14 Manipur civil society groups demand NRC update before 2027 Census; Meet top MHA officials in Delhi

Imphal: Manipur civil societies demand the implementation of the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) before the census is conducted in the state. A group of 14 civil society organisations from Manipur went to Delhi and met top officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs to press the central government on the long-pending demand of implementing NRC before moving ahead with the Census of India 2027.

The coalition, which calls itself “14 CSOs, Kangleipak,” brings together organisations including IPSA, PANDAM, ACOAM LUP, IPAK, KSA, LOYA LUP, KANGLEMEI, KIL, CLK, EROD, AKSIL, ANDOK, MIKL, and SWA. During their visit, they held meetings with three senior officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

On June 7, the civil society bodies met Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan. They argued that the situation in Manipur cannot be resolved until the government first identifies who is a genuine Indian citizen and who is an illegal immigrant. “Without identifying the illegal immigrants, the census should not go ahead”, they said.

Their specific requests included updating the NRC based on 1951 records before the census, publishing that update in the official Gazette of India, and holding back the final population figures of the 2027 Census until the NRC update is complete. They also asked that no delimitation exercise — the redrawing of assembly and parliamentary constituencies based on population — be carried out until the NRC process and census publication are finished.

In a separate meeting, the group met with Joint Secretary (Foreigners-1) Mahatma Sandeep Namdeo, who also serves as Member Secretary of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC). Here, the CSOs pointed to what they describe as decades of unchecked migration across the Indo-Myanmar border, spanning more than 70 years. They claimed this migration has been helped along by loopholes in the Scheduled Tribes Order of 1950, allowing similar tribal groups to enter India and gain recognition. The group believes this influx lies at the heart of the ongoing conflict in Manipur, and asked the HLCDC to prioritise a full study of the state’s demographic changes.

Concerns over delimitation

In their third meeting, with Joint Secretary (North East) Niraj Kumar Bansod, the CSOs raised the delimitation issue directly. They reminded officials that the Manipur Assembly has already passed several resolutions calling for an NRC update, including one sent to the Union Home Secretary in January 2023.

In the meeting with the joint secretary of MHA, the CSOs explained that the last delimitation exercise in the trouble-hit state took place on the basis of the 1971 census— a gap of over 40 years. They said the population figures from the 1981 Census onward have been controversial, particularly because districts like Chandel and Senapati showed unusually high growth by the 2001 Census, which directly affected delimitation calculations. They noted that the Manipur High Court has advised a recount of the 2001 Census figures in nine hill sub-divisions, a task still pending.

To move forward, the CSOs proposed a tripartite framework — an agreement among the Government of India, the Government of Manipur, and the CSOs themselves — laying out pre-conditions before the census proceeds. They also asked that a representative of the Manipur Population Commission be included in the HLCDC and urged the ministry to treat the demographic study as a priority. The group says it welcomes the upcoming 2027 Census as an important step for the state’s development planning but insists the citizenship question must be settled first.