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Meghalaya, a picturesque hilly state in the sub-eastern Himalayan region, nearly matches India’s richer states on the best health outcomes. However, insurgency and poor infrastructure impede its progress on other development indicators, shows an IndiaSpend analysis of the state’s performance on 20 development indicators in comparison with nine other states and the national average.
This rare matrilineal state – where family descent is traced through the mother rather than the father – is also slipping on gender indices, reflecting a wider change.
After attaining statehood in 1972, since 1976 Meghalaya has mostly been ruled by Congress-led coalition governments, the Economic & Political Weekly reported on 10 February 2018.
BJP president Amit Shah promises to make Meghalaya a model state in five years – he promises to lift the National Green Tribunal’s ban on mining and create jobs if his party, ruling at the Centre, is voted to power in the state.
Our analysis of Meghalaya’s performance on 20 socio-economic and health indicators over 10 years to 2015-16 shows:
For our analysis – part of our election-year examination of states’ development indicators – we chose states that are development leaders and have high per-capita incomes such as Kerala, Goa, Gujarat and Karnataka, as well as laggards with low income such as Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (UP), as well as Assam and Tripura, Meghalaya’s neighbours in the north-east region.
Four of these states–Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa and Gujarat–are under BJP rule. Kerala and Tripura are ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while Karnataka like Meghalaya is ruled by the Congress. While UP and Assam also have BJP governments today, they were ruled by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, respectively, in 2016 – the cut-off year for our analysis.
Surrounded by Bangladesh on its south and west, and Assam to its east and north, Meghalaya, roughly the size of Israel, holds a population of two million, equivalent to that of Lucknow.
Once considered a “role model” of peace and democracy, Meghalaya has witnessed rising insurgency and terrorism since the late 1980s and especially since 2009, according to this 2016 policy brief by the Delhi-based Institute for Defense Studies & Analyses.
It has also faced unrest due to demands from each of the three major tribes for separate statehood, border disputes with Assam, illegal mining and import of weapons from Assam and Bangladesh, which have impeded the state’s progress.
From 2007 to 18 February 2018, 131 civilians have been killed in terrorist conflict in Meghalaya, according to the South Asia Terror Portal database. In the first two months of 2018, three civilians were killed.
Primarily an agrarian economy with 80 percent of the population dependent on the farm for livelihood, the hilly terrains limit agricultural operations to 10 percent of the area while the potential for agro-based industries remains unutilised, according to this 2016 report by the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. The uneven landscape and vast forests also hinder accessibility so that a little over a third of the state (34 percent) is connected by road, the data show.
With an infant mortality rate (IMR) of 30 deaths per 1,000 live births, Meghalaya ranks in the top five in our analysis of 10 states, performing better than Gujarat and competing with its richer Congress-ruled counterpart Karnataka (28).
In terms of the mortality rate of children under five years of age, Meghalaya showed among the best improvements (30 points) over the decade to now rank in the top five in these 10 states. It fares much better than the national average, behind only Karnataka, Goa, Kerala and neighbouring Tripura. In contrast, Gujarat, despite ranking fourth in per capita income, fares worse with an under-five mortality rate of 43 deaths per 1,000 live births.
At a time when wasting among children under five years of age increased across the country, as IndiaSpend reported in March 2017, Meghalaya reported the best improvement among the 10 states analysed from 2005-06 to 2015-16.
In 10 years to 2015-16, the wasting rate fell from 30.7 percent to 15.3 percent –the lowest among the 10 states analysed and much below the national average of 21 percent.
Its performance on these indicators implies improved antenatal and postnatal care: Nearly 24 percent of Meghalaya’s mothers received full antenatal care in 2015-16, up from 4.2 percent in 2005-06, and above the national average of 21 percent.
In 2015-16, only half of Meghalaya’s pregnant women were visited by a healthcare worker at least four times during pregnancy–the minimum requirement according to the World Health Organization’s guidelines–below the national average and way behind Tripura, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa and Kerala.
Even though the state reported the highest improvement in full immunization of babies among 10 states, by 28.6 percentage points to 61.5 percent in 2015-16, immunization coverage in the state is still below the national average of 62 percent.
Meghalaya also reported the least development among the 10 states of our analysis in boosting household access to improved sources of drinking water.
About a third of households in the state (32.1 percent) still do not have access to better sources of drinking water – more than 21 percentage points below the national average, and worse than poorer states like Assam (16.2 percent), Madhya Pradesh (15.3 percent) and Rajasthan (14.5 percent).
The open defecation rate in Meghalaya is about 7.6 percent – much below other states analysed; however 40 percent of the state still does not have access to improved sanitation.
This lack of access to improved sanitation facilities could impede progress on reducing stunting (low height for age) in children, and anaemia, as IndiaSpend reported in April 2017 and September 2016.
Nearly 44 percent of Meghalaya’s children under five years of age are stunted (low height for age). While this is a 11.3 percentage point improvement from a decade ago when the state reported a stunting rate of 55.1 percent, its performance on this indicator remains much worse than the national average (38.4 percent), and better only than Uttar Pradesh (46.3 percent) in our 10-state analysis.
While most of India has succeeded in reducing the incidence of anaemia among women of reproductive age (15-49 years), in Meghalaya, the figure has grown by 5.4 percent.
A decade ago, Meghalaya had one of the lowest percentages of anaemic women in the country, behind Kerala or Goa among the 10 states we analysed. As of 2016, it is placed between the least developed states of UP, MP and Rajasthan.
Meghalaya’s worsening performance in addressing anaemia among women is indicative of a declining trend in the status of women in the state.
Contrary to the prevailing ideas that women here enjoy a better position than their counterparts in the rest of India, women in this conflict-struck region are actually in a disadvantageous position, the North East Network, a women’s rights organisation, says, adding that although traditionally Meghalaya has had matrilineal societies, violence against women including rape, attempt to rape and domestic violence has been on the rise.
The rate of crime against women has risen three-fold in the past 10 years from 7.1 per 1,00,000 population in 2006 to 26.7 per 100,000 in 2016, shows an IndiaSpend analysis of data by the National Crime Records Bureau. The state reported the fourth-highest rate (13.8 per 100,000) for rape in the country, behind Delhi (22.6), Sikkim (30.3) and Arunachal Pradesh (14.7).
It is well documented that in conflict zones, the scattering, displacement and breakdown of families and communities cause women to suffer oppression by withdrawal from the public sphere, political exclusion and exposure to male violence, as this study by the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg shows.
While female literacy in the state, at 82.8 percent, is comparable with best performers Kerala and Goa, it is still less than the literacy rate among men within the state. Further, fewer Meghalayan women (33.6 percent) are educated for more than 10 years compared with Indian women on average (35.7 percent).
The state holds one of the lowest rates of early marriage before the age of 18 (16.9 percent) percentage of women who have a say in household decisions grew by 1 percent over 10 years to 91.4 percent, taking the state to the fourth rank in 2015-16–down from second position in 2005-06 because neighbouring Tripura reported a better growth by 13.8 percent to rank ahead at third place, the data show.
(The copy has been published in an arrangement with IndiaSpend)
The Quint, in association with BitGiving, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for an 8-month-old who was raped in Delhi on 28 January 2018. The baby girl, who we will refer to as 'Chhutki', was allegedly raped by her 28-year-old cousin when her parents were away. She has been discharged from AIIMS hospital after undergoing three surgeries, but needs more medical treatment in order to heal completely. Her parents hail from a low-income group and have stopped going to work so that they can take care of the baby. You can help cover Chhutki's medical expenses and secure her future. Every little bit counts. Click here to donate.)
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