A 24-hour strike called by the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD), demanding an update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) before the Census, paralysed normal life in at least five valley districts of Manipur on Tuesday. Businesses and educational institutions remained closed, public transport stayed off the roads, and streets wore a deserted look across Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal, Bishnupur and Kakching districts, with only a handful of private vehicles visible through the day.

The strike, which ran from midnight on August 31 to midnight on September 1, came after the JFD had earlier set August 31 as a deadline for the central government to officially confirm that the Census would be deferred until the NRC was updated in the state. JFD organisation secretary Longjam Ratankumar had said at a press conference in Imphal on Monday that the strike would go ahead as planned unless the state government issued a formal order confirming the deferment, adding that the organisation and the people of Manipur had already undertaken repeated agitations and appeals on the issue without receiving a clear or satisfactory response from authorities.

At Yairipok in Thoubal district, supporters of the strike placed bamboo poles across roads to block traffic, part of a broader pattern of road blockades and shutdowns that have characterized the group's protests in recent weeks. The JFD has also urged local clubs and the Meira Paibis, a prominent women's civil society network in Manipur, to help prevent Census enumerators and supervisors from carrying out their duties, reflecting the organisation's insistence that the enumeration exercise not proceed without a prior NRC update.

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The Union government on Monday deferred the Census exercise in Manipur following demands from civil society organisations, a decision that came after Manipur's chief minister, home minister and several ruling party legislators had earlier travelled to New Delhi to press the issue with central leaders. State Home Minister Govindas Konthoujam subsequently appealed to the JFD to call off the strike in light of the deferment. However, the JFD said in a late-night statement on Monday that it would continue with the strike as planned, pointing out that no official written order had been issued confirming the deferment, and that a verbal or informal assurance was insufficient to meet its demand.

The Census exercise, whose house-listing phase had been scheduled to begin in Manipur on September 1, has become a flashpoint in the state over the past several weeks, with the JFD having previously enforced a 48-hour general strike in mid-August that similarly disrupted markets, schools and transportation across the valley districts, accompanied by scuffles between protesters and security forces and the burning of effigies of state leaders. The organisation has framed its demand for an NRC update, using 1951 as the base year, as essential to identifying alleged illegal immigrants in the state, a concern it has described as critical to safeguarding the interests of future generations amid ongoing anxieties in Manipur over demographic change and internal displacement.

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