When the sky becomes a cage : Manipur’s people are paying not for free market but State-enabled monopoly of suffering

Nil Konsam
For more than 30 months, the Meitei people of Manipur have been cut off from the rest of India by road. The long-standing disruption has turned what was once a day’s journey to Guwahati or Silchar into an impossibility. The only way out of the State is by air—and even that has become a luxury reserved for the rich.
Today, a 45-minute flight from Imphal to Guwahati or Imphal to Kolkata can cost as much as Rs 34,000. For many families, that’s more than their monthly income. For others, it means choosing between travel and survival.
Athletes grounded, dreams delayed
Even sports has not been spared. Several players and sports associations in Mani-pur have found themselves unable to send athletes to National tournaments because of the exorbitant air- fares. In many cases, teams who qualified for National events have had to withdraw—not for lack of talent, but for lack of tickets.
Local sports bodies that used to raise funds for travel through small contributions now face a heartbreaking dilemma: should they spend lakhs on airfare, or forgo participation altogether ? This has dealt a severe blow to Manipur’s proud sporting tradition—a State that has given India Olympians, football stars, and weightlifting champions.
Patients in distress
For patients seeking critical medical treatment outside the State—in Guwahati, Kolkata, or Delhi — the situation is tragic. A single air ticket for a patient and an attendant can exceed Rs 60,000–Rs 70,000, not counting accommodation or hospital costs. Families are reportedly selling land and properties just to afford these journeys. Many are forced to delay or abandon treatment, with fatal consequences.
When roads are unsafe and flights unaffordable, medical emergencies become death sentences.
Workers and families torn apart
Thousands of low-salaried Manipuris working in other parts of India— in cities like Bangalore, Delhi, and Chennai — are now cut off from home. Air tickets cost several times their monthly wages, making it impossible to return even during family emergencies, deaths, or festivals. The emotional and psychological cost of this forced separation is immeasurable.
For a landlocked State already traumatized by conflict, this economic and emotional isolation is compounding despair.
A failure of governance and compassion
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Civil Aviation have the power to cap airfares under exceptional circumstances. Such caps were enforced during the Covid lockdown and natural disasters in other parts of India. Yet, for over two and a half years, these authorities have remained silent spectators while airlines exploit a captive population.
This is not a free market; it’s a State-enabled monopoly of suffering.
A question of Nationhood
Connectivity is not just about transport—it is the lifeline of National integration. When an entire community within India is priced out of mobility, it challenges the very spirit of the Constitution.
Manipur does not seek sympathy. It seeks visibility, fairness, and the basic dignity of affordable connectivity. If a 45-minute flight in the world’s fifth-largest economy costs Rs 34,000 for its own citizens trapped by circumstance, it is time to ask—what kind of freedom is this ? Read and act. It has been too much.