What
an irony! An extraordinarily exquisite and diverse region
with a very colourful co-mingling of races, religions,
languages and cultures remain as a mysterious distant
land. This land-locked region of India, comprising of
seven states, is collectively called the North-East. The
plural character of India is nowhere better manifested
than in this region, abundantly endowed by nature. But
unfortunately, the North-East is also a cesspool of
natural and man-made problems. Therefore, the needs of
this strategically important region are varied and
plentiful.
The North-East has an ideal agro-climatic condition with
great agricultural potentials, but surprisingly, it
continues to be severely underdeveloped. Despite
considerable intra-state variations in terms of resources
endowments, geographical conditions, social setup and
density of population, the region has a host of common
socioeconomic and political problems related to
ethnicity, governance, insurgency, health and
development. The high seismic activity makes the region
prone to earth quakes. The North-East never ceased to
have problems from across the troubled boarders. Many
peculiar problems like drug trafficking and AIDS, which
have played truant with the lives of millions in this
region, have direct linkage with this factor.
Manipur has attained notoriety by being the AIDS and
drugs epicenter of the country. Even though the total
population in the seven North-East States constitute less
than four per cent of Indian population, they account for
more than 16 per cent of HIV infections in the entire
country. Proximity to Myanmar and the Golden Triangle,
wherefrom over 20 per cent of the world’s heroin
production comes, has made Manipur and other
North-Eastern States highly vulnerable to the menace of
drugs. The drug syndicates and narcotic cartels
comprising of the poppy growing areas of Myanmar,
Thailand and Laos, continue to successfully use the 350
kilometre long porous boarders of North-East India as
exit points.
Influx of people from within and outside the country into
these sensitive tribal States of the region has created a
very volatile situation. The natives are not taking it
kindly. A spate of vicious ethnic violence and brutal
attacks on communities always loom large on the region.
If partition was a death-blow to the North-East, closing
its commercial windows to the external world. But the
policies and programmes that followed after the
Independence did not really alter the situation.
Government has been trying to contain ethnic violence and
to break the drug trade through use of force. But these
efforts were not comprehensive enough to bring perpetual
peace to the region. True, the situation may have perhaps
been worse, had there been no intervention by the
security forces, but in the final analyses, one may still
feel that somehow the issue has not been clinched. A
permanent solution to the North-East problems still
remains elusive. This is borne out by facts.
May be the need is for clearer policies, with a long-term
perspective at the national level. The five
‘accords’ (Shillong 1975, Assam 1985, Mizoram
1987, Tripura 1988 and Bodo 1993) seem to have been mere
fire-fighting operations, with short-term gains. The
infrastructural development of the region, like
transport, health services etc. still remains as a
distant dream. These efforts should go hand in glove with
improvements in other social sectors such as education,
conservation of environment and natural resources etc.
The problems of the region warrants a different set of
culturally acceptable approaches because of the special
needs of the people. Despite external interventions or
rather intrusions, the organizational framework and the
cultural ethos of the tribal societies have not changed
over the years. There is perhaps no need for that either.
They are quite convinced of their heritage and way of
life so it is quite natural that they develop resistances
to certain modern, developmental concepts imposed on them
from the top. Facilitating socioeconomic changes aimed at
the overall improvement in the living conditions of the
people will mean integrating them into the Indian family
and guaranteeing harmony among themselves. This is an
idea voluntary agencies need to explore, even though the
task is tedious.
Some highly motivated voluntary organisations have moved
into the region, despite unsurmountable difficulties and
hostilities from the population. In this issue of
"Health for the Millions", a situational
analysis of the important health and development
situations in the North-East is given for the benefit of
such agencies and others planning to move in. NGOs have a
great role to play in the region which, of course, calls
for imaginative planning and strategic initiatives.
The ills of the North-East can be attributed partly to
historic reasons and partly to wrong policies. Urgent
steps are needed, including fostering of closer
cooperation between the States and development agencies
working in the region, and greater allocations of
resources and their rational use. These measures will
necessarily help redeem the population from the shackles
of chronic underdevelopment. The agenda for the 21st
century should necessarily contain a calculated thrust
towards the North-East.
This site would be best viewed on a Netscape 4.0 Gold or above and Microsoft IE 4.0 or above with screen settings of 800 x 600 and true colors option checked.
