The months of May and June are summer vacation for schools and colleges in Manipur, as in the rest of India. When ethnic violence broke out on May 3—which shows no signs of ending even after more than three months—school and college premises were turned into relief camps for Displaced people. They were also used to accommodate the central armed police forces (CAPF) that were deputed in the state.

According to various media reports, on August 6, additional companies of paramilitary forces were sent after a fresh round of violence in which five people—three Meiteis and two Kukis—died. The latest deployment includes 10 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force, three companies of the Border Security Force and one each of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Sashastra Seema Bal in addition to 14 companies that were deployed in May.

With schools and colleges remaining shut, thousands of students are facing an uncertain future. Those with resources have moved to neighbouring states, particularly Mizoram, to continue their education. Some have fled to Shillong and Guwahati, besides other cities and metros across India. However, not all states are welcoming the displaced students.

In Shillong, for example, Dorbar Shnongs—traditional councils that run Khasi villages or neighbourhoods according to customary tribal laws—are discouraging, and in some cases explicitly forbidding, locals from leasing out their houses to the displaced tribal students.

Three months in, the ethnic conflict between the majority Meitei and the minority tribals, comprising Kuki-Zomi-Hmar communities, has claimed more than 182 lives besides displacing close to 60,000 people. Though a tenuous calm is slowly returning to Imphal valley, violent incidents continue in the tribal-dominated hill districts of Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, and Tengnoupal.

Churachandpur, being the epicentre of the conflict, is the worst-hit region. It hosts the maximum number of displaced people in relief camps. According to civil society organisations (CSOs), approximately 80% of the displaced population has taken shelter in the district and all schools and colleges have been turned into relief camps. Though the state government announced that prefabricated shelters would be constructed for the displaced, there are no signs of such construction anywhere in the district. “We cannot ask them to leave. Even if we want the schools to reopen, where do we shift the displaced people?” asks Kennedy Haokip, a volunteer with a CSO called Kuki Khanglai Lompi. He said that they are trying to find alternative shelters so that schools can resume classes.

Moving out of the state is also not easy. Many students lost all documents and certificates when their homes were burnt down. With the internet shutdown, it’s impossible to file online applications and complete other admission procedures. Even job seekers are unable to apply for vacancies due to the internet shutdown. Besides, for tribal people, travelling to Imphal—where the state’s only airport is located—to catch an outbound flight is fraught with the risk of being waylaid by the Meitei mobs.

Muang Ngaihte had to undertake an arduous 26-hour road journey in June from Lamka via Aizawl, with a night halt, to Guwahati to seek college admission. He could access the internet once he crossed the state’s borders to complete the admission formalities, which are solely online. With the current academic session starting August-end, Ngaihte was forced to stay with his relatives for more than two months, since going back was not an option due to the circumstances. “Even if I had gone back home after completing the admission formalities, there would have been no guarantee that I would be able to make it back to Guwahati in time. The situation back home is such that anything can happen. There is too much uncertainty,” says Ngaihte.

Albert Guite, whose house in Imphal was gutted, had to flee to Shillong. He had completed his first year of undergraduate studies, but when he sought admission in a college in Shillong, he was asked to start all over again as there is no system of carrying over the completed years to another college outside the state. Students complain that some schools and colleges in neighbouring states are not exactly welcoming them; besides, they are facing an undercurrent of hostility from local students.

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Of all the northeastern states, only Mizoram has officially welcomed and accommodated the displaced tribal people and allowed students admission in its schools. Even those who have lost their documents or are without money have been allowed to continue with their studies in various institutions in the state. Mizoram continues to host tens of thousands of displaced tribals from Manipur, who have lost everything, and has been seeking Central government support to run the relief camps.

Student bodies and CSOs are stepping in to provide some support. In the last week of May, the Zomi Students Union organised two buses for UPSC applicants to travel to Aizawl so that they could write their exams. In Churachandpur, they are helping the displaced students to appear for examinations in a place of their choice.

The state government has announced its intention to reopen schools, despite the situation remaining grim. A day after schools were reopened on July 6, a mentally challenged Kuki woman was shot dead near a school. The incident sparked fear and uncertainty. Sudden incidents of mob violence or announcements of curfew have created an environment of fear and uncertainty that has made parents extremely wary of sending their children to school. As a result, attendance remains low despite schools and colleges reopening in the Imphal valley.

As the ethnic violence spiralled out of control in the past three months, almost all tribal students, mostly belonging to the Kuki, Zomi, and Hmar communities, left the valley. Now, with the government announcing the reopening of Manipur University, they are in no position to attend classes. Students from these communities even staged a protest and alleged discrimination against a particular group of people. Meanwhile, the Kuki Students Organisation has written to the University Grants Commission chairman, Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, requesting relocation of tribal students, including those pursuing PhDs, to central universities of their choice.

Tribal student bodies say their demand is legitimate because they were specifically hunted down inside the university hostel campuses by the mobs when the violence broke out on May 3. As a result, most of them were forced to abandon their studies and flee for their lives.

Some professional education institutions like the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), and the Central Agriculture University (CAU) have started online classes, but students say that such classes are not the solution as it deprives them of practical work, relegating them behind their peers. Postgraduate students of RIMS, who are unable to return to Imphal, have now taken upon themselves the role of teachers of first-year MBBS students at the Churachandpur Medical College.

The only silver lining in all this is that graduate and postgraduate students of RIMS who are stuck in Churachandpur are lending a helping hand in the district’s lone medical college that is dealing with an increased influx of patients affected by the violence. About 50% of doctors and faculty who hailed from the valley have left the region.

Though both the state and Central governments are claiming that the situation in Manipur is returning to normalcy, the populace on the ground says that is far from the truth. The prolonged ethnic violence has damaged the trust between the tribal and non-tribal communities to such an extent that it will take years to rebuild it. Now, with insurgent organisations hardening their stands, the prospect of peace hangs by the thinnest of threads. Meanwhile, the most vulnerable, including students, will continue to see their futures destroyed by ethnic violence.       

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