Uttarakhand No More Neglected
Smita Gupta

The Union government has begun to look specifically at "trouble spots" such as Uttarakhand "which demand a special priority focus and development initiative". As a first step, it is engaged in getting " material and information which would help in understanding the problem areas and specific issues of the region as also the possibilities and approaches for their solution."

The other area that the government will be examining from the development angle in future are Jharkhand, Telengana and the North East, areas which have revolted against the rule of their respective states or that of the Centre.

Development Research and Action Group (DRAG), an NGO, headed by Gautam Vohra (who grew up in this region), submitted a report on Uttarakhand last week to CAPART - the organisation which had commissioned the sdudy - and to the ministry of environment. Entitled " The central Himalayas: Socio-Economic Profile of Garhwal and Kumaon", the report's objective, according to Mr. Vohra, was "to determine the possibilities of increasing people's participation in the development of the region". Initially, the interviews conducted in seven of the eight districts of Uttarakhand were to be confined to the NGOs, but later academics and government servants were included because "while the voluntary agency determines the nature and extent of people's participation, it does so in the context of the.....superstructure...created by the programmes being implemented (or not implemented) by the government."

The problems that have been identified by the report as specific to this region are: "fruit cultivation, establishment of large industries, and socio-cultural factors such as the lack of entrepreneurial ability, and the 'laziness' of the hill male."

In the Introduction, Mr. Vohra writes that though members of the intellgentsia invariably stress the need for a bigger role for the government, in his opinion, it is "not the government but the people who should take their future in their hands" because Uttarakhand is not only no more neglected that any other region in the country, it is in fact "better placed economically, socially and culturally than many other regions."

The lament that the development programmes do not reach the people is also not specific to this area. As elsewhere, "the marginalised sections are the ones who remain neglected. And they will continue to remain neglected, unless they decide to do something about it," stresses the report.

In the section on solutions, the report suggest that NGO intervention and community participation will take care of the Uttarakhand" problem - that they have been given a raw deal and that Uttarakhand is backward". The areas suggested for focus are cultivation of non-perishable vegetables, development of herbs, and fodder (plantations), promotion of local species (of trees) such as the oak to conserve the soil (the report says that while local fruits should be grown there should not be too much stress on this as the land holdings are too small to produce a marketable surplus), setting up of small scale units to produce intermediate goods or cold storage units for agricultural and horticultural produce, handicrafts units, small rather than megahydro-electric projects such as Tehri, development of tourism facilities for middle income tourists: and the promotion of fisheries.

Interestingly, problems that are commonly touted as reasons for Uttarakhand's backwardness such as size of land holdings or lack of communications infrastructure or poor educational facilities are debunked by the report. instead the report stresses that ... the plains, where large sections of the population do not have any land; that the lack of communication infrastructure, inadequacy of government programmes, and educational facilities which leave a great deal to be desired are not specific to the region; just as the search for jobs in urban centres is not peculiar to Uttarakhand.
(Courtesy : The Times Of India)

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