Amid ‘NRC first’ demand, Centre defers Census exercise in Manipur

Why in the News

The Centre has deferred the house listing phase of Census 2027 in Manipur, which was to begin on 1 September. The deferment answers a demand from Meitei and Naga civil society groups that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise be carried out in the State before any count is taken. The Manipur High Court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Kangleipak Students’ Association and the International Peace and Social Advancement, along with a connected writ petition. It recorded an undertaking from the Centre that the operation would be postponed, and ordered that it remain in abeyance until the next hearing on 12 October. The tension is that a Census is a statutory national exercise run on a single schedule, and it has been suspended in one State on the argument that counting people before verifying citizenship fixes the wrong population base for future delimitation and resource allocation.

What is the house listing phase of the Census?

1. It is the first of two field phases: House listing records buildings, households and their amenities before the population enumeration that follows.
2. It fixes the frame for the count: The list of houses prepared at this stage is what enumerators use to reach every household in the second phase.
3. It runs on a notified schedule: The Centre issued a notification on 7 January 2026 providing for the exercise, under which States issue notifications of their own.
4. Administrative boundaries are frozen before it starts: Manipur froze all its boundaries from 1 January 2026 to 31 March 2027 to prepare for the operation.

How was the deferment actually effected?

1. A high level review preceded the decision: A meeting chaired by the Union Home Minister reviewed the situation in Manipur, attended by the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Union Home Secretary.
2. The undertaking was given in open court: The Deputy Solicitor General told the High Court that on the instructions of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner a decision had been taken to postpone the house listing operations.
3. The January notification is to be formally modified: The Centre was to issue a fresh notification modifying the one that had provided for the exercise, and the court recorded this as an undertaking.
4. The State kept its own notification in abeyance: Manipur told the court it would not commence house listing and would hold its 22 March 2026 notification in abeyance pending the Centre’s formal notification.
5. Two grounds were cited: The Centre cited the demands from Meitei and Naga groups and the tenuous security situation in the State.

What is the demand, and how long has it been pressed?

1. The State Assembly has resolved for a register twice: Resolutions dated 5 August 2022 and 1 March 2024 sought the introduction and enforcement of the NRC in Manipur.
2. The State government wrote to the Centre twice: Communications in January 2023 and June 2024 referred to concerns over illegal immigration and demographic change.
3. Civil society leaders and legislators lobbied in Delhi: Delegations from 14 civil society organisations and a group of BJP MLAs travelled to press the demand.
4. The Chief Minister recorded the acceptance: His office stated that the Centre agreed to defer the exercise considering the feelings and aspirations of the people of Manipur.

Why do the Valley groups object to counting first?

1. A count before verification would include the undocumented: The groups argue that a Census held before an NRC would place undocumented or allegedly illegal immigrants inside the population figure.
2. The consequences run to seats and money: They contend the resulting figure could affect future delimitation and the allocation of resources.
3. Opposition has been concentrated in the Valley: The demand has come principally from the Meitei dominated Imphal Valley, with Naga groups also pressing it.
4. The boundary freeze itself triggered protests: It produced massive strikes, torch rallies and closure of educational institutions across the valley districts.

Challenges to conducting Census 2027 in Manipur

1. The population to be counted is displaced: Ethnic violence since 2023 has moved large numbers into relief camps, so the household’s usual residence is not where the enumerator will find it. Eg. Kuki-Zo and Meitei residents were displaced across the hill and valley divide and have not returned to their original homes.
   The Fix: Record a displaced household against its pre-displacement address with a separate camp flag, so the count and the entitlement do not diverge.
2. Enumerators cannot cross the ethnic divide: Field staff are locally recruited teachers and government employees, and staff from one community cannot safely work in areas held by another. Eg. Movement between the valley and the hill districts has required security escort since the violence began.
   The Fix: Recruit and deploy enumerators within each administrative unit, and open self-enumeration through the Census portal wherever field access fails.
3. Deferring one State breaks national comparability: A Census counts a population against a common reference date, so a State enumerated later yields figures that cannot be set beside the rest. Eg. The exercise has already slipped from its due year of 2021 to 2027.
   The Fix: Fix a single revised reference date for the deferred State rather than letting the schedule drift with the litigation.
4. The register being demanded has no settled cut off date: A citizenship register requires a date before which residence establishes citizenship, and none has been fixed for this State. Eg. Groups in Manipur have pressed for 1951 as the base year, a date that appears in no law applying to the State.
   The Fix: Legislate a cut off date and an appeals machinery before any register exercise is contemplated, so the demand has a determinate object.
5. A deferment invites the same demand elsewhere: Conceding a precondition in one State supplies a template for others to seek their own. Eg. Demands for citizenship verification ahead of enumeration have been raised in other Northeastern States.
   The Fix: Publish the criteria on which a State level deferment is granted, so the next such decision is a rule rather than a negotiation.

Conclusion

The Census calendar has been reopened by a demand the Census cannot itself satisfy, since an enumeration counts residents and does not determine citizenship. Manipur’s house listing now depends on the progress of litigation rather than on a notified date. The unresolved position is that the State has asked for a register whose legal machinery has been built for only one State in the country, and the Centre has deferred the count without saying whether it will build that machinery here. The thing to watch is the next hearing before the Manipur High Court, where the Centre must produce the notification it has undertaken to issue.

Back2Basics: National Register of Citizens

1. What it is: A register of Indian citizens, first prepared from the 1951 Census, listing the persons enumerated as citizens in that count.
2. Legal basis: Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 provide for its preparation.
3. Updated in Assam alone: The update ran under a separate schedule tied to the Assam Accord, 1985, using 24 March 1971 as the cut off date.
4. Outcome of the Assam update: The final list published in August 2019 excluded about 19 lakh of roughly 3.3 crore applicants and has still not been notified by the Registrar General.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2009] Consider the following statements : 1. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the density of the population of India has increased more than three times. 2. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the annual growth rate (exponential) of the population of India has doubled. Which of the statements given abova is/are correct ? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2 ANSWER: (d)”