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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARYImpact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 3, April 2016LACK OF PROPER EXPOSURE ON GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND GRANTS INMEGHALAYA LEADS TO INCREASE IN POVERTYDR. S MAXWELL LYNGDOH*DR. SAMUEL WILSON MESHACK***Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India**President, World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and Professor of Communication @ Hindustan BibleInstitute affiliated to MLCUABSTRACTTo determine the level of exposure and awareness of (rural) public on the role ofmedia in highlighting government assistances to alleviate economic poverty in Meghalaya. Adescriptive, cross sectional study design, collecting relevant quantitative and qualitative datafrom the respondents was conducted. A data on retrospective histories and experiences ofpoverty was also captured to link the exposure pattern of the respondents with the availabilityof government assistances. Rural communities of Khasi tribal people in three Blocks of EastKhasi Hills District ie,. Mawsynram, Pynursla and Mawryngkneng. The findings from thisresearch has documented that one of the major cause of poverty is people not being aware ofgovernment assistances. The rural people failed to understand that illiteracy is a barrierbetween them and the government’s information. An interesting data reveals that the more farpeople reside from the Block Development Office, the less exposed they are to media. Thefindings also highlighted that they do not watch, listen or read certain exhibits of the mediabecause they do not understand the language or it is not relevant to them. Poverty incommunication is one of the root causes for economic poverty. For those who rightly usedthe media channels, they confirmed that the media channels have facilitated the people withupdated news and information. To effectively address this problem, one needs to understandthe media’s role to help alleviate economic poverty.KEYWORDS: Exposure to Government Schemes / Grants, Causes of Poverty, MediaINTRODUCTIONMeghalaya came into existence in the year 1972 after it got its separate statehood.“The State was advantageously placed in respect of development and modernization ascompared to others in the region” (Gopalakrishnan, 1995). It has a total of eleven districts.Meghalaya is predominantly a tribal state (Nayak & Thomas, 2007). They further mentioned42www.jiarm.com

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARYImpact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 3, April 2016that the State in comparison to all India situations performed better in many aspects butlagged in per capita SDP (State Domestic Product) and rural poverty.Poverty has been part and parcel of Meghalaya since it got its separate State. Developmentusually takes place at a faster rate for States that could function autonomously as independentStates. But the case is different in Meghalaya where poverty still exists after so many years ofits separate Statehood.Though a few scholars have tried to study and analyze the situation of Meghalaya in thecontext of poverty but have only been able to identify only a few of its causes. Thomas(2004) identifies the lack of technological innovations is also one of the reasons for theeconomic backwardness of the State. It may be observed that the causes of poverty couldinclude inability of the people to improve in animal husbandry or poor crop cultivation due totraditional methods of cultivation. Thomas (2004) further writes that the incidence ofunemployment (including underemployment) indicates a high incidence of poverty in theState.According to 2001 Census, about 19.6% of the population lived in urban areas. Although theState has primarily an agricultural economy and nearly 63 percent of her work force engagedin agriculture, its contribution to SDP was only 33% as against 55% by the tertiary sector(Nayak & Thomas, 2007). The Government of Meghalaya conducted two censuses of thepeople living below poverty line in 1991-92 and 1998, and estimated that the number was48.9% in 1991-92 but has increased to 54.5 % in 1998 (Saxena, 2003).Barrett and Beardmore states that since the early 1950s, Government has initiated, sustained,and refined various planning schemes to help the poor attain self sufficiency in foodproduction. The schemes have however not been very successful because the rate of povertyreduction lags behind the rapid population growth rate (as cited in India’s Urban PovertyAgenda, 2000). Thirty six per cent of the Indian population was below poverty line (BPL) in1993-94, the latest year for which the data are available and the absolute number of poor was320 million, out of which 244 million (37 per cent of the rural population) lived in rural areas(Ninth Five Year Plan, 2002).A news item reporting in Solomon Star, on the “Role of news media in poverty reductionefforts”, (2011), reads “The media is an important player - studies show that government andpublic response to poverty depends on how media frames the issue. Given the media’ssocietal responsibilities, poverty should be at the top of its reporting agenda.” The massmedia in a country like the USA, where the illiteracy is marginal, do run some programmes43www.jiarm.com

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARYImpact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 3, April 2016(Sesame Street is an often cited example among TV serials) of adult literacy and socialeducation. These are for the benefit of immigrant labourers and of the poor among blacks(Raghavan, 2005). A new report by Panos London (2007), “Making poverty the story: Timeto involve the media in poverty reduction”, calls for greater involvement of the media in theefforts to tackle poverty. As the mid-point for achieving the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) by 2015 is reached, and with the progress being in serious doubt, the time has cometo recognise and support the potentially crucial contribution of the mass media on efforts toreduce poverty.The Ninth Five Year Plan saw the implementations of many programmes and strategies tohelp alleviate poverty in rural India. While media is being examined as a tool to educate, it isalso seen as an instrument of awareness. A newspaper report entitled “Rural people unawareof Central Schemes”, (2011) mentions about the government’s lack of conducting awarenesscampaigns on the various centrally-sponsored schemes which leaves many people in the darkespecially those living in the rural areas of the State. The Planning Commission Report(2012) stated that States which included Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram andNagaland, poverty has increased in 2009-2010.This is perhaps one of the reasons why the media was questioned in an article “The media aswatchdog, Is anyone watching poverty?” The media was alleged that it is supposed to provideinfotaiment, if not pure entertainment, and is happy enough with the present situation(Joseph, 2011). A large section of the Indian media (particularly the electronic media) doesnot serve the interest of the people; in fact some of it is positively anti-people (Katju, 2011).He further laments, that the media often diverts the attention of the people from the realissues to non issues. In agreement to this statement, Joseph (2011) said that there is no pointexpecting anything more or better from the media, especially commercial media, becausethey are run by business enterprises pursuing profits, not trying to improve society.Katju (2008), in another article goes on to mention, “To my mind, in underdevelopedcountries such as India the media have a great responsibility to fight backward ideas such ascasteism and communalism, and help the people in their struggle against poverty and othersocial evils”. This is why Shakeel (2012), in her article opines “Society is influenced bymedia in so many ways. It is the media for the masses that helps them to get informationabout a lot of things and also to form opinions and make judgments regarding various issues”.She further lamented, “I believe, if the media identifies its responsibility and work sincerelyand honestly then it can serve as a great force in building the nation”.44www.jiarm.com

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARYImpact Factor 2.417, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 4, Issue 3, April 2016This study aimed to determine the level of exposure and awareness of (rural) public on therole of media in projecting / highlighting government assistances to alleviate economicpoverty in Meghalaya.METHODS:This research carried out a descriptive, cross sectional study design, collectingrelevant Quantitative and Qualitative data, as well as capturing some retrospective historiesand experiences of poverty. Suitable sampling methods and appropriate data gathering toolswere then developed. Necessary permissions and consent were obtained and all ethical normswere adequately addressed.Assuming that about 40% of the households will have access to any type of media,with a confidence interval of 95% and a relative precision of 10%, therefore a minimum of808 households needs to be studied.In order to capture the prevailing communication channels and reach to thepopulation, it was proposed to take a multi stage sampling design. Multi-stage samplingrepresents a more complicated form of cluster sampling in which larger clusters are furthersubdivided into smaller, more targeted groupings for the purposes of surveying.At the first stage, Meghalaya State was chosen for the study in which East Khasi HillsDistrict was selected out of the 11 districts available. In the second stage, three Blocks wereselected based on the geographical representation out of the total number of eight blocks. Inthese blocks, villages were chosen based on the distance, which is very far off, not so far andnear to the block head quarters. This was purposively done to cover all the villages at variousdistances, which are spread across these blocks. In the final stage, systematic randomsamplings of the households were taken. One out of every ten households was taken asrespondents covering all the households in the villages systematically. This sampling wasexpected to yield a minimum sample size of how we arrive with a sample size of 808households.From each of the Blocks, the villages were segregated based on the distance from theblocks. It was proposed to select a random sample, taking into account the possible variationsdepending on the kind of exposure and accessibility they get through media. For a distancebetween 1-20 Kms, Mawryngkneng has 15 Villages, for a distance between 20-50 Kms, thereare 25 Villages, for a distance between 50-80 Kms, there are 18 Villages and for a distance of80-110 Kms, there are 6 Villages.45www.jiarm.com