BENGALURU: Irom Sharmila, a political activist and poet from Manipur, gave birth to twin girls at a private hospital in Malleswaram on Sunday. The delivery happened through C-section, and the babies were born a minute apart in the 35th week of pregnancy, and according to hospital authorities, both the mother and babies are in good health.
Irom, also known as the ‘Iron Lady’, and her British husband Desmond Coutinho named their twins Nix Shakhi and Autumn Tara. She was treated by obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Sripada Vinekar. “Both the babies and mother are doing extremely well. It was a coincidence that she gave birth on Mother’s Day, we were expecting her to deliver next week, but she suddenly came in with labour pain. It was an overwhelming experience for me to have delivered her babies, she is a strong and a very humble lady,” said Dr Sriprada Vinekar from Cloudnine Group of Hospitals. She said that Irom was recovering and may prefer to talk to the media when she’s a little better.
Irom Sharmila is known to have been on the longest hunger strike of 16 years from 2000, in protest against India imposing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur. She vowed to fast until AFSPA was repealed, and ended it in 2016 after the Supreme Court judgment questioning the immunity enjoyed by security personnel.