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White ribbon campaign for Chin women

October 25, 2007 - Men and women in coloured dresses pinned white ribbons on their chests and gathered at the Orchid Hotel in Aizawl, Mizoram state in northeast India as part of an awareness campaign for Chin domestic workers. The campaign was organised by Women's League of Chinland.

White ribbon campaign for Chin women

Chin woman actively participate in the white ribbon campaign held in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram state in northeast India on October 25. (Photo - Robert/Khonumthung)

"It is a sort of awareness campaign for women domestic workers from Chin state, Burma who frequently face oppression and abuse in their work place," Ms. Cherry Zahau, coordinator of WLC said.

"We cannot go to their work places for the awareness programme to prevent domestic violence that's why we make the gathering here, " she said.

WLC members also distributed white ribbon campaign pamphlets which asked men to involve themselves in playing a major role to protect domestic female workers from any form of violence.

Most women from Chin state coming to Mizoram are engaged in domestic work as helpers and quite often face sexual harassments, discrimination based on race, and irregular pay and physical attack by landlords in Mizoram, according to those who attended the white ribbon campaign.

"I didn't get paid regularly. My landlord said he would pay next month. Later, he threw me out of the house on flimsy excuses. We are no longer surprised by these working as domestic helps in the state," said Ms. Mawite, a Chin woman who herself had experienced violence in the work place in Aizawl.

Ms. Chhauni who participated in the ribbon campaign recalled about an incident in Venglai Quart in Aizawl, "One night, while I was working, a man approached me in the darkness. I was afraid and shouted loudly and turned on the light. I found it was my landlord there and he had bad intentions".

According to a woman attending the white ribbon campaign, most Chin women, domestic workers in Mizoram work from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily except on Sunday. – Khonumthung.

 

 


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Aizawl - 796001,
Mizoram State, India