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Urgent Letter to the Hon’ble President of India, seeking effective public health
infrastructure, personnel, services with safety and appropriate budgetary
allocation in the state of Manipur – in the valley, hills and relief camps
12th June, 2025
To,
Hon’ble Droupadi Murmu,
President of India,
Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi
Sub: Urgent Representation seeking effective public health infrastructure, personnel,
services with safety and appropriate budgetary allocation in Manipur – Reg
Dear Madam,
We the undersigned are social activists writing to you on behalf of the National Health Rights
Alliance, All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) and National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and
Rights (NAJAR), pan-Indian initiatives of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM).
Many of the signatories are also people of Manipur who have been bearing the brunt of violence
and social tensions over the past 2 years.
Over years and decades, many of us have been asserting the Right to Health of all people, as per
Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees the Right to Life, with Dignity. As Manipur
is currently under the President’s rule, we are writing with an earnest appeal, seeking your
immediate intervention to strengthen the healthcare system in the battered region.
You are well aware of the turmoil that Manipur has been facing in the past two years and the cruel
consequences of the same on the lives of lakhs of people of the state, across communities. While
it is true that Manipur has long faced sporadic violence, the conflict since 2023 (the violence
continues to go on intermittently) has critically undermined its framework of essential services,
in particular, the education and healthcare system. Damaged hospitals and clinics have halted
necessary health services and drained supplies. Threats to health workers' safety have created
severe staffing shortages in key areas. The violence has displaced thousands, forcing them into
National Health Rights Alliance
National Alliance for Justice, Accountability & Rights (NAJAR)
All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA)
(Pan Indian Initiatives of the National Alliance of People’s Movements – NAPM)
National Office: A/29, Haji Habib Bldg., Naigaon Cross Road, DADAR (E), Mumbai – 400014
Social Media: @napmindia | E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | Web: https://napmindia.org/
overcrowded ‘relief’ camps with poor sanitation and limited medical care, heightening the risk of
disease outbreaks. Already fragile, the healthcare system is now overwhelmed, exposing
systemic failures in crisis response and infrastructure resilience.
The violence, arson, and killings in Manipur have displaced over 70,000 people, forcing them into
makeshift shelters across schools, hostels, and other public spaces in both the valley and hills1.
Despite efforts by locals and civil society groups, relief remains grossly inadequate. Many have
fled to neighbouring states like Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, or distant places such as New Delhi,
Kerala and Bengaluru. The conflict has effectively split the region along territorial lines, severely
restricting movement and trade. Alarmingly, the true scale of the crisis appears underestimated.
Women have been disproportionately affected by the conflict in Manipur, facing widespread
gender-based violence, including sexual assault2. These traumatic experiences have triggered
long-term mental health issues such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression3. Displacement has
further deepened women's hardships, as they now shoulder the dual burden of economic
insecurity and psychological distress4. With a crisis like this, women’s routine health, menstrual
and reproductive health doesn’t receive the attention it should.
Children, too, have suffered deeply and extensively. Many have witnessed violence firsthand,
resulting in alarmingly high rates of PTSD, severe depression, and anxiety. Exposure to
continuous trauma has severely disrupted their emotional and cognitive development, while
prolonged school closures threaten their future prospects. Although counseling programs have
been introduced, they remain grossly insufficient given the overwhelming scale of the crisis. Their
entire education cycle has been thrown into doldrums.
According to Sphere India, 253 relief camps across 10 districts are now sheltering the displaced,
amid 142 deaths and over 6,000 injuries. Reports from humanitarian agencies highlight a grim
health situation: vulnerable groups — young children, pregnant women, the elderly — face
disrupted care, scarce essential medicines, and dangerous conditions for childbirth. The
conflicts have also severely impacted consistent care and access to life-saving medicines for
critical chronic health issues like Tuberculosis, HIV, and NCDs5. Critical cases often cannot reach
hospitals, and there are no services for people with disabilities or those needing addiction
rehabilitation. Economic hardships further hinder access to necessary treatments. Although
Manipur’s health indicators have performed satisfactorily (SRS 2020), the ongoing crisis
threatens to reverse these gains if immediate, large-scale interventions are not made.
As the state of Manipur is under President’s Rule, we are writing to you, seeking a fair and just
peace building process. In order to ensure a fair and just peace, ensuring universal health
rights is essential. In the current situation, essential health services remain severely
disrupted in many parts of Manipur, both due to the ongoing crisis and due to the skewed
1 https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/manipur-s-medical-and-humanitarian-crisis-2648857
2 De, Arnabjyoti. The Curtain of Blood: Understanding the Humanitarian and Healthcare Crisis in Manipur.
Intervention 22(2): p 125-127, October 2024. | DOI: 10.4103/intv.intv_14_24
3 https://globalhealthnow.org/2024-01/ptsd-legacy-manipurs-enduring-conflict
4 Khan N, Hussain Z. Manipur’s mental health crisis, a year after violence BMJ 2024; 386 :q1672
doi:10.1136/bmj.q1672
5 https://www.indiaspend.com/health/death-toll-mounts-as-manipur-conflict-stretches-healthcare-to-
breaking-point-875261
distribution of health infrastructure in the state. While most of the services are concentrated
in Imphal, the rest of the districts suffer from lack of basic infrastructure like hospitals and
services in the existing hospitals.
In many districts, the number of community health centres is few and far between. For example,
there is an urgent need for a couple of functional Community Health Centers in Lamka, especially
one in Tuibuang and another in the Sangaikot area. Some districts like Kangpokpi and Tengnoupal
do not have district-level hospitals. The entire Tengnoupal district is surviving on one Community
Health Centre. Kangpokpi has a civil hospital and some PHCs. Even though the civil hospital
facilities and amenities are akin to that of a PHC with the barest equipment, rooms, and no beds,
people prefer to go to another district like Senapati Hospital for treatment in neighbouring States
of Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya. In Lamka CIU has only 10 beds in very close proximity and
needs urgent expansion, as it is catering for a 3 lakhs population. There is an alarming shortage
of HR (i.e. Community Health Workers) as almost 80% of CHO are from the Meitei community.
With the Violence, most of these workers are in Imphal and Thoubal Districts etc, while there is
no replacement for them in Lamka, we are told.
After the violence, most of the health centres in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi that are listed
below (see Annex) are hardly functional, as some villages have been emptied of people, some
are without personnel and some do not have basic equipment. The situation is very drastic, as
even the accredited health institutions are reeling under a lack of nurses and doctors.
As concerned activists and people’s organizations, we are requesting you to kindly consider
the below demands, some of which are urgent and some need to be attended to, over time.
1. A Special Task Force headed by an official with powers equivalent to a cabinet
secretary must be immediately constituted, with special funds, to investigate the
public health situation at hand in Manipur, within a fixed timeline of 2 months. Based
on the recommendations of the Task Force, Govt should plan and implement the
necessary measures for strengthening public health across Manipur.
2. Convene a committee of unbiased public health experts from the region, to discuss
how the aforesaid plans can be carried out efficiently, considering the social, political
and cultural histories and complexities of the region.
3. Urgent filling up of vacant posts and recruitment of nurses, doctors and other medical
staff in all the public health centres and hospitals.
4. Centre must allocate additional funds, even though Manipur spends somewhat more
than some other states on health care. Given how frequently the state has undergone
violent conflicts, extra funds are crucial.
5. There must be effective inter-sectoral coordination between the home, disaster
management, health, food and civil supplies, women and child welfare and social
welfare departments to make sure that the rights and entitlements of the most
vulnerable citizens and social groups, including tribal, indigenous communities,
elders, women, children, persons with disabilities, workers, students, religious
minorities, transgender, queer persons etc is taken care of.
6. Ensure advance preparedness for the onset of monsoon and disease outbreak both in
the villages and relief camps.
7. Ensure that there is no discrimination in health services on the basis of gender,
religion and ethnicity.
8. Setting up effective and decentralized health infrastructure in as many districts of
Manipur as possible, within a fixed time frame. Most immediately, setting up of
functional community health centres in Lamka, especially in Tuibuang and Sangaikot
areas.
9. Strengthen the public health infrastructure, stop privatization of district hospitals,
regulate corporate and private healthcare, ensure availability of quality medicines
free of cost and include mental health services at all primary healthcare centers along
with universal health care in the public health system.
10. Eventually, the state government must bring a comprehensive law for the Right to
Health of all citizens, to address all health-related concerns.
Translating all the above measures into reality needs a strong will and commitment of the
Central and state Govt, including adequate budgetary allocations. We demand that the health
budget be doubled with immediate effect, in keeping with the directive principles of the
Constitution.
We call upon your Hon’ble self to also visit Manipur at the earliest, interact with and
understand the situation of all communities first hand, in the hills, valley and relief camps and
intervene effectively to ensure the right to health, right to life, right to safety and dignity of the
people of Manipur.
Looking forward to your immediate intervention and action.