Ms Chanu's years of fasting have made her into an iconic figure in Manipur.
This time, there were riots in Mumbai and attacks in nearby Pune on people from Manipur.
Ripley's site features a cartoon on the activist and describes her as "the iron lady of Manipur".
"In Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, poverty in 2009-10 has increased, " the commission said in a statement.
BBC: 'Sharp drop' in India poverty due to welfare programmes
The groups blocked two highways linking Manipur with the rest of the country.
Irom Sharmila Chanu, 40, has been on a hunger strike since 2 November 2000 in the north-eastern state of Manipur.
Since early April, when protesters blocked the two highways linking Manipur to the rest of India, supplies of medicine have dwindled.
Locals here in Assam and the neighboring states of Manipur and Nagaland add fresh chopped chilies to the pot when cooking curries.
Mr Muivah has been barred from visiting his home village, Somdal, which lies inside Manipur in an area dominated by members of his Naga tribe.
As well as elections in Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand, voters in Uttar Pradesh and Goa will also vote in the next few weeks, with results due on 6 March.
This time Mr Thant's travels take him to Myanmar's hill country, near the Chinese border, to the other side of the frontier, in Yunnan province, and to Assam and Manipur in north-east India, on Myanmar's other flank.
ECONOMIST: How Myanmar is moving ever closer into China��s orbit
应用推荐