Final Electoral Roll Published in Mizoram

Aizawl, Jan 16 : There are 6,80,255 voters in Mizoram, according to the final electoral roll of 2013 published here today after completion of the summary revision of the voters' lists.

The state has more women voters at 3,46,172 while male voters number 3,34,083.

The joint chief electoral officer H T Lalengmawia told PTI that the coming by-polls to the Chalfilh assembly seat would be held based on the new voters' lists.

The Chalfilh by-election is scheduled to be held on February 23 where an electorate of 17,237 including 183 service voters would decide the fates of the candidates.

Rape, Murder On The Rise in Mizoram

Aizawl, Jan 16 : Even though Mizoram recorded a comparative less number of cases registered against criminal offences during last year as compared to 2011, cases of rape and murder were on the rise.

According to police records, a total of 2117 IPC and non-IPC cases were registered in 2012 compared to the previous year’s 2238 cases. These were cases registered in northern range, including Aizawl, Champhai, Serchhip, Mamit and Kolasib districts.

Crime reports from Saiha, Lawngtlai and Lunglei districts, which fall under southern range, are not available.

While IPC cases increased by 34, which accounted for 2.28 per cent of the total IPC cases, non-IPC cases fell by 115 (20.61 per cent), resulting in an overall decrease in crime rate.

However, major crimes like rape and murder were still on the rise at 33.15 per cent and 18.18 per cent respectively. Theft and burglary cases decreased by 6.47 per cent and 1.09 per cent respectively, the sources said.

Mizoram Chalfilh Assembly Byelection on Feb 23

Aizawl, Jan 15 : Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer K Riachho on Monday said that the state election department was ready to hold the by-polls to the Chalfilh assembly seat on February 23 and the summary revision of rolls would be published tomorrow.

Addressing a press conference here, Riachho said that provisional electorate of the Chalfilh assembly seat was 10,754.

The security situation in the constituency, dominated by the Hmar community, and by and large controlled by the Hmar People's Convention-Democrats, would be assessed by the state home department, he said.

He said that the election model code of conduct was in place from Friday, the day the Election Commission of India announced the elections.

The Chalfilh seat was lying vacant after the demise of Parliamentary Secretary Chawngtinthanga of the ruling Congress on September 16 last year.

13 Die in Mizoram Due To Drug Overdose

Aizawl, Jan 14 : At least 13 people, mostly youths and high school students, have died due to suspected drug overdose in less than a month in this Mizoram capital, officials said Monday.

"Most of the people were brought unconscious with symptoms of drug overdose to the hospital where many of them died. Thirteen people have died in the civil hospital since Dec 20, 2012," Aizawl Civil Hospital's Emergency department medical officer Jeremy Pachuau told reporters.

"Some of the people were cured by administering antidotes while some died as their treatment started too late," the official added.

Pachuau said that in the preliminary study seemed most of the cases were due to consumption of cough syrup spiked with grape wine which could produce dangerous chemical reactions.

Cough syrup, which contained high dose of codeine and other drugs, is frequently used as an intoxicant among young people in the northeast.

Mizoram Drug Abuse Concerns CM

By Zodin Sanga

Aizawl, Juna 11 : Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla on Wednesday voiced concern over a sudden spurt in teen deaths due to suspected drug overdose during the Christmas and New Year festival.

Quoting hospital records, Lal Thanhawla said at least 10 teenagers between the age of 16 to 21 have died from December 20 to January 8.

“On December 20, a 19-year-old girl at Electric Veng died while she was asleep. The cause of her unexpected death was declared to be heart attack,” he said. On December 22, an 18-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy died under similar circumstances later in the night, he said.

A number of teens were brought to the Aizawl civil hospital in comatose conditions during the past few weeks. “In one such case, a 13-year-old girl was brought to the hospital with heroin overdose symptoms. The girl regained consciousness after getting drug overdose treatment. The doctors were puzzled as the girl did not show any sign of drug dependency,” Lal Thanhawla said.

This prompted Lal Thanhawla to call a press conference at his office on Wednesday afternoon. “How we should fight this social menace is a matter of great concern. The government is taking all possible steps to curb the social evil,” he said.

According to Dr Jeremy V Pachuau of Aizawl civil hospital, addiction to cough syrups and other over-the-counter drugs has suddenly caught the fancy of adolescents in Aizawl.

The most commonly abused cough syrups, as per the doctor, are Coscopin D, Respira D, Norvent D, Instaryl D and Ascoril D, which contain dextramorphan hydromobide and chlorpheniramine malaete.

“Side effects include feelings of depression and sadness, dilated pupils, dissociation – trouble differentiating between what is real and what are hallucinations, panic attacks, psychotic episodes – particularly severe after prolonged over consumption of cough syrup,” the doctor said. “It is more dangerous when taken with grape wine,” he added.

According to the doctor, many teens in Aizawl have also abused pacitane and cataspa, in a desperate attempt to get light skin. This, he said, was cause by the craze over the light-skinned Korean celebrities. “Prolong use of these drugs make them pale that make them believe that they get lighter complexion. This is more common among girls,” the doctor said.

The doctor said that many drug stores in Aizawl, which have restricted licences  sold these drugs, which are prohibited without doctor prescription.

During the press conference, Lal Thanhawla also stressed the need for more stringent inspection on the drug stores who are selling restricted drugs. He also raised concern over Mizoram being used by across the border drug smugglers as a route to ferry party drugs like pseudoephedrine.

“Pseudoephedrine tablets are mainly smuggled from Delhi. I wonder how the drugs could go undetected in high-security airport like Delhi Airport. This is a matter of concern that needs to be discussed with the Central government,” he said.

Pseudoephedrine tablets worth crores of rupees were seized at Lengpui Airport in Aizawl during 2012. Lal Thanhawla said after repeated hauls, the drug smugglers have now resorted to couriers to ferry the drugs.

'Women Marginalized in Parts of Northeast'

By Nirmalya Banerjee

Kolkata, Jan 11 : When Nirbhaya is raped and killed in Delhi, the whole country rises in condemnation against the incident. But when a Manipuri actress is molested in distant Chandel while on a fund-raising show, it turns into a Meitei versus Naga issue.

Citing this as an instance of discrimination against women in the north-east, associate professor of Manipur University N Vijaylakshmi Brara argued on Wednesday that women were still a marginalized part of society in many parts of the region.

She was speaking in Kolkata on 'Conflict, Gender and Displacement with special focus on India's North-East' at a conference organized by the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration jointly with Calcutta Research Group. "What mattered in the Chandel incident was the pride and the honour of the community. Nobody bothered about the individual," she explained. Citing the instance of opposition in Nagaland to allowing women to have their quotas in elected municipal bodies, she said women in parts of the northeast were still marginalized. She wondered why the Meira Paibis - powerful vigilance groups of women - were not involved in peace negotiations with undergrounds in Manipur.

Women were especially vulnerable to continued violence in the northeastern states, Vijaylakshmi and other speakers pointed out. The Naga-Kuki clashes in Manipur in 1997 was followed by a "domestic chaos" as the divorce rate shot up in families formed from intermarriages between these two communities, Vijaylakshmi said. Associate professor of Cotton College, Guwahati, Rakhee Kalita said after coming overground since the ceasefire, many women cadres of the United Liberation Front of Asom had "gradually disappeared."

While many menfolk among the ULFA cadres who had come overground had subsequently been rehabilitated in sociey and even co-opted in government jobs, women members had been 'tossed about between the outfit and the government." While ULFA plead inability to help them, the government would turn a deaf ear. "For fear of facing social stigma, these women are disappearing."

Former president of Naga Mothers' Association Kheseli Chisi said 80 per cent of the internally displaced persons in ethnic violence were women and children. She was in favour of changes in some customary laws which were fetters for women.

Northeast Fashion Gets New Platform

Northeast fashion gets new platform

Following the first ever Shillong Fashion Week (SFW) in 2012, Guwahati is set to host the North East Fashion Fest (NEFF). The event, endorsed by Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan, will give the local talents a chance to promote their craft and boost their business.

The four-day festival, organised by Basics Concepts and Marketing, will start Feb 20 at the Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok in Guwahati, Assam's main city.

"The core value of NEFF is to provide a platform for all contenders within the northeast Indian fashion industry to network and alliance with national and international partners and makers for increase in sales and development of their business," Manish Jha, one of the organisers, said.

As many as 16 designers from New Delhi, Mumbai and northeast regions have been roped in to showcase their collection. A few confirmed names are Nida Mahmood, Rajdeep Ranawat, Raakesh Agarvwal and Janjum Gadi.

Soha Ali Khan has been roped in as the festival ambassador, while actresses like Mugdha Godse, Huma Qureshi, Evelyn Sharma and Jiah Khan are expected to walk for the designers during the fashion gala.

"There have been a lot of fashion shows happening in Shillong, but our idea is to not only do the same shows, but also to involve couple of Bollywood actors to draw national attention. Bollywood really helps in promoting a new venture in a big way," Jha added.

Apart from fashion shows, there will be open studios, workshops, lectures, exhibition of fashion and lifestyle products and cultural programmes and activities during the fest.

Nida Mahmood, known for her quirky collections, feels the northeast culture has received very little attention despite the fact that its people are few of the most fashion forward. She is confident that events like these will help the cause.

"I have spent a short time of my growing up years in the northeast. So, I have seen what a beautiful place it is and what amazing textiles they have. Though since then, I never got the chance to go there and explore. So, I thought this is great opportunity to exchange thoughts and design inspirations," Mahmood said.

"It is one of those small steps that is going to have long lasting impression as there is so much to explore in those regions," she added.

TOI Lifetime Contribution — Naga Mothers Association

Members of Naga Mothers Association. 

KOHIMA, Jan 10 : With their tiny frames, traditional attire, ready chuckles, and expert cooking, this group of Naga mothers looks what mothers are expected to. But when the stories emerge — of six-hour journeys into jungles to meet armed groups, of working with the HIVpositive in the early 1990s, of long legal battles — it's clear their idea of a mother's role is one that few women or men would be equal to.

The Naga Mothers Association (NMA) was formed in 1984 in response to the drug and alcohol addiction ravaging Nagaland at the time. "Every Naga tribe had a women's wing, women were strong in the church's activities. But with NMA they came together in an organised manner," says Sano Vamuzo, one of the network's founders and, at 80, an active adviser to NMA.

NMA's constitution mandates that every adult Naga woman is automatically made a member with an annual membership fee of Re 1. Leaders are selected from among members nominated by each of eight Naga tribes.

"In the beginning, the biggest issue affecting homes was drug addiction," says Abei-U Meru, also a founder and now NMA president. "The mothers came together because it was hurting every home." Along with spreading information, NMA started a rehabilitation centre. In the 1990s, it played a pioneering role in tackling HIV and AIDS. In September 1991, recalls founder memberformer president Neidonuo Angami, they visited the HIV-affected in Manipur Jail. "Food was thrown at them, such was the stigma. We were the first to go in and shake the patients' hands."

Through the 1980s and 1990s, NMA addressed the violence that tore Nagaland apart: atrocities by the Indian army against Naga groups and civilians, and then years of fratricidal killings between various Naga factions. "Daily gun battles would see two or three boys shot dead outside our homes. We would bring the shrouds for them," Meru recalls.

NMA made 'Shed No More Blood' its motto — one the women have gone to great lengths to uphold. Every time tensions simmered, they took off in a car on barely-there roads into the jungles of Nagaland and neighbouring states to urge leaders of factions to talk; NMA's only demand that peace be maintained. Ever since the 1997 truce between Naga groups and the Centre, NMA's been active in negotiations to settle the vexed issue of a homeland for all Nagas. But the ceasefire hasn't meant an end to the violence.

In 2010, the NMA helped calm one of the mosttense situations in recent years after two young Nagas were shot dead by the army at Mao town on the Manipur border. "For eight days, villagers refused to claim the bodies, tensions escalated on both sides," says Rosemary Dzuvichu, a university professor and NMA adviser. Stopped by the army at every step, Dzuvichu and Meru pushed through security cordons, shrouded the bodies and took them to the boys' families.

Over the past two years, NMA's been fighting an adversary of a different kind: some men in the Naga tribal and political leadership. In 2006, the Naga government brought in 33% quota for women in urban local bodies. But the state began to waver once the NMA pressured it to hold elections with the quotas. The mothers went to court.

The government said reservation for women would be in conflict with customary law, a position that enrages the NMA. "Customary law says Nagas can't buy and sell land. Does anybody follow that," asks Sarah Nuh, NMA's vice-president. "Culture is not static. It has to change," agrees Lochumbeni Humtsoe, the network's secretary.

When the high court upheld the state's position, NMA moved Supreme Court. The order's expected by the monthend. Balancing the state's tribalism with their ideals is a delicate task that NMA finds itself doing a lot. "Within NMA, we've forged alliances across all tribes. There's unity," says Vamuzo. Often, male leaders ask the women to put their tribe's interests first. Nagaland has never had a woman MLA. Naga Hoho, the apex tribal body, too, doesn't have women. "They expect women to speak only on social issues, not to make decisions," says Nuh.

"They worry women leaders will next go for their MLA seats," laughs Dzuvichu. The older women are sure a new leadership will emerge. "The elders planted the seed very well," says Neidonuo. "Many younger ones ask: Why mothers? Let's change the name to women. I say no. The NMA is for all women, unmarried or married, mothers or not. But the word 'mother' has dignity in Naga society. Everyone respects a mother. The name stays," says Vamuzo.