Internal displacement and humanitarian crises often persist long after active ethnic violence subsides. Discuss with reference to the Manipur relief camps.

Ethnic violence ends in headlines long before it ends in homes. Manipur, convulsed since May 2023, saw President's Rule revoked and an elected government restored in February 2026 [1] — yet relief camps continued to shelter displaced families, showing that the humanitarian crisis outlasts the violence that caused it.

Evidence from Manipur's camps

• Protracted displacement: tens of thousands remained in camps years after the peak of violence; a Supreme Court judges' delegation visited camps to assess conditions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) [2], signalling that relief had become a rights question, not a temporary measure.
• Basic-needs deficit: the Union Home Minister had to review availability of food, water and medicines in camps and direct the Chief Secretary to ensure health and education facilities [3] — camp life erodes nutrition, schooling and livelihoods.
• Fiscal weight: a ₹500 crore corpus for Manipur, ₹400 crore for camp operations and 7,000 PMAY houses were sanctioned [4], indicating rehabilitation needs measured in years, not months.

Why the crisis persists

• Geography of fear: buffer zones and blocked arteries choke recovery; National Highway-02 reopened only after the Kuki-Zo Council agreed with the MHA to permit free movement of commuters and essential goods [5].
• Destroyed assets: burnt homes and lost land records make return costlier than flight; reconstruction, not ceasefire, determines resettlement.
• Unsettled politics: demands for separate administration keep hill-valley territorial questions open, deterring cross-community return.
• Border disruption: scrapping the India–Myanmar Free Movement Regime on internal-security and demographic grounds [6] simultaneously constrains kin communities straddling the border.
• Institutional gap: India lacks a dedicated statutory framework for IDPs, leaving relief discretionary rather than entitlement-based.

Manipur shows that peace is a process of return, not a date of ceasefire. A time-bound, jointly-monitored resettlement roadmap — camp healthcare and schooling treated as an emergency, reciprocal confidence-building rewarding steps like the NH-02 opening, and a rights-based IDP policy — can convert relief into rehabilitation, honouring the Article 21 promise of life with dignity.