India: Sexual assault against WHRD
Event- Country
- India
- Initial Date
- Mar 9, 2018
- Event Description
Ms. Shangnaidar Tontang is a very senior Women Human Rights Defender from the state of Manipur. She is the chief functionary of Weaker's Section Development Council, steering committee member of Women in Governance (WinG)-Manipur, Management Board member of State Cooperative Union, Chandel District, and Member of Khangshin Village Authority. She has been very actively advocating for peacebuilding amongst the different ethnic communities since 2006. On March 9, 2018, at around 3.30 PM Ms. Shangnaidar Tontang was having coffee in a shop in the village market. She saw some quarrel going on amongst the villagers of Kangsang and Khangshin on village bazar issue. The quarrel turned violent at one point and she intervened the matter on the spot and tried to stop the violence by making them calm and asked them to resolve their disputes in a peaceful manner. They did not listen to her, instead, Mr. Brownson Makunga, Chairman of Kangsang Village Authority sexually assaulted her in the public by saying that "he will kick her on her breasts". She filed a complaint at the Kakching police station on March 10, 2018 and the police registered the complaint under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (outraging modesty of a woman). After the police complaint has been filed, Mr. Brownson has absconded. After filing of the complaint Ms. Shangnaidar has received tremendous pressure from the community leaders of other villages to withdraw the case. They have demanded to settle the issue in the village by asking him to apologise to her. One of the leaders of the Kangsang village called a villager of Khangshin village and threatened them that if Mr. Brownson is arrested, they will not let the villagers to live that has led to fear amongst the villagers of Khangshin village, which might trigger a conflict between them. Mr. Brownson belongs to Maring community, which is ethnically dominated community whereas Shangnaidar is belonged to Khoibu community which is a very small community amongst the Nagas in Manipur. Even now she has been told by some of the villagers of her village to withdraw the police case and settle the matter in the village if Mr. Browonson apologises to her. As these villages have witnessed violent ethnic conflict in the past, peace, safety and security of the villages and if the WHRD is of the prime concern.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Gender Based Harassment
- Sexual Violence
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Women's rights
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 24.663717300000002
Longitude: 93.90626880000002
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On March 9, 2018, Ms. Shangnaidar Tontang - the chief functionary of Weaker's Section Development Council, steering committee member of Women in Governance (WinG)-Manipur, Management Board member of State Cooperative Union, Chandel District, and Member of Khangshin Village Authority - was sexually assaulted by Chairman of Kangsang Village Authority, and since then has faced pressures from community members to drop the case she filed against him.