By Patricia Mukhim
It has become customary to observe every milestone with celebrations. As is the usual routine, Meghalaya Day (January 21) is observed with official functions which include traditional songs and dances. We hardly spend time to reflect on the trajectory that the State has taken in its 54 year journey. Are we the people better off than we were 54 years ago? Are our rural habitats more connected and developed today? What parameters do we use to measure development? I have said this times without number that Meghalaya lacks data on key development sectors such as health, education and livelihoods and above all on the number of families that have dipped below poverty line. As a society we should not be shelving responsibility for the increasing number of drug addicts but should be sitting together to look for the reasons why so many young ones take to drugs – a route that suggests that the drug user has reached the end of the road; has lost hope; sees no light at the end of the dark tunnel.
Every now and again we hear claims about Meghalaya’s achievements played out on national platforms. Those of us in the State don’t really know whether those achievements mean anything at all to those struggling to live their lives in distant villages. This is the era of awards and state governments seem to work only towards featuring in one or other of those awards which resemble a shallow race towards nothing.
The key measures for the development of a state involve a multi-dimensional approach that encompasses economic growth, social improvement, infrastructure building, and sustainable practices. But the intrinsic measure of development is in enhancing the quality of life of the citizens and not just increasing income. Sadly, in Meghalaya incomes of the poorest are further decreasing because of the unsustainable nature of their work whether it be farming or quarrying. Every quarry takes away prime forest land and sometimes even farmland. The destruction of forests means depleting water sources but quarrying continues as it becomes a source of huge earning for quarry owners and a means of subsistence labour for those working in those quarries. There is no study as to how many quarries Meghalaya can have without upsetting the environmental equity.
Then we come to the illegally operated coal mines which have never closed for a single day since rat hole coal mining was banned in 2014. The fact that this extractive activity continues to this day means that the Government is hands in glove with the coal mine owners. In short, there is no rule of law in Meghalaya. So, what is the police force there for? Have they been specifically tasked to apply the law only in certain areas of policing such as thefts and murders and to shut their eyes to illegal coal mining? So, on Meghalaya Day, what are the police celebrating? The collapse of the rule of law vis a vis illegal coal mining?
True that there have been some positive developments insofar as connectivity between Shillong and Tura is concerned via the Nongstoin highway which also means that travellers are not held ransom to the erstwhile single connecting link via Assam. For the completion of this road project, winding as it does like a snake and making the drive a roller coaster ride, we owe to Dr Mukul Sangma although the amount spent is still under a cloud. As the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, that’s one project he is remembered for. Dr Mukul Sangma also dealt with a strong hand the shenanigans of the multifarious pressure groups in Meghalaya who claim to represent the will of the people without asking for their permission and without being elected. Today these pressure groups seem to have got a new lease of life and the number of acronym-borne groups all claiming to work for the larger good of the people have increased exponentially. Clearly, a weak government tends to give birth to all kinds of elements that pick and choose issues but leave out the most important ones affecting the poorest.
Since Meghalaya is a data scarce state, would it not have been a bonus if one or other of these pressure groups got into the task of generating robust data on school drop-outs at various stages of education – primary, upper primary, high school, higher secondary school, college, university. This would actually address the basic problems of Meghalaya. It would inform us the reasons why children drop out of school. Is it poverty? Is it the lack of availability of schools within walking distance in the village? Is it simply because the kids find no interest in school? Why do parents not consider education important and relevant? The Government assures free and compulsory education up to age 14. But are the uniforms and books also available for free? Are these government run schools available in the last village of Meghalaya? We need answers to these questions if we have to repair our broken social order.
It is said that education liberates the mind, encourages critical thinking and empowers individuals to question authority and power holders. So is education being intentionally deprived because an educated human being could pose dangers to electoral politics and the political playbook used in Meghalaya for decades? Also it is easier to brainwash the uneducated and make him/her repeat what a politician says than it is to win over a questioning mind.
In terms of healthcare, while there are claims that maternal and child mortality have come down and that better facilities are now available for pregnant mothers to stay closer to the health centres as they arrive closer to the delivery date, the Civil Hospitals leave much to be desired and there are no attempts to address the issues of poor emergency services. This paper has published cases where patients needing critical care have been left unattended. What kind of medical service is this and why are there no questions raised by the sundry pressure groups on such critical issues?
One Department that has lacked accountability and continues to do so is the Public Works Department (PWD). The Chief Engineers of the past who have headed this Department should answer why the quality of roads constructed in every part of this state don’t last more than a year? This Department is known for its shameless corruption spree and we the people have remained silent for 54 years. Not once have we raised our voices collectively against the quality of roads constructed even within the Greater Shillong area, forget the rural outback where the roads are so bad that sitting inside a vehicle feels like a horse ride. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I say this again. Most of us tend to outsource our problems to pressure groups but forget that they will not speak out on an issue where they have vested interests. Some pressure group leaders are also contractors in government departments. So how do we know they are not the contractors for some of our roads? That’s the irony, dear readers. We are caught between the devil and the deep sea unless we decide to own our problems and tackle the authorities one by one.
Look at the time taken for all projects in Meghalaya. A similar highway in Assam or elsewhere in the country would not have taken as much time as the Shillong-Dawki highway. It’s not as if Meghalaya alone has difficult terrain. The reasons could be something else and we need to ferret out these reasons instead of being long-suffering, silent onlookers and taking everything lying down.
We need to take a pledge to make the Government work; to hold it accountable for service delivery; to ask tough questions on why service delivery at the lowest level is so decrepit. It’s time to hold the Block Development Officers too accountable instead of addressing them as “Sahep.” Actually our village headmen (Rangbah Shnong) have not asserted their authority and used the power vested on them to do regular auditing of schemes in their villages. The tragedy is when a Rangbah Shnong or an executive member of the Dorbar Shnong becomes a contractor. That is a conflict of interest which goes against the principles of village governance.
This article may look like a litany of grievances but is there anything to write home about Meghalaya? True there are concerts to hold the attention of the townsfolk but there is no respite for those in distant villages. Let’s lend our voices to them since the MLAs seem to have lost their voices. In any case in a democracy we cannot expect the MLA alone to deliver. We the people too have a responsibility to question and seek accountability. For starters let’s demand robust data sets on school/college/university drop-outs, human development indices and state of our roads. 54 years is a long time in the history of a state!
Tailpiece: Senior bureaucrats and technocrats should travel to the villages more often and see peoples’ miseries first hand. The Secretariat is too comfortable a place and too far removed from the realities that define Meghalaya.
