As if listening to stories of everyday racial discrimination was not enough, now we have the Coronavirus to make things even worse. In the aftermath of COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a massive and unprecedented upsurge of racial discrimination against the North-Eastern girls and women residing in metropolitan cities for various purposes. Covid-19 is ‘the great equalizer’, it ‘hurts the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless and everyone in between', says New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo. This article makes an overall analysis of various problems faced due to racism by women of North-East India in this pandemic.
The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) has been monitoring acts of racism and racial discrimination against India’s Mongoloid looking people who have been living mainly in metropolitan cities for education, employment and medical treatment. The RRAG has recorded 22 reported cases of racial discrimination or hate crimes from 7 February 2020 to 25 March 2020. These incidents are just tip of the iceberg as North-Eastern Mongoloid looking people have been facing such kinds of racial attacks on a daily basis during this COVID-19 and there are many incidents which are not even registered. Racism faced by the north-eastern women due to coronavirus is an ignored category which led to the increased levels of stress and fear; a fear of their fellow nationals who wrongly consider them less of an Indian than they are.
Apart from being called “Chinki”, “Chinese”, “Corona”, etc, the north-eastern women were called ‘virus’ and were forcibly quarantined despite showing no symptoms of COVID-19 just because of their looks.
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| Source:-Unsplsah By:- Gabrielle Henderson |
When it comes to racial abuse, both men and women are faced with it but women are vulnerable because perpetrators feel that they can get away with it without getting into a fight. About 60 per cent of all the complaints received by the North-East Support Centre and helpline were by women.
A few incidents which glaringly point out the discrimination faced by people from North East are mentioned below:
On 11 February 2020, a student of Kirori Mal College hailing from north-east India was harassed and called ‘Coronavirus’ on campus. This is one example of the many reports of instances of racism in the premises of schools and campuses.
Another incident took place on the night of 22 March 2020, a 25-year-old woman from Manipur who is pursuing her M-Phil was spat on and called ‘corona’ by a man in North-West Delhi.
On 10 March 2020, Pamziuliu Gonmei, a 26-year-old Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi faced racial discrimination based on her looks.
Alana Golmei, a chairperson of “North-East Support Centre and Helpline” in New Delhi which helps against racist attacks was also called ‘Coronavirus’
The women agreed to the point that racism was/is not something new to them but with the spread of COVID-19 they were bullied with more hatred. Because of these acts, 90% of the women felt mentally and morally disturbed which further caused them anxiety and fear from the crowd. It was more shocking to know that few felt discouraged with their studies as well. ‘The sudden racist attacks or abuses have changed the way they felt and acted in public places before’, says Golmei, a chairperson of ‘North-East Support Cell’.
Racism is quite different between male and female victims. Owing to their gender status, females have to face an additional set of fears as well. The main concern/fear was of being followed back or attacked by a racist because of which many women stopped going outside. But at the same time, there are certain incidents where women are forced to leave their houses, apartments etc. Sometimes women are slut-shamed and they experienced sexist comments along with racism.
It has also come out that ‘unity in diversity’ in India is just a myth. Facing racism in their own country has been one of the worst experiences encountered by the North-East Indians. It is a social problem that the country has been grappling with for a long time. Such discriminations are overt acts of racial prejudice that primarily stem from non-recognition or misrecognition of Northeast Indians, who are mainly of Mongolian race or mongoloid race. During this pandemic, the fight of North-East women is not only a fight against the virus but against racism as well. It is also their fight to get due recognition and acceptance as Equal Indians and not termed as ‘unwanted Indians’. The absence of stringent anti-racism laws may have resulted in the pervasiveness of overt acts of racism during this pandemic.
WAY FORWARD
The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced people’s hidden prejudices and highlighted their latent racism. Even though a North-Eastern proudly says that she/he is an Indian but the question remains- to what extent need they go to prove and assert their Indian-ness? Also, what could be the root cause for such crimes and how can we stop it?
Even though the Mongoloid facial feature is the main factor for such discrimination but we need to study other factors too that are playing an active role in concretizing the gap between North-East and mainland Indians.
Actually, the succeeding government is one of the factors encouraging people to commit such horrible crimes. For example- discriminatory policies such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA); or false consciousness about the North-East people by the other people of mainland India.
According to the responses from the aforementioned women victims and other North-East people, there exists a phobia among them. This phobia is of mingling with the mainland citizens. Familiarizing them to each others’ culture (lifestyle, food, customs, traditions, etc.) can help minimize this mindset. Additionally, India must include the rich history, culture, politics of the North-East India in the curriculum so every child knows, learns and appreciates that India is a land of diversity.
LAWS TO FOLLOW
Hesitation by the victims to reach out for legal help clearly indicates the failure of our legal system. Thus,
India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1967) and Indian Parliament must pass an anti-racism law.
India must implement the Bezbaruah Committee report on ending racial discrimination (the committee report is 80 plus pages long and can be found on the Ministry of Home Affairs website and has extremely detailed steps that must be taken to confront racism in India.)
Being a mum audience to racial discrimination is no less than the crime itself. Thus, it is high time to retort against such crimes both by those mainland Indians and North-East people who know the actual meaning of unity in diversity.
REFERENCES:
LUKYIR TAJI
SIBANI KONJENGBAM
Great work. Kudos ✨
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