NATIONAL REGISTER OF CITIZENS

• Recently, the Manipur Assembly has resolved to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and establish a State Population Commission (SPC).
• The decision has come after at least 19 apex tribal organisations wrote to the Prime Minister demanding NRC and other mechanism to insulate the indigenous people from the “ever-increasing number of non-local residents”.

National Register of Citizens

• NRC is a register prepared in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein.
• The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India and since then it has not been updated until recently.
• It has been updated in Assam only for now and the government plans to update it nationally as well.

Manipur Pushing for NRC

• According to data presented in the Manipur Assembly, the population of Manipur has increased significantly from 1971 to 2011, pointing to a strong possibility of a huge influx of non-Indians, especially Myanmar Nationals primarily Kukis-Chin Communities.
• Apart from the Kuki-Chin groups, pro-NRC groups have identified “Bangladeshis” and Muslims from Myanmar who have “occupied the constituency of Jiribam and scattered in the valley areas” as well as Nepalis (Gurkhas) who have “risen in tremendous number” as “outsiders”.
• The northeastern States have been paranoid about “outsiders”, “foreigners” or “alien cultures” swamping out their numerically weaker indigenous communities.
• Manipur, home to three major ethnic groups, is no different.
• These ethnic groups are the non-tribal Meitei people and the tribal Naga and Kuki-Zomi groups.
• There has been a history of conflict among these three groups, but the NRC issue has seemingly put the Meiteis and the Nagas on the same page.
• They claim that an NRC is necessary because the political crisis in neighbouring Myanmar, triggered by the military coup in February 2021, has forced hundreds of people into the State from across its 398-km international border.
• A majority of those who fled or are fleeing belong to the Kuki-Chin communities, ethnically related to the Kuki-Zomi people in Manipur as well as the Mizosof Mizoram.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT