Introduction
India is a country of multiple ethnicities, religions, and races. Its diversity is not only seen in terms of its people, but also geographically. Despite its diversity in ethnicity and geography, India is able to exist in harmony and peace. After the country got its independence in 1947, different parts of India were at different developmental levels. Through the implementation of Five Year Plan, the Indian government has successfully bridged most of the developmental gaps between states and regions. Although all the Indian states are not doing as good as Punjab and Gujrat economically, but at least each state has its own assembly, democratic process, budget, and future development programs in place. The only black sheep in the Indian government’s five year development plan is the region of North East India (The World Bank 2007, 38). North East India is the easternmost part of India consisting of eight states - Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim. These states remained one of the most underdeveloped in the country even after 65 years of independence. However, despite some progress made in a few of North East states (for instance, Mizoram), the overall rate of growth in the region over the past few years has remained low with high rate of poverty (especially in Assam) and violence. Several reports have documented the degradation of natural resources, which are the very assets that offer a huge potential for growth and development in the North East region. Therefore, the economic growth witnessed in the greater part of India is completely missing in this region (The World Bank 2007, xiii). This essay will discuss the developmental problems in the region of North East India in detail, touching upon the factors contributing to the problem, its historical context, socio-political consequences of the problem, current action plans by the government, and probable future solutions to the issue.
Geographic Area
North East India is the easternmost part of India connected to other parts of the country via a narrow corridor squeezed between Nepal and Bangladesh. The region has a border of only 22 kilometers with other Indian states and more than 4,500 kilometers of international border with China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. The region accounts for 8% of the total size of India (ICC-PWC Report 2013, 5). The population of the region is approximately 40 million, which is 4% of the total Indian population.
Apart from the Brahmaputra basin in Assam, most of the regions are part of the eastern Himalayas and North East hills. The North East region has humid and hot subtropical climate with a severe monsoon. It also has a few of the last remaining rain forests of the Indian subcontinent and a huge diversity in terms of flora, fauna, and wildlife. The region is also very rich in terms of natural resources. It accounts for 20% of the total oil and petroleum reserves of India. Apart from Mizoram and Tripura, all the other states in the region have a literacy rate far below the national average. This region has many tribal languages and dialects, more than 225 of which are recognized by the Indian government (Sundaram 2013, 54). Apart from Assam, most of the regions have a large number of Hindu population, followed by a substantial number of Buddhist population. Assam has a 30% Muslim population. A majority of the tribes in the area worships nature and does not come under any recognized religion.
Primary Factors of Underdevelopment
There are several factors that contribute to the underdevelopment of the region. The first factor is the region’s isolation from the mainland territories. The mainland Indians discriminate against the North East Indian by calling them ‘chinkies’, and the North East Indians refer the other part of India as the mainland India and deem themselves as inhabitants of a separate territory (Ahmed 2010, 78). Below are discussed some of the factors as well as the historical context of the problem.
Historical Context
Historically, Assam apart, the other six North East states came under the British rule a few years before India gained its independence. After the independence of the country, the North East region was divided into three states, Assam, Manipur, and Tripura. Since then, the government of India undertook a policy of dividing the regions further on the basis of tribal groups to avoid regional strife. This way, Nagaland, Arunachal, Meghalaya, and Mizoram were formed in the 1970s and the 1980s. Even after the formation of these small states, whenever the government of India encountered any ethnical dispute, it further designated small regions in the territory belonging to particular tribal groups. For instance, Garo and Khasi tribes have their designated regions in the hills of Meghalaya. Similarly, Bodo, Noatia, and Dimasa have their own lands in the northern Assam (Sundaram 2013, 55). These small subdivisions based on tribes have created a continuous turmoil, disrupting the peace of the region.
Apart from the North East region, the majority of the Indians are descendants of either Aryan and Dravidian races, whereas a large percentage of the North East people have derived from the Chinese origin. Because of the differentiation in the source of origin, the North East people have unique features and appearance different from the people of other parts of India. This unique countenance prevents them from assimilating with the mainstream Indian population (Ahmed 2010, 78-79). As the overall contribution of the region in terms of industrial and agricultural output was negligible, the government of India often gave less importance and allocated minimal budget for the development of this region.
The Lack of Transportation Infrastructure
Apart from the Brahmaputra valley in Assam, none of the areas in the North East region was connected via railways even 30 years after the independence. Still, the railway infrastructure does not cover five of the eight states of the region. Though the road infrastructure has improved in the last 10 years, but many places in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Mizoram are still not well connected to the rest of the country. In first 6 five year plans, there were almost no budget and developmental sanctions for the North East region. Aside from a handful of road constructions, which were constructed in order to access the oil base of Assam, no other budget was sanctioned for infrastructure development. Finally, upon reviewing the poor condition of the states, in 1995, the North Eastern Development Financial Corporation Limited was formed by the government. Soon afterwards, a separate ministry for the development of the North East region was founded in 2001 (Hassan 2006, 17). These two committees are taking measures to address the issue, but the decades of negligence and poor development cannot be mended within a few years as development is a long process.
In recent years, the Indian government has shown urgency in developing the North East region and solving its problems. It has sanctioned Hydro Power Projects worth a few billions of dollars. This will help the region gain power autonomy, and the excess power generated can be sold to other regions of India.
The Lack of Industrial Growth
Poor Human Development
The human development index for the North-East region is one of the lowest in the country. Mizoram is the only exception with good educational and medical facilities. For all the other states, per capita income and the number of available medical facilities are the lowest in the country. In recent years, a lot of hospitals have been built by the Indian government, but most of them lack quality doctors, because most of the good physicians are unwilling to practice in the North-East region due to its poor developmental condition and the continuous incidence of unrest. Although the region gets the highest rainfall in the world, still the scarcity of potable water is alarming. Apart from Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, the availability of safe drinking water does not even reach half of the population in other states. The only good area in the human development index is the literacy rate. Tripura and Mizoram have one of the highest literacy rates among both males and females in India (Sundaram 2013, 56). Other North-East states also have a literacy rate better than the national average.
Fiscal Position of North-East Region
When the majority of Indian states is becoming self-sufficient, taking almost no help from the Central government, more than 70% of the budget expenditure in North-East states still comes from the Central government as grants and loans. In recent years, due to severe unrest in the region among different indigenous tribes, the overall expenditure has gone up, whereas the income level has decreased, aggravating the situation further (Sundaram 2013, 52). As now the government of India has started investing a lot of money in building hydro power projects, this should improve the financial as well as the employment situation in the region, but in reality, these projects have become the reason for a growing number of strife in the region, making the situation even worse.
Impact on Different Social Groups
The North-East developmental issue impacts different socio-political groups separately. There are more than 200 tribal and other ethnic groups in the region. Most of them claim some part of the region as their own and try to protect them from the other tribal groups. This has led to a situation of constant tension and fights among these tribal groups. For instance, Bodo, the indigenous tribal group of Assam, claims a greater part of Assam as their own territory and consider the Bengali speaking Muslims as the intruders from Bangladesh. The percentage of Bodo and the Bengali speaking Muslim are almost equal in number. Fights between these two groups over the years have accounted for the loss of several lives. The latest incident of tension between these two groups has taken place in 2012 in the daylight shooting of 13 Bengali speaking Muslims at a bus stop in Dispur (Ahmed 2010, 103).
Women in the region are also in a bad shape. Often as a result of the continuous tension between two rival groups, women are treated like soft targets and frequently kidnapped, raped, and murdered. One good thing about the women of this region is, however, that the society is not male dominated like many other parts of India, and hence, women are treated equal to men. Women also face problems when they go out to study or work in other parts of India (Heinrich Boell Foundation 2011). They become a subject of catcalls and ridicule for their unique appearance and are treated like outsiders. The most recent of such incident has taken place in 2014 in the Capital of India, Delhi, where in a renowned university campus, three North-East girls were openly teased, tortured, and molested by a gang of North Indian students.
Children go through different kinds of problems in the region. Due to the poor educational infrastructure in the region, many children are unable to go to school, growing up as unskilled labors (Heinrich Boell Foundation 2011). Sometimes, owing to the unabating conflicts in the local areas, they often become involved in the violent activities and join different terrorist groups.
Opportunities and the Recent Government Efforts
Despite being the base of rich natural resources, the economic development of North-East region is disrupted due to the above mentioned reasons. In recent years, apart from the natural resources, the government of India and other local stakeholders have identified new opportunities for boosting the economic growth of the North-East region.
Hydro Power Project
The North-East region has more potential for hydro power generation than the whole of India put together. Brahmaputra, which is the main river in the region, has a theoretical potential of 84,000 megawatts of electricity production capability, which is almost 2.5 times than that of the Indus and 3.5 times than that of the Ganges, the other two big rivers of India. Interestingly, only 3.1 % of these potential is utilized till date. Hydro power projects in the region can not only solve the issue of power in North-East, but could have been a big contributor of power for the whole nation. However, the major problem in this area is that the places where many macro or micro hydro power projects can be built are in locations not easily accessible or they fall into special category regions demarcated for local tribes (Das 2013, 40). This creates a huge barrier in the implementation of such projects.
Tourism
Tourism is an area where the North-East region has a huge comparative advantage than the other regions. Naturally beautiful, this region is blessed with scenic snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas in the north, lush green and unique subtropical rainforests, and is a home to an array of different species of birds and animals. It also has a rich cultural heritage of the indigenous tribal people. Despite being so breathtaking in terms of natural beauty, this region is not doing well in tourism because of its poor infrastructure, lack of connectivity, continuous tension among different tribal terrorists, and the lack of resources to support the hospitality business (Ahmed 2010, 175). If tourism can be developed in the region, it can create a number of jobs and earn a large amount of money, thereby improving the overall economic situation.
Local Agriculture
Although two thirds of the populations in North East are dependent on agriculture, the methods used for agriculture are still very primitive. Therefore, the productivity per hectare of lands is among the lowest in the country. Because of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, this region is blessed with one of the highest qualities of fertile soil in the world. Therefore, providing proper education and training to the farmers and modern agricultural equipments will help the region not only become self-sufficient in agriculture, but will also contribute economically to the overall growth of India (Sundaram 2013, 51). Arunachal Pradesh, which has an attractive base of subtropical and sub-Himalayan forest range, can be used for developing the plywood business in the region.
Challenges in Implementing the Opportunities
The mail challenge in the North-East region that impedes its growth is the lack of connectivity. The Central government of India in order to catapult the development of this region regularly sanctions grants and loans for different development projects. However, a majority of this financial help is spent by the states in paying the government employments and the military and paramilitary forces. Many developmental projects, specifically, the projects sanctioned for the development of northern Assam, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, are on hold due to the local tension among different tribal parties. Many other big hydro projects are on hold owing to poor infrastructure of the region. Historically, the Central government has not taken much effort in understanding the interests of the local tribal groups (Ahmed 2010, 35). The state governments, on the other hand, have been vocal about the local interest, but most of the time, they only voice the interests of one or two groups that help them garner votes. Finally, the number of NGOs working in the region to assimilate the local indigenous people into the mainstream Indian population is less, and the ones that are there are not adequately funded, equipped or trained to tackle the issue.
In order to improve the situation in a structured manner, collective efforts by both the states, the Central government, local indigenous people, and national and international NGOs should be made in the direction of developing the North-East region. The main focus should be on improving the transportation, education, medical, and power infrastructure. This should be the primary responsibility of the state and Central governments. NGOs and other voluntary and involuntary organizations, in the meantime, should collaborate with the local groups to make them develop a sense of belonging to the whole of India. If they can build solidarity with the local groups, it will be easy for the state and Central governments to implement developmental projects like hydro power projects and tourism industry in the region.
Conclusion
The North-East India is one of the most naturally beautiful and resourceful regions in India, but also the most underdeveloped and unsafe in the country. There are many factors contributing to the underdevelopment problem. The region has a huge number of tribal groups and indigenous population that are different from the other parts of the country. The Central government also never took any consolidated effort to merge the North-Eastern population into the mainstream Indian population. Furthermore, the needs of different groups were not paid enough heed by the state as well as the Central government over the decades, and this has created grievances and huge unrest in the region. Infighting among different groups is a frequent phenomenon. The development of infrastructure and other facilities are limited, and the recent developmental efforts have also failed to bear fruit. For the absolute development of the region, it requires a combined effort from all including the state governments, the Central government, the leaders of different indigenous groups and the NGOs. If a planned and collective effort can be put in place, then the region can flourish into the crown jewel among the Indian states.
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