IN MANIPUR……

The north eastern states are also called the seven sisters. These two words the ’seven sisters’ bring into our mind a fairy tale life led by the people of those regions. Situated in the lap of the Shiwaliks ,one of the seven sisters is ‘Manipur’,capital Imphal  helps us paint a beautiful scenary in our minds. But in reality the life there is very different from what we imagine.

 Manipur ,is still under construction to development. A home to various communities such as the Nagas, Kuki, Meitai etc Manipur has many villages and towns as its physical features.

These numerous villages which are nestled at the foothills of the Shiwaliks are the sole suppliers of vegetable,fruits and other food stuffs. Each and everyday trucks loaded with these food stuff, grown in the villages wend their journey through the rough terrains to supply them at the market on time. But frequent ‘blockades’ and ‘strikes’ which has become very common in the north eastern states disrupt such supplies.

These strikes and blockades in these hilly regions lead to great difficulties in these areas. One of the major problems being lack of proper supply of vegetables and fruits to the markets. As a result of which village folk lose out on their income which again hinders the development of the state. there occurs a scarcity of food items in the market leading to an increase in price which makes it difficult for the poorer sections of this state to get proper food.

Besides these strikes which sometimes continues for about three to four months even lead to the closing down of educational institutions, leaving the students at a loss. The reasons for such strikes being a kidnap or a murder. Such strikes lead to complete shut down of the markets and partially to the lives of the Manipuris.

The unique feature of the markets in this region is that the women folk carry out all the marketing activities,80% of the vegetable sellers are women in this area. So again if they are unable to sell their grown food products they suffer a economic loss which hinders them in earning a livelihood.

Corruption, is the second drawback prevailing in the lives of the Manipuris. In all the possible government jobs corruption has a deep routed stand.

Such is the plight of the people of Manipur.