Manipur’s house-listing begins on 1st September. Roughly 60,000 people will be counted from relief camps or not counted at all.
On 19 August, the Member of Parliament for Inner Manipur wrote to the union home minister asking him to stop the Census in his own constituency. This wasn’t the first letter. On 30 March, Angomcha Bimol Akoijam raised the issue in the Lok Sabha under Rule 377 in the Lok Sabha and subsequently addressed a letter to the Centre and addressed one more. His argument hasn’t changed and there is no reply, as there was none. House listing for the Census 2027 will commence across Manipur on 1 September as announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs eight months ago. The difference between them is the story.
The violence, which started on 3 May 2023, has been ongoing for over three years. At a press conference in Delhi on 20 August, Akoijam said that approximately 60,000 people are homeless, the majority of whom are still in relief camps, and over 10,000 houses have been destroyed, with several villages destroyed. He said the attack has moved to districts that had previously been deemed safe. That’s a number that has nothing to do with the opposition.
Five civil society organizations, representing the All-Manipur United Clubs’ Organization, had sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister, through the Governor, stating that there are almost 60,000 displaced and that people were not allowed to go to the other communities’ areas because of ethnic segregation, a problem when the exercise involves door to door walking by enumerators.
Compare to that calendar. On 7 January 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs has notified the schedule for the Census 2027 in S.O. 99(E). In March, the state government of Manipur published it again, confirming the house-listing dates as from 1st to 30th September 2026 and the self-enumeration window as from 17th to 31st August 2026. Population will be enumerated nationally on 1 March 2027, and again on 1 February 2027. This is also the first Census since 1931 where caste was enumerated.
The deferment requests went out prior to the notification re-publication. The notification was issued, nevertheless. The growing need for a headcount was the reason. Census figures in Manipur are not a statistical matter. They decide delimitation – valley seats, hill seats and consequently the government. History has something to play a part in Akoijam’s case. He has cited anomalies in the Census of 2001 where the population grew at an implausible rate in some of the hill sub-divisions which the Gauhati High Court in its 2007 judgment found to be “highly suspect” and had directed for a fresh count before its use in delimitation.
Former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has made this parallel argument saying some districts had grown more than the national average which is about 24 percent, which he termed as abnormal delimitation. If there’s a problem with the 2001 data, then the 2027 count, when 10 percent of voters are in camps, will be a problem that’s different and that’s it for 10 years. That’s why there’s no single political home to demand.
In the valley, the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation leads and, in the hills, Naga organizations lead. It was the first time the Communist Party of India made a warning which was later followed by the Congress party. Ten institutions’ students met Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh and demanded for an NRC before the Census.
The same can be said for valley and hill groups who all agreed on this. The benefits of listening are more than worth the price of not listening. The results of the last week tell non-response. On 20 August, the JFD campaign started a boycott of the offices of the state and central governments, which resulted in the locking of several offices by its student wing. The state has closed all schools, colleges and universities from 20-22 August on the grounds of law and order. Self-enumeration was open over all the same window.
The government feels that the exercise will be carried out properly and that peace is the goal. During his visit to Imphal on 22 August, Chief Minister Khemchand Singh urged for community dialogue as the means to return to normalcy, for without stability, development would remain out of reach. During a debate in Parliament in August 2025, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai pointed out that President’s Rule was imposed after just one incident of violence was reported since its enforcement. Both are correct but can fail to hit the objection.
There is no contestation that the situation in Manipur today is as violent as in 2023. They are advocating to take a count today that won’t accurately reflect where people reside and that misrepresentation will endure. After almost three years, only public transportation on the Imphal-Dimapur-Guwahati route was resumed on 21 August. A state that’s not able to operate a bus gets tasked with certifying its demography. The case against deferment It deserves stating.
There are also costs of indefinite deferral of Census: Welfare allocation, Health planning and funding on 2011 figures and most affected by this cost are the displaced people of Manipur. The Centre has given no indication as to when conditions would be restored, and an open-ended postponement gives a veto to the person who can keep disorder going. Akoijam himself has been careful – he has specifically stated that he does not oppose the Census, but only the timing and its preconditions.
That’s a big argument. It is also an argument that the Centre has not made, since it has not made its presence felt in the demand. What silence decides This will settle the political representation of the Manipur for a term of one generation in the house. It is the same demand that was made by the elected official from the Imphal, the principal opposition party, the five civil society organizations, student unions in both valley and hills and the state bar. The enumerators report on 1st September. No one has said no in Delhi, and no one has said yes and 60,000 people are yet to get back to their homes.
