TOPIC – 42: (a) Please give a note on different aspects of intra- State regional disparities relating to sectors like Agriculture, Industries and Services and important publicly provided services like Education, Health, Water Supply, Sanitation and other Social Services. Inter- regional and Inter-district wise profile may be given in this regard. Mizoram has a total geographical area of 21,081 sq.kms and its total area constituted 0.64 percent of the total area of India. Its maximum dimensions - north to south is 285 kilometers and east to west is 121 kilometers. In spite of her geographical smallness, inter-districts disparities could not be avoided in certain areas due to its physical set up which is composed predominantly of inaccessible mountainous terrains and gorges. The mountain ranges are inclined north to south direction in parallel series. Narrow deep river valleys separate the ranges from one another. Disparities in services provided will be briefly discussed with supporting data available. Education: Disparity in education is minimal in term of number of educational institutions available, especially primary education in relation to the population of the districts, and in term of literacy rate which is separately discussed under Topic 42 (b) below. First, number of educational institution available in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 may be seen with the table below. While all the districts registered growth in number of primary schools, Lawngtlai district registered a decreased number during the sample period. It may be noted that the figures included educational institutions operated by individuals, etc. Hence, decreased number of primary school in Lawngtlai district might be the result of closure of schools run by private individuals. Table No.20.1 -: DISTRICT WISE NO. OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION (All type of Management) Primary Middle High School HSS Colleges District 2004- 2005- 2004- 2005- 2004- 2005- 2004- 2005- 2004- 2005- 05 06 05 06 05 06 05 06 05 06 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Mamit 83 146 44 94 23 29 3 3 2 2 Kolasib 102 103 69 70 20 24 2 2 2 2 Aizawl 445 484 322 378 185 185 38 40 11 11 Champhai 161 209 120 149 64 63 7 6 3 3 Serchhip 88 113 63 76 28 32 2 6 1 1 Lunglei 256 292 171 170 75 82 10 13 3 3 Lawngtlai 234 228 82 114 21 30 2 2 2 2 Saiha 112 113 68 70 32 39 3 3 1 1 Total 1481 1688 939 1121 448 484 67 75 25 25 As education related issues will be discussed again, it may be suffice here to see teacher pupil ratio in different districts as below. Lunglei has the lowest ratio at 1:7 whereas Kolasib district has the highest ratio at 1:10. The average for the state is 1:8, and the disparity in this regard is negligible. Table 20.2: Teacher-Pupil Ratio (2006-07) Primary School Middle School Year Teacher Pupil Ratio Teacher Pupil Ratio 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mamit 334 5597 1:17 320 2435 1:8 Kolasib 532 10821 1:20 420 4304 1:10 Aizawl 2992 47623 1:16 3174 24761 1:8 Champhai 777 14116 1:18 729 6481 1:9 Serchhip 443 6584 1:15 440 4078 1:9 Lunglei 1357 19021 1:14 1077 8033 1:7 Lawngtlai 914 14816 1:16 587 5375 1:9 Saiha 750 11764 1:16 524 3066 1:6 Mizoram 8099 130342 1:16 7271 58533 1:8 Drinking Water Supply: Even though various efforts have been taken to provide sufficient safe drinking water to public living in every corner of the state, much has been still left to be desired. The position as on 31.3.2006 may be seen with the table below. Table No. 20.3: District-wise position of water supply in 2006 Total No. of house No. of No. of population to which villages hand Sl. Name of No. of water provided pump No district household connection is with piped installed provided water 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Mamit 12253 62785 214 110 168 2 Kolasib 14053 65960 1946 86 168 3 Aizawl 64753 325676 21753 71 377 4 Champhai 22059 108392 946 21 224 5 Serchhip 10116 53861 1371 63 198 6 Lunglei 27889 137223 6040 132 210 7 Lawngtlai 13902 73620 991 59 122 8 Saiha 11109 61056 1210 28 49 Mizoram 176134 888573 34471 570 1516 From the above table, it may be generalized that service provided for supply of water in the whole state is still unsatisfactory, and an attempt at analyzing inter-districts disparity in this service is meaningless in the sense that no district is sufficiently provided with water connection. Nevertheless, village/habitation wise data on availability of water supply may be seen with the table below: Table No. 20.4 Number of habitations covered with drinking water supply (2006-07) Fully Partially Total No. of Not covered Year/District covered covered Habitations (Nos.) (Nos.) (Nos.) 2 3 4 5 6 Mamit 87 40 34 13 Kolasib 38 12 11 15 Aizawl 117 59 36 22 Champhai 92 47 43 2 Serchhip 33 19 13 1 Lunglei 185 59 106 20 Lawngtlai 156 79 27 50 Saiha 69 40 24 5 Total 777 355 294 128 Lawngtlai district has not yet provided drinking water to 32 % of its village and Kolasib has to provide the service to 18 % of its village whereas Serchhip district left only one village without water supply. Water supply in rural areas may also be seen separately as under: Table No.20.5 Rural Water Supply Facilities (2006-07) Year No. of villages No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of rural provided with hand rain water village impoun- schools piped water pump harvesting spring ding provided with supply tube tanks improved reservoirs drinking water wells construc- cons- facilities installed ted tructed 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mamit 7 15 100 2 0 101 Kolasib 5 4 - 4 1 107 Aizawl 15 24 370 3 1 425 Champhai 16 6 217 2 1 467 Serchhip 5 - - 1 2 128 Lunglei 17 - 182 1 1 458 Lawngtlai 18 - 388 6 - 138 Saiha 11 - - - - 162 Total 94 49 1257 19 6 1986 From the above table, it may be seen that only 94 villages have been provided with piped water supply while the state has more than 750 villages. Statistic then suggested that majority of villages have to depend on traditional village springs for water supply which were becoming insufficient and unreliable especially during dry seasons due to increase in population and climatic change which affected the level of underground water, the main source of water for traditional village water springs. Even though there are data to suggest that there is inter district disparity on the availability of water supply, it is important to note that the overall situation is far from satisfactory. Agriculture: Rice is staple food for the people of Mizoram. The position of different districts in the production and rate of yield per hectare in paddy cultivation is shown below: Table No. 20.6 Paddy Production & Yield in 2006-07 Sl. District Paddy Production & Yield in 2006-07 No. Area Production Yield (Kg per Ha) in hectare (tonnes) 1. Mamit 4845 2757 569 2. Kolasib 7590 8800 1159 3. Aizawl 8949 1353 151 4. Champhai 10304 7558 734 5. Serchhip 3532 1424 403 6. Lunglei 9091 16960 1866 7. Lawngtlai 3973 1346 339 8. Saiha 4567 1893 414 MIZORAM 52851 42091 796 Yield per hectare for all districts is much below national average, not to speak of Japan which has achieved average yield at about 6 MT per hectare decades ago. The two districts of Kolasib and Lunglei which have small areas under Wet Rice Cultivation fare better than the remaining districts. However, rate of yield per hectare in these better off districts still remain slightly less than half of national average. In this connection, it may be mentioned that the total areas irrigated in the state is just 9,446 hectares. Hence, agriculture remains seriously under-developed. Much is still needing to be done even to achieve national average. On the other hand, backwardness of the state in agriculture is partly attributable to absent of sufficient flat land for cultivation, and the flat lands available also need development. Suffice is to say that self sufficiency in food production or food security is still a far cry. As it will be seen from above, the total paddy produce in the state during 2006-07 is 42,091 tonnes, and the State Government lifted 45775.6 tonnes of rice from FCI during the same period. Thus, it may be concluded that the state could produce only about half of its requirement. Electricity: Availability of power and electricity is one significant indicator of disparities as even basic human needs and comforts closely related to supply of power. The overall situation in this case is more or less satisfactory with the exception of Lawngtlai district which can electrify only 51 % of its villages. The position of various districts may be seen with the help of the following table. Table No.20.7 Number of Villages Electrified (2006-07) No. of Number Percentage of Sl Year inhabited of villages electrified No. villages electrified villages 1 2 3 4 5 1 Mamit 82 75 91% 2 Kolasib 32 27 84% 3 Aizawl 109 98 90% 4 Champhai 85 76 89% 5 Serchhip 32 32 100% 6 Lunglei 160 138 86% 7 Lawngtlai 139 71 51% 8 Saiha 68 53 78% Total 707 570 81% Road Communication network: Basic infrastructure like road is indispensable for economic development and for development in other aspects of life as well.