Topic: Seminar on Role of Women in Freedom Movement
• Objectives: to gain first-hand knowledge women who actually participated in MNF Independence Movement.
• Target / No of participants: 1rd Sem BA – 57
• Resource Person:
• Corporal Zama, Examine, and Mrs. Lalrinsangi, Ex.MNA Corporal Zama, Ex.MNA had 11 works in 11 publications in 2 languages and 63 library holdings.
• Report of event: The volunteers of ex. MNA were the resource persons for this seminar. They shared their experience during the wars and the struggles and hardship they had to face to protect their land. The students also find these to be very fascinating as it was a part of their syllabus and to hear it from the volunteers in person was a benefit for them. Their speech was very inspiring and informative.
• Body: 26th September, 2019: Seminar on Role of Women in Freedom Movement Corporal Zama, Ex.MNA, and Mrs. Lalrinsangi, Ex.MNA were the resource persons in the seminar. They talked of the role of women in the road and journey to freedom, stressing on the relevance and importance of women in their struggle towards freedom. The role of women as medical attendants was also talked of in great length, mentioning them being the need of the hour. The resource persons for this seminar were volunteers During the insurgency and each shared their own experience. One of the resource people said that women’s contribution to the formation of the sate remains largely unrecognized. There were female volunteers in the MNF movement when the insurgency broke out in 1966. They fought bravely alongside the men and suffered with the men. However, there is no written record of the numbers of female volunteers in the movement even though hundreds submitted their names to the MNF movement. It has also been observed that eighteen women entered the underground camp in East Pakistan to serve as nurses and office staff and performed various supporting roles; some of them entered the battlefield to fight alongside men. The women who were left in the villages also experienced all kinds of exploitation during the armed conflict of the Indian government and the MNF movement. The enforcement of the Armed Forces Act of 1958 in the north-east brought great devastation to the lives of women. We can know form our resource person that women suffered a great deal during the insurgency, many of which remain largely unknown.
