Guwahati: A recent report published by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has said that the year-long ethnic violence in Manipur which started on May 3, 2023, has displaced 67,000 people in the state.
The report says, “Displacement associated with conflict and violence increased elsewhere in the region, mostly due to a rise in communal tensions in India’s north-eastern state of Manipur. Tensions were prompted, in large part, by the state’s high court calling in March for recommendations to be sent to the central government to recognise the Meitei community as a “scheduled tribe”, an official status designed to protect minorities from marginalisation. The call was met with resistance from other local scheduled tribes, including the Kukis. Land disputes were also an underlying driver of the tensions.”
The report points out that the figure of 67,000 is the highest in the country since 2018.
The report adds, “Protests turned violent in Churachandpur district on 3 May, and the violence spread to other districts, including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Tengnupal and Kangpokipi, triggering around 67,000 displacements. This was the highest figure for displacement triggered by conflict and violence in India since 2018. More than three-quarters of the movements took place within Manipur, but almost a fifth were to the neighbouring state of Mizoram and smaller numbers to Nagaland and Assam.”
The report adds that all together six lakh people were displaced in the country in 2023 and apart from the 67,000, the rest of the displacements were due to natural calamities like floods, storms, earthquakes and other disasters.