Manipur mothers ‘honoured’ for bearing up to 15 children

IMPHAL: Over a year after saffron leaders advised Hindus to have 10 children as an insurance against demographic invasion, a Manipur organisation has awarded 13

IMPHAL: Over a year after saffron leaders advised Hindus to have 10 children as an insurance against demographic invasion, a Manipur organisation has awarded 13 women for bearing up to 15 kids.

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Iramdam Kanba Apunba Lup (IKAL), a civil society organisation, on Sunday awarded cash and citation to women for “giving birth to high number of children, raising them well by providing good education and parental care”.

A government school headmaster was also honoured for contribution to the “welfare of the indigenous population of Manipur”.

The top two ‘outstanding’ women were Mutum Subita, a 44-year-old mother of 15 and Ningomban Sanahanbi, a 54-year-old mother of 11. Moirangthem Angoubi and Khangjrakpam Bilashini, mothers of nine children each, bagged the third prize.

“This is our third attempt at reviving the degrading public institutions in the interest of the indigenous population,” W Luwangleima, IKAL president, said.

Trinamool Congress MLA Oinam Lukhoi Singh, who attended the ceremony, said the merit of adopting family planning needed to be thought over as the population of the Manipuri community was shrinking.

S Suchitra, state nodal officer (family planning), advised women to maintain three years gap between two children. “Our focus is on the health of mother and newborn baby,” she said.

A gynaecologist, on condition of anonymity, said giving too many births could be risky for women.

Manipur is not the first state in the northeast to award mothers for a seemingly patriotic cause.

In 2007, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council in matrilineal Meghalaya gave Rs 16,000 each to three women for bearing 15 or more children.