Growth demands equal opportunities

NOTED Economist Jayanta Madhab has come up with a convincing argument why the northeast remains in perpetual turmoil. “Leaders have failed to create equality of opportunity for all sections of the people. This has given birth to the present movements for autonomy in some pockets.  But sadly, in areas where there is autonomy for self governance, the local leaders have not cared much to create equality of opportunity for the peoples as enshrined in Article 16 of the Constitution”. He came up with this prognosis at a seminar on geopolitics of the North-East and Vision 2020, organised by the Assam wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Commenting on the situation in Assam, Jayanta Madhab said “35 per cent of the population was illiterate, while 78 per cent of students drop out after high school. Only 12 per cent of the students pursue science and a meagre six per cent opts for commerce. Only a few youths go for vocational courses. We are dealing with a stock of people who do not have vocational education. The problem therefore arises, in providing equal opportunities to all these people. While the education system does not make our youths qualified, the mindset of the youth is also such that they remain ‘voluntarily unemployed’ without taking the pain to search out scopes for their self-employment”. He blamed the political parties for making the people dependent on Government jobs and Government initiatives to enable them earn their livelihood and remove their other problems. “But, until we change our mindset we won’t achieve anything. There are plenty of opportunities in NE region and our political parties must guide the people to avail these.”

Citing an example, Jayanta Madhab said that our youths did not know what to do, nor did they have linkages. We need two lakh tonnes of rice seed but we produce only 1,500 tonnes. We also need oil seeds, pulses, bio-fertiliser, sericulture seeds, spices, horticultural items and flowers. We need to teach people how to develop all these. Moreover, we also need to play pro-active role to facilitate recruitment of our youths by the security forces. Jayanta Madhab, who is now Assam Government’s economic adviser, said that he was hopeful that he would be able to do something useful for our unemployed youth within the next three to four months. Director of the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development (AKDISCD) Prof Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed presenting the Institute’s projection till 2020 said that the prevailing conflict situation in the region had been deterring economic growth of the people. If we can improve the tertiary sector, we may be able to bring in some change in the region’s economy by 2020, he said.

Prof Kripesh Chandra Paul, former Head of the Department of Political Science, Cotton College, said that if we failed to improve our education system, we would not be able to bring about a change in our society. We must come out of the shells of selfishness and move forward to build our nationality, build good infrastructure, health care facilities and remove the seeds of communalism, he said.

Senior journalist Barun Dasgupta said called for steps to accommodate aspirations of all sections of the people. Asamiya Pratidin executive editor Adip Kumar Phukan laid stress on a united political platform of the NE people and formation of an infrastructure authority for NE region. B B Dutta, NCP executive member, also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, inaugurating the seminar NCP general secretary Purno A Sangma said that political parties have so far failed to utilise the talents of the region’s intellectuals. “We must have a think tank”, he said remarking that the planning boards of the NE States have become rehabilitation centres of the defeated politicians.

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