New Delhi: “All I can remember is hiding in the wards, calling helpline numbers frantically but getting no response. I was lucky to not have died.”
Hannah, a 23-year-old medical student at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal, said with a shudder as she talked about surviving a mob attack on the campus on 4 May.
“Our warden asked us to hide in the storeroom as the mob had reached the hostel and was checking student IDs,” she added, saying she hid for 12 hours before being evacuated to an Army camp, from where she fled Manipur for Gurugram.
Hannah is among dozens of medical students displaced by the Kuki-Meitei ethnic violence that has gripped Manipur since 3 May.
All colleges in Manipur restarted classes on 5 June after a brief hiatus that coincided with the summer vacation. However, those displaced — some just starting out in their course, others just a few weeks away from completing it — have been scared to return, and now find themselves missing crucial lessons and exams.
Online classes were offered initially, students told ThePrint, but an internet shutdown to curb fake news put paid to that initiative. Even if online classes were continued, they said, it would be little help in a course driven by practical lessons.
The three major medical colleges in Manipur — the JNIMS, the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and the Shija Academy of Health Sciences (private) — are all located in Imphal, a Valley district dominated by the Meiteis. As a result, Kuki medical students appear to be bearing the brunt of the situation, according to faculty members, and local authorities.
While the tribal-dominated Hill district of Churachandpur has the eponymous Government Medical College, it was opened only this year and has a handful of students in comparison to the others, they said. Two Meitei students also told ThePrint that they were attending classes normally now.
All three government colleges, affiliated to Manipur University, have been holding exams since end-May, as has the private institute.
Kuki student organisations said they tried to raise the issue of displaced students with college authorities and directors of the respective institutions, but nothing came of it. Only 20 students attended classes at the JNIMS on the first day. No Kukis were present, they said.
Speaking to ThePrint, Khaitinthang Haokip, president of the Kuki Students’ Organisation in Delhi and NCR, said opening colleges across Manipur now is detrimental to the students. Such actions “only give the impression that things are returning to normal”, Haokip added.
“Being a student body, we are approached by those affected and have been running pillar to post to convince the central agencies to relocate the students,” he added. “Not much has been done.”
Reached for comment, Imphal Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Vanalkungi acknowledged the situation, but expressed helplessness. He said online classes are an option, but “any other alternative at this point is difficult”.
The current spate of violence in Manipur erupted 3 May, as the Meiteis’ demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status added to ethnic tensions over a host of issues. While the Valley districts of Manipur are primarily home to Meiteis, the Hills are dominated by the tribes, primarily the Kukis and Nagas.
Over the past two months, over 100 people have died, at least 300 injured, and 50,000 people displaced.
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‘No help available’
Students and faculty members said colleges campuses were overtaken by fear between 3 and 4 May.
Dr Hegin Tungdim, a senior resident doctor at JNIMS, recalled how students were evacuated from the campus.
While one vehicle managed to carry 30 students to the nearest Army camp around 5 pm on 4 May, the second one was not so lucky, he said.
The students, Dr Tungdim added, were searched and taken out of the car a few kilometres from the college. Some of them ran back to the college and hid in the hospital wards, he said.
The police were unresponsive, he added, remembering how students “frantically ran” towards an ambulance that arrived around 12.30 am.
“There was no help available… Most of the Kukis left the campuses after we hid them in vehicles to save them from mobs,” he added.
According to Tungdim, JNIMS has around 1,000-1,300 students, as do RIMS and Shija Academy of Health Sciences. Around 128 Kuki medical students are displaced currently, he added.
A head of department at JNIMS said on the condition of anonymity that “only a few students, mostly Meiteis, are present in the class”.
Speaking to ThePrint, 23-year-old Binison, a third-year Meitei student at JNIMS, said, “Classes are going on. I am at the hostel currently. There was a curfew earlier but now it has been removed. No one is affected.”
Another second-year MBBS student at Shija, who’s a Kuki and requested to remain anonymous, said she fled Imphal with her family in the middle of the night on 3 May, only carrying her certificates. They, then, were at the Army camp before fleeing to Guwahati, Assam. Her exams were scheduled for May, but she hasn’t been able to return since.
Nine students from the Kuki community who have completed their medical training could not take their exams either, it is learnt. A final-year Kuki student at RIMS, who chose to remain anonymous, said she was asked to return to the hostel on 25 May so she could sit for her exam, and assured of her safety by the college administration.
Despite her concerns, she reached RIMS, but was allegedly forced to return after she had to go without food for nearly a day because the hostel cooks had fled. On her way back, she was allegedly attacked by a mob in Moirang, a town near Churachandpur. The Army arrived just in time to rescue her, she said.
“I am scared to go back again. I cannot get the visual of the mob out of my head. Even if things return to normal, I don’t think I will go back to the campus ever again,” she said.
A parent who requested anonymity said they want their children transferred to another college, even if the clashes subside.
“It is a bit unfair that, with so much happening, the college authorities do not even seem to care,” they added. “I never thought we would see this in our lifetime. I don’t have the heart to tell my daughter that we will perhaps not return. I fear for her life and the emotional turmoil sometimes takes a toll on me.”
The displaced students are reaching out to authorities, asking them for transfers so that their studies can resume. The medical education regulator National Medical Commission (NMC) issued a notice 12 June that first-year students from the Churachandpur Medical College be allowed to attend classes in JNIMS as well.
“The NMC says this approach was suggested by the CM, but what about students from the RIMS and Shija? It’s been two months that we have been lagging behind in classes,” Esther said, adding that she is awaiting a reply to her mails to the college authorities.
“It’s been two weeks and I haven’t heard from any of them,” she said. Without books or classes, she doesn’t know what the future holds.
ThePrint reached officials at Shija and RIMS on numbers provided on the websites but was yet to receive a response when this report was published.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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