THE REALITY:

The issue of lagging hills can be examined vis-à-vis economic development (as measured by per capita income), health status (as measured by expectancy of life at birth and infant mortality rate), empowerment (as measured by literacy rate) and employment (as measured by work force participation rate).

Per capita income, in spite of limitations, is used here to examine the level of development and its differential between the hills and the valley. Table 1 shows that in 1990–91 the hill districts cannot be said to have lagged behind in general. By 2000–01, almost all hill districts experienced growths much lower than the valley districts. This is attributed to substantially higher growth of population in the hills during this period.3 It is borne out by the fact that there is not much difference in the growth of income. Chandel district registered the highest growth in income and population. One may argue that lack of growth in per capita income alone is sufficient for indicting the state of affairs. Yet one should not ignore the overall constraints under which the economy has been growing. The per capita income for the hill districts would have been higher if the income had grown faster with the given population growth rate or slower growth of population with the given growth rate of income. What constrains the growth of income? How real is the population growth? Senapati, the only district with a falling per capita, has the dubious distinction of having three sub-divisions where 2001 census results have been questioned of its validity.

"Land is the most valuable natural resource, whose planning and development offer major prospects for increase in output and income for the people, especially for those who are below the poverty line. For efficient land planning and optimum use, it is essential that there be clarity and certainty about title to land." (4)

Clarity and certainty about title to land is very much lacking in the hills. This has resulted in in-optimum use of land in the hills. A tribal cannot think of making long-term investment in land as his right to the return is uncertain. Nor does he have the resources commensurate for such activities. He is thus condemned to the classic predicament—he is poor because he is poor. Until and unless the land issue is properly settled in favour of private ownership, the momentum of development in the hills is unlikely to pick up. The development of infrastructure like roads will only help in the migration of people from the hills to the valley and more developed areas beyond.

Another indictment regarding the land rights issue in India comes from the Mckinsey Report which states that land market distortions account for close to 1.3 per cent of lost growth a year.5 Ironically, inflexible labour laws and infrastructure, which have drawn the interest of policy makers, account for only 0.3 per cent of lost growth a year. Even at the national level, policy focus is on reform of labour policy rather than land rights system.
How neglected are the hill people in matters of health? All the investments in health related activities and their proper utilisation are reflected in two indicators, viz. expectation of life at birth and infant mortality rate.

Table 2 shows these indicators at the district level. Expectation of life at birth in the hill districts is not substantially lower than the state average. Given the present mortality conditions, a male in Imphal can expect to live about four to seven years longer than his counterpart in Ukhrul district. The difference is even less among the females. In the case of infant mortality, Churchandpur, a hill district, and Bishnupur, a valley district, have the lowest rates. Thoubal, another valley district, has the third highest infant mortality rate.
Unemployment is another issue of concern. Apart from the wastage of human resources, the unemployed are easily alienated from the mainstream. The worst thing to happen to an individual is not having a means to livelihood. There are two main sources of data on unemployment, viz. Employment Exchanges and National Sample Survey (NSS). However, district level data are not given by NSS. Employment Exchange figures are considered unreliable. The alternative is the census-based indicator known as work force participation rate. If most of the population are working, there will be less of unemployment. Table 3 showing the work force participation rates across districts of Manipur indicate that all the hill districts have rates higher than the state average.

People who are not in the work force are either unemployed or simply not in the labour market, such as children and aged persons. The predominance of agriculture in the activity portfolio of the hill people and its low productivity with implications for the standard of living of the hill people again bring the issue of optimal utilization of land at centre stage. The persistent predominance of shifting cultivation, low proportion of use of high yielding variety (HYV)/improved varieties of seeds, low degree of mechanisation and low proportion of gross irrigated area in the hills are closely linked with the issue of land ownership related incentive system.

Another issue closely linked with the empowerment of the hill people is that of literacy. Literacy is necessary for any type of capacity building exercise. Table 4 shows the literacy rates across the districts in Manipur in 2001. There are still some gaps though we have come a long way from the literacy rate of 0.93 per cent in 1901 for the State. Interestingly, states like Bihar have literacy rates much lower than that of Manipur.

One of the determinants of quality education is the teacher-pupil ratio. Table 5 shows the ratio over hills and valley; but it does not give the impre-ssion of a highly disconcerting situation as is often projected. Except for the first category, the hills have a favourable ratio over the valley indicating the availability of at least one necessary component of quality education. How this manpower is utilised in the hills is another issue impinging on the development of the hill people. The purpose of going through these tables is to show that the difference between the hills and the valley is not as large as it is often made out to be. The underdevelopment of the hills is another facet of the underdevelopment of the valley. The attempt to explain the former in terms of the exploitation by the valley is too simplistic a view of a very complex process. The interaction of internal and external forces has to be understood to come up with some practical policies. In the following sections an attempt is made to provide a framework for this development.

IN SEARCH OF A FRAMEWORK:

Where does Manipur’s development experience fit in? The neo-colonial dependence model attributes the existence of underdevelopment to the histo-rical evolution of a highly unequal international capitalist system of a rich country-poor country relationship. Attempts by poor nations to be self-reliant and developed are aborted in an international system dominated by unequal power relationships between the centre and the periphery. The small ruling elites serve the interest of the international capitalist system and their views crowd out any genuine reform efforts likely to benefit the wider population. Thus, according to this model, underdevelopment is extensively induced and sustained by active collaboration between industrial capitalist countries and the comprador groups in these less developed countries. An analysis of our situation using this framework is tempting, as actors in the drama can be easily identified. However, it is considered a weak explanation when the motivations and their potentials are explicitly considered.

A better description of our situation is the false paradigm model and co-ordination failure approach. The false paradigm model attributes under-development to faulty and inappropriate advice provided by well-meaning but uninformed, biased and ethnocentric advisers from developed countries.

The sophisticated theoretical structures on which they base their policies do not account for institutional factors such as the role of traditional social structures, the highly unequal ownership of land and uncertainties in land rights, the disproportionate control by the elites over decision making and the subsequent highly unequal access to credit. This approach is appealing because it is more practical than the centre-periphery paradigm. The emphasis is on trying to understand the real development problem. It also has a future because it can come up with policies over a long term. The centre-periphery paradigm calls for radical change in the system and it is not clear about the changes over time. The false paradigm model is further strengthened by the co-ordination failure approach. The co-ordination failure depicts a situation in which the people’s inability to co-ordinate their behaviour leads to an outcome that leaves everyone worse off than an alternative outcome. This happens in full knowledge of the people about the alternative because of difficulties in co-ordination. Co-ordination is difficult because people have different expectations. The policy implications thus are quite different.

NOTES & REFERENCES:

1. The database of Manipur came under intense scrutiny at the time of preparation of the State Human Development Report under UNDP sponsorship and State Development Report under the Planning Commission. Some excellent works like construction of district level life tables and district domestic product resulted from these exercises. Both the reports are yet to be published. An important reason behind the poor database is that economic policies are rarely made on the basis of state data. The figures from Assam are the favourites.

2.  Gangmumei Kamei, ‘Problem of Development in the Hill Areas of Manipur’, in M. Horam (ed.), The Rising Manipur, (New Delhi: Manas Publications), 2000, p. 68.

3. Recently, this argument has been put forward to raise the number of assembly consti-tuencies in the hills at the cost of the valley in the ongoing delimitation exercise.

4. D.C. Wadhwa, ‘Guaranteeing Title to Land’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXVII, No. 47, November 23, 2002. The issue has been extensively discussed in D. Wachter and J. English, ‘The World Bank’s Experience with Rural Land Titling’, The World Bank Environment Development Divisional Working Paper 95, 1992.

5.McKinsey Global Institute, ‘India: The Growth Imperative—Understanding the Barriers to Rapid Growth and Employment Creation’. On September 6, 2001, Mckinsey and company, an American consultancy firm, submitted to the Prime Minister of India in a three-volume report. It emphasised the lack of clarity on who owns the land as a major issue in optimum use of land.