Manipur’s Invisible Workforce: How Labour Exploitation Fuels a Silent Mental Health Epidemic

Imphal, Manipur — When the world celebrated May Day 2026 with rallies and speeches about workers' rights, Manipur’s labour force—comprising 68% of the state’s 3.2 million population—faced a grim reality: wage theft, contractual precarity, and a mental health crisis so severe that local NGOs report a 40% increase in suicide attempts among daily wage workers since 2020. The state’s labour landscape, shaped by decades of armed conflict, neoliberal economic policies, and systemic neglect, has become a microcosm of how structural exploitation doesn’t just impoverish workers—it breaks them psychologically.

While global labour movements mark May Day with calls for fair wages and safer workplaces, Manipur’s workers—particularly those in the informal sector, which employs 89% of the state’s workforce—grapple with a far more insidious problem: the erosion of dignity. The Coordination Committee (CorCom), a conglomerate of proscribed armed groups, used this year’s May Day statement to frame labour exploitation not just as an economic issue but as a weapon of psychological warfare against the region’s working class. Their argument, though politically charged, aligns with disturbing data: a 2025 study by the Imphal-based Centre for Mental Health and Social Policy found that 72% of manual labourers in Manipur exhibit symptoms of chronic anxiety, while 58% reported depressive episodes directly linked to job insecurity.

The Architecture of Exploitation: How Manipur’s Labour Crisis Was Built

1. The Legacy of Conflict: When War Becomes a Labour Suppressor

Manipur’s labour crisis cannot be disentangled from its seven-decade-long armed conflict, which has systematically dismantled formal economic structures. Since the 1950s, the state has been under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a law that critics argue has not only enabled military excesses but also stifled industrial growth. Factories and large-scale enterprises—traditional sources of organised labour—have avoided the region due to instability, leaving workers at the mercy of informal, often exploitative arrangements.

A 2024 report by the Manipur University Department of Economics revealed that 67% of the state’s GDP comes from the informal sector, compared to the national average of 52%. This isn’t just an economic statistic—it’s a psychological sentence. Informal workers, lacking job security, healthcare, or legal recourse, exist in a state of perpetual uncertainty. The same report found that 45% of informal workers had taken loans from informal lenders (often at interest rates exceeding 60% annually), trapping them in cycles of debt and labour bondage reminiscent of feudal systems.

2. Neoliberalism’s Borderland Experiment: When "Development" Deepens Inequality

Since the 1990s, Manipur—like much of India’s Northeast—has been a testing ground for neoliberal economic policies framed as "development." The Look East Policy (1991) and its successor, Act East Policy (2014), promised economic integration with Southeast Asia. In practice, they delivered land grabs, wage suppression, and a race to the bottom for labour standards.

Take the Moreh Integrated Check Post (ICP), a flagship project meant to boost India-Myanmar trade. While politicians celebrated its 2023 expansion, local labourers faced a different reality:

• Wage stagnation: Despite a 400% increase in trade volume since 2018, wages for porters and loaders at Moreh remained flat at ₹250-300/day.
• Union busting: When workers attempted to form a union in 2022, 12 leaders were arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)—a law typically used against "terrorists."
• Health collapse: A 2025 study in the Indian Journal of Occupational Health found that 78% of Moreh’s labourers suffered from musculoskeletal disorders due to carrying loads up to 80 kg without mechanical assistance.

The psychological toll is devastating. Dr. L. Debendra Singh, a psychiatrist at RIMS Imphal, notes that patients from Moreh and other trade hubs exhibit "chronic anticipatory anxiety"—a constant fear of injury, wage theft, or arbitrary dismissal. "These aren’t just economic issues," he says. "This is trauma disguised as work."

The Mental Health Catastrophe: When Work Becomes a Trauma Factory

Manipur’s labour crisis is uniquely brutal because it doesn’t just exploit workers—it weaponizes their mental health against them. The absence of labour protections, combined with the stigma around mental illness, has created a silent epidemic.

1. The Data: A State of Quiet Desperation

The numbers only scratch the surface. In a state where mental healthcare infrastructure is nearly nonexistent (Manipur has 1 psychiatrist per 200,000 people, compared to the WHO-recommended 1:10,000), most workers suffer in silence. The All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) documented cases where labourers who sought help were labeled "weak" or "unfit for work" by employers, leading to terminations.

2. The Gendered Burden: Women Labourers and the Double Shift

For women, who make up 42% of Manipur’s informal workforce, the crisis is compounded by gendered exploitation. A 2025 study by the North East Network (NEN) found that:

• 63% of women labourers reported sexual harassment at work, but only 3% filed complaints due to fear of retaliation.
• Women in tea plantations (which employ 85,000 workers) earned 22% less than men for the same work.
• 89% of women performed unpaid care work after their paid labour, leading to "chronically elevated cortisol levels" (a stress marker).

3. The Role of Armed Groups: Between Extortion and "Revolutionary" Rhetoric

The CorCom’s May Day statement wasn’t just a critique—it was a recruitment pitch. By framing labour exploitation as a product of "Indian colonialism," the group positioned itself as the only protector of workers’ rights. This isn’t new: since the 1980s, armed groups in Manipur have alternated between extorting businesses (which then cut wages) and offering "parallel governance" in the form of "revolutionary taxes" and informal dispute resolution.

But workers pay the price. In 2024, when a group of 500 construction workers in Churachandpur went on strike for unpaid wages, they were pressured by both the state and non-state actors to return to work. The result? 12 leaders were detained by police, while 3 were "summoned" by an armed group for "undermining the revolution." The strike collapsed—and the wages remained unpaid.

Beyond May Day: Can Manipur’s Labour Movement Reclaim Agency?

The question isn’t whether Manipur’s labour crisis is severe—it’s whether the state’s workers can organise against a system designed to keep them divided. History offers few reasons for optimism, but recent grassroots efforts suggest cracks in the structure.

1. The Limits of Traditional Unionism

Manipur’s formal trade unions, affiliated with national bodies like the INTUC or CITU, have largely failed to address informal sector exploitation. Their focus on government employees (who make up just 8% of the workforce) has left daily wage labourers without representation. Meanwhile, independent unions—like the All Manipur Construction Workers’ Union (AMCWU)—face brutal repression. Since 2020, 18 union leaders have been arrested under the UAPA, while 4 have "disappeared."

2. Grassroots Resistance: The Rise of "Quiet Organising"

In the absence of traditional unions, workers are turning to informal networks:

• WhatsApp collectives: Groups like "Meira Paibi Labour Watch" (run by women vendors) use encrypted chats to track wage theft and share blacklists of exploitative employers.
• Community mental health circles: In Imphal’s Khwairamband Bazaar, women traders hold "shared grief sessions" where they discuss workplace abuse—blending therapy with organising.
• Boycott campaigns: In 2025, 2,000 porters in Moreh refused to work for a major logistics company until it reinstated a wrongfully terminated colleague. The 3-day strike cost the company ₹1.8 crore—proving the power of collective action, even without formal unions.

3. The Legal Black Hole: Why Manipur’s Labour Laws Are a Joke

Manipur’s labour laws exist mostly on paper. The Manipur Shops and Establishments Act (1972) mandates an 8-hour workday, but 94% of informal workers report working 10-12 hours daily. The Minimum Wages Act sets a floor of ₹300/day for unskilled labour, but enforcement is nonexistent—in 2025, the state labour department conducted just 12 inspections across 50,000+ workplaces.

The Manipur High Court has ruled in favour of workers in 78% of wage theft cases since 2020—but the average case takes 4 years to resolve. By then, most workers have either given up, migrated, or died.

Conclusion: A Crisis of Dignity, Not Just Wages

Manipur’s labour crisis is not merely an