of crime than in most Indian states, as the chart below shows.

Contrast these statistics with another: Manipur had the highest percentage of female injecting drug users (28.2%) among all northeastern states, according to this 2015 study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime last year. Manipur makes up less than 1% of India’s population, but even 25 years ago, the state’s intravenous drug users accounted for 23.1% of the nation’s HIV cases because, as this 1991 paper explained, addicts share needles and syringes.

Life in Manipur is more challenging than in most Indian states. Manipur is half the size of Haryana, but its complexities are sub-continental. It has no more than 2.7 million people – twice the population of Goa – but it has more than 30 ethnic groups and tribes with conflicting aspirations, as many dialects, and about 34 armed groups, fighting either to secede from Manipur or India.

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 – 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 7,00,000 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.

The protracted cycle of violence, poverty, unemployment, and ethnic tensions has pushed thousands of Manipuris to use drugs, the most common being heroin no. 4 – as the locally available version of high-quality heroin is called; Rs 100 a shot–perhaps a tenth of the cost in Punjab .

The easy, cheap availability of drugs comes from Manipur’s location next to the Golden Triangle, a region at the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, infamous for international drug runners. Every second household in Manipur now has at least one drug user or a history of a family member who died due to HIV or drug overdose, according to Kunal Kishore, a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime official.

“For many women, substances are a way of self-medicating for emotional problems or the experience of living under conditions of extreme distress,” this 2008 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report stated. Societies in constant cycles of violence and repression are prone to high degree of drug usage, Kishore added.

Manipuri women are most vulnerable because they are less likely than men to seek help or be treated because of the stigma and opprobrium involved, this 2012 study said. They are also more likely to take to sex work to feed their addiction.

In a 2011 study – conducted by two NGOs, Alliance India, and Social Awareness Service Organisation, among female addicts in Manipur – 17% of women reported experiencing physical violence over the last three months, about 49% reported harassment, and 32% said they had been isolated by their families.

People who take to drugs set off a cycle of drug-taking. “In a close-knit society where vulnerable women have injecting drug users around them, the likelihood of them taking to drugs is extremely high,” Kishore said. Feeding this addiction leads women into progressively darker areas.

Rapid descent

Boinu cannot forget the first time she had sex for money. “I couldn’t stop crying that first night in the hotel room,” she recalled.

“Hotel work” is what friends suggested when her family stopped supporting her. “I realised later they were talking about sex work,” said Boinu. “I refused initially but what other option did I have? I had tried to give up heroin and failed.”

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.

On average, Boinu earns about Rs 3,000-5,000 a day. Later at night, she and her five friends scout for safe street corners to sleep. The only thing that Boinu has going for her is that she does not have HIV.

HIV epidemic

Manipur has had a long, hard struggle against a heroin and HIV epidemic, which was first reported here more than a quarter century ago. Only over the last three years has the government focused attention on women users.

There was a time 25 years ago, when HIV was a mystery virus that scared even doctors. “Those were desperate times,” said Vikram Singh Nepram, 53, head of the Manipur State Aids Control Society Partner NGOs Forum, an umbrella body with about 50 members statewide, recalling how drug-users-turned-social workers began to provide home-based care and support to HIV-positive injecting drug users. “I remember just one doctor willing to touch those who were HIV positive. People were dying, and there was widespread stigma against them. We wanted only to at least help them pass away with dignity.”

With the help of NACO and other organisations, Nepram, an observant and affable activist who’s worked with injecting drug users for most of his life, led a project called Continuum of Care, which trained family members, healthcare providers and NGO volunteers to care for HIV positive injecting drug users at home and in hospitals.

In 2004, the first Anti-retroviral Therapy unit was set up in Manipur, and as the drug, which slows the spread of HIV in the body, became freely available, the project ended. But community-based organisations have continued their work.

Though Manipur continues to have high number of injecting drug users, the prevalence of HIV among them–according to the the last survey in 2014–is 12%, lower than both Punjab (21%) and Delhi (18%). But when it comes to female drug users, HIV is only a part of the problem.

Why Manipur’s women need specific, special attention

When I met Boinu in Nirvana Foundation’s day-care centre – where she goes to rest and recuperate – she was nursing a mild fever and headache. She had not slept well in days. Although she could afford to rent a room, landlords were suspicious of a lone woman.

“People keep chasing us from the streets. We have to change places at least four times every night, and wake up before dawn,” she said.

Harassment by locals and law enforcement were not uncommon. “Men touch us inappropriately,” said Boinu. “They say ‘ hum log marega bhi toh kahan case karega! Chup raho !’ (Even if we beat you, where are you going to file a case about it? Shut up!). I am constantly worried about being raped.”

Three of five women drug users I spoke to in Imphal and Churachandpur had experienced mental or physical abuse when they were married. The other two had begun injecting drugs as teenagers in the 1980s and remained single. One was a government teacher, the other a graduate who never got a formal job.

Sobhana Sorokhaibam, general secretary of the Nirvana Foundation, formed the organisation in the year 2003 along with a group of people who either injected drugs themselves or had family members who did. She had worked on an intervention project with male injecting drug users for more than seven years, but it was only when she started working with women in 2010 that she realised how different their needs were.

“Men do not have to worry about family acceptance. When my brother used drugs, he’d come home and always find hot meals at the table. My family never threw him out,” said Sorokhaibam, 44, who spoke candidly and affectionately in her sturdy voice. “But women are shunned by both the family and the society. These women use drugs not out of choice but because of their circumstance, and yet the level of discrimination against them is unimaginable.”

First funded by UNODC when it started six years ago as an intervention project for female injecting drug users–for the last three years, funding comes from the State Aids Control Society – Nirvana provides primary health services, such as medical check-ups and HIV tests, abscess management and condoms. Injecting drug users are provided harm-reduction services, such as needle-syringe exchange programmes to ensure hygiene and safety, and opioid substitution therapy, where addicts orally swallow prescribed medicines to be weaned off a drug.

Over a few hours with Sorokhaibam in the Nirvana office, women in distress streamed in: One struggled to walk with an abscess in her ankle; another came rushing to seek help for a friend who had overdosed on the street. There just wasn’t enough support.

It was only in the fourth phase of National Aids Control Programme in December 2013, that female injecting drug users were added as a separate group to be addressed. NGO representatives pointed out that none of the projects running in the state address the social and economic vulnerabilities of female drug users adequately.

Nirvana also runs a day-care centre, a floor of their office in northern Imphal, where women can bathe, watch TV, and can rest from 10 am to 4 pm. But the women still don’t have a safe place to go to at night.

“Most of them spend the night on streets,” Sorokhaibam said. “They start leaving the centre by 4 pm and we can’t do anything to help them after that.”

Even with help, getting your life back is not easy

Nenghoiching (she used one name), 38, was a drug user and has been on therapy for over a year now, even as she works as a peer educator with Society for HIV/AIDS and Lifeline Operations in Manipur (SHALOM) in Churachandpur, about 60 km north of here. She has survived an ethnic conflict in which her village was burned down, lived through extreme poverty with her two sons because her husband was an injecting drug user.

Nenghoiching decided to separate from her husband, sent her children to her parents, and lived alone in a rented room. She took to injecting drugs and made a living by doing some sex work and some manual labour.

Six years earlier, she tested HIV positive and started ART. But it was only when she ran out of money last year that she decided it was time to start opioid substitution therapy.

In all those years, she seldom met her children, and her family accepted her back only once she was clean. “When we do drugs, people don’t love us,” Nenghoiching said softly, looking at me for a brief moment with troubled eyes. Sitting on a far corner of the same bench as me, she faced away most of the time, and spoke briefly and carefully.

“When I started injecting, I, at least, forgot how miserable my life was, but after a few years, I really wanted to stop but couldn’t because the withdrawal symptoms were terrible, and I had no support,” she said.

Experts say that women find it tougher to stop drug use.

“They are fewer in number but more at risk because they engage in sex work,” said Lalruatpuii Pachuau, SHALOM’s project director. “They are likely to earn more and so, spend more on drugs. Their dosages are higher and they inject more often. And at the same time, they have no support system whatsoever.”

From 2010 to 2013, apart from health and harm-reduction services, SHALOM and Social Awareness Service Organisation offered those willing to give up drugs long-term shelter, where they could stay for a minimum of six months. Their primary focus was to provide women with vocational skills as well as the funds, about Rs 20,000, to start a small business and resume normal life. Such a project no longer exists.

The squeeze on help centres

Till August 2015, 10 of 23 opioid substitution therapy centres in Manipur had run out of public and community health centres. None of the four NGOs that run the targeted intervention projects for female injecting drug users have been accredited as therapy centres yet.

Nirvana, for instance, has been trained by UNODC to provide therapy but has now been told that NACO is in favour of limiting the service to public health centres.

Fewer options make it particularly difficult for women who are on the streets, where there is easy supply of drugs for any therapy to be effective. “The component of night shelter is very important,” said Nirvana’s Sorokhaibam.

In Imphal East, Sneha Bhavan, a 15-bedded drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre sponsored by the state’s Social Welfare Department, follows the 12-step recovery programme of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, global addiction recovery organisations that have prescribed steps rooted in spirituality and social support.

From 5:30 am to 8:30 pm, women – who spend a month or two here – engage in several group discussions and counselling sessions. There’s also a daily vocational class but only a handful were able to turn these skills into a livelihood.

At the time of my visit, a female drug user had checked herself in with her eight-month-old baby, who faced the risk of being infected with HIV or developing a dependence on heroin through her mother.

Four of the five women I spoke to had checked themselves into Sneha Bhavan at least once, but none had been able to return to their families, and admitted to using drugs again because of lack of social support.

Starting young

About 30 new injecting drug users are registered every month, said Sorokhaibam, mostly school or college going students, at Nirvana’s drop-in center in Khumidok, about 7 km from Imphal.

She recalled a 14-year-old girl in her school uniform who came to the centre seeking a clean syringe and told the staff that around ten of her friends in her class abused heroin. The age of the drug user is dropping in Manipur, and they often directly start injecting instead of consuming the opioid through other modes as they did earlier, said Kishore.

While the number of injecting drug users was increasing, said Nepram, people were now more aware of safe practices so the chances of infection were considerably lower.

However, for those like Boinu who crave a new life, every day brings a new struggle. “I walk with the thought that people are constantly judging me, and they’d much rather I did not exist,” said Boinu. “Drugs made my already difficult life more difficult, but I still hope that it will all get better someday.”

Names of the two female drug users in the article have been changed to protect their identity.

This article first appeared on IndiaSpend , a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.

OPINION | Manipur Crisis: War on Drugs Or Drugs on War?

Written By : Dr G Shreekumar Menon

Last Updated: August 01, 2023, 19:30 IST

New Delhi, India

From Kashmir to Kerala, there is a silent war brewing, using heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy. (Representational image: Shutterstock)

Drug trafficking and poppy cultivation have attained an industry-like status in Manipur. This means many state and central government organisations functioning there have been effectively compromised.

In a classic article “Drugs and War: What is the relationship”, writer Peter Andreas, in the Annual Review, Department of Political Science, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, examines the theme of what is the relationship between psychoactive drugs and war. The article identifies and traces five key dimensions of this relationship: war while on drugs, war for drugs, war through drugs, war against drugs, and drugs after war. Six drugs have proven to be particularly important: alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium (and its derivatives morphine and heroin), amphetamines, and cocaine. They range from old to relatively new, mild to potent, licit to illicit, natural to synthetic. Although they have medical applications, all have become extraordinarily popular and profitable global commodities through their nonmedical use. Today’s battles between rival drug traffickers can be viewed as a form of criminal commercial warfare, made possible by both the criminalisation of drugs and the availability of military hardware and military-trained foot soldiers.

Traditional security scholars may object to classifying this type of organised violence as a war, but the sheer number of deaths and the heavily armed nature of the most powerful players may suggest the need to rethink our conventional definitions of what counts as war. Distinctions between military conflict and criminal conflict can become blurry, especially in terms of lethality, after all, more people have died in Mexico from drug-related violence than in most civil wars. It should be emphasised that the war for drugs can closely interact with and be fuelled by the war against drugs. For example, in the Mexico case, it is clear that the government’s strategy of decapitating major drug trafficking organisations has unintentionally helped to unleash violent turf battles between rival traffickers. When one trafficking organisation has been taken down or weakened by the war against drugs, other trafficking organisations have aggressively engaged in the war for drugs, violently competing for the newly vacated turf—typically meaning control of the major corridors and border entry points.

Another interactive effect is that drug trafficking organisations may launch a war for drugs as a response to a war against drugs, with tactics including the assassination of judges, police, and politicians. Although the standard operating procedure for most drug traffickers is to evade rather than violently confront the state—too much violence can be bad for business by attracting unwanted attention and increasing security costs—the exceptions have included declaring an all-out war on the state. The most famous case was the Medellín cocaine trafficking organisation of Pablo Escobar, whose escalating war against the Colombian government in the 1980s and early 1990s took the lives of hundreds of police officers, dozens of judges, and several presidential candidates. That war only ended when Escobar was tracked down and killed with US intelligence assistance”.

In light of the above, the war against drugs, currently underway in Manipur, can be better understood. Manipur Chief Minister’s ‘War on Drugs 2.0’ has resulted in the seizure of illegal drugs worth over Rs 182 crore in the international market and the arrest of around 140 drug traffickers since March 2020. The law enforcement agencies destroyed a total of 380 acres of poppy cultivation. Manipur occupies an area of 22,327 km² (8,621 sq mi), roughly about the size of the US state of New Jersey. Most parts of the state are mountainous with rugged hills and narrow valleys, except the area around the capital Imphal, where the landscape is flat. This small landscape is inhabited by Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi hill tribes on one side and the Meitei community on the other. The Chief Minister’s War on Drugs has exposed the narco-politics within the state.

According to Manipur government sources, between 2017 and 2018, over 18,664 acres of poppy-cultivated land have been destroyed by state forces, and 963 drug traffickers, including 195 women, were arrested under the NDPS Act between April and June 2019. This has mostly been confined to the hill districts and poppy cultivation is a source of livelihood for many members of the Kuki-Zo-Chin tribes. If 963 drug traffickers have been apprehended in this small State, it gives an indication of the enormity of the narco-politics that it is grappling with. Close proximity of Myanmar, which is a major player in the international drug circuit, adds another dimension, and the involvement of Chinese nationals complicates the drug scenario considerably.

Presently, drug trafficking and poppy cultivation have attained an industry-like status in Manipur, and this means many State government and Central government organisations functioning there have been effectively compromised. The current ‘war on drugs’ has impacted tribes and non-tribes, living off ‘narco-money’, especially the Kuki community, who according to the Chief Minister “are encroaching everywhere, whether reserved forests, protected forests, doing poppy plantations and drugs business”. The April 19, 2023 order of the Manipur High Court directing the State Government to consider granting the Meitei community Scheduled Tribe status, gave the drug lobby a smoke-screen to start a retaliatory attack against the State government’s ‘war on drugs 2.0’. The anti-drugs war of the State Government, got a cosmetic make-over to become a Kuki versus Meitei conflict, whose reverberations are crossing ripples across the Southeast Asian drug circuit.

The Wars on Drugs is also happening in Thailand and in distant Philippines by President Duterte, as also in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. In Myanmar, an estimated 50–70% of inmates are in prison on drug charges, and in recent years lawmakers have upheld the use of lengthy prison sentences even for minor drug offences. As an alternative, drug lords of Myanmar, have for long, made Manipur into an Opium cultivation enclave. The poppies are taken to Myanmar through the porous India-Myanmar border, which runs for 1,643 km through the four states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. The Free Movement Regime (FMR) allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country, without a visa. Unfortunately, the Kuki and Chin tribes of Myanmar, misused this provision to occupy the hills and cultivate opium. Decades of unhindered occupation have resulted in a well-oiled narco-trade where opium is cultivated in Manipur and smuggled into Myanmar for processing into heroin and thereafter sent to major Southeast Asian markets. Myanmar’s major drug production centre, the Shan state, which is notorious for the production of illicit heroin, methamphetamine, and yaba, is just 521 km away from Manipur.

The enormously profitable drug production and trade has fuelled ethnic conflicts, criminality, and corruption, which has not been amenable to any kind of control or eradication. Al Jazeera in its report of June 26, 2023, titled “Myanmar authorities burn $446m in illegal drugs”, quoted the head of Myanmar’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, to the effect that its efforts to crush the multibillion-dollar trade were having no impact.

Many observers, therefore, opine that Manipur has also become an extended geographical space of the Golden Triangle. Myriad other problems have cropped up due to poppy cultivation, especially large-scale deforestation, environmental pollution due to unrestricted use of pesticides, and finally culminating in the vociferous demands for a separate Kukiland. Western controlled and appointed foreign missionaries, who had an absolutely free reign in large-scale conversions of many tribes including Kukis, did not have success with the Meiteis, hence their present strategy to expel them from Manipur. Between the 1961 and 2011 censuses of India, the share of Hindus in the state declined from 62% to 41%, while the share of Christians rose from 19% to 41%, reflecting the heightened proselytization that has happened in the State.

The government is not fighting an anti-narcotics war only, but the fight is also against insurgency, foreign missionaries, and the demand for a separate Kuki homeland. The orchestrated international ruckus in the media and social media platforms is a concerted effort to foment large-scale disturbances in the sensitive North-east. The Chinese hand is also prominently discernible in the ongoing violence, as it has designs on dismembering the Northeast from the Indian mainland.

Unfortunately, in India there is always a standard operating procedure for the politicians and media to use religious identities to either obfuscate or highlight or cover up, to sabotage progressive policies and welfare measures. The Manipur anti-drugs war has been deliberately given a colouring of a communal clash between the Christian Kukis who control the drug trade and the Meitei Hindus. The stage-managed chorus being organised by the Western-controlled church and its army of NGOs is to fortify the communal angle. The Kuki drug lords know very well who to be kept on their payrolls. This communal colouring will enable them to successfully sabotage the ongoing war on drugs and keep the illegal narco-trade continuously active.

But, the ‘war through drugs’ is not just a Manipur-centred event, drug trafficking is happening all across the Western land and sea borders of India. From Kashmir to Kerala, there is a silent war brewing, using heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy. Mega seizures are happening routinely, but enforcement agencies are unable to conclude any investigations on time, kingpins remain untraced and peddlers and carriers get out on bail, to resume their next assignment. The drug menace continues to be underpinned by numerous social, political, religious, and economic power determinants.

Political power asymmetries between different States further complicate the problem, thereby portraying national and local enforcement agencies as lacking superintendence or control of their anti-drugs agenda. Hence, many Chief Ministers have cautiously refrained from launching any war on drugs. The Manipur Chief Minister, however, dared to take the bull by the horns and finds himself in a deep quagmire. Before engaging himself in this task, he should have set up an extensive and institutionalised counter-narcotics strategic framework. Any steps to radically alter the drug scenario is bound to unpack secret internal power equations, and hidden nexus between politicians, bureaucrats, foreign-appointed religious heads, and biased media. Local populations that have gotten used to strenuous-free wages and funds will rebel against the unacceptable financial burden that a prohibitionist drug policy will impose. The high financial and human burden of drug war policies and their disproportionate displacement of poor and marginalised communities is a phenomenon globally noticed and accepted.

The war on drugs, and all interventions resulting therefrom, should have been a national programme; a border State like Manipur cannot handle it all by itself. This is the same predicament that is faced by other international border States like Punjab, Kashmir, and Bengal. A lone State embarking on an all-out war on drugs will face a David versus Goliath narrative, one of a small supplicant state challenging the national, international, and inter-State equations enmeshed in the deep complexity of politics and power dynamics and the behemoth corruption that is generated. The scale of the emerging illicit drug markets across India is a warning that we need a national drug control strategy, and a national anti-drug secretariat, to formulate national policies on drug use, drug market economics, and perhaps most importantly to assess the impact of drug enforcement activities. Has there ever been an audit to evaluate the effectiveness of the various drug enforcement agencies functioning under the central and state governments? Has the University Grants Commission, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) put in place a Drug-Free Schools and Campuses Act? The answer is the negative.

Much needs to be done to strengthen India’s anti-drug initiatives. Meanwhile, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh’s ‘War on Drugs 2.0’ has put him into a Prince Abhimanyu in the Chakravyuha like situation, he is surrounded by a phalanx of vested interests comprising of Western-funded human rights groups, NGOs, fundamentalist religious organisations, powerful drug kingpins, traffickers, Myanmar based drug lobbies, Chinese intelligence agencies, compromised politicians, political parties and weak government institutions. He will need astute statesmanship, diplomacy, and ruthlessness to wriggle out safely.

Dr G Shreekumar Menon IRS (Rtd), PhD (Narcotics), is Former Director General, National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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‘War on Drugs 2.0 a massive success’: Manipur CM N Biren Singh

Manipur law enforcement agencies have seized illegal drugs worth over rs 182 crore in the international market and have arrested as many as 140 drug traffickers since march 20, said the cm..

Stating that the state’s ‘War on drugs 2.0’ is a massive success, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh Wednesday said the state law enforcement agencies have seized illegal drugs worth over Rs 182 crore in the international market and have arrested as many as 140 drug traffickers since March 20.

“The arrested traffickers include international drug kingpins, most of whom are serving a jail term of 14-15 years,” he said.

The Chief Minister also said that the law enforcement agencies have destroyed a total of 380 acre of poppy cultivation in the two months. “With the formation of the new government, we have witnessed massive success in the ‘War on Drugs’ campaign,” he said.

Singh said what is more encouraging for the campaign is that many communities residing in the state, particularly in the hill areas, have voluntarily joined the campaign against drugs.

“On May 6, the Poumai tribe, the second-largest tribe of the Nagas in Manipur, declared all the areas under them as a drug-free zone and said they will stand against poppy plantations,” said Singh.

Subsequently, more tribes like the Tangkhul Naga, Inpui, Liangmai, Ronmei and Zeme tribes among others have also joined the campaign, added Singh.

“Today we can see support and cooperation from almost all communities residing in the state,” the Manipur Chief Minister said, adding, “For the first time in February 2021, in support of the War on Drugs, a village in Ukhrul, Peh (Paoyi) Village voluntarily destroyed poppy cultivation in their area, for which the village was rewarded with Rs 10 lakh.”

“We have received reports that the villagers have already started alternative cropping and some plantations like ginger have already begun bearing fruit,” he added.

Official sources said the narcotic police have acquired permission from the court to dispose of the narcotic drugs seized during the separate operations. The drugs include 719.25 kg of ganja, 940 gram of brown sugar, 18.7555 kg of heroin powder, 87 kg of WY Tablets (Methamphetamine) and 20 kg of crystal ice (Methamphetamine).

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Explained: the link between manipur's poppy cultivation and ethnic clashes, the kukis allege that the government has targeted them systematically using the "war on drugs" campaign as a cover..

In 2017, during N Biren Singh's first term as the chief minister, the Manipur government declared a "war on drugs". Poppy cultivation ever since has been its major target.

A day before the cycle of violence in Manipur started on 3 May 2023, the chief minister – in a series of social media posts – shared photographs of two alleged drug peddlers who were arrested from the hills, blaming Myanmar immigrants for the drug menace in the state.

According to data shared by the chief minister with The Hindu , out of Manipur's 28 lakh population, 1.4 lakh youth are affected by drugs.

He wrote, “To protect the state, the government has launched a green Manipur campaign, identified the occupied reserve forest lands, promoted fruits and vegetables farming and destroyed all the hidden poppy fields. The drive against narcotics is now in full swing."

Although there is a slew of reasons behind the widening of ethnic fault lines between Kukis and Meiteis in Manipur, the government's action against "illegal" poppy cultivation by destroying of poppy fields in the forest land, especially in the reserve and protected forests in the hilly areas – is an important one. We explain how.

Manipur: A Tragedy of ‘Distance’, Divisive Politics, and Transactional Approach

1. What Has Biren Singh-Led Manipur Government Alleged?

Last month, on 18 May, the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Manipur government told the Supreme Court that the genesis of the 3 May violence in the state was the crackdown on "illegal Myanmar migrants' illicit poppy cultivation and drug business in the hill districts."

Opium, which is further processed to make synthetic drugs, is derived from poppy.

The Manipur High Court Bar Association told a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala that illegal migrants from Myanmar "indulged in violence after a crackdown on their illicit poppy cultivation and drug trade."

The association added that the agitation against a possible grant of the Scheduled Tribes status to the majority Meitei community was just a ruse, and the protest was actually against the crackdown on poppy cultivation.

Although the Manipur government has "denied targeting any particular community", its crusade to clear out poppy in the Kuki-dominated hills hurt the community directly. Add to this the "eviction drives" on the pretext of "preserving forests in view of the deteriorating climatic conditions." Both these factors affected the Kukis more than any other community in the state.

Fact-Check: This Image Doesn't Show a Nurse 'Raped & Murdered' in Manipur

2. Why Are the Kukis Miffed?

Even in the run-up to the 3 May violence, the Kukis had alleged that Biren Singh's government had been targeting them systematically using the "war on drugs" campaign as a cover. They further claimed that the intention of the government was to remove them from the forests and their homes situated in the hilly areas.

In February, "eviction drives" were carried out in Churachandpur district, where a large number of Kukis live.

Dr Rojesh Seram, former president of the Manipur Students' Union in Delhi, told The Quint that the government adopted "eviction drives" in the reserved forests due to frequent forest fires and global climate change, including droughts in Manipur.

"This sudden drive predominantly started affecting forest-dwellers, consisting of mostly Kukis who are strongly opposed to the crackdown on poppy cultivation, among other tribes or communities," he added.

John Haokip (name changed) , a banker from the Kuki community, told The Quint that the chief minister has repeatedly called Kukis "smugglers, poppy cultivators," and it has hurt the community.

On 3 May, the official Facebook page of the chief minister shared a news report on the seizure of 16 kg opium from Churachandpur with a message from him: “These are people who are destroying our generation. They are destroying our natural forests to plant poppy, and further igniting communal issues to carry out the drug smuggling business.’’

“He has attacked us repeatedly by calling us smugglers... They even started evicting us from our areas saying that we were destroying ‘protected forests, reserved forests’ by cultivating poppy in these areas. That’s not true,” John Haokip said.

Since 2017, the Manipur government has destroyed nearly 15,500 acres of poppy fields. Almost 85% of the area, according to official data released by the Narcotics and Affairs of Border (a unit under Manipur Police), lay in Kuki-dominated districts.

3. Why Poppy?

But why has there been a proliferation of poppy cultivation?

Manipur has a geographical proximity to the “Golden Triangle” region, which includes Laos, Thailand and Myanmar – a hotbed of drug trafficking and a major drug route.

Subir Bhaumik, in his book  Troubled Periphery: Crisis of India’s Northeast, blamed the "Burmese drug lords" behind the poppy cultivation.

“The Burmese drug lords are encouraging tribal farmers to plant poppies. Unless these new plantations are promptly destroyed and gainful agricultural alternatives provided to the farmers, the India-Burma border will soon be dotted with poppy fields feeding the processing plants in western Burma," he wrote.

He noted that a rebel-druglord nexus is emerging the northeast in "a repeat of the Colombian scenario."

However, this is far more complicated.

Paolienlal Haokip, the BJP MLA from Saikot in Churachandpur district, pointed out that there is no church or civil society organisation in the hills that endorses poppy cultivation.

“All groups have issued advisories against such cultivation. It is the big investors from the valley who are the kingpins of this trade,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.

“It is easier to cultivate poppy with other crops. Moreover, farmers are driven to cultivate poppy in these areas due to the prevalent poverty, which can be attributed to decades of armed conflicts, insurgency, and ethnic violence that have crippled the state,” Lily Sangpui, a PhD scholar at the Department of Social Work, University of Mizoram, explained to The Quint .

Sangpui further explained that the cultivation of poppy acts like a “magic potion”.

“The cultivation of food crops alone are not enough in meeting the needs of rural tribal households. Under these conditions, people struggle to survive and vie for a better source of income. And poppy cultivation gives them that,” she elaborated.

And it is not just rewarding in terms of money and food security. It provides free access to credit/loans as well, Sangpui explained.

“We interviewed one poppy farmer and he told me that people do not hesitate to lend money to such farmers as they know that it will bring good yields from selling their crop (poppy).”

Fact-Check: Old Visuals Incorrectly Linked To Recent Violence in Manipur

4. But Why Are There No Alternatives?

As Sangpui highlighted, a prime challenge is in finding alternative crops that could compete with opium in respect of profit, market, and price.

“Other cash crops have a longer growing season, while the poppy-growing season is of a shorter duration and with higher returns from the money that is invested that exceed other crops."

"Moreover, during one of our interviews with poppy farmers, we found out that poppy cultivation does not clash with paddy cultivation, and hence, there are more takers for it as a substitute for household income,“ she added.

However, on 15 December 2022, the Manipur government launched an alternative farming system to replace poppy cultivation in nine hill districts, namely Churachandpur, Pherzawl, Noney, Tamenglong, Senapati, Kangpokpi, Ukhrul, Kamjong, Tengnoupal and Chandel.

“It would take a couple of years to see if alternative farming will bring a change in the drug scenario of the state,” Sangpui added.

( At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a membe r . Because the truth is worth it. )

What Has Biren Singh-Led Manipur Government Alleged?

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Beyond Manipur violence: drugs and demographics in hill districts

The number of manipur’s hill villages grew 64% after 1969; a top state official terms it ‘unnatural growth’ linked to poppy cultivation and myanmarese kuki migrants; bjp mla says it is related to kuki customs.

Updated - May 12, 2023 10:15 am IST

Published - May 11, 2023 08:28 pm IST - NEW DELHI

Meitei refugees wait onboard a paramilitary truck at a transit point after being evacuated from the violence that hit Churachandpur, near Imphal. | Photo Credit: AFP

On May 8, when Imphal was reeling under curfew in the aftermath of the May 3 violence , the Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) — a specialised unit of the State police — raided a property in the Mantripukhri area of the city. It seized 77 gunny bags, suspected to contain poppy seeds, and 120 kyat, Myanmar’s currency. The NAB said in a May 9 statement that it highly suspected that the house owner belonged to an international drug cartel.

Meitei civil society groups claim that the May 3 violence — which had claimed at least 65 lives — was actually a retaliation by some tribal groups to a series of actions taken by the N. Biren Singh government, including the “war on drugs”, and the clearing of reserved forest areas in the hills, removing allegedly illegal occupants. The Mantripukhri raid by NAB shows that the State government was doubling down on narcotics even in the middle of a serious law-and-order situation where more than 35,000 persons were displaced.

‘Unnatural growth’

Such actions are premised on a detailed note prepared by the State government on “unnatural growth in the number of villages and new settlements in some districts of Manipur.”

Sharing data and satellite images, a top source in the Manipir government said that in 1969, there were 587 villages in the Imphal valley, which is dominated by the non-tribal Meiteis. That dropped to 544 villages in 2021. On the other hand, in the hill districts — which are inhabited mostly by 34 Scheduled Tribes including the Kukis and the Nagas — there were 1,370 settlements and villages in 1969. By 2021, however, this had shot up to 2,244 villages, the source said.

Valley urbanisation

One of the possible explanations for the drop in the number of villages in the valley is the rapid urbanisation occurring there, compared to the hills. It cannot be determined whether the growth in settlements in the hills is commensurate with a growth in population, as the 2021 census is yet to be conducted.

Churachandpur — a hill district with a majority population of Kukis which was one of the main hotspots for last week’s violence — had 282 villages in 1969, which almost doubled to 544 in 2021.

Kuki customs

Paolienlal Haokip, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Saikot in Churachandpur district, countered this narrative of demographic change. He explained that, according to Kuki traditions, whenever a clan grows they are given permission to settle another village in the same area. This explains the increase in the number of villages in Kuki areas, he said.

“Those who say this [about the increase in number of villages] are not aware of Kuki customs. To say that these settlements are all illegal migrants from Myanmar is simply not true. It is true that after the junta (military rule) took over Myanmar [in 2021], some people fled to Manipur. But that number would be in hundreds, they have not set up any villages,” Mr. Haokip told The Hindu . He added that the increase in settlements in Kuki areas is also due to the ethnic tensions with the Nagas between 1992 and 1997.

Demographic politics

In 2016, Manipur had nine districts: Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Bishnupur in the valley; and Senapati, Ukhrul, Churachandpur, Chandel and Tamenglong in the hills. In December 2016, the Congress-led O. Ibobi Singh government carved out seven new districts — Jiribam, Kamjong, Kakching, Tengnoupal, Noney, Pherzawl and Kangpokpi — by splitting the five original hill districts, thereby taking the total number of districts to 16.

The valley, with 10% of Manipur’s landmass, is dominated by the non-tribal Meiteis, most of whom are Hindus, who account for more than 64% of the population of the State and yield 40 of the State’s 60 MLAs. The hills comprise 90% of the State’s area, but send only 20 members to the Assembly.

According to the website of the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER), there was an increase of 0.9% in the State’s Scheduled Tribe between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. The 2021 census is yet to be conducted, so the current population is not known. The 2011 census put the State’s population at 27.21 lakh, with a decadal population growth rate of 18.65%.

‘Violence linked to war on drugs’

The People’s Alliance for Peace and Progress Manipur (PAPPM), an influential Manipur-based civil society group, said in a statement on May 8 that “the Myanmar-origin Kuki immigrants occupying sensitive high positions of Indian government offices sustain uninterrupted entry of illegal Kuki migrants into Manipur. Both these are threat to national security of India.”

In a press conference in Delhi on May 9, the group insisted that the violence that erupted on May 3 was rooted in the Kukis’ opposition to the government’s “war on drugs”.

The Manipur government source also said that the current wave of tensions between the majority Meitei community and the Kukis lies in the actions taken since 2017-18 against illegal poppy cultivation in the hill districts. The source said that since 2017-18, over 18,664 acres of poppy cultivation have been destroyed by the authorities, mostly in hill districts, compared to just 1,889 acres of poppy destroyed between 2013 and 2016.

Mr. Haokip pointed out that there is no church or civil society organisation in the hills that endorses poppy cultivation. “All groups have issued advisories against such cultivation. It is the big investors from the valley who are the kingpins of this trade,” he said.

Related Topics

Manipur / narcotics & drug trafficking

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Result of online essay competition on ‘Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking Problem in Manipur’ declared

Ashem Regina D/o A Rajen Singh, Sega Road Takhellambam Leikai, IW bagged first position.

Coalition Against Drugs & Alcohol (CADA) on Friday announced the winners of an online essay competition on the topic “Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking Problem in Manipur”. The competition was organised in connection with The International Day Against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking 2021.

The prizes include cash of Rs 5000, Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 500 for first, second, third prizes and consolations respectively. The E-certificate will be sent to the email ID or through WhatsApp of the participants. All the position holders have been informed to submit their bank details for cash prizes to the WhatsApp no. 08731910590, as per a CADA release.

The results are as follow —

1st Position: Ashem Regina D/o A Rajen Singh, Sega Road Takhellambam Leikai, IW (MA 1st Sem. Manipur University, Imphal)

2nd Position: Gurumayum Gopalkrishna Sharma S/o G Gajendra Sharma, Lairikyengbam Makha Leikai, IE (MSc 1st Sem. Hindu College, Delhi)

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3rd Position: Laitonjam Bankimchandra S/o L Chandrakumar, Khoijuman Mayai Leikai, Bishnupur (BSc 1st Sem., DM College of Science, Imphal)

4th Position: Sameer Uprety S/o Bishnu Prasad Uprety, Charhajare, Kangpokpi (BSc 4th Sem., Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore)

5th Position: Chingjuan Neina D/o. Iken R. Panmei, Utopia Ward no. 1, Tamenglong (Class XII, National Sports Academy, Khuman Lampak)

6th Position: Muhammad Anish Khan Chesam S/o Md. Rafique Chesam, Mayang Imphal Bengoon Mamang Leikai, Imphal West (BSc 1st Sem. Mayai Lambi College, Yumnam Huidrom)

7th Position: Lalhouboi Vaiphei S/o. Neklallem, K. Kangphei Village, Churachandpur (BA 6th Sem., Rayburn College, Churachandpur)

8th Position: Nongmaithem Adhitya Singh S/o N Bidyasagar Singh, Langathel Maning Leikai, Thoubal (Class VIII, JNV Khumbong)

9th Position: Poukenthonliu Abonmai D/o Widonbou Abonmai, Tapon Naga Village, Kangpokpi (BA 6th Sem., Mt. Everest College, Senapati)

10th Position: Chingakham Dainab D/o Ch Ibemcha, Uripok Bachaspati Leikai, Imphal West (BA 1st Sem., DM College of Arts, Imphal). 

The Frontier Manipur’s endeavour is aimed at raising social, political, economic and relevant issues in Manipur and its neighbouring states, and beyond with well researched and investigative articles, comprehensive reportage and coverage.

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Is war on drugs a lost cause in Manipur? India Today finds open cultivation of poppy in some districts

As manipur goes to the polls, india today visited different parts of the state and found that poppy is being cultivated in the open in large quantities..

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The ‘War on Drugs’ is a popular slogan in Manipur politics. But a drive through the districts in the hills showed that state and central authorities are far from winning this war.

India Today found kilometres-long stretches of the hills where trees had been cut down and poppy plants were in full bloom in Kangpokpi district.

POPPY CULTIVATION AN OPEN SECRET

Travelling on the village roads off the highway between Kangpokpi district headquarters, via Sapormeina, Twichamphai and Lamkhajang, towards Saikul town, poppy cultivation was clearly visible. Bright green fields against the darker, drier natural vegetation of the area indicated that something was up.

The poppy cultivation was also visible from the new black-topped hill road that is under construction from Sapormeina to Saikul.

EC SEIZURES, DRUG RAIDS TO NO AVAIL

The Election Commission of India (ECI) said that the 2022 election has seen “record seizures” of illicit drugs, alcohol and contraband material.

According to an ECI press release, authorities had seized contraband items worth Rs 167.83, which is five times more than the seizure during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. This includes drugs worth more than Rs 143.47 crore, including 68.62 kg opium, 5.9 lakh Yaba tablets (crystal meth), Methamphetamine and other drugs.

'SHORTAGE OF MANPOWER': POLICE

The areas that India Today visited in Kangpokpi were accessible through the "village highways". The main highway exists as an alternate route between the bigger towns, bypassing these villages, which are hidden in the "hill shadow areas" where cellphone signal is hard to come by.

These are also Kuki tribal-dominated areas, where armed underground groups are said to be involved in controlling and funding the drug cultivation, refining and trade.

Officials in the state admit that a huge amount of illegal poppy cultivation has been underway in these areas. A senior official on condition of anonymity said that authorities need logistical support and more manpower to combat the problem.

In the bordering town of Moreh in Tengnoupal, drugs are being supplied openly from Myanmar. The porous border and densely forested hills make the area a hub for entry of drugs and other contraband into India.

'DIFFICULT TO STOP SUPPLY LINES'

"These are remote areas where access is difficult. First, the raiding party has to reach the places where there is a risk of attacks by underground groups, then comes the actual destruction of the poppy crop that requires several people and several hours. It is not easy," said an official, pleading anonymity. When it comes to cross-border supply, officers said that there are patrols in the border areas, but with dense forests and constant movement of people, it is difficult to stop the supply lines.

Manipur DGP P Doungel, who hails from the Kangpokpi area, said that there are numerous problems in controlling drug cultivation and trade.

LACK OF EMPLOYMENT

A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, also told India Today that a big reason behind the expanding poppy cultivation is the lack of employment options and "easy money" in the drug trade.

NEXUS BETWEEN POLITICIANS, DRUG CARTELS

Activist Babloo Loithongbam of the 3.5 Collective and Human Rights Alert said that there is a nexus between political leaders, the administration, police and the drug cartels.

"The northeast is a dark spot for drug trade, as identified by the UNDP. Everyone knows about it," said Babloo. He cited the example of the arrest of the chairman of Chandel Autonomous District Council (ADC) in 2018.

"The ADC chairman was arrested with more than 29 kg of drugs found at his residence. Nothing happened in that case. He was acquitted and his driver and some employees were convicted. We have been trying to file an appeal but the government is not interested," said the activist.

He also said that the "scale of the problem has increased in the last five years, as there has been no CBI investigation into existing drug cartels."

Dennis Lallienzoul, an anti-drug activist from Churachandpur, also told India Today that the ‘War on Drugs’ is focused only on rehabilitation of drug addicts and "ignores the real problem and underlying factors."

"The operations for control of drug supply and poppy cultivation are one or two-day photo ops. It is a continuous problem that has grown over the years because there is no source of employment. The drug cartels pay Rs 500-1000 per day to work in the fields. They have a lot of support from the people, plus the backing of armed groups," said Lallienzoul.

Thounoujam Brinda is a former IPS officer who received a gallantry award for fighting against the drug trade. He later resigned to join politics. Now a JD(U) candidate in the 2022 elections, Brinda said that there is a "clear nexus between those in power and the drug trade".

"Everyone knows what is happening. Political leaders and people in the administration get a cut. That is why there is so much laxity," said Brinda.

ALSO READ: Two killed, five injured in explosion in Manipur's Churachandpur ahead of first phase of polling Published By: Rishabh Sharma Published On: Feb 28, 2022 --- ENDS ---

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81 fatalities due to drug overdose in Manipur: SASO report

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Imphal: A total of 81 people, including 21 women, have lost their lives to drug overdose in Manipur over the past two decades, according to a report by the Social Awareness Service Organisation (SASO).

The non-profit organisation, actively working to combat drug abuse in the state, revealed the grim statistic during an event commemorating International Overdose Awareness Day.

Sashikumar, the General Secretary of SASO, stated that between 2004 and March 2024, there were a total of 1737 overdose cases reported in Manipur.

While 1656 lives were saved, the remaining 81 individuals tragically succumbed to the effects of substance abuse. The victims ranged in age from 17 to 65.

The report highlighted a concerning trend of increasing overdose cases over the years. In 2005, SASO recorded only five such instances, but the numbers have steadily risen since then.

The use of intoxicating substances in Manipur, especially along the sensitive border, is a major cause of concern for the state government.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh has previously estimated that over 1.5 lakh people in Manipur are struggling with drug addiction.

Manipur has a long-standing history of substance abuse, with the problem becoming more complex since the 1980s.

The report indicated that 4% of the population aged 10-75 years in Manipur is affected by opioid use, making it the fifth-highest prevalence rate in India.

The data underscores the urgent need for comprehensive measures to address the drug crisis in Manipur, including prevention, treatment, and harm reduction strategies.

Northeast India News, Assam News, Breaking News of Northeast | Latest News Live | EastMojo

Manipur govt intensifies ‘war on drugs’ to root out drug menace

Imphal : The Manipur government has intensified the war against drugs in the state with more forces joining the campaign in rooting out the drug menace in the state.

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Manipur Sexual Violence Survivors Face Erasure, Year After 'Viral Video'

After the initial uproar over the many rapes during the violence between Kuki and Meitei communities in Manipur, investigations now seem to have hit the snooze button.

This is the cover story for Outlook's 11 September 2024 magazine issue 'Lest We Forget'. To read more stories from the issue, click here

Nineteen-year-old Angel* from Manipur is filled with terror every time she hears the revving of a car or spots one, especially if it’s a white four-by-four. She recalls how her attackers had come in white and purple Mahindra Bolero vehicles on May 15, 2023—a fortnight after ethnic clashes broke out between the Kukis and the Meiteis in Manipur—when she, a Kuki, was abducted from outside an ATM in East Imphal where she had gone to withdraw cash. Then 18, Angel was assaulted all night by mobs comprising Meitei men and women before being gang raped by unidentified armed men. She did not tell anyone about her ordeal till July, when inside a relief camp in Kangpokpi district where she and her family had taken shelter, Angel came across “that horrible video”. Her eyes welled up and a sharp pain seared her chest as she watched the video of the two women being assaulted and paraded naked by a mob. Though she did not know the women, she knew instantly what they had gone through. “I decided to fight for justice, not just for me but for all the women who faced this trauma,” she says.

Justice, however, remains elusive even after a year of national protests, international outrage, political mudslinging and interventions by the Supreme Court and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). None of Angel’s attackers has been arrested or even identified. She isn’t the only one. A majority of the survivors of sexual violence or kin of victims from the tribal Kuki-Zo communities, disproportionately targeted in the ethnic clashes, have so far received no relief or reassurance.

As the country is yet again devastated by the recent rape-murder of a young trainee doctor inside the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the women who faced sexual violence amid the conflict, and their kin, are once again confronted with the spectre of their memories and myriad questions: how long would they have to wait for justice? And how many women would have to be sacrificed for the system to wake up?

Angel says that her abductors were armed Meiteis who beat her with the butts of their guns and took her over to women in Wangkhei district who too beat her late into the night before handing her over to “men in black T-shirts, armed with knives, guns and ropes”. These men came in packs driving white Boleros; they blindfolded and tied her and drove her at gunpoint to Langol and then to Bishnupur while repeatedly assaulting her and threatening to kill her. They eventually decided to take her to a nearby hilltop past Ngariyan Ching (hill) where they took turns raping her. Having passed out after repeated beatings on her head, Angel requested permission to urinate upon waking up and her attackers untied her hands. “I knew I just had that one shot. If I did not escape, I would be killed on this hill. So I decided to make a run for it,” Angel recalls a year later. She somehow managed to roll down the hill where she was eventually rescued by a Meitei Pangal Muslim vegetable vendor who was driving by. He hid her amid his stash of vegetables and transported her to Bishnupur police station, even as her assailants followed with guns. Once they reached the station, Angel claims that she told the officers that she was being chased by armed men in cars who belonged to Arambai Tengol, a militant Meitei group that has been named in almost all cases of violence since last year. But when questioned, the mobs told the police that they were just members of a “club”.

“When the police let them go, I realised I wasn’t safe there, as the cops were also Meiteis,” she recalls. The Bishnupur Police has since denied any report of Angel being taken to the station. The Muslim driver helped the girl contact her family and eventually dropped her off in the care of some people from her community. On May 18, Kuki civil society organisations (CSOs) arranged for her to be driven to Kangpokpi and admitted to the district hospital from where she was referred to a hospital in Kohima, Nagaland. Scans of records from the hospital accessed by Outlook confirm “assault and rape on May 15, 2023, during the Manipur tribal clash”.

The teen now lives with her mother, father and elder brother in a rented flat in the middle of paddy fields enveloped by a ring of blue mountains. Having dropped out of school in class 8 due to health issues, Angel hopes to one day manage a small business to help out her mother, the only breadwinner in the house. For now, though, she remains in physical as well as mental pain. She has trouble eating solid food and gets intense migraines due to her severe head injuries. She does not like meeting anyone other than her family members and is often woken up by flashbacks when she goes to sleep.

About 100 km away, lack of anonymity due to the viral “naked parade” video has rendered the two Vaiphei community women isolated and deeply reclusive. With no homes left for them to return to, the two remain in Churachandpur with their families, trying to erase the memories of that day.

On May 4, a Meitei mob attacked B Phainom village where the women stayed, bordering East Imphal. The older survivor, in her 40s, is the wife of the village chief and related to the second survivor, who is 19 years old. After attacking the village, the mob began burning homes and beating the Kuki-Zo families. While the village chief managed to escape, his wife was left behind along with the 19-year-old and her father, brother and aunt. “The women along with some men ran and hid in a nearby bush. They would have escaped, had it not been for that miserable goat that got loose in the commotion and ran into the very bush behind which the group was hiding, leading the attackers to them,” says the village chief.

The incident has shaken them. “My wife does not talk much. She keeps to herself. We don’t bring up the incident at home,” the husband reiterates. He says that the children understand what happened but they too maintain silence. The mother of the 19-year-old, meanwhile, remains inconsolable. Her son and her husband, who were also hiding behind the bush, were killed by the mob while trying to protect the two women. “My daughter has to live with not just the memory of what happened to her, but also what happened to her brother and father. She watched them get killed,” she says.

BY Chinki Sinha

Since the women are from the Vaiphei community, they are being protected by CSOs like the Zomi Council Steering Committee in Churachandpur who strictly supervise their care. “It becomes hard for them to deal with the memories that come flooding back every time they go online and see news about that video or reports about other brutal rape cases like the recent one in Kolkata. To protect them, we restrict their usage of social media,” a member of the Zillai (Vaiphei Students’ Organisation) related to the survivors says, adding that the community has ensured that the survivors receive proper medical care and mental health counselling.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, the video came out. It helped draw attention to the genocide that our people are facing, especially the atrocities against women,” says Kimneihoi Haokip, the general secretary of the Kuki Women Human Rights Organisation (KWHRO) in Lamka, the capital of Churachandpur district, which lies about 30 km from Meitei-dominated Bishnupur. A heavily militarised buffer zone and concertina wires divide the two areas, with the Kuki-Zo in the south-west of the state demanding a separate administration. “Separation is the only solution. It will also help us speed up the process of seeking justice for all the 203 Kuki-Zo victims who were killed in the violence, including 29 women,” says Haokip. “Thousands of women have also been displaced from their homes. They have lost their belongings, while hundreds have survived some form of abuse, violation or assault.”

At least 221 people have lost their lives since May 3 when violence erupted between the hill-dwelling Kuki-Zo tribes and the dominant Meitei community in Churachandpur over the Meitei’s demand to include the indigenous group in the Scheduled Tribes list. The conflict had been preceded by prolonged agitations by tribal groups against forest laws taking over tribal land and the persistent vilification and “otherisation” of the Kukis and illegal immigrants, militants, drug addicts or poppy cultivators.

The Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), the apex civil body of the Kukis, has been trying to provide relief and support to the thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who remain in relief camps across Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. Through programmes like ‘Jangnadopna’ implemented by its subsidiary arms like the KWHRO, the organisation has provided an ex-gratia amount of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of some of the victims, including the brother and father of the 19-year-old survivor in Churachandpur. An orphanage being managed by the Kuki Women’s Union is currently providing a home to over 50 children who have lost both parents in the current conflict. The Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) and other bodies provide round-the-clock assistance and support to families and help maintain lines of communication. KIM President Ajang Khongsai says that while the community is doing all it can, the response of the courts, law enforcement agencies and the government has been less than adequate. “No compensation or rehabilitation schemes have yet been announced. Investigations in all the cases of violence and rioting have been slow and some haven’t even begun. Even in the cases of violence against women, the intervention of the Supreme Court came only on July 20, after the video went viral,” he says.

BY Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the incident, and on August 7, transferred multiple cases, including the aforementioned cases and others to the CBI. It also set up Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to look into cases of violence and formed an all-women judicial panel to look into the nature of crimes against women in the conflict. In the order, a bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, said, “In times of sectarian violence, mobs use sexual violence to send a message of subordination to the community that the victims or survivors hail from. Such visceral violence against women during conflict is nothing but an atrocity.”

After the initial uproar, investigations now seem to have hit the snooze button. While the CBI is reportedly investigating 27 cases of violence, including 19 cases of crimes against women, the affected families don’t have any updates. “The CBI spoke to me in October-November last year. Since then, we have not received any report from the CBI, the SIT, the Manipur Police or the Indian government,” says the father of Flora*, who was gang raped and murdered inside a car wash in Imphal East along with another Kuki girl—her friend and colleague Leena*. The father does not know if a chargesheet has been filed. The family also claims that a recorded phone conversation between a colleague of Flora and Leena’s roommate, in which the former intimated the latter of the alleged rape and murder of the two girls by Meitei gangs on May 4, was disregarded by the CBI when they informed the investigating officer about it. “We think they are trying to evade the rape charges,” says the father of the victim. The 56-year-old man and his wife have been displaced from their home and now live at a relative’s house in Kangpokpi. They listen to the recording on loop. They do not have anything to remember their daughter with, except for sketches of the eyebrows that she had been trying to master as part of her eyelash extension course. “She wanted to become a beautician,” Flora’s mother sighs, breaking down.

Angel and her family also do not know the status of her case and can barely afford her treatment. While a chargesheet has been filed in case of the Vaiphei women in Churachandpur, the trial has not yet started as the location of the trial has not yet been finalised. In March, the apex court had directed the Manipur government, the CBI and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file status reports on the investigation and chargesheets filed in cases of violence to decide whether the trials can commence in Assam or be shifted to Manipur.

This year in July, some civil society groups quietly observed 20 years since the brutal rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama and the significant anti-rape protests led by a group of 12 Manipuri mothers belonging to the Meira Paibi, a civil society organisation of elderly Meitei women. Manorama was arrested by the Assam Rifles from her home at night allegedly on suspicion of her involvement with an insurgent group. The next day, her bullet-riddled body was found at the base of Ngariyan Ching. In protest, 12 elderly women of the Meira Paibi walked to Imphal’s Kangla Fort, holding banners imploring “Indian Army Rape Us” and stripped. “We were helpless at the time, we didn’t know how else to stop the madness that was unfolding in Manipur,” says Ima Ngambi, one of the 12 Imas (mothers) who led the nude protest. The rape and murder of Manorama, now infamous as one of the worst alleged cases of “fake encounters” recorded in India, remains unsolved, meaning that the fight was not yet over. “Our fight is not just for Manorama, but for all women, like the doctor raped in Kolkata, or even the women paraded naked in the viral video last year. That should not have happened,” says Ngambi, who is president of the Apunba Manipur Kanba Ima Lup. Yet, the Meira Paibi have been named by all the complainants mentioned above as the perpetrators of violence and facilitators of sexual violence against them, bringing their role as bearers of the torch for women’s empowerment under scrutiny.

“It was the Meira Paibi women who told us that we would be raped and killed because of rumours that Kukis were raping Meitei women in Churachandpur. The women, known for being peacekeepers for centuries, turned into perpetrators of violence,” recalls Chin Sian Chiang, a former nursing student in Imphal who was dragged out of her college hostel along with another Kuki girl by a mob on May 4 last year, beaten and paraded down a road. Chiang realises with sadness that she escaped the fate that many of her fellow-survivors could not. The 23-year-old, who is currently recovering from her injuries in Churachandpur after receiving treatment at AIIMS last year, says that she is grateful to be alive. “It feels horrible to say this, but I think I got lucky,” she says.

( *Names have been changed to protect identity )

Rakhi Bose in Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Imphal

(This appeared in the print as 'Criminal Amnesia')

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