Northeast not sustaining its forests well, needs to catch up on infra too, Niti report shows

With an average score of 64.12, NE states have not fared well overall also in Niti Ayog's latest Sustainable Development Goals Index. India's overall score is 66.

Residents of a remote area of Dhubri, a district in Assam, travel on boats to reach their houses. The flooded areas through which the boats traverse are paddy fields | Yimkumla Longkumer | ThePrint

New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government, under its Act East Policy, had gone all out to give a big push to infrastructure development in the Northeast. But the eight states still have a lot of catching up to do, going by the Niti Aayog’s latest Sustainable Development Goals-India Index report.

While India’s average index score in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9, which comprises industry, innovation and infrastructure, stands at 55, the NE states of Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam have an average score of just 34.87. Sikkim leads the way with 52, while Meghalaya is the worst performing state with a score of 25.

Some of the key metrics for SDG 9 include the percentage of targeted habitations connected by all-weather roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, manufacturing employment, number of mobile connections and internet subscribers.

With an average score of 64.12, NE states have not fared well overall also. In comparison, India’s overall score is 66.

Assam replaces Arunachal as worst performer in NE

Assam, where a BJP government has just returned to power with Himanta Biswa Sarma as the chief minister, has replaced Arunachal Pradesh as the worst performing state in the SDG India Index 2020-21. Its average index score stands at 57, up from 55 last year.

Some of the goals where Assam has performed the worst include SDG 1 (no poverty) with a score of 51, SDG 5 (gender equality) with 25, SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) with 64, SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) with 66 and SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) with a score of 62.

Talking about this, Sanjoy Hazarika, director, Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, Jamia Millia Islamia, however, said the goals need to be simplified.

“You can’t industrialise a region over a period of 5-6 years. The only industries in the north-east are natural-resource based like oil, gas, timber and bamboo. Industry was not given a push for 60-70 years. This is not a new phenomenon,” he told ThePrint.

Hazarika explained why traditional industries will fail in this region owing to geographical constraints.

Assam, for instance, has 6-8 months of floods and recovery from it, while Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are cut off during floods due to landslides.

“The natural geography of the area works against it. One needs to bear this in mind while planning for the short and long term,” Hazarika explained.

Underlining a media hype, Dr Sunil Kaul, a doctor who has been working in Assam’s development sector for the past two decades, said: “There has been an overt push on spending money on infrastructure. In doing that, it hasn’t trickled down to other sectors such as health or education. We haven’t seen much change except for good roads that have definitely gotten better. Some of the income tax collection has gotten corruption free.”

Experts maintain that the state’s high population density — 398 people per sq km — could be another factor for its poor performance.

Assam has also performed poorly in terms of achieving gender equality.

On this, Kaul highlighted an uptick in domestic violence and child marriages. “In the last 10-15 years, I have noticed through our ground work that domestic violence and child marriages have increased significantly. In our last survey conducted 4-5 years ago, around 48 per cent homes had reported physical violence,” he said.

The survey was conducted by The Ant, an NGO headed by Kaul in Western Assam.

Meanwhile, another BJP-ruled state Tripura has performed well in eradicating poverty and maintaining responsible consumption and production but has lacked in its work towards good health and well-being, and climate action. Its average index score is 65, marginally higher than the region’s average at 64.12.

Tripura is the second most populous state in NE with a population of 36.74 lakh, according to the 2011 Census.

Poor show on quality education, gender equality 

While the national index score on quality education and gender equality is an abysmal 57 and 48, respectively, the NE states fare even worse.

In quality education, the average score is 49.25, with Manipur (63) its best performer and Nagaland the worst (39). In terms of gender equality, the region’s average score is 44.125 where Sikkim leads with 58 and Assam trails at just 25.

Sikkim has emerged as the best performing state, retaining its leading position since last year. Its average index score has come up from 65 to 71 and it leads in gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable energy, decent work and economic growth, infrastructure and sustainable cities and communities.

Sikkim is the least populated state in the region, with 6.18 lakh people, according to the 2011 Census.

Ahead on responsible consumption, clean energy, life on land 

The SDGs on which NE region has outperformed the country include responsible consumption and production, affordable and clean energy and life on land.

With an average index score of 85.12 for affordable and clean energy, Mizoram and Sikkim have achieved a score of 100, while Meghalaya remains at 50.

In terms of responsible consumption and production, where the country has scored 74, NE has scaled an average of 82.25. Tripura leads the way with 99 and Assam has scored 66.

The life on land goal — where India has scored 66 and NE 68.5 — is spearheaded by Arunachal Pradesh at 93 and tailed by Mizoram at 48.

However, in comparison to its performance last year, the region’s average has come down significantly from 89.62.

Every single state, barring Arunachal Pradesh, has recorded a drop in its score. For instance, Sikkim’s score came down to 73 from 100 last year, while Nagaland’s has dipped to 63 from from 94, and Manipur has come down from 100 to 60.

This goal has been measured based on six indices — forest cover as a percentage of total geographical area, tree cover as a percentage of total geographical area, percentage of area covered under afforestation schemes to the total geographical area, percentage of degraded land over total land area, number of cases under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) per million hectares of protected area, percentage of increase in area of desertification.

However, the last year’s report had considered eight factors. The ones left out this year include decadal change in extent of water bodies within forests from 2005 to 2015 (%) and number of wildlife crime cases detected and reported annually.

Here, Hazarika pointed out the region’s general “disregard” for statistics.

“In many parts of the Northeast, statistics are not a forte. Good accounting of what’s happening on ground is something that isn’t robust. Statistics are often not collected properly. Nagaland, for instance, till 10 years ago had a population of 19 lakh. Real figures are actually much lower. It’s the only state in the country where the population has grown by 80 per cent and suddenly dropped to the negative. That’s how bad statistics are in the Northeast,” he said.