Imphal, July 05: I have been consistently harping on the need to bridge the developmental gap between the mountains and the valley of Manipur.

This gap particularly gets heightened during the rainy season, i just shudder to imagine the difficulties with which the people in the mountains of the State move from one point to another in these days of rain.

In the valley, the little mud we face on the roads is because of the ill-planned execution of improvement works, but in the mountains of the State the people face only mud.

But it is not this blatant gap which I would speak of today.

I would be speaking of another but much more dangerous gap.

The Heightening Gap: The widening gap that we should be very genuinely worried and endeavour to put corrective measures in right earnest relates to the capability of the Tribals vis-a-vis the Meeteis.

Capability or the capacity to function of an individual is now at the core of emphasis in contemporary development research, particularly after the various contributions by the United Nations Development Programme under the influence of economists like Amartya Sen.

The needed capability to function in a society and achieve the natural enhancement of quality of life was simpler earlier in history.

This is so despite the fact that for a human being what matters is not just the absolute level of well-being but the comparative level as well.

It is this comparative aspect which has been the driving force of human innovation right from the days of primitive accumulation to this age of technology-driven life styles.

It is this aspect again which has instilled in human beings and their societies the spirit of competition and the zeal to catch-up with the more advanced.

Earlier in history this competition and catching-up with the more advanced was relatively much easier.

The knowledge content and technology component of a particular functioning were relatively low.

This being so one could acquire the needed expertise and experience to catch-up and follow a trajectory of growth without much difficulty.

what was, needed was just a sincere effort for a period of time.

Besides in the earlier ages, education and training were just single-shot affairs.

However, the knowledge content of any functioning and the technology component of any performance are not only unprecedentedly high but rising at an unprecedented rate.

Besides, education and training are now a life-long affair instead of the earlier one-shot issues.

These two characteristics of modern development have serious implications for development trajectories of social groups at different levels of development.

The less advanced group would find it increasingly harder to catch-up with the more advanced, and thereby widening the capability gap over time.

Unless specific interventions are put in place by the state in such circumstances, the scenario is definitely an unsustainable one.

Violence speed of modern development trajectory that I look at the differences in the acquired and achieved level of capabilities between the Tribals and the Meeteis.

The Meeteis over the years have acquired some important characteristics for development.

First, they have learnt ways of overcoming the weaknesses of administration in the process of their acquiring knowledge and mastering technology for individual advancement.

Secondly, they have nurtured a spirit of joining the competition in a larger global context.

lf welook at the presence of Meetei boys and girls in the globally leading technology companies anywhere in the world and faculties in universities in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, we can safely conclude that they are already an active participant in the contemporary knowledge driven and technology dependent development.

Besides this presence at the higher echelons of knowledge and technology, we find the competitive presence of members of this community at different layers of knowledge and technology industry.

In short, the knowledge and technology facet of the Meeteis is fairly robust.

It is exactly this robustness we find missing among the Tribals of the State.

I quiver to look at the present distance in this crucial capability gap and in visualising the outcomes in the coming two-three decades.

The Tribals are in an absolutely unenviable position in so far as their knowledge and technology capability vis-a-vis the Meeteis .is concerned.

As of the today, the gap is not only wide and widening, but is fast moving towards a situation of near impossibility to catch up.

The Fact and Needs: The fact of development however remains that Manipur can never achieve a sustainable and peaceful development unless this gap is bridged or winds of narrowing the gap blow in the development scenario of the State.

We must digest the circumstances which have placed the Meeteis in the comparatively advantageous position today and draw lessons for these.

First, there is the relatively friendlier geography of the valley where Meeteis reside.

Well, the differential impact of geography can be normalised only with differential investment and interventions.

Secondly, there is over the years the developmental orientation of the State administration to the needs of the valley.

These two features have definitely to the advantage of the Meeteis in acquiring the present level of knowledge and technology orientation.

'It is exactly because of these developmental backgrounds that we now need the administrative focus on the preparation of the Tribals for catching up with the Meeteis on the knowledge and technology front.

It is again exactly at this juncture that we find repeated attention of the State administration to the needs of Imphal which stretches only from Keishampat-Moirangkhom to Khoyathong-Awang BOC.

This is not only an unsustainable development strategy in itself but who aggravate the development turmoil of the state as well.

Comment