By Patricia Mukhim
It has taken forty-nine years for Meghalaya, known for its matrilineal tradition to produce a lady Chief Secretary in Ms Rebecca V Suchiang. This year or early next year we are also scheduled to see a lady Director General of Police (DGP) – Ms Idashisha Nongrang. Much before these two ladies we had Ms Jordana Pavel Diengdoh who started her career with the Indian Railways Traffic Service where she served from 1975 to 1978. Jordana Diengdoh happens to be the first woman in India to have joined this service which is a male preserve. That’s quite an achievement but one that is so little known and celebrated. Jordana then got into the Indian Foreign Service in 1979. As a career diplomat she has served in different capacities and retired in 2009 as the Consul General of India to the UK at Birmingham. In all, therefore, we have just three women from the Khasi-Jaintia community to hold these high offices.
In Meghalaya, we have had just two lady Chief Secretaries. The last one was Ms PP Trivedi who served as Chief Secretary from 1983-85 and is remembered for enforcing discipline among the rank and file who were used to strolling to work only after 11 am. These were discussions we would hear about every incoming Chief Secretary; of their character traits and peculiarities. It will be no different even with Ms Rebecca Suchiang who has always remained free from controversy of any kind. She will, of course, have to be more visible and audible as she leads the bureaucracy in the State on a mission to govern Meghalaya.
At present we have Isawanda Laloo the Deputy Commissioner, East Khasi Hills from the Khasi-Jaintia community who got into the IAS in 2013, exactly 24 years after Rebecca Suchiang. The question then is – why do so few Khasi women make it to the elite services (IAS,IFS) in a society that is supportive of women’s education and social mobility. What could be the problem that so few women aspire for a service that gets them prestige and respect and also gives them the opportunity to serve the public in ways that can empower the people and bring up their living standards? I guess this is a question that has several disquieting answers.
It is natural to expect women bureaucrats and politicians to have a better understanding of the problems that Meghalaya faces and is indicted for regularly by different survey reports from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the NSSO. These surveys have consistently pointed to the fact that there is very high stunting and wasting among children in Meghalaya. The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) 2016-2018 had found high stunting among children in Meghalaya with 40.4 per cent of children from birth to four years suffering from stunting while the national average is around 35 per cent. Meghalaya is just below Bihar (42 per cent) when it comes to the percentage of prevalence of stunting among children in the above age group the survey had stated. The next stage after stunting is wasting after which there is no reversal.
Stunting is defined as low height-for-age. It is the result of chronic or recurrent undernutrition, usually associated with poverty, poor maternal health and nutrition, frequent illness and/or inappropriate feeding and care in early life. Stunting is hugely problematic because it prevents children from reaching their physical and cognitive potential. It means they don’t gain height as they should but the worst part is that it affects their cognitive development which means their ability to think, explore and figure things out. The cognitive domain is where knowledge, skills, and problem solving happens. It is the cognitive domain which helps children to think about and understand the world around them. Brain development is part of cognitive development.
When a child that is stunted does not receive the required nutrients over a long period it leads to wasting. Once wasting happens the situation cannot be reversed no matter how much nutrients or multivitamins a child is given. Wasting is defined as low weight-for-height. It often indicates recent and severe weight loss, although it can also persist for a long time. Wasting usually occurs when a person has not had adequate quality and quantity of food and/or has suffered from prolonged illnesses. Wasting in children is associated with a higher risk of death if not treated properly apart from also affecting the cognitive potential of the child.
Studies indicate that one of the reasons for stunting in Meghalaya is because a large population of families in rural Meghalaya cannot afford to give milk to their children. Children aged 4-8 years require 700 mg per day of calcium which works out to about 600 ml of cows’ milk to completely fulfil this age range’s calcium needs. I was discussing with Mr KN Kumar, Chairman Farmers’ Commission the other day as to the reasons for stunting and wasting of children in Meghalaya. He said that while children elsewhere drink at least 200 plus ml of milk daily, in Meghalaya it is only about 80 ml. Most parents, he said, pleaded that they could not afford milk. Mr Kumar argued with those parents that if they can afford to have betel nut and betel leaf and the men can afford cigarettes/bidi/ liquor why could they not make sacrifices for their kids. The Milk Mission in Meghalaya is meant to address this nutrition gap in children.
There are all shades of IAS officers in Meghalaya. Some don’t belong to this state but have made it their own and the concerns of the people here also concerns them even as they try out different strategies to address these nutritional and other anomalies through various interventions.
Might it not be that if we had many more local/indigenous women IAS officers that at least a few of them would also be alarmed by the problematic development indices in the state? The reason why the educational outcomes in rural Meghalaya are so dismal is largely because of the under-nutrition which is known to directly affect thinking, reasoning and other brain activities. Of course, the quality of teaching and the learning environment also matters but more importantly it is the child’s own ability to absorb the learning processes especially juggling with numbers that yield positive learning outcomes.
It is in this context that one wishes that we had many more committed civil servants who would take the human development indices and the educational surveys with the seriousness they deserve and also show single-minded devotion towards addressing these and ensuring that the next survey shows some improvements due to their interventions.
There will be many expectations from a home-grown Chief Secretary. I am not sure why Chief Secretaries don’t step out of their offices more often and mingle with the world outside their offices. Granted that the bureaucracy is a mountain of paperwork, much of which can be delegated to junior colleagues. Perhaps better time management and using weekends for rural visits would help the new CS grasp the key problems of the State better. I recall travelling with former CS Y. Tshering who happened to be the Chairman of the Supreme Court monitored, Special Purpose Vehicle created specially to oversee how the funds realised from Lafarge Umiam Private Ltd which sources limestone from Shella and Nongtrai, are utilised for the purpose which the apex court has clearly laid out. It made a huge difference for the people of those areas to meet the CS in person. It also educates the CS first hand on how funds are utilised for various projects.
On this note, hope springs eternal in the human breast.