Vision for Sikkim: Goals
and Objectives
The State
of Sikkim, nestled in the Himalayas with exceptional natural beauty and a
rich wealth of alpine meadows, rhododendrons, orchids, butterflies and birds,
has set the goal of putting itself on an accelerated path of eco-friendly
sustainable development. The aim is to build on the state’s strengths,
benefit from the post-liberalisation spurt in growth in the rest of the country
and, with judicious use of modern technology, in less than two decades, leave
the centuries of underdevelopment rapidly behind.
Among the thirty-two states and Union Territories in India in 1993-94, Sikkim
had the fifth highest incidence of poverty with the proportion of people below
the poverty line (2,400 calories and 2,100 calories per day per person in rural
and urban areas, respectively) at an unacceptably high of 41.4 per cent. The
population of the state is expected to increase from 5.5 lakh in 1999 to 7.4
lakh in 2015. Furthermore, with the number of young people below the age of
15 at almost 38 per cent of the total population, there will be a large increase
in the number of people entering the work force in the near future.
Box 1.1 A Historical Entrepôt
Historically,
Sikkim has played a major role as a gateway to Tibet and northern China
from the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal and
the Indo-Gangetic plain. A large part of the population derived their economic
sustenance from cross-border trade through Nathu La, an all-weather pass
at a height of 14,500 ft. to Tibet across the Himalayas. Nathu La has remained
closed for traffic since the Chinese conflict in 1962. Employment generation
in Sikkim will benefit substantially once trade resumes through Nathu La
with the relative normalisation of relations with China. But, Sikkim aspires
to be much more than just an entrepôt to Tibet.
KEY GOAL
Development
is about people, and importantly about people at the lower rungs of income
distribution. Given the considerable level of income-poverty and the changing
age-profile of the population, the key goal of the development strategy is
income generation for the young and the bottom half of the population mostly
through providing opportunities for self-employment in services and small
scale industry. While poverty may be expected to come down with rapid growth,
empowering the poor with education and technical skills is not only a good
in itself but will also accelerate the process of poverty alleviation.
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