‘I just want a picnic with my friends, but I am stuck. Will the curfew end?’

FOR THE majority of her teenage years, Alice Yumnam was “blissfully unaware” of what an Inner Line Permit (ILP) meant even though, she admits, peer pressure initially prompted her to take part in the protests on the issue, which first cropped up in 2012.

Alice’s locality, Khurai in Imphal East district in the state capital, has always been the epicentre of Meitei-centric protests in Manipur. And their demand for some form of an Inner Line Permit (ILP), which restricts entry of outsiders into Manipur, has largely been driven by the youth wing of the Joint Committee for Inner Line Permit (JCILP), a group of civic organisations that has been spearheading the movement since 2012.

As a result, many of Alice’s friends from her colony used to participate in the protests. “I too was a part of them. I wanted to do what my friends were doing,” she says. However, most students from Classes 10 to 12 out on the streets belonged to government schools. Alice, who went to one of the most wellknown and popular private schools in the city, would join them after school hours. In an attempt to fit in, she would, soon after rushing back from school, get out of her uniform, change into the Manipuri phanek and join the protesters.

The protests, which have increasingly become violent and resulted in clashes between the Manipur police and the children, acquired a new meaning for Alice only last year.

In July 2015, Robinhood Sapam, a Class 11 student, was in a crowd of protesters when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas. A stray teargas shell struck Robinhood in the face; he was taken to the closest hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

“When I heard about it, I was really angry. Why were the police attacking us like this? We are just students. And we were only protesting. I kept awake at night wondering what Robinhood’s parents must have felt like. I kept thinking about my own parents and how heartbroken they would be if something like that happened to me,” Alice says, adding that she herself has faced off with the police more than once.

“I was scared of facing the police. We all were. They were bigger and armed with lathis and teargas. They also wear helmets and bullet-proof vests. We only had ourselves. But in that moment, you get caught up in the agitation,” she says.

Earlier this year, Alice’s parents sent her Since the row erupted over creation of seven new districts, Manipur is reeling under a blockade called by United Naga Council, and a counter blockade called by Meitis. The current blockade has lasted 59 days so far out of the state to study — in safety and without distraction.

“There are no protests or blockades in Bangalore,” says Alice. “My parents felt this would not only be a safer option but that I would actually be able to complete my studies.”

However, back home in the state on winter vacation from her nursing college in Bangalore, the teenager is back in the thick of it. Khurai is under curfew for the twelfth consecutive day already after violence earlier this month, when local residents burnt down 22 vehicles carrying tribal passengers to the hill district of Ukhrul.

Imphal is also reeling from the economic blockades clamped by the United Naga Council and the Meira Paibis (woman activists of Manipur).

“I had just one wish when I came home for these vacations: I wanted to go for a picnic with my friends. I have already been here for 10 days and have been stuck at home. I can’t go out because of the curfew, I can’t shop, I can’t even meet my friends. My holiday ends soon, and I just want one simple picnic with my friends before I go back to Bangalore,”she sighs. ESHA ROY