The Tragedy of the Mountains
- A case of double squeeze -

Amar Yumnam *

There is a strong element of truth when Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) said: 'Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a factâ'. Indeed, equality is a very difficult situation to attain, and absolute equality would be an impossibility. But having admitted so does not by any means imply that the people and the state should not endeavour to achieve equality.

While absolute equality would remain as utopia, it is relative equality which we should be striving for. A group of economists by now has started asserting aggressively that it is the equalisation of opportunity which is critical. If we can address the issue of equalisation of opportunity satisfactorily, we need not worry about the remaining inequality for it reflects only the differential efforts of the individuals concerned. There is a strong logic in this approach.

Equalisation of Opportunity and Manipur: This approach has started having a strong appeal in the context of Manipur as well.

In recent months, we have been hearing at increasing rate news of trafficking of children and women. The latest is the news of escape of a group of women of this State from a night club in a South East Asian country. We understand that the news we get are only the tip of the iceberg.

We need to have a close look at the socio-economic background of the victims, women and children, of this menace of trafficking. There must be definitive hard realities of living and livelihood which have served as the push factor for the victims to fall prey to any lure.

Manipur's Development Trajectory: Pondering over the push factors immediately takes me to one of my pet themes -the development trajectory of Manipur. I have been emphasising in occasions more than once that the State has too long, historically as well as contemporaneously, been preoccupied with Imphal-centric developmental interventions that the mountains have just stopped appearing in the mindset of the policy makers. This has had the understandable impact of the mountains no longer looking up to Imphal as the source of developmental interventions and leaders in socio-technological advancement.

In other words, we do not yet find any evidence in the policy of the State and implementation of policy of the State of efforts being made to equalise the opportunities between the mountains and the valley. This has had the most deleterious impact on the mountains, deprived as they are historically, technologically and politically.

They have had to pay a heavy price in terms of absolute decline in the natural means of livelihood while there has emerged no modern avenues for enhancing their capability.

If we compare life in Imphal with any interior village in any direction of Manipur, oh! Imphal is just heaven. Any place with a reality of declining natural means of livelihood and absence of modern means of advancement would be easy targets for the traffickers of women and children.

Even more unfortunately, the people in such places would just not have the courage to even cast suspicions on lures of the criminals for they cannot afford to have logicality, and any offer is golden for them.

The Reservation Question: While I talk of equalisation of opportunities, I am definitely not talking of reservation. What I have particularly in mind is the creation of opportunities, physical and otherwise, in a more systematic and sustained way than going for reservation.

Reservation cannot and will not sustain any community. It is the spirit and preparation for competition that would take the community forward. I am afraid if we are adopting a nip in the bud approach so that this spirit never emerges among the mountain population.

The elite among the mountain population seems to be seriously playing the reservation card to carve out a political place for themselves. This is also a very effective weapon for these elites to maintain their superior position among the mountain population themselves. The valley elite too seems to be playing a kind of hide and seek game in this so that the mountain people remain busying themselves with the issue of reservation.

The time has come for all of us to make the mountain people realise that the competition now is not for reservation but one of greater efficiency in terms of information and competence.

Most of the college-going boys and girls in the non-reservation world are now consulting every possible person and source on the avenues of employment with higher returns. We should be preparing the mountain boys and girls for this battle rather than waste their crucial time in articulating for reservation.