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Members of the FLC and SCMI – NEI region along with students from different colleges in Dimapur took part in the Annual Global Fortnight Campaign held at Big Bazaar, Dimapur on December 4.
Dimapur, December 4 (MExN): “Violence is gendered. It particularly affects women and young children. Among the varied forms of violence, mental and spiritual violence meted out to women is a reality that is hard to determine and quantify in figures and numbers.”
This was said by Renemsongla Ozukum while delivering a speech to observe the Annual Global Fortnight Campaign (November 25 – December 10) to eliminate gender based violence toward women and girls at Big Bazaar, Dimapur on December 4.
The event was jointly organized by the Fellowship of the Least Coin (FLC), Nagaland and Students Christian Movement of India (SCMI) – NEI Region, a press release informed.
She said that “mental and cultural discrimination of women is the worst form of violence that a society can possibly inflict to a woman.”
Several students representing colleges from Dimapur participated in the event using responsive liturgies through song, choreography and reading text followed by affirmative action and pledge for a VAW free community using candlelight and signature campaign.
“There is an increasing rate of domestic violence and abuse by husbands, brothers and fathers in the recent years. In addition, we see male-patronage of institutions and aggressive show of male competition and power in the market places like Dimapur,” said Ozukum highlighting the serious concerns of gender based violence faced by urban women and girls in Nagaland today.
Ozukum cited an example around 2-3 years back, where a blood stained young man was walking in the market in Dimapur. When interrogated by the traffic police, this man conveniently confessed that he had murdered a woman, who happened to be a mother, because he was not happy.
“Though Dimapur is one of the fastest growing commercial hubs in the North East Indian region, we lack proper mechanisms for ensuring social security and safety of vulnerable people, including the citizens of the city. We live in a dynamic and big city where we have easy access to all the commodities that we need, but women and children do not feel safe and secure anymore,” she lamented.
Ozukum appealed to young people and Ecumenical prayer groups for peace and justice like SCM & FLC to join hands in making sure that Dimapur does not become a “violently horrific place where we are indifferent to violence, particularly to violence committed against women and vulnerable young girls.”
“Let us continue to strive to build communities where there is no gender discrimination, but a socially-just and gender equal society,” she said, hoping that this campaign will lead from awareness to accountability, and an eventual gender-equal and violence-free world.
The Annual Fortnight campaign or the 16 days activism against Gender Based Violence from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day) has been observed since 1991.
It is an international campaign calling for prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. The dates were chosen to symbolically link violence against women as a violation of human rights, it added.
