Sustainable Development Goals in Northeast India

Professor Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya, a second-batch post-graduate in geography from Gauhati University and a distinguished faculty member of geography, Gauhati University, has been well known among the geography fraternity of North-East India and other parts of the country as a dedicated teacher and researcher of geography. After obtaining doctoral degree for his research on urban morphology of Guwahati city from Utkal University, Prof. Bhattacharyya devoted his long service career in Gauhati University through his research largely in the fields of settlement, urban and political geography. His far reaching academic contribution is also well reflected in a number of books authored by him in the field of biogeography and regional geography. A humble attempt is made here to present a brief academic and professional career of Prof. Bhattacharyya and his contributions to the field of geography education and research.

The cluster of the eight North-Eastern states, connected to the rest of India by only a narrow strip of land, regressed to a state of lost glory with the economy struggling to be at par with the other Indian states since independence. Constituting of 7.98% of the country’s total geographical area, the region hosts 3.77% of its population. The North-East India despite being rich in resources, natural and human suffers from stunted development due to failure of proper implementation of programmes and poor governance. The region, characterized by diverse physiography and population, faces social, economic and political challenges. The North-Eastern Region Vision 2020 Document was designed by the Ministry of Development for the North-East Region and the North-Eastern Council and unveiled by the Government of India in 2008 to push the North-Eastern states towards prosperity and growth by identifying intervention areas and mechanisms for the development of the region. Development being the necessity should be sustainable. This chapter traces the transformations underwent in the region's social, structural, demographic and economic climate since the inception of the Vision Document through an assessment of the different components of the strategy proposed in the document. However, 2020 is already gone, and the ambition to achieve the challenges in just over a decade was perhaps overzealous. Using the notion of Just Transition, we call for a (re)vision of the vision’s document with an achievable set target of 2070, in line with PM Modi’s pledge of attaining carbon neutrality by 2070 in the COP26 summit in Glasgow so that the region transpires as avant-garde in Act East Policy. Alongside, this chapter also attempts to untangle the complexities and analyse the different indices and the coherence of development in the region with the SDGs. Arguably, achieving growth parity through sustainable development is crucial for North-East India, and the chapter focuses on evaluating the same.

Today, the world is facing the worst ever crisis in the form of Covid-19 led pandemic. Among others, it caused the major setback to the world in its endeavour in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The story of SDGs begins with the identification of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the UN in 2000, wherein a considerable progress is made in many MDGs, but still, ‘poverty and inequality’ is a global problem. In 2020, with the mark of fifth anniversary 2030 Agenda for SDGs, India, a signatory of SDGs, has moved considerably on all the five critical dimensions of Agenda 2030—people, prosperity, planet, partnership and peace. The North-East Region (NER), troubled by history and geopolitics, remained one of the most backward regions of the country. Overtime, since 2015, things improved remarkably in the NER. For instance, in the SDG 01, no poverty, out of the 6 Front Runner states, 4 belong (Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim) to the NER, and so in other goals situation improved. A multi-prolonged strategy played a pivotal role in the progression towards achieving these SDGs in the country and the NER. Consistent high growth rate over 8%, increased labour productivity, targeted programmes like MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural employment Guarantee Act), technology or innovation like ICT, environment protection (controlling CO₂ emission), infrastructure and support services in the form of banking and insurance are some of the feature of the strategy.

Frequent occurrences of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and hailstorms—arguably caused by climate change—are likely to increase food insecurity across the globe, especially in developing countries. They pose formidable challenges to achieving the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending hunger and ensuring access by all to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round by 2030. Using household survey data for eight states of India’s Northeast Region (NER) obtained from the India Human Development Survey for 2011–12, this chapter empirically analyzes the incidence, intensity, and inequality of food insecurity among the households in the region, which is known for its remoteness and relative economic destitution. Applying econometric techniques to household data and village-level weather data, it further investigates the impact of the extreme weather events on food insecurity after controlling for several demographic and socio-economic factors. The results of this exercise indicate that extreme weather events interact with household income to significantly increase the likelihood of food insecurity in the short as well as long run, although they do not have statistically significant impacts on their own. Further, there is some evidence of floods and hailstorms increasing the likelihood of food insecurity through their interactions with the household income in the long run. Similarly, the results suggest that droughts and floods increase the probability of food insecurity through their interactions with the distance to the market and household income in the short run. These results are robust to the inclusion of additional control variables and the use of alternative functional assumption of the regression model.

With a population of above 1.3 billion people, India is dependent on agriculture to cater to the nutritional requirements of its people. Since Independence, the Five-Year Plans that were implemented by the government focused more on the growth of the agriculture sector as a way to boost national economy, create employment, and generate livelihoods and self-sufficiency in food production. Despite these positive efforts, the issue of food security has not received due attention particularly in North-Eastern India so far. Dimensions of food security in this region are not identical with the rest of the country. With the ongoing under-utilized agricultural potential in term of production, it will be a challenge to achieve SDG 2 (zero hunger) but adopting practices in line with SDG 12 (responsible consumption) could provide a way. The diet of the Northeast Region (NeR) is dominated by rice, which is water intensive as well as labour intensive crop. This paper looks at the different agricultural practices as well as alternative models that can be adopted to address the issue of food security in NeR. It also analyses the different food policies undertaken by the states and its impact towards SDGs 2 and 12.

The issue of food security has been a key concern for humankind as nearly 821 million people in the globe are undernourished and languishing in abject poverty, out of which 63% belong to the continent of Asia (UNDP:2017). The concern for food security has increasingly been felt in all quarters impelling the policy makers, leaders and common people to think and act in terms of ensuring availability, accessibility and affordability of food for all. The Goal 2 of the SDG that is, to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030 calls for promotion of sustainable agriculture, supporting small-scale farmers and equal access to land, technology and markets. Being at the margins of developmental voyage, the states of North-east India have been experiencing multitudes of issues in realising most of the above objectives. On the one hand, the pan-Indian policies grossly remain inadequate to address the expectations of the people of the region, on the other hand, the custom-made policies also fail to deliver owing to diverse sociopolitical and geographical setting. In these backdrops, this chapter scrutinises the efforts of the Indian state in achieving the objectives of the SDGs through policies, institutions and infrastructures in the context of the North-east India in general and advancing food security and warding off hunger in particular. The Acts and Statues of the Central Government as well as state specific rules and provisions are examined to scrutinise the Indian mission of advancing food security.

Land degradation and desertification are an extremely fast emerging problem in the present scenario for North-East (NE) India. The climate of NE India is tropical, mountainous terrain, steep hills with thick vegetative cover. In recent time due to increasing population and exploitation of the rich natural resource, unsustainable land use, agricultural practices, and changing climatic conditions, such as intense rainfall and flood, lead to cause land degradation and desertification. People residing in near the bank of the river are most vulnerable due to food shortage and poverty. Land use of NE India is changing attributed the rapid increase in population, mining activities, increasing urbanisation, reduction in forest cover, unsustainable agriculture practices leading in the declining of the fertility of the soil and creating a significant challenges to food security in future. The rate of reduction in the area of productive land accelerating as compared to the past due to increasing the incidence of climate change. There is a critical requirement of efficient measures for land management and conservation in NE India. Therefore to assess the present and prediction of future scenarios, the objective of the present chapter is to study the relationship with land degradation, desertification, food security, and approaches to emphasis for mitigation measures for land degradation and desertification.

The Seven Sister States of northeast India are an enormously rich and diverse biodiversity region. Natural vegetation is, in fact, the dominant land cover class for the whole region. The aspect of examining vegetation, hence, becomes very important in many regards. It can act as an indicator of land use changes and also as a clear indicator of impact of processes operating in the region, natural and human induced. Currently, climate change has made such examinations very relevant. Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) becomes an important methodology of analysis in this context. The current study attempts to examine the spatio-temporal pattern of EVI for the Seven Sister States of India and attempts to find its evolving pattern geographically and temporally in the recent context. Results indicate that for the region as a whole, no specific change is observed in the land cover but the trends in EVI are not very encouraging.

Availability of various household amenities and assets reflects a household’s quality of life. Nowadays, the household possessions are the sign of social status and have been instrumental in an improved quality of life in rural areas. The ‘Land of Seven Sisters’ is one of the most culturally diverse region in the world reflecting cultural contrast between the hills and plains. Therefore, analysis of the levels of quality of living space among rural households in north-eastern region of India is an important exercise. Based on district-wise census data for the year 2011 on 20 select indicators, the present study is an endeavour in this direction. The z score value of 20 select indicators has been calculated. The values of z score of a particular observation (i.e. a district in the present case) across all the selected variables were aggregated to derive its overall levels of quality of living space. The analysis of aggregate values of z score reveals a marked regional variation in quality of living space in north-eastern region of India. The study highlights that nearly nine-tenths households have their own house and about three-fourths households are enjoying the facility of kitchen inside the house. While on the other hand more than half of the households have the facility of electricity as source of lighting, computer/laptop with internet is available to less than one per cent of the households, on the other. Similarly, four wheelers that is car/jeep/van are available to only a little over three per cent of the households while nearly eight per cent households possess scooter/motorcycle/moped. Only 2.5% households have the facility of closed drainage outlet connection for disposal of waste water. It is also observed that about one-fifth of the households have permanent houses and nearly 13% have four or more rooms in the house. Relatively better quality of living space is observed in central parts of the study area in the form of patches while low and very low quality of living space is witnessed mainly peripheral parts of the region. Papum Pare in Arunachal Pradesh attained the highest composite z score value of 33.2, while Dhubri in Assam witnessed the lowest composite z score value of minus 18.3 in terms of availability of household amenities and modern assets among rural households in the region.

As a road-map for SDGs, specific to North-East India, a thrust to agriculture and allied activities requires the intervention of advanced technology, starting from soil and crop monitoring and post-harvest value addition to agricultural robots and precision agriculture. Computer vision and machine learning (ML) allows robots to see and train on their surroundings, and in turn, decrease costs of connected sensors would help develop low-cost connectivity solutions on which Internet of Things (IoT) devices, drones and cameras could operate. Besides, they may be used for surveillance too in this strategic geo-political region. Artificial intelligence (AI) would help in determining the best possible combination for value-added food preparation, based on locally available natural sources, nutritional value, and cost. Data analytics techniques are also proposed to be used for monitoring wastewater, using remote sensing data, so that timely intervention is possible to control hazards, such as contamination of river water, locating the source of Pb or other contaminants to preserve the sensitive ecosystem. The methodology to use AI tools in traditional knowledge documentation, taxonomy and bioinformatics too will be discussed for enhancing performance and future prospects.

The UN General Assembly sets Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015 and achieved by the participating countries by 2030 to have a better, peaceful and prosperous world by 2030. A total of 17 goals have been set. India also took a pledge to work towards the fulfilment of these goals. Among the 17 goals, “good health and well-being” is the one goal in which this paper will focus with special relation to the north–eastern states. Currently, India is at a very lowly position compared to other developed nations, and among all the states of India, north–eastern states (NE states) have so far done very poorly in many yardsticks used to measure the health goal to be achieved. The current COVID-19 pandemic has posed additional challenges in achieving the health goals in particular. From the health indicator point of view, various parameters need changes. Currently, India ranks 117 out of 166 countries in the sustainable development report. Among the states in India, the north–eastern states have ranked towards the bottom of the table. Assam ranked 30 in 2018 and 25 in 2019. Among the NE states, Manipur ranks the best, rank 12 in 2019 in the health sector. This paper will focus on the various health parameters that are being considered for the assessment of SDG 3. The reasons why NE states are not doing well in the health sector are the maternal mortality rates, various health indicators that need improvement, etc, the various disease and conditions like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and diarrhoea among children, the rising trend of non-communicable diseases and the menace of substance abuse that are still prevalent among the population in the north–eastern states. The ever-increasing malignancies of the lung, gastrointestinal tract and blood are also a matter of great concern in NE states. This chapter will focus on the various health indicators and try to find a solution for the various problems ailing the north–eastern states. This study will also focus on the various causes leading to reduced utilization of the various healthcare services the state has to offer.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, which were adopted by 193 United Nations Member States at the UN General Assembly Summit in 2015. The third goal of the 17 SDGs is ‘good health and well-being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, accomplishing which is crucial for the very existence of humankind. Although many studies in the Indian context on SDGs have been conducted, none has particularly focused on how far or how close Northeast Indian states have been able to achieve the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda, especially in the context of SDG 3. This study is an attempt to carry out a data-based assessment of how far India and its northeastern states in particular have been able to achieve the targets set under Goal 3 of the SDGs to be achieved by 2030 with respect to some of the health and well-being indicators such as family planning services, child immunization and nutritional status of children and adults, maternity care and delivery care services available, tobacco use and consumption among adults, Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), Neo-natal Mortality Rate (NNMR). It is expected that this study will bring forth the gaps in the health sector which needs to be addressed for realizing SDG 3 for India and its northeastern region in particular.

In this study, we tried to evaluate the status of gender equality of the northeastern states of the Indian Subcontinent. Gender equality is a prominent global issue owing to its effects on human rights and development priorities. The United Nations has embraced gender equality as a sustainable development goal because it foots for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Since the group of Indian northeastern states holds very distinct and mostly cultural and social backgrounds in comparison with other parts of India, we have tried to analyze the same over several economic and social parameters. The status of gender equality of these states has been evaluated by studying variables like sex ratio, demography, education, political, social, and economic participation of women. Through this study, we tried to validate the conventional belief that women in the target states are likely to have equal status through the pieces of evidence from national and state statistics. We also tried to reason out the plausible causes for their existing status in various dimensions to make some lateral conclusions on the status of the women and the possible steps to be taken in the future context to enhance their role and participation for the achievement of the UN-based SDGs for a better and prosperous development worldwide.

The present research work is an attempt to analyse the change in dominant and deficient functions of rural female workers in north-eastern region of India. The village level census data of 2001 and 2011 has been used to find out the change in dominant and deficient at districts level. The districts boundary of 2001 has been re-arranged according to the districts boundary of 2011. The number of districts in 2001 was 72 which increased to 82 in 2011. The rural female workforce has been increased from to 26.11% (40.95 lakhs) to 27.45% (49.64 lakhs) during the period. Agriculture labourers and other workers have been increased by 3.92–7.23%, while cultivators and workers engaged in household industries have been decreased by 10.95% and 0.20%, respectively. The ‘z score’ technique has been used to find out dominant and deficient working force in a district. Further, dominant and deficient function of 2001 and 2011 in all the 82 districts has been classified into 18 sub-categories. High positive change is recorded in deficient functions in four districts in the category of agriculture labourers, while high negative change is observed in 11 districts in the category of normal functions. However, about two-fifth districts of the study area have no change in any category of functions during 2001 to 2011.

Over the last two decades, the cyberspace has become an integral part of our lives connecting people from all over the world and creates new models for business and communication. But the process of digitization comes with the rising threat of cyberattacks on our networks. Cyberattacks threaten everything from our critical infrastructures to our personal data and given the hyper speed of digital adoption, this threat is only going to grow over time. The scale and sophistication of the attacks have been increasing with the growing power of state sponsored hacker groups. In this paper, we examine the growing menace of cyberattacks and the cybercrime in the north eastern states of India and look at ways toward creating a strong cybersecurity mechanism that will help the region tackle the growing wave of cyberattacks in the coming times with increased digitization and universal adoption of digital payment systems through strong a public–private partnership and a graded approach to security.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a set of 17 intertwined goals and 169 targets to fulfill, is a burning topic of the world now. Accepted and adopted as a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, the SDGs represent an ambition, a vision and a measure of sustainable development. Put simply, it’s a target to achieve. The North-Eastern state of Assam became the very first Indian state to adopt the SDGs and set in motion a robust process to implement them. First with the adoption of ‘Vision Assam 2030’ and later with “Assam 2030: Our Dream, Our Commitment”, the Government of Assam tries to implement the SDGs at the grassroot and localized level. This chapter tries to assess the impact of the SDGs in Assam and also further delves into the growing awareness, tries to evaluate the performance of the SDGs and attempts to draw a roadmap to improve the transparency of the local governmental activities in implementing and achieving SDGs. Based on secondary data analysis, the performance of SDGs in Assam is traced through the state-specific SDG indicators, SDG India Index score, budgetary allocation, CSR, NFHS data and so on. Sustainable development is the need of the hour for a better and inclusive growth, and this necessitates the evaluation of the SDGs, the rationality of adoption and the impact of the SDGs at the local level, and effective monitoring.

Poverty, with its multifaceted nature, is a complex social issue. After decades of efforts at the local, regional, and international levels to eradicate it, poverty persists, defying these all. Positioned at the third UN decade for eradication of poverty (2018–2027) with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1, it is time to analyze the progress at the local level. India has adopted the SDG framework and oriented its policies and programs toward achieving its goals. SDG India index has been developed to measure progress toward goals and targets at the district level. In this index, five indicators have been adopted to measure goal one, i.e., no poverty. In Assam, percentage of population below the poverty line is 31.98 in 2018, and the rate of poverty reduction is slower than many other states of India. In fact, the index for SDG 1 in Assam has dropped from 53 in 2018 to 48 in 2019. Moreover, with high infant mortality (44) and maternal mortality ratio (300), medium to low percentage of households with electricity (37), sanitation (64.9), and safe drinking water (54.8) multidimensional poverty is equally prevalent in the state. In spite of achievement of many targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the final report on MDGs (The Millennium Development Goals report, 2015) emphasized the monitoring and tracking at local level to prioritize the goals and for appropriate intervention. Considering the significance of analyzing at local level, this study attempts to find the variations at the district level in Assam in the path to be covered to achieve the goal in respect of the five indicators of the SDG 1 and to identify different socio-geographical factors affecting the implementation and success of the programs to eradicate poverty. A critical review of the programs is also attempted to assess long-term success in eradicating poverty. It is expected that assessment and analysis of factors will help orient the policies and the implementation strategies more appropriate.

At the heart of this review paper is about understanding the complex problem of drinking water shortage that most people in Assam, India, encounter during a crisis, e.g. floods, ethnic riots, droughts and others. Therefore, this systematic review aims at discussing the factors of drinking water treatment practices during an emergency with a view to developing a decentralised water treatment system (DWTS), and it stems from our reviews of both social science and engineering literature. Alongside, we have conducted a small pilot survey with the possible stakeholders for DWTS. The survey and secondary sources of literature have provided a better understanding of the state of drinking water treatment in the state of Assam during emergencies as well as for everyday living. We discuss these findings in this paper.

When a hazard unfolds as a disaster, local communities are not only ‘first responders’ in the aftermath of disasters but also the ‘first constituency’ to be affected by the deluge. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 (Sustainable Development Goal 5 aims toward achieving ‘Gender Equality and empowerment of women and girls and eliminated all forms of gender based discrimination mended towards women’. In this paper I have primarily used the major indicators of SDGs: 5.1, 5.2, 5.4 and then 5.1a, 5.2b, and 5.4c to decipher gender based discrimination in public and private spaces primarily to understand their participation and roles of community in Village Panchayat and Village Disaster Management Committees, etc. and the hegemonic culture of the community. Secondly, to understand the gendered roles of women in post and pre disasters as often the unpaid roles of women were perceived as extension of their gender roles and remained neglected. Thirdly, it was used to decipher the unequal distribution of resources in community and vulnerable population among vulnerable like Single-headed Household and widows being left out during the rehabilitation due to the ownership of resources being centered around men) and used SDG 10 (aims toward achieving to ‘Reduce inequality within and among countries’. In this paper, I have primarily used the major indicators of SDGs like 10.2 inclusion of everyone irrespective of their sex, age, race, etc., for their social, economic, and political empowerment and promotion and 10.6 to enhanced representation of voices of subaltern/ disadvantage section of the community in decision making process. Firstly, the goal was to study whether the Disasters Management programs at the community level are gender inclusive or not and to understand whether community-based practices during disasters addresses to reduce the gender inequalities if any at the community level. Secondly, these SDGs were used to understand and document the voices of vulnerable constituencies in disasters management and to check whether the gendered needs are addressed or not while relief and rehabilitation.) focussing on reducing gender inequalities by mainstreaming a more decentralized bottoms-up approach with more inclusive nature from state to the village level. However, the study was conducted in the Majuli district of Assam shows that the Community-based Disasters Risk Reduction (CBDRR) strategies or programs are disconnected from the gendered realities and tend to overlook social equity and inclusion of vulnerable constituencies in DRR. At the same time, lapses in good governance practices alienate their voices further, leaving virtually no room for vulnerable gender groups to meaningfully reduce their vulnerabilities. So, it is paradoxical to believe to have environmental justice without focusing on the differential needs and capacities of not only the binary gender groups but also non-binary gender. The community-based initiatives have to be more gender-neutral and egalitarian in their approach for fulfilling the priorities of SDGs and for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030) to make development plans more disaster resilient. This can be done by aiding the vulnerable communities to mitigate disaster impacts and to build back better. Hence, through this paper, I would try to locate the need for a gendered approach in CBDRR plans in island geographies like Majuli. Also how the prevailing interplays between power and hegemony is a key in understanding the CBDRR.

The Manas National Park (MNP) is one of the country's wealthiest reservoirs of flora and fauna. However, the Park has faced several ups and downs due to sociopolitical unrest, poaching, and illegal encroachment. It has been observed that 20.47 km² area of the Park has been encroached from 1991 to 2004 due to the sociopolitical unrest in the region. As a result of this, in 2003, Manas lost the glory of the World Heritage Site. However, on February 10, 2003, the Government of Assam, the Central Government of India, and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) signed a memorandum of settlement on Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in New Delhi has enlightened peace and security to the region. Immediately, the conservation fraternity, including the Department of Environment and Forest, BTC (now BTR—Bodoland Territorial Region), NGOs, local organizations, and fringe villagers, took the initiative to protect and conserve the bioresources of MNP, taking the community conservation and livelihood generation approach. The fringe villagers were actively involved in the rejuvenation process of Manas through community participation and livelihood generation for the sustainable well-being of the biodiversity-rich area. In 2011 finally, Manas regained its World Heritage status. This study depicts a success story of biodiversity and bioresource conservation through people’s participation in maintaining the sustainable livelihood by the people of fringe villages of MNP.

Every water community has unique lived experiences but the common feature in eastern and North-eastern India is the disruptive impact of embankments, dykes and dams on riparian lives. The existing literature on riverine islands engages with the colonial and post-colonial political economies without much engagement with the traditional knowledge and strategies which are used in a traditionally flood-dependent agrarian regime. The char (shifting riverine islands) dwellers or charuas in Assam have seen a shift from flood-dependancy to vulnerability, as river infrastructuring has ruptured the Brahmaputra River’s natural flow and siltation cycle. In this article charuas who inhabit the downstream Brahmaputra and have ancestral linkages to erstwhile East Bengal have been studied. The presence of embankments and other colonial river control methods and energy extractive economies have only exacerbated issues of erosion, flash floods and reduced siltation along levees. It has presented a fractured landscape fraught with disputes when mismanaged and disaster resilience and mitigation when common resources are well managed. This paper is based on field observations and personal interviews of charuas who see themselves fighting this annual crisis alone—the intensity and frequency of which has exacerbated in time—with their innovative common property management, housing methods on raised plinth, cropping phenophases, using kaisha grass and reliance on solar technology, which holds great potential for sustainably averting the intensification of vulnerabilities in hydraulic regimes if applied well.

Inequality acts as an obstacle to development. It can take different forms; and all these forms of inequality have a gender dimension. One such form is in the definition of ‘work’. Work usually means gainful employment for pay or profit. This definition of work suffered from many drawbacks because many activities do not have a price. The definition of work has changed over time. Since around the 1920s, people of both sexes have been putting emphasis on the economic value of unpaid work. Unpaid work is now captured through time-use surveys. The main objective of this paper is to look into the how the definition of work has changed over time. It also looks into why and how unpaid work has been incorporated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gender equality and women’s empowerment is a pre-requisite to attain the SDGs. Based on a time-use survey of 100 women in Guwahati, Assam, another objective of the paper is to study how unpaid work restricts women’s entry into labour markets and livelihoods through which women gain access to economic resources. The third objective of the paper is to study the impact of unpaid work on labour market performance of women. In case of female labour supply, it is found that time allocation for the labour market is affected by the size of the family and support from spouse/father. Lack of sleep/leisure time along with health problems are the most important factors affecting women due to heavy burden of unpaid work. For women to join the paid labour force, it is essential to improve child care facilities and other basic service facilities. For instance, increasing single working women’s housing, making public transport safer and modifying public programmes to cater to women’s needs can pave the way for more women to engage and remain in the labour force, reducing gender inequality leading to economic empowerment and achievement of the SDGs.

Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS), located in the state of Assam, India, is a prime habitat for Greater One Horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis). With a population of 102 rhinos as of 2018, Pabitora WLS have the highest density of Indian rhinos in the world. The satellite images of 2008, 2013, 2016 and 2020 have been analyzed to understand the changes in rhino habitat in Pabitora WLS. Habitat suitability condition for rhino, distribution of invasive plant species in the sanctuary has also been analyzed here in this current research. The finding shows that there is an increase in the woodland from 44.74% in the year 2008 to 54.71% in the year 2020. This has been accompanied by an increase in alluvial grassland from 21.36% in the year 2008 to 23.71% in the year 2020. The transformation of wildlife habitat in Pabitora WLS is largely because of the natural succession process, massive flood in the year 2004, along with impacts of invasive plant species, local livestock grazing and proper grassland habitat management. The current research also focus on how developmental activities in and around the sanctuary have directly and indirectly influenced the rhino habitat in the area. This study suggests some measures and protocols for the restoration of key habitats in Pabitora WLS to mitigate the anthropogenic pressure and initiate sustainable development approach in the area.

Assam a state of North-East India is a naturally beautiful place with plains and hills. Its agro-climatic condition with a strategic geographical location bears a significant attention in the growth agenda of the tourism area of the state and the country as well. In this forest covering area, different species of rare plants, animal and birds are found. So its rich biodiversity draws the attention of the national and international tourists. Apart from this, Assam is very much rich with a different socio-cultural back ground as the state is a place of different linguistic of plains and hill tribes which carries another importance for tourists. Some of the important tourist spots are Kaziranga and Manas National Park, Majuli, Kamakhya Temple and historical monuments in Sivasagar. Looking into its diverse potentiality, prospect tourism industry is very high if required infrastructure with security of life, better transportation and hospitality, the future of tourism industry will be bright. In this chapter an effort has been made to focus the prospects of tourism sector in Assam to achieve sustainable development goals by compound growth rate. In 2018–19, 60.27 lakh domestic and 0.41 lakh foreign tourists visited Assam (Statistical Handbook of Assam, 2019). In spite of having immense scope of tourism sector, the state has to do a lot in creating more income and employment opportunity to achieve the desired goal of sustainable development of tourism industry.

Sustainable tourism is a new paradigm of development that thrives to conserve and sustain the natural, social, cultural and built environment by involving the local community, which in return contributes to their economic upliftment. This concept of planned tourism can be applied in presenting the ethnicity of local communities as tourism product for special interest tourists. Arunachal Pradesh, a state in the north eastern India, is the home to around 26 major tribes and over 110 sub-tribes with rich ethnic and cultural diversity. One of the unique features of the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh is their close relationship with nature which is imbibed in the cultural beliefs and their indigenous traditional knowledge of conservation and management. This chapter tries to assess the viability of the sustainable lifestyle of the state's two major tribes, namely, the Monpa tribe and the Apatani tribe, as tourism product, who are part of the key tourist circuits of Arunachal Pradesh, namely, Tezpur-Bhalukpong-Bomdila-Tawang and Itanagar-Ziro-Daporizo-Along-Pasighat. To examine the relationship between sustainable tourism development and community participation, data have been collected through secondary and primary sources and a mixed method, including both qualitative and quantitative approach, is used in the study. It is found that ethnic tourism has great potential for the conservation and preservation of cultural and traditional expressions of these communities by making the showcase of ethnic resources economically viable.

In Manipur, the successful achievement of SDG 3, ‘health and well-being for all’ shall depend on whether the state government can increase investments in, as well as bridge the hill-valley divide in, the provisioning and access of, healthcare services. The NFHS 5 findings seem to point towards a reversal in the progress made so far and this should not be ignored. The government should identify where the gaps lie and undertake necessary steps for effective redressal.

Sustainability becomes the very need of the hour as it is the ripe time to examine whether the present trend of various human activities of their own in Manipur, be in favour of sustainable development or not. Various unjust and unscientific anthropogenic phenomena have seen and known to be occurring for many years in the state. The unavoidable relationship between land, people and economy are not good from the perspective of sustainable development. Topographical features of Manipur is nice to look at but the distribution and density of population is not good, notwithstanding it is highly unreasonable as maximum population is settled in the minimum land. This leads congestion, pollution and loss of valuable arable land. Haphazard expansion of urban area mainly in the central valley of the state, migration towards this small valley from all sides, fast trend of conversion of paddy land and homestead arable land to built-up areas, rapid population growth and population density, insufficient crop production and productivity, unemployment due to lack of industries, low per capita income and bad connectivity with outside states and foreign nations and deforestation in the hilly areas, etc., have been emerging as major impediments in the path of sustainable development. If such hindrances are not removed the people of Manipur cannot survive well and good in future. Reallocation of population uniformly all over the state is a must to bring in sustainable development. Immediate checking and banning of intrusion to paddy land, to improve connectivity both internally and externally are highly needed as much as possible. Manipur being a tropical monsoon state has opportunity to conserve, harvest water to be used in lean season and other areas where water is not sufficient through irrigation. We should try these good activities as far as possible with a hope for overall development in the lines of sustainability.

Landslides are considered the real calamity in the rugged regions and are incited commonly every piece well and exacerbated by human activities. Landslide hazard assessment includes mapping, identifying and investigating the controlling variables and parameters affecting danger inception, event and portrayed the future unsafe zones. The present study centers around the utilization of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) tools to make thematic layers for the evaluation and the estimation of landslide risk zones in Tamenglong region of Manipur. Different remote sensing information, such as ASTER GDEM, GeoEye-1, TRMM, topographical and geological maps, are connected to break down terrain features, land use, rainfall, local geology and road network the area. For exact estimation, latest landslides were watched, 308 landslides, which happened in 2015–2016, are taken as tests and that example are accepted as a sign of the power for a landslide to come in the great beyond. A few contributing elements and parameters of a landslide, for example, as slope gradient, slope aspect, geology, land use, drainage, rainfall, road and fault lines buffering are used to create thematic layers by using ARC GIS 10.2. Initially, it investigated the relationship of the landslide recurrence and different factors to allot the palatable weighted value. After which, landslide susceptible index (LSI)/rating was resolved for entire classifications of every factor, with the use of landslide rate per sq. km of that class. Finally, GIS-based overlaying the entire susceptible layer to get the landslide hazard map. This technique can altogether upgrade the adequacy of a notice framework by keying out the inclined zone and at last cut the threat of landslides in mountainous regions.

Sustainable development inherently involves trade-offs. The Loktak Multipurpose Project constructed with the goal to boost the economy of Manipur, a state in North-East India also acted as a breeding ground for the new and cascading risks. This study uses a novel analytical framework to (a) understand the impact of the project on the dynamic aspects and (b) explore the interactions (positive and negative) between the various parameters in order to facilitate an understanding of the generation of trade-offs. This retrospective analysis of the trade-offs shows that the negative consequences of the hydropower project greatly outweighed its benefits. Furthermore, the framework has the potential for a more concise trade-off analysis in a developmental context as it offers enough scope for changing the parameters, refining them, adding others, and exploring different methods of interactions.