Atiar M
SHILLONG:
India’s GDP is close to 3 trillion dollars and is ranked sixth in the world. Now it is eyeing the 3 trillion dollars to climb to the top five. If we look at the contribution of all North East States in relation with the overall GDP, we see a minuscule contribution by the eight North Eastern states. However, the region is not only rich in natural resources but also the storehouse of super talented individuals who have showcased their talents in multiple disciplines across the globe. It takes minimal intelligence to discover the historical negligence of central and state governments of the North East. It is obvious that the country must now focus on the ever so neglected North East region as the next growth machine. While the government of India funds the ventures, it is the responsibility of the states to ensure these funds are well utilized and the momentum of growth is enhanced.
Among these eight states, Meghalaya has gradually been gaining pace in the past few years. With an ambition to be among the top 10 states in 10 years, the state knows that its economy needs to double up. This means that there must be a robust system that would build a stable economy leveraging on the resources of the state. The task would be tricky as industrialization, mining would hamper the essence and identity of the nature loving people of Meghalaya. All this considering huge work force entering every year and in such a state where large business houses have never been even envisaged. It is true the tourism sector has been contributing to the economy of the state, but the scale is not enough for the citizens of the whole state to live a life of prosperity and dignity.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma is a practical person who knows the ground reality of development in the state. He is well aware of the gaps and opportunities. Recently, he said that the government wants to create entrepreneurs at every level – at farming field level, at cooperatives and at the urban service sector. These entrepreneurs in the long run would become job creators from being job seekers.
His idea is a classic example of the bottom-up approach which strengthens the ground level stakeholders of the society and thus improving the micro parameters of the economy that would eventually build up to a robust macro economy.
To support the first tier or the entry level entrepreneurs or the farmers, there is an all-around support system. The FOCUS programme has been introduced to provide financial benefit along with training and aggregation of products at the farm level. Around 2.7 lakh farmers have been brought under the FOCUS and FOCUS+ programmes and around 50,000 farmers/producers have been brought under the Mission Mode Projects which focuses on specific products like the Lakadong turmeric, ginger, piggery.
The Meghalaya Basin Development Authority is providing training on packages of practices, aggregation, processing and marketing facilities through community led cooperatives promoting the service sector and the allied activities. These cooperatives are the second tier in the pyramid and are present at the cluster level that helps in the next step after the harvest of the produce. This also provides employment opportunities to over 1,00,000 households through over 500 Integrated Village Cooperative Societies.
The government of Meghalaya has launched the Skills Meghalaya Programme as an umbrella scheme that augments the entrepreneurship, skilling and livelihood programs of the state where anyone can get skilled training on the aforementioned sectors and will be linked with employment. 1.2 lakh youths have been targeted to be trained under this programme.
The third tier is in the urban areas of the state. The government has left no stones unturned and churned out every employment opportunity possible. For nurturing the youth and motivating the youth to be entrepreneurs, PRIME was launched. Over 1500 entrepreneurs have been registered, trained and funding support is being provided. They are mentored and nurtured in state-of-the-art incubation centers at Tura and Shillong and eight more such centers are under construction. In the IT Service sector the government of Meghalaya has established the Shillong IT park providing jobs to around 1500 youths, the second phase with a target of 4000 more jobs has started and is expected to be completed soon.
A beautiful example where this three-tiered structure works perfectly is the story of Catherine Dohling. She deals with the spices and ethnic cooking items. She focuses on procuring these products from the cooperative societies which in turn get them from the farmers at the ground level. She not only sells these products with the state or the country but also exports to other nations. She has been to multiple international food shows to showcase her products and has earned accolades for the state.
At the micro level the effort may seem small and insignificant, for example Rs 5000 from FOCUS may not be much to a single farmer, but when 10 famers come together with Rs 5000 each, they can now buy machines, feeds and produce better products that the cooperative societies can pick up to process and entrepreneurs can then finally sell them to national and international markets. This whole system, when it works properly, can lead to exponential boost in employment opportunities, income and hence the economy.
Meghalaya’s economy still majorly depends heavily upon external funding, over time this funding has been used from the state’s point of view. Now the government is putting calculative efforts at specific areas at the right time and is yielding better results which are evident by the achievements the state has made. In the last 5 years, Meghalaya has been in the top in many sectors and hopes to be among the top 10 states in all the other fields in the upcoming 5 years.