Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

In the Name of the Community 187
Two major steps need to be taken urgently by the government and
civil society in Arunachal Pradesh to reduce crimes against women.
First, concrete steps have to be taken to prevent the occurrence of such
crimes by making policing and law enforcement more responsive and
accountable in both rural and urban areas. Second, awareness-building
and gender-sensitisation campaigns are necessary both for law enforcing
agencies and the general public in order to reduce the number of
unreported crimes against women. There is also a need to prepare a more
comprehensive and gender-sensitive database of the complaints lodged
and actions taken on harassment of women by the formal and informal
institutions.
THE CRISIS OF GOVERNANCE:
MANIFESTATIONS AND CHALLENGES
For a long time, the underdevelopment of the northeastern region as
whole has been seen in terms of a real or perceived lack of adequate central
assistance to the region. Some scholars have described the Northeast as
an internal colony of the Indian state. Partly in response to such popular
discontent, successive central governments have been announcing large
financial packages for individual states, as well as for the whole region.
However, it is being widely recognised that such financial packages, in
the absence of an appropriate institutional strategy for their implementation
and monitoring, has not only resulted in powerful individuals
and groups siphoning off the funds but has also discredited the Indian
state in the eyes of the public. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent
need to make governance transparent, accountable and non-discriminatory
(Mahbul ul Haq Human Development Centre 1999).
As already discussed, Arunachal Pradesh has undergone a transition
to electoral democracy in a comparatively short period. As elsewhere in
the developing areas, and particularly in tribal areas, the establishment
of formal institutions of liberal democracy has not been smooth and uniform
in all parts of the state. Given the absence of insurgency and militancy,
a high level of participation in elections and a smooth change of governments,
it would probably be correct to conclude that democratic processes
and institutions have taken firm root in Arunachal Pradesh. Nevertheless,