Indias racism on their own sons and daugthers

[Somedude]

Verbally abused, spat at, harassed: Northeastern citizens come under attack amid coronavirus panic

A woman from Manipur has alleged that a man spat on her and called her "corona" in Delhi. Not just her, many Northeastern citizens have shared stories of discrimination amid the coronavirus outbreak.

 

As one social media user put it, "It's a double crisis for us, first battle with the virus and then with the societal virus of racism!" (Photo: Twitter)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Many NE citizens have shared stories of discrimination amid the coronavirus outbreak
• Singer Meiyang Chang said that two men shouted "corona" at him while he out on a walk
• MHA has asked all law enforcing agencies to take appropriate action in these cases

 

As fear over the novel coronavirus pandemic grips the nation, people are letting the hysteria come out in shameful and disgusting ways. At the centre of the panic over the outbreak, which originated in China, are Northeastern folks, who are being subjected to racism and discrimination across the country.

Lawyer and social activist Alana Golmei shared photos of a Manipuri woman who attacked in Delhi's North Campus area. The woman, who is in her early 20s, alleged that she was on her way to buy groceries when a man came on a two-wheeler and spat on her. He called her "corona" before fleeing the spot. The incident took place on Sunday around 10 pm in Vijay Nagar.

Another racist attack on NE girl reported just now in North Campus calling her Coronavirus and spitting on her. Are the concerned authorities waiting for untoward situation to happen again? Incident like Nido Tania should not happen again to any of our NE boys and girls. pic.twitter.com/rrNdzU3CIf

Alana (@Alanagolmei) March 22, 2020

A complaint has been filed against the man by the Delhi Police under Section 509 (outraging modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too condemned the incident. "Am shocked to read this. Delhi Police must find the culprit and take strict action. We need to be united as a nation, especially in our fight against Covid-19," he wrote on Twitter.

However, the woman is not alone in facing such an ordeal. Golmei also posted about the harassment she and her niece were subjected to in Delhi University. Not just her, many Northeastern citizens have shared stories of discrimination amid the coronavirus outbreak.

 

As one social media user put it, "It's a double crisis for us, first battle with the virus and then with the societal virus of racism!"

Bollywood singer and former Indian Idol contestant Meiyang Chang said that while he was out on his morning walk in Mumbai, two men on a bike sped past him shouting "corona". Others have echoed facing the same kind of racism.

 

m.

 

Political activist Angellica Aribam also shared lewd messages and racist slurs she was receiving on social media.

A video doing the rounds of social media shows a group of women from the northeast crying as the housing society they lived in tried to forcefully evict them and blamed them for "bringing coronavirus in India". In the video, a police official, reportedly from Gujarat Police, can be seen reassuring the women that they are safe and do not have to go anywhere

i want to say lots of things but.....

thank you #Gujratpolice pic.twitter.com/TqWZTNCNRj

Anupama (@anujironi) March 22, 2020

In another video, a group of Northeastern students were abused and forced to leave their accommodation in Kolkata.

 

North East students are getting abused and forced to leave Kolkata.
This is so wrong and disgusting@KolkataPolice @WBPolice please take steps.
.@MamataOfficial this is unacceptable. Racism should not be tolerated.
Please look into the matter pic.twitter.com/yp6cZ7aHRG

— Fidus Achates (@Sohni_Bose) March 23, 2020

The mentality can even affect authorities. Last week, nine Naga youths were forced to spend 24 hours in quarantine in Gujarat despite having no symptoms of coronavirus, any history of international travel or contact with a Covid-19 patient.

The group was allegedly put into forced quarantine after someone made an anonymous call to the Ahmedabad police about "Chinese people" working in an office.

During these times, some northeastern citizens are making public calls for sensitivity and understanding from the masses. One Kolkata-based singer who has Chinese ancestry resorted to wearing a t-shirt that says "I am not coronavirus, I was born in Kolkata and I never visited China."

 

#Chinese community members in #ChinaTown #Kolkata are wearing this T-Shirt because of a few #Racist #Bengalis who love to make fun calling them #Corona!

It's written: "No I am not Corona Virus. I was born in Kolkata, never been to China."

Respect your pluralism, #Kolkata. pic.twitter.com/67d31fKj9s

Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh (@mayukhrghosh) March 21, 2020

Northeastern students, living in a small village in Punjab called Chunni Kalan took to Facebook to post a video explaining how after the Covid-19 outbreak, people have been calling them with names such as coronavirus. They even said that few of their friends were denied to stay on rent because people thought they were from China.

In the light of the growing incidents, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a statement on Monday saying, "There have been cases where people of Northeast including athletes have been harassed by linking them to Covid-19. This is racially discriminatory. It's requested that all law enforcing agencies in states and UT may sensitise to take appropriate action in these cases."

[TrollBait]

fcuk this. dammnn..

[Somedude]

Coronavirus: 'Chinese-looking' Indians targeted in racist attacks

A nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has created panic and anger among Indians. Now there are reports of attacks against people from northeastern states that border China. Murali Krishnan reports.

 

As tension rises in India over the spread of coronavirus, people originally from northeastern states have been facing racially motivated attacks in cities around the country. They are being blamed for bringing COVID-19 to India due to their appearance.

Facial features of people from northeastern India can look similar to a Han Chinese appearance. Victims of attacks say looking Chinese has caused them to be physically attacked, and abused on social media.

"My colleague was recently attacked and verbally abused outside Delhi. We have always faced racism in the past but this time it was taken to a new level," Thokchom Singhajit, general secretary of Manipur Students Association, told DW.

"I was not allowed to enter a grocery store during the lockdown. The owner turned me and my friends away," said Rippon Shanglai, a student from Manipur, a state in India's northeast.

Read more: Can India's lockdown contain the coronavirus?

Last week, a post-graduate student from a northeastern state told local police that she was abused in Delhi. She told police that a person called her "corona" and spat on her.

People from northeastern states said they are also being racially harassed on social media with insults like "Chinki."

 

 

Watch video 02:04

India lockdown results in mass migration of day laborers

India's northeastern region is home to several tribes, including Nagas, Mizos, Garos, Tripuris, Bodos, Kukis and Meiteis.

Some of these people have been forcibly quarantined, despite showing no COVID-19 symptoms, because of their appearance. There are reports that apartment owners in major Indian cities have even tried to evict them during the ongoing lockdown in the country.

Increasing discrimination

Rinzin Dorjee and his daughter, Tsering Yangzom, were denied entry into their apartment complex on March 16. The building's administration claimed they had been infected with coronavirus.

"We showed them [medical] documents, but the guards did not listen to us," Yangzom told DW.

Read more: India's coronavirus fight complicated by people dodging quarantine

Bibinaz Thokchom, a professor at Ambedkar University, said the coronavirus crisis in India has exposed vulnerable sections of society to discrimination and assault.

The Northeast Support Centre and Helpline, which was established in 2007 to assist people from northeastern Indian states, has been inundated with distress calls from across the country. "I get five to six phone calls about racial abuse almost every day," Alana Golmei, who manages the helpline, told DW.

 

 

Watch video 02:34

Indians struggle in world's biggest coronavirus lockdown

Stopping racism not a priority

In 2012, thousands of people from northeastern states were forced to flee the southern city of Bangalore amid violent ethnic attacks. At the time, more than 170,000 people fled their homes as a result of the unrest, which spilled into other parts of the country.

Two years later, northeastern students staged a week-long demonstration in Delhi to voice their anger against racist attacks.

In a recently published report, "Coronavirus Pandemic: India's Mongoloid Looking People Face Upsurge of Racism," the New-Delhi based Rights and Risk Analysis Group (RRAG) cited at least 22 cases of racial discrimination or hate crimes against people from northeastern states between February 7 and March 25.

Read more: Indian Muslims fear for their lives after sectarian riots grip New Delhi

"It is unfortunate that such incidents are happening. The government has not acted against the perpetrators of these attacks," Suhas Chakma, director of RRAG, told DW.

Rights activists have urged the authorities to protect vulnerable communities amid the coronavirus crisis. But some experts say the government is occupied with enforcing the lockdown and containing the spread of coronavirus, so stopping racist incidents is probably not on its priority list at the moment.

 

 

[Ellen]

This is very bad  ; 
I am envious of the quite dignity with which dinosaurs went into extinction

[Somedude]

 

[TrollBait]

2 minutes ago, Ellen said:

This is very bad  ; 
I am envious of the quite dignity with which dinosaurs went into extinction

I'm worried that billions years later, the next alpha species will assume we also went into extinction with quiet dignity. haha.

[Somedude]

 

 

[Somedude]

Northeast people battle racism amid coronavirus pandemic

Northeast people are facing increasing harassment and violence over their looks

Locals stand in a queue to buy vegetables and essential commodities after government ordered lockdown amid coronavirus pandemic, in Guwahati | PTI

Even as China battles global Sinophobia over COVID-19—since the disease was first reported from Wuhan—in India, people of the northeast are facing increasing harassment and violence over their looks. Kiren Rijiju, minister for sports and youth affairs, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, has asked state governments to sensitise residents against such stigmatisation. 

A New Delhi-based organisation, Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), has brought out a report documenting the harassment that people from the northeast are facing as the pandemic rages across the world. The report, called Coronavirus Pandemic: India's Mongoloid Looking People Face Upsurge of Racism, documents 22 reported cases of hate and racial discrimination between February 7 and March 25. 

Violence against and stigmatising of people from the northeast, who come to metros for studies and employment, is not just a corona phenomenon. It has been latent in the country and every once in a while takes a very ugly form. However, in the last couple of years, reports of such incidents had come down with the administration and civil society working hard at sensitising locals. Delhi Police is even recruiting people from the seven sister states into its cadres for greater assimilation and sensitisation. 

“These incidents are just the tip of an iceberg as India’s Mongoloid looking people have been facing discrimination on a daily basis and the same do not make news,”said Suhas Chakma, RRAG director. 

He said that people from these states were being slandered with terms like “corona”, “Chinese”, “chinki”, being spat at and forcibly quarantined even though they showed no symptoms. They have been denied entry into apartment complexes, forced to evict their flats, and even asked to leave restaurants (before lockdown) as their presence was making others uncomfortable, Chakma said. 

The report cites the case of a Manipuri woman who was returning home in Delhi on March 22 when a man passed lewd comments. When she protested, he allegedly called her 'corona' and spat pan juice on her. He was subsequently arrested. 

Another case was of Rinzin Dorjee (74) and his daughter Tsering Yangzom who were reportedly denied entry to a Mulund society in Mumbai on March 16 as residents thought they were Chinese.  Dorjee, a cancer patient, had a rented apartment in the society, but that day, he was stopped by the security guard as they thought he might be infected with corona, reports say. 

Even Chinese origin actor Meiyang Chang was not spared and he had taken to social media to express how he was hurt at being called nasty names.

Chakma said that the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an advisory on March 21 to take “appropriate action against cases of harassment of people from the north east”. He, however, said that in the absence of a law against racism and racial discrimination in India, such an advisory was inadequate. 

Police usually invoke Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Section 509 (insult to the modesty of women) if the victim is a woman, but there are no provisions when the victim is a male, he said, adding that the usage of nasty and racially abusive terms such as “momo” and “chinki” are not defined as offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989. 

Further, not all Mongoloid looking people, such as the Meitis or Tibetans, are listed as Scheduled Tribes to be covered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act. “The police are at loss over which sections or which laws to invoke given the legal vacuum against acts of racism and

[Ellen]

Just now, TrollBait said:

I'm worried that billions years later, the next alpha species will assume we also went into extinction with quiet dignity. haha.

That is quite possible...history is never unbiased 

[Somedude]

8 minutes ago, TrollBait said:

fcuk this. dammnn..

 

6 minutes ago, Ellen said:

This is very bad  ; 
I am envious of the quite dignity with which dinosaurs went into extinction

This is just nothing. Google about something called Siddi tribe. Indias African tribe who converted completely into Hinduism, They speak regional languages and Hindi some places. and live outside general habitat because they are scared to venture out. Felt extremely sick looking at their situation.

 

[Somedude]

‘Beaten, abused, spat on’: People from Northeast endure racist slurs amid coronavirus panic

People from Northeast have been targeted as panic over coronavirus, which emerged from China, increases amid the lockdown.

People wearing masks during coronavirus pandemic | Prashanth Vishwanathan | Bloomberg

Text Size:

New Delhi: As the coronavirus pandemic induces panic across India, people from the Northeast have become targets for racial discrimination and slurs, with several such incidents coming to light.

The issue rose to prominence Sunday as a picture of a Manipuri woman who had been ‘spat on’ and called “Corona” by a middle-aged man went viral and sparked outrage for its racism.

On the same night, a group of students in Kolkata were allegedly attacked and beaten by their neighbours who demanded they left the premises.

Tongou Mechia, an employee at the Oberoi Grand Hotel in the city, said she got a call from an intern — one of the students attacked — seeking rescue as a small crowd had gathered around her house in Rajendra Prasad Colony. The intern lived with three other women, all of whom are from Nagaland and Manipur.

 

“I took two male friends with me because I felt it would be unsafe for me to go alone. Crowds had already come when we arrived, and they were banging on their door. The landlord had a problem that two males had come and escorted them out, and that’s when the crowd beat them,” she told ThePrint.

“Some of the local people were even shouting that they would kill and chop the boys into pieces that night itself.”

Mechia, who is Manipuri, said she ultimately had to call the Oberoi security personnel to escort them out of the premises.

“As we left the crowd was shouting ‘Go corona go’. All we want is security from harassment like this which can become life threatening. How can we feel safe in mainland India when our fundamental rights are threatened?” she said.

The alleged attacks came amid a complete lockdown in the country as coronavirus, which emerged from China’s Wuhan region last year, has now claimed 10 lives in India. The number of cases stands at 561.

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Also read: This is how Modi govt plans to help MGNREGA workers during Covid-19 lockdown

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Racism ‘more pronounced’

ThePrint spoke to several people from across the Northeast who claimed similar experiences since the pandemic broke out.

“When I first moved to Delhi (six) years ago, I was extremely conscious of the way people looked at me and treated me, and I got used to it with time. But since the pandemic broke out, people’s racism has become more pronounced,” said Pamziuliu Gonmei, an assistant professor of English at Delhi University (DU).

“In March alone, there have been two instances where I’ve been called ‘Corona’ to my face. The first was on Holi day when I was taking a picture near India Gate. A boy whispered to his family ‘Chinese hai, corona hai’ and their family started backing away from me. The very next day I was walking around DU when a boy shouted ‘Corona’ and fled,” said Gonmei, who hails from Manipur.

A student from Mizoram and currently studying at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi claimed she was targeted while buying shoes on 7 February.

“I went to buy shoes in a market in Vasant Kunj when two to three people entered. I was wearing a mask, and when they saw me they coughed and said ‘corona’ between their coughs,” said the student who did not wish to be named.

“I didn’t think it was wise to confront them since I was completely alone and you never know when these things can escalate. I was worried for my safety,” added the student.

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Also read: Spreading fake news, rumours on Covid-19 can land you in jail for a year

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Women more vulnerable to attack

Alana Golmei, a lawyer and activist who runs the North East Support Centre and Helpline, said that since the pandemic broke out, she has received over thrice the usual number of complaints and cases regarding racism.

“I used to get maybe one or two cases a week before. Now I’m getting four-five calls and messages a day,” Golmei told ThePrint. She started the helpline in 2007 as a way to help people facing discrimination and connect them with volunteers and resources for legal recourse.

“When it comes to racial abuse, both men and women are faced with it but women are more vulnerable, because perpetrators feel they can get away with it without getting into a fight. Of all the calls and complaints I’ve received, about 60 per cent come from women,” she said.

Since 3 March, Delhi’s Special Police Unit for North East Region (SPUNER) has recorded a total of 10 cases of racial discrimination related to the coronavirus, seven of which were filed by women.

Ninggailiu Panmei, a 20-year-old Manipuri student at Lady Shri Ram College, said while she was shopping in Sarojini Nagar market one day, a woman and her daughter covered their mouths while walking past her.

“They had asked me to move and so I made way for them despite it being a heavily crowded market. Then when they walked past me they covered their mouths, and the mother told her small daughter to stay away from me,” she said.

“I was shocked. I understand the panic but I had no idea how to react to this. It was the first time I faced such blatant racism,” said Panmei.

Gonmei said the sudden racist abuse has changed the way she feels and acts in public spaces. “I wear a mask not only for protection but also so that I am not racially profiled. Self isolation has really helped in that sense, because I don’t have to be anxious about stepping out.”

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Also read: At current rate, India can see 30,000 COVID-19 deaths by May, no hospital bed by June: Data

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‘No proper law’

Hibu Tamang, additional commissioner of SPUNER, said cases are not properly addressed because police officers on ground are not aware of what sections under the Indian Penal Code can be used to file the complaint.

“When racist remarks like this are made, the police don’t know which sections to file complaints under. Normally for women it is filed under 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman). There is no section of law that specifically addresses racist remarks,” he told ThePrint.

“There is a proposal to include incitement to hatred as section 153C, but that is still under consideration,” said Tamang.

He also said officers, where applicable, could file cases under the SC/ST Atrocities Act but it “does not occur to them to do so”.

“It’s not just Delhi and Kolkata — this problem is occurring everywhere. We have been conducting awareness programmes with RWAs (Resident Welfare Associations) around Delhi University so they have a better cultural understanding of the North East. The only way to address this deep rooted racism is through education.”

[Ellen]

Constitution, special schedules, special acts are all an eye wash, when people dont have real awareness. It is very very sad to see this state of affairs in India due to ignorance. Ante the levels of bigotry ikada...first of all racism peru toh violence....secondly racial ignorance....thirdly the discrimination against north eastern states

[TrollBait]

1 minute ago, Ellen said:

Constitution, special schedules, special acts are all an eye wash, when people dont have real awareness. It is very very sad to see this state of affairs in India due to ignorance. Ante the levels of bigotry ikada...first of all racism peru toh violence....secondly racial ignorance....thirdly the discrimination against north eastern states

Not just people. the govt doesn't enforce the constitution, other than selectively. right from Nehru's govt.

whatever slow progress India made until 2014 is systematically rapidly being destroyed by Modi and his troll army. 

 

[Ellen]

Just now, TrollBait said:

Not just people. the govt doesn't enforce the constitution, other than selectively. right from Nehru's govt.

 

 

You gave sixth schedule with one hand....then give AFSPAA with the other.

And you know the level of ignorance in common citizens is that , they are offended because they are called chinese..because chinese is something bad. Not because racism is wrong or racial discrimination is wrong. This kind of  education is even dangerous than ignorance

[RunRaajaRun123]

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