Shangnaidar Tontang

Woman Rights Defender

Manipur

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on March 14 over the sexual assault on Ms. Shangnaidar Tontang by the Chairman of Kangsang Village Authority, Mr. Brownson Makunga. Ms. Tontang is a senior human rights defender in Manipur. She is the chief functionary of the Weaker Section Development Council and a steering committee member of Women in Governance (WinG)-Manipur.

On March 9, 2018, at around 3.30 pm, Ms. Tontang was having coffee in a shop in the village market. She saw a quarrel going on among the villagers of Kangsang and Khangshin on a local issue. The quarrel turned violent at one point. She intervened and tried to calm them down. They did not listen to her. Instead, Mr. Brownson Makunga, Chairman of Kangsang Village Authority, sexually assaulted her in a public space and said that that “he will kick her on her breasts”.

She filed a complaint at the Kakching Police Station on March 10, 2018, and the police registered the complaint under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (outraging modesty of a woman). After the police complaint, Mr. Brownson has been absconding.

After filing the complaint, Ms. Shangnaidar has faced tremendous pressure from community leaders of other villages asking her to withdraw the case. They have demanded to settle the issue in the village by asking him to apologize to her. One of the leaders of the Kangsang village called a villager of Khangshin village and threatened that if Mr. Brownson is arrested they will not let the villagers live. That has led to fear among the villagers of Khangshin village, which might trigger a conflict.

She has been asked by some of the villagers to withdraw the police case and settle the matter in the village if Mr. Brownson apologizes. As these villages have witnessed violent ethnic conflict in the past, peace, safety, and security of the villages and the WHRD is of prime concern.