Manipur waits for Centre’s call on Census 2027. Manipur is awaiting a decision from New Delhi regarding the upcoming Census exercise, which remains in limbo in the State amid the demand by several Meitei and Naga civil society groups for a National Register of Citizens to be compiled first.
With the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India yet to spell out the future course of action, a government source said a review of the situation is likely to be held in the coming days. On Monday, following a Public Interest Litigation filed by the Kangleipak Students Association, the High Court of Manipur constituted a Special Division Bench of Chief Justice M. Sundar and Justice A. Guneshwar Sharma to hear the matter on Tuesday at 2 p.m. In a notification issued on Monday, the court said the Special Division Bench would sit exclusively to hear the petition.
The first phase of Population Census 2027, House Listing and Housing Census, is scheduled to be held in Manipur from September 1 to September 30. The training of enumerators has been halted in the State due to opposition and protests by several civil society groups. The self-enumeration portal was scheduled to go live on August 17, but is yet to become operational. “A decision from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs is awaited. The RGI office will assess the situation and there will be some clarity soon,” said a State government official.
Though the Census is not an exercise to determine citizenship and counts all individuals irrespective of nationality, there is anxiety among a section of people in Manipur that the next delimitation exercise, which will redraw the boundaries of electoral constituencies, may take into account the latest Census data in a manner that could disadvantage the Meiteis and small tribal communities.
Manipur has three major communities – the Meiteis, the Nagas, and the Kuki-Zo people. At least 14 civil society groups representing Meiteis, Pangals (Meitei Muslims), and the Kom and Rongmei tribes, among others, are in Delhi to seek an audience with the Centre. The group also has representation from those displaced from their homes as a result of the ethnic violence between the Kuki and Meitei communities that started on May 3, 2023.
Former Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi last week, said people are apprehensive that “presence of illegal immigrants in the State has affected demographic imbalance” and that while people are not against the Census, they want the NRC first.
The Congress party on August 20 sought postponement of Census exercise in Manipur, citing continuing violence and displacement of thousands of people. The Kuki-Zo Council, on the other hand, said that to rebut the “falsehoods and propaganda surrounding our population and demographic status during the Manipur conflict, an impartial Census is essential to establish facts and dispel unfounded claims”.
The standoff sums up Manipur’s ethnic faultline. Meitei and Naga groups see NRC as filter for illegal immigration from Myanmar, and fear Census before NRC will legitimise altered demography and skew future delimitation against valley. Kuki-Zo groups see Census as proof against being branded outsiders. With HLO slated for September 1 and HC hearing PIL today, Centre must decide whether counting can happen in a State still counting its displaced.