‘Social Sector Development’ in NE India*

Nityananda Ghosh

India’s North East, comprising 8 states after inclusion of Sikkim, is unique in many ways because of its bio-diversity and rich cultural heritage. Then there are huge untapped mineral resources. But the region always hits the headline for the wrong reasons—recurring ethnic violence, insurgency and glaring social and economic inequality. The book*, under review vividly describes the lifeline of northeastern people. NE states share international borders of more than 5,000 km with Bangladesh, China, Bhutan and Myanmar. All these states comprise less than 8 percent of India’ geographical area but 3.6 percent of the total population of the country lives in the region. Assam is the most populated with a population of over 3.1 million while Sikkim is the least populated. There are huge tribal populations, both hill tribals and plain tribals. Interestingly enough, the majority of those living in the plains of NE are Hindus. The majority of hill tribes living in the states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland are Christians. Then there is a significant presence of the Buddhist population in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Mizoram has the highest literacy rate of 91.58 percent, with a female literacy rate of 91.58 percent. The book highlights problems and challenges faced by North Eastern states. The issues raised in the book were actually discussed in a seminar on “Social Development in North East India: Problems, Issues and Challenges”, organised by Council for Social Development, New Delhi, on July 15-16, 2019. There are seven Sections with as many as 15 chapters dealing with different aspects of social sector development.

The introduction written by Ashok Pankaj, AtulSarma and Antora Borah is in chapter 1 of section one. Section two contains thought-provoking articles by Chandra Kumar Sarma [Contextualizing Social Development in Northeast India] and Bimal Kumar Kar&SuliYohamaAyemi [Demographic Changes in North-east India: Inter-temporal Variations in Population Growth and Composition]. All the sections present highly informative and penetrating pieces with a lot of data. Section vii with the single chapter [Chapter 15] has a very insightful article by Patricia Mukhim [Unique Challenges to Social Sector Development in North-east India: An Insider’s Perspective]. Patricia has rightly pointed out that NE states have a poor record in gender equity in political representation.

All the papers submitted in the seminar and duly selected by the editors to prepare this volume are mainly based on secondary data sources. This volume provides interesting factsheets with 93 valuable tables from which one can get an idea of NE with different parameters and compare it with the rest of Indian states.

NE states consist of more than 200 tribes and the region has been witnessing waves of migration from all directions since pre-historic times. The people of NE India are ethno-linguistically divided into three groups: (a) Austro-Asiatic, (b) Tibeto-Chinese and (c) Indo-Aryan. The Austo-Asiatic group is formed by Mox-Khmer-speaking Khasis and Pyners of Meghalaya and the Mundari-speaking Mundas, Hos, Santhals, Oraons, Gonds etc. The Tibeto- Chinese group is broadly composed of Tibeto-Burmans like Monpa, Sherdukpen, Mising, Deori, Bodo, Garo and Naga tribes. Then the Nagas are not homogeneous;they are divided into several sub-groups like Ao, Angami, Lotha, Sumi etc. Also, there are Kuki-chin, Vaishnavite, Meiti, Reang, Chakma etc. In truth NE is an ethnic cauldron. The Indo-Aryan group is mostly composed of Hindus and Muslims of non-tribal origin. There are Assamese and Bengali Hindus and Nepali speaking people. In terms of religion, Hindus are 57.97 percent followed by Muslims 25.37 percent and Christians 17.39 percent.

In recent years political colour in NE state assemblies have been saffronised to a large extent. But no researcher has mentioned it or its impact on budgetary allocation. Crores of rupees are sanctioned for development but how rampant corruption bypasses the targeted purpose has been overlooked by the contributors. Not that NE states were free from corruption and drug menace in earlier dispensations but of late the situation has gone from bad to worse. How corruption is hampering the social sector development In NE is a burning issue. The researchers had ample scope to throw light on it but they didn’t. However, this book can be a data source material for future researchers.

*Social ‘Sector Development’ in North East India
Edited by Ashok Pankaj, Atul Sharma and Antora Borah
Published by Aakar Books, Delhi 110091
www.aakarbooks.com, pb, Rs 795

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Vol 57, No. 13, Sep 22 - 28, 2024