Manipur‘s popular women’s market or Ima Market reopened in Imphal on Monday after being closed for several months due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The reopening came as a relief to the female vendors whose business was severely hit by the pandemic.
The reopening ceremony was graced by state Chief Minister N. Biren Singh who also interacted with the women entrepreneurs and vendors of the market. He took to twitter to announce the reopening by saying, “Extremely glad to re-open Ima Keithel, Imphal from today with COVID situation significantly improving. Timely closure of Ima Keithel from March 21, 2020 helped control spread of the pandemic up to a large extent. Thanks to all the Imas for their unstinting support & cooperation.”
During his speech, the minister also stated that the closure of the market helped in containing the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
After the closure of the markets, the Manipur government provided working capital loans to 817 women vendors of the Ima Market in August last year to help resume their vending activities after the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was lifted.
Recently, Meghalaya‘s Umden-Diwon village was declared the first Eri Silk village of the state. Read the details here.
