CHURACHANDPUR: The future of hundreds of children in Manipur – its next doctors, engineers, writers, teachers, and lawyers – is slipping through the cracks. “I had a dream, and then it was gone,” said Hatneu Haokip, 21, once a bright Class XI science student in Imphal.
The ethnic conflict that erupted in May 2023 has done more than just displace 60,000 people and claim over 260 lives – it has stolen childhoods and left an entire generation teetering on edge of uncertainty.
At Sadbhavana Mandap, a camp near Tuibong Multipurpose Hall in Churachandpur, the scene is painfully familiar. Of the 400 people crammed into this temporary shelter, 208 are children. Their days blur into one another – playing aimlessly on phone screens, kicking dust outside. Their parents watch in helpless agony, their own worries of survival overshadowing the shattered hopes of their children.
In Churachandpur district alone, there are 84 relief camps. Govt schools in Churachandpur town are bursting at the seams. An organisation has taken in 400 displaced kids, but how far can that go?
Hatneu had dreamt of studying pharmaceuticals, of wearing a white coat and making a difference. But then came the violence. Now, she sits in a Churachandpur camp, her textbooks replaced by a gnawing sense of loss. “It is the same story for many living in relief camps,” she said.
The camp is a maze of despair, where numbers tell a grim tale: 81 children under six, 127 between six and 18. Among them, a handful still cling to education – such as three college students trying to hold on to their ambitions.
Lucky Deb, a 39-year-old driver, watched his four children fight a losing battle against time. His eldest two were in high school when their education was put on pause. “They now go to school, but it is not enough,” he said. “Their crucial years are slipping away. Govt must step in before it is too late.”
For Tabitha, 24, survival is a daily act of faith. A former beauty parlour owner from Imphal West, she had enough to provide for herself and her son. Now, her business is gone, her home a distant memory, and her son’s education a casualty of war. “What can I do except pray?” she said.
A man overseeing the camp’s basic needs – food and medical aid – spoke with a weary sigh: “Initially, private institutions stepped in to help, but now they are struggling to even pay their staff.”
Each of these relief camps is a microcosm of lost dreams, where young minds with untapped potential are wasting away in forced idleness. They are caught in a limbo not of their making, abandoned by a world that moves on while they remain trapped in the ruins of yesterday.
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