Women protest violence against Kuki women in Churachandpur district of Manipur in July 2023.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
During the peak of the ethnic conflict in Manipur in 2023, buildings were torched, riots were widespread, and crimes such as burglaries, robberies, murders, and attempted killings surged.
Alongside reports of this violence, there were also numerous documented cases of women being raped, tortured, harassed, and even killed. The Supreme Court took cognisance of the situation, observing in July 2023 that a “systemic” and “unprecedented magnitude” of sexual violence had been committed against women in Manipur amid the ethnic clashes.
The conflict between the Imphal Valley-based Meitei community and the hill-dwelling Kuki tribe broke out in May 2023 and continues till this day. The clashes have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced nearly 70,000 people.
The recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2023 show that crimes in nearly all the categories surged. However, the report presents a shocking anomaly with regard to crimes against women: most of the major categories that list out crimes against women show a decline compared to the previous year.
As shown in the chart, cases of arson soared from just 27 in 2022 to 6,203 in 2023; cases of dacoity rose from 1 to 1,213; and cases of rioting from 84 to 5,421. The number of murders nearly tripled — from 47 to 151 — and attempt-to-murder cases increased from 153 to 818. Property crimes also increased: cases of robbery rose from 7 to 330, cases of burglary from 39 to 183, and cases of theft from 1,286 to 2,394. Cases under arms and explosives laws nearly doubled (64 to 116) and those related to promoting enmity between groups surged from 15 to 473. Taken together, these figures reveal a dramatic escalation in criminal activity across the State.
However, NCRB data show that crimes against women did not register an increase. On the contrary, there was a a 30% decline in cognisable crimes against women. The number of rape cases fell from 42 in 2022 to 27 in 2023, while cases of assault with intent to outrage women’s modesty declined from 67 to 66, and sexual harassment cases reduced from 5 to 1. Cases of rape involving minor girls under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, dropped from 44 to 43.
This is despite many reports of gendered violence surfacing in May 2023. In July 2023, 10 Manipur legislators from the Kuki-Zo community released a statement mentioning at least four incidents where women belonging to their community were either raped or murdered since May 3, 2023. A First Information Report (FIR), accessed by The Hindu, reported women working at a car wash centre in Imphal East being tortured by a mob of around 100-200 persons on May 4, 2023.
In July 2023, the National Commission for Women was apprised of more incidents of violence against women when two women activists and a civil society organisation called the North American Manipur Tribal Association made an appeal. The incidents listed included harassment of Kuki-Zomi women on the Manipur University campus, of two women at the Nightingale Nurse Institute, and the alleged rape and murder of four women in Imphal.
The juxtaposition of the reported decline in crimes against women with the surge in other crime categories points to a massive underreporting of offences involving women. While under-reporting of crimes against women is a well-documented trend across India, driven largely by social stigma, the case of Manipur highlights this problem even more starkly.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
Published – October 10, 2025 08:00 am IST