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The crisis in Manipur has a fallout in the neighbouring state of Mizoram. At least 12,000 people have crossed over from Manipur to Mizoram to escape the ethnic violence that has wreaked havoc since May. About 3,000 are lodged in camps while the rest are living with relatives and friends. Mizoram has already offered shelter to a large number of people who fled Myanmar after the 2021 military coup. The state administration has said that the Centre is ignoring its pleas for funds to provide relief to the displaced people and that it is now running short of resources. There are costs involved in providing relief such as extending educational facilities to children from displaced families — 1,500 students have been admitted to local schools so far, according to the state government. It’s time the Centre addressed Aizawl’s cry for help.
Mizoram shares borders with both Manipur and Myanmar. Residents of Mizoram have kinship ties with the Chin people in Myanmar and the Kukis in Manipur. In fact, ethnic bonds predate the formation of national citizenship and regional identities, which explains the movement of people across borders, international and state, in times of strife. Shared religious faith is also a factor, though less pronounced than ethnic identity. While the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has asked state governments to maintain vigil at the international borders, Mizoram, in particular, has seen a steady stream of people coming in from Myanmar. The state government, civil society groups such as the Young Mizo Association and church groups have been in the forefront of providing relief. Mizoram also hosts a large Chakma population that has fled persecution in Bangladesh, though the Mizos share a tense relationship with the mostly Buddhist Chakmas. The influx of people from the Kuki-Zomi homeland in Manipur to Mizoram is influenced by the same reasons that drew in refugees from the Chin state in Myanmar. Any policy prescription will have to be framed after factoring in the complicated history of state formation in the region.
The Centre, preoccupied with finding a political solution to the ethnic strife in Manipur, needs to give more consideration to the plight of internally displaced persons. It could start with providing funds, food and other relief material to Aizawl, which seems overstretched. The hospitality that Mizoram has generously extended to fellow Indians in distress as well as those on the run from the Tatmadaw junta in Myanmar, should not be allowed to become a burden that the state shoulders alone.
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