Manipur’s mental health crisis, a year after violence

On 3 May last year Esther Haokip, a 23 year old Kuki student, was inside her hostel when a violent mob attacked her university in Manipur, northeast India. She recalls that a mob of 40 men climbed the walls and entered the hostel premises, set vehicles on fire, and even pelted stones at windows before breaking down the main gate. Haokip, who currently lives with her relatives in Delhi, said that the girls in her hostel started hiding in groups in bathrooms as they heard the mob breaking the doors of their rooms.“Initially I thought that it hadn’t affected me,” she says. “But as time goes by it becomes more difficult to cope. I find myself having multiple breakdowns. I get scared when I hear people shouting.”It’s been one year since ethnic clashes erupted in the Indian state of Manipur—the start of a murderous civil war between the Meitei and…
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