When Unarmed Women Hold the Frontline: Implications for Policy

A member of the Indian security forces deployed to contain the conflict in the country’s north-eastern state of Manipur would never pay an armed man to pass a roadblock. Faced with a group of unarmed women blocking the road, however, he finds himself handing over a ‘frontline donation’ – a small contribution to the very conflict he has been sent to keep at bay. In June 2023, a 1,200–1,500-strong crowd led by women even forced the Indian army to release twelve captured cadres of a secessionist armed group.