Status of Development in Meghalaya: An Inter-District Analysis
By Sangeeta Dasgupta
Poor development status of Meghalaya and the North Eastern region as a whole has been a significant concern to policy makers. The centralised system of planning followed in Meghalaya so far could not bring about the desired level of development in the state. Although the condition of the people of the state has improved over the years, their situation remains backward as compared to the rest of the country’s population. Further, the state has already gone through seven five-year plan periods with various sectoral strategies adopted in each plan, but inequality in sectoral development in the different regions and districts of the state have been observed. A number of areas in Meghalaya are still lacking in many respects and there exists intra regional variations in terms of the level of development. Thus, micro-level studies for better understanding of the various factors affecting the development of the state are crucial. The present paper made an attempt to determine the comparative state of development and the magnitude of inter-district disparities of the then seven districts of Meghalaya. In order to address the existing socio-economic differential and related behavior in a development perspective, it is essential to determine the comparative state of development of the districts of Meghalaya.