Over 14000 schoolchildren displaced due to ethnic violence in Manipur: Education Ministry

A total of 14,763 school-going children have been displaced due to the current Manipur situation.

FILE - People look at portraits of victims who lost their lives during ethnic clashes, at a memorial in Churachandpur district in Manipur, July 24, 2023.

NEW DELHI: Over 14,000 schoolchildren have been displaced due to the ethnic violence in Manipur, the Ministry of Education said on Wednesday.

Over 93 per cent of these children have been admitted to the nearest school, Union Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

"A total of 14,763 school-going children have been displaced due to the current Manipur situation. A nodal officer has been appointed for each relief camp to facilitate the admission process of the displaced students," she said.

As many as "93.5 per cent of the displaced students have been admitted to the nearest feasible school, free of cost", the minister said.

More than 160 people have been killed and hundreds injured since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.