Meitei, Kuki nurses close ranks in times of crisis

GUWAHATI: Kuki and Meitei nurses and paramedics in northeast's biggest hospital, Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), are working shoulder to shoulder as true professionals who have risen above the hatred and division between two communities back home in Manipur hundreds of kilometres away.
Nurses and paramedics from Manipur are widely recognised as the major workforce in hospitals across the country and they are omnipresent in almost every hospital in Guwahati.
The scene at GMCH is strikingly opposite to the grim picture of deaths and destruction in Manipur. Trainee Kuki nurses who come to the hospital regularly for their practical classes are taught the nuances of the nursing by the staff nurses of the hospital, who are from the Meitei community.
"Manipur is besieged with ethnic conflict for almost a month now but the bonding between the nurses belonging to the two communities has remained unchanged," said Chandita Baruah, matron at GMCH.
Kimneijou Khongsai, a nursing faculty from a private institution, who also serves in GMCH, said she was in distress for the last few weeks as her parents have been narrating the pain and agony of the Kukis, who had to flee capital Imphal and take shelter in their home district Kangpokpi since violence erupted.
"We are disturbed psychologically and mentally but there is no space for hostility in professional relationships. We never see our colleagues as Meiteis or from other communities but as healthcare workers giving their hundred per cent to serve patients and humanity. We are working together like ever before," Kimneijou told TOI on Wednesday.
In Kimneijou's home in Kangpokpi town, five persons from her Kuki community are taking shelter. The Kukis fled the National Games Village in Imphal West that witnessed arson and vandalism at the peak of the violence.