The NITI Aayog report on the multi-dimensional poverty index 2023 had found West Khasi Hills to have the highest number of poor people based on the two National Family Health Surveys (NFHS). As per NFHS-5 (2019-21) as many as 52.48 per cent of the people are multi-dimensionally poor in West Khasi Hills. West Jaintia Hills came second in the percentage of poor people with 52.08 percent. It was followed by East Jaintia Hills at 43.79 per cent as per NFHS-5. In East Khasi Hills, the multidimensionally poor account for 24.10 per cent (NFHS-5). Interestingly the survey found that all districts in Garo Hills fare better insofar as the number of multi-dimensionally poor is concerned.
In South West Garo Hills, it was only 18.27 per cent; East Garo Hills 14.96 per cent and in North Garo Hills, it was 13.26 per cent while South Garo Hills has reduced the number of poor people to 9.77 per cent (NFHS-5) from 11.27 per cent (NFHS-4). Further, in what may be seen as a steep reduction in the number of multidimensionally poor people, West Garo Hills currently has only 8 percent of such people as compared to 27.29 per cent as recorded in NFHS-4. A question that needs to be asked is what did Garo Hills do right and where did the Khasi-Jaintia Hills go wrong? The National MPI measures simultaneous deprivations in the area of health, education, and standard of living that are represented by the 12 SDG-aligned indicators. These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts.
In a recent report, it is learnt that in Garo Hills there have been attempts to map out the land ownership status which is as good as a cadastral survey. The importance of a cadastral survey at this crucial juncture cannot be over-emphasized especially in Khasi-Jaintia Hills where rural landlessness stood at 76% as per the socio-economic caste census, 2011. While some contest this figure, unless there is alternative data, this number stands. West Khasi Hills has been known to be the district where landlessness was a huge issue right from the time when the poverty alleviation programme was launched by the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD). When the project got underway the project implementers found that farmers of West Khasi Hills (the project area) were actually farming on lease-held land. This was problematic as the lease was for short tenures. It was at this point that the realisation dawned that poverty was staring people in the face and not much was done to secure community land and prevent privatisation of land. Attempts to carry out cadastral surveys in the past met with stiff resistance since the tribal elite that had captured land were also the political elite then. The hunger for land has only grown exponentially today. The MDA-2 Government has to make cadastral survey a priority to arrest the poverty syndrome. In fact, the Government at this point has a duty to pass a land ceiling act before people take up arms to address these genuine grievances.
