Kim Gangte (born 30 October 1963) is an Indian politician, educator and human rights activist, who was a Member of Parliament elected from the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha constituency in India in 1998, as a

Manipur People's Party The Manipur Peoples Party (MPP) is a political party in the Indian state of Manipur. MPP was founded on 26 December 1968 by a group of dissidents from the Indian National Congress. At the February 2007 Manipur state elections, the party received ...

candidate. She is the general secretary of the Kuki Women Human Rights Network. Kim Gangte is a social worker, human rights activist and politician, the first woman from Manipur to become a Member of the Indian Parliament She is also the first Seventh-day Adventist to serve in the Lok Sabha.

Early life and education

Kim was born on 30 October 1963 in Uyungmakhong,

Churachandpur district Churachandpur District ( Meitei pronunciation: ''/tʃʊraːˌtʃaːnɗpʊr/''), is one of the 16 districts in the southwestern corner of the Indian state of Manipur that covers an area of . It is named after the Meitei King Churachand Singh ...

, in Manipur to Vumkhosei Gangte. Her father Vumkhosei Gangte had received his early education in Shillong, but couldn't continue his studies, and hence remained a farmer. Kim's mother Kimsi Sitlhou is a homemaker. Her parents encountered extreme hardships throughout their lives and managed to provide the best possible education to their seven children. Kim is the eldest of her siblings. Kim finished her schooling at the Seventh-day Adventist School at Shillong. She completed her standard 12th as a private student in Manipur, as she started teaching in a school right after completion of her 10th. She completed her graduation in English, History and Education from

Guwahati University Gauhati University, also known as GU, is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assem ...

. She completed her

M. Phil The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from Pune University. She also pursued a course in English language teaching from the Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Osmania University, Hyderabad. She continued her work as a lecturer in English Language teaching in the State Council Of Education and Research Training Centre in Imphal.

Career

While attending her M.Phil classes, she started working as a lecturer in English at the

Spicer Memorial College Spicer Adventist University is a Seventh-day Adventist institution of higher learning in Aundh, Pune, India. It is considered the church's flagship provider of higher education in India. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist education sy ...

, Pune. She also worked as lecturer in English language teaching in the State Council of Education and Research Training (SCERT) Centre in Imphal. At the same time, she also joined the All India Radio Imphal, English Programme (Western Music) as a part-time announcer while also working as a correspondent with the Eastern Panoroma magazine. She was elected to the

12th Lok Sabha This is the list of members of the 12th Lok Sabha, (10 March 1998 – 26 April 1999) after the 1998 Indian general election held during February–March 1998. This was the second consecutive Lok Sabha, like the 11th Lok Sabha elections that d ...

in 1998. However, as then

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

-led government was voted out in a no-confidence motion in 1999. She contested the 1999 Lok Sabha elections as a Janata Dal (United) candidate, but was defeated by Holkhomang Haokip of the NCP. After that she remained away from politics for sometime. At the same time, she was also a member of the Consultative Committee under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. For more than a decade now, Kim has been involved with the activities of the Kuki Women Human Rights body as well the Kuki Students' Organisation. In January 2017, she joined BJP ahead of Manipur Legislative Assembly election in 2017. She quit the party in March 2019 to join

NPP NPP may refer to: Politics * National People's Power, Sri Lanka *National Patriotic Party, Liberia * National People's Party (The Gambia) *National People's Party (India), a political party in India founded by PA Sangma *National Peoples Party ( ...

. In an interview with ''NewsClick'' on 5 July, 2023, she blamed the BJP for the

2023 Manipur violence 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societies ...

, and alleged that militant groups, ''Arambai Tenggol'' and ''Meitei Leepun'', were creations of the

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

Interests

Kim enjoys meditation, gardening, and cooking. In her free time she likes to promote awareness about political, social, educational and human rights among the people, especially women, the poor and the downtrodden.

Interviews & Dialogues

Kim Gangte — Manipur's first woman MP

Kim Gangte wants Equal Development

Kim Gangte takes jibes at BJP, Congress

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gangte, Kim India MPs 1998–1999 Women in Manipur politics 1962 births Living people People from Churachandpur district Lok Sabha members from Manipur Communist Party of India politicians from Manipur Women educators from Manipur 20th-century Indian educators Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Manipur Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2014 Trinamool Congress politicians from Manipur Candidates in the 2014 Indian general election 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Educators from Manipur Indian Seventh-day Adventists National People's Party (India) politicians 20th-century Indian women educators Janata Dal (United) politicians