Overview
- A 48‑hour valley-wide shutdown called by the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation disrupted life in Imphal districts on Tuesday and Wednesday and protesters have moved to a boycott of government institutions starting Thursday.
- The Manipur government ordered all schools, colleges and higher‑education institutes to remain closed from August 20 to 22 as a precaution in response to the unrest.
- Civil society leaders and separate groups of MLAs left for New Delhi on August 20 to press the Centre to update the NRC before any census or delimitation steps are taken.
- Census preparations have been hit: self‑enumeration opened in mid‑August, but several local training programmes for supervisors and enumerators were postponed or cancelled because of protests and blockades.
- Security forces reported clashes with protesters during road blockades and torch rallies, and the dispute — which centers on whether a 1951 baseline should be used for the NRC — raises the prospect of further disruption to the Census timetable and deeper ethnic tensions among Meitei, Kuki‑Zo, Naga and Pangal communities.