AGARTALA, August 6 (TIWN): Women living in relief camps of North Tripura district housing Reang displacement victims from Mizoram are subjected to a number of crimes including sexual violence, domestic violence and desertion, a letter from the Mizoram State Commission for Women (MSCW) said recently. The letter from Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu, the new chairperson of MSCW, to Tripura Commission of Women chairperson Purnima Roy earlier this year expressed caution on the forms of torture imposed on the Bru displaced women in the camps.

Chawngthu, elected in the Mizoram assembly by-polls from Rangturzo seat, happens to be the first woman legislator of the state to be elected after a gap of 27 years and the only unmarried Mizo member of state legislative assembly, ever, which might explain her sympathy for the Mizos’ usual despise for Reang displacement victims, a source in the MSCW said.

A delegation of the Tripura Commission of Women later visited Naisingpara camp in Kanchanpur sub-division in the North Tripura district on July 30, member secretary of the TCW Aparna Dey said. Speaking about their experience in the camps, Dey said that marriages among the camp inmates, often including child marriages, don’t follow any legal procedure for registration. The practice has led to frequent desertions, she said. These women have their children and add to the camp population without any maintenance compensation from their ‘husbands’ with absolutely no record of family history, she said.

The Commission member secretary further said that the women who attended an interaction held during their visit at Naisinghpara camp, complained of heavy domestic violence. She added that the transit camps housing the displacement victims have got eight Anganwadi centers and six junior basic schools operated under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). These institutions offered education till the fifth standard which was the highest educational qualification for most of the camp children.

Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Nantu Ranjan Das, Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Forum (MBDPF) general secretary Bruno Msha and other functionaries of the Tripura Commission for Women (TCW) attended the interaction on the day.