Poverty in India's North-east

Pop into some of the dance clubs in down town South Delhi and adjoining Gurgaon, you will see oriental looking girls dressed in skimpy clothes, dancing in groups to ’entertain’ the men in the clubs. I later found out that they are hired (or given free entry) by the clubs to allure customers, and some of the girls are indirectly involved in prostitution.

Almost unseen to an outsider and sandwiched between posh neighborhoods of South Delhi is Munirka – an urban village.  It provides affordable accommodation to thousands of students, young professional and other migrants. It is crowded, cosmopolitan and is bustling with small businesses. This is also home to thousands of migrants from India’s North- eastern states- mostly from of Manipur and Nagaland, and also Nepal. Many of the girls dancing in the clubs also live here.

One of the local landlords, who recounted how this urban village has transformed in last 15 years due to the development of South Delhi, told me that when the oriental looking people first arrived, the locals – mostly rich but  uneducated – thought they were from Korea or Japan. 'We had no idea such people existed in India’!

India's Northeast has been historically underdeveloped, geographically isolated area, home to diverse tribal groups and far from the political capital. It has been a centre of militancy and secessionist movements, and has not benefited much from the country’s rapid economic growth.

The latest  poverty figures of India shows that the levels of poverty has significantly increased in five states of North-east  - Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. This has forced thousands particularly from Manipur – an impoverished state that has been ravaged by insurgency- to move to bigger cities across India in search of work and better life.

Once in Delhi, the migrants from the northeast increasingly find difficult to get along with the local mainstream cultures .Regional sentiments run high. They complain of racism – they are generally referred as ‘chinkis’ ( a derogatory term for Orientals). The locals say they are ‘immoral’ and bring in foreign (western) culture.

The problems of the North- east are acutely complex and it is not possible for policy makers in Delhi to even conceive a solution without visiting the region. Writing in The Assam Tribune, an English daily, Sanjoy Hazarika, an eminent journalist, points out how the former home secretary, Gopal Pilai was appalled to see the desperate poverty while visiting a remote area, and made immediate donations for toilets to be constructed in a local school. He says it is this process of discovery that is needed not just by the government officials but also the media and other scholars.

The local and the state governments also should make concerted effort to boost the economy of the area through a combination of infrastructure development, cross-border diplomacy with China and Myanmar, and strategic marketing, bringing prosperity to the region.

The region has suffered immensly due to neglect of the succesive  federal governments and corruption at local levels. It is imperative to give a new sense of hope to the people of the region and make them a part of India's economic success.