Pile of chopped and stacked up dry firewood in a village somewhere in Nagaland. (Morung Photo)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 18
The Nagaland Sustainable Development Goals (SGSs) Vision 2030 has proposed various strategies with the aim to address an entire range of issues to make Nagaland state a prosperous one by eradicating poverty by the end of 2030.
The vision is to eradicate extreme poverty by ensuing sustainable livelihoods, income opportunities and providing easy access to health, education, housing and basic amenities, according to the Vision statement, which was launched on Tuesday in Kohima.
The vision is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, ensure 100% financial inclusion and ensure health, education, housing and basic services.
With an estimated 18.88% people as per Nagaland Economic Survey 2018-19, living below the poverty line in Nagaland, there is still much work to be done to further reduce this level to zero by 2030.
The statement stated that working towards eradication of extreme poverty at the state level, the state government has been implementing various schemes.
The Government of Nagaland through the Lead Bank aims to have 100% financial inclusion and open brick and mortal branches in all the unbanked blocks by 2030.
Challenges
The vision statement stated that due to the infrastructural deficit in the state, meeting the challenges of development while conforming to the agenda of inclusive growth under the SDGs becomes a key focus.
Formulating relevant policies towards achieving various targets under the SDGs will help the state to address its domestic development challenges, it stated.
The report stated that while the government has implemented several programmes to allow easier accessibility and availability to necessities such as food, heath, education and housing, there are several reasons which on the ground, they may be more difficult to implement.
Poor road connectivity means that the public distribution system can face acute shortages at time. Additionally, IT infrastructure needs to be developed to bring about greater efficiency in the public distribution system delivery
It stated that due to poor infrastructure and difficult terrain, quality health care services and medication access can be a critical issue. To overcome these challenges to some extent, there are chopper services in the interiors to cater to medical emergencies of the vulnerable.
The vision statement stated that there is paucity of teachers and as a result, learning outcomes among students are a constant challenge that the state is grappling.
Further, poor awareness of government schemes related to housing, higher risk in areas prone to natural disasters and poor infrastructure causes bottlenecks in implementation.
Strategies for success
The vision statement stated that the overall strategy to accelerate economic growth will be aim at purposeful engagement of various key stakeholders involving government, universities, financial institutions, NGOs, farmer organizations and community based organizations.
The implementation plan will be time bound having clearly spelled outcome targets for each stakeholder engaged in various stages of implementation.
It will be demand driven and result oriented and not allocation based, it stated.
The Village Councils have a significant role to play in the effective and efficient implementation of flagship schemes and projects for the transformation of rural India.
For convergence of planning at every village under GPDP (Gram Panchayat Development Plan), all agriculture and allied departments shall participate in the yearly participatory planning exercise at the block level during the GPDP exercise from October 2 to December 31 every year and every development activity at the village level shall be drawn from the GPDP.
To address the problem of fund constraints, it is proposed to explore various models of funding such as Corporate Social Responsibility fund, Externally Aided Projects, Private Public Partnership projects, negotiated loans from funding agencies, etc. in addition to regular missions and programmes launched by line ministries from time to time.
There should be agricultural diversification from subsistence to integrated agriculture.
Special focus to be given on horticulture, piggery, bee keeping, silk rearing and establishing agro-based food products and animal feed product industries in order to increase the per capita income of farmers.
This will reduce poverty and inequality and will also address gender challenges by allowing women to have a significant stake in income generation and economic output, the vision statement stated.
Employment generation is sought to be improved through creation of tribal cooperatives, farmer producer organizations and moving from normal farmers to agripreneurs as well as developing trade through convergence with India’s Act East Policy.
The report stated that existing industries would be strengthened to make them more productive and competitive by infusion of capital investments for technology upgradations/expansions coupled with provisions of marketing incentives/subsidies as applicable.
Referring to social protection schemes, the vision statement stated that the government shall partner with local level organizations and host awareness camps, extensively publicize all social security schemes and engage in social messaging in convergence mode.
“This will allow greater effectiveness and coverage of the schemes and help to alleviate poverty in the long run,” the report stated.
Provide easy access to the following-
Food: To ensure that all deprived persons have access to food, Government of Nagaland shall work on improving distribution efficiencies through the use of technology. ‘Improvement in the quality of infrastructure, especially with regards to road connectivity will help to improve the effectiveness of the public distribution system and help counter leakages.
Health: To improve the health parameters of rural areas, the Government of Nagaland shall expand health infrastructure to improve ease of access in rural areas. Increasing chopper services for medical emergency may work in the short term, but are not sustainable, convenient or cost-effective solutions for both beneficiaries and the government.
Education: The state shall ensure 100% enrolment at school level, zero per cent or near dropout at primary level and ensure 100% literacy in the state. The state shall also ensure that children enjoy universal access to quality education and improving learning levels which are currently low.
Housing: The state shall ensure to provide housing for all by 2022 through efficient and effective implementation of PMAY-G (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Grameen) and PMAY-U (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Urban).
Basic services: Road connectivity, IT infrastructure, drinking water, financial services and other essential services shall be ensured for all citizens of the state. The Government of Nagaland shall work in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders in order to leverage their strengths and allow for more effective delivery of basic services to the last mile.
Current status of Nagaland
• The annual per capita income of the state is Rs 1,24,240 as compared to the national average of Rs 1,26,406 in the financial year 2018-19.
• The estimated percentage of people below poverty line in Nagaland is 18.88% in financial year 2011-12 which is below the national rate of 21.92%
• The employment rate of the state is 21.4% as compared to the national average of 6.1%
• Health Insurance coverage is 6.1 percent which is below the national average of 28.7%
• The literacy rate of Nagaland is 79.55% (2011 Census) as compared to national rate of 74.04%.
