Research-driven academic with 6 years of teaching experience in English Language & Literature, Gender Studies, and Business Communications. PhD candidate at the University of Delhi with publications in Scopus-indexed and UGC CARE-listed journals, and an active conference presence at national and international forums. Experienced in curriculum design, student mentorship, and interdisciplinary research.  

Under the Umbrella of Meira Paibi: a Narrative of Women Empowerment in the Disturbed Sate of Manipur, India Meira Paibi, meaning woman bearing oil torch, is a women only civil social organization that emerged in 1980s in a northeastern state, Manipur, of India. Manipur is a heterogeneous state with layers of its own traditional and cultural beliefs and practices. Manipur society consists of various ethnicities namely Meitei, Brahmins, Naga, Kuki, Pangan (Muslim in Manipur), 19 minor tribal groups, as well as large group of Bengalis, Nepalese and Marwaris. The Meira Paibi is a civil social network of Meitei women created to protect the people from social injustice or civil rights violation. Meitei women have a long history of women’s movement since the time of British colonial marked by the 1904 first women’s agitation, known as Nupi Lan; and this legacy is still visible today. However, their story is a collective narrative where women operate with the support of their family members. If one takes an individualistic approach towards the woman of Manipur the idea of women empowerment seems bizarre. Other perspective says that the women in Manipur are victims of domestic violence, discrimination based on class, infertility, rape, and victims of fraud. These crime and violences are recorded in the journals of Nupigi Punshi and Women and Crime, published by two women civil social organizations based at Imphal, capital city of Manipur. ‘Young Women Help Organization’ started on July’2011 with Thangjam Shanti Devi as the president and ‘Organization for Indian Women 2 against Crime’ in 2013 with Arambam Ongbi Robita as the president. They have recorded all the cases that their team had helped and solved in the journals. These journals are discontinued as the current situation, since May 3rd, 2024, of Manipur demanded a collective force to confront the atrocity of the ruling party. There is no more women civil social organizations, right now they operate under a collective organization called COCOMI (Coordinating Committee of Manipur Integrity).   In a society where there is continuous conflict between the people and the governing party or the insurgent, the talk about individuality is subsided by the concern for collective survival. The worries and concern about the survival against the atrocity of the arm forces or civil injustice led to less focus on the increasing domestic conflict; creating a counter narrative under the existing laurels of Meira Paibi. This paper investigates the complexity of women empowerment in a society where the women, especially mothers, are busy protecting the collective culture and integrity of the society keeping aside the domestic conflicts faced by women on a daily basis.