Lower Unemployment, Higher Crimes Reported Against Women in Poll-Bound Meghalaya
The reported incidents of crimes against women in Meghalaya rose by 21% in the five-year period between 2017 and 2021, and 169% in the ten-year period between 2012 and 2021
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Mumbai: More crimes reported against women, more births attended by skilled professionals, and a lower employment rate, shows FactChecker's data dive on Meghalaya, where state assembly elections will be held on February 27, 2023.
Crime
In 2021, Meghalaya registered 3,428 crimes, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. This is a 13% reduction in crime since 2017 (3,952). But reported crimes have increased 24% in the ten-year period from 2012 to 2021.
The number of violent crimes has marginally decreased in the state in the past ten years (from 625 in 2012 to 580 in 2021). However, reported crimes against women have increased 169%, from 255 in 2012 to 685 in 2021.
Health
We looked at child nourishment, child mortality, and indicators of maternal health, with data from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) conducted in 2005-06 (NFHS-3), 2015-16 (NHHS-4) and the most recent survey in 2019-21 (NFHS-5).
The percentage of children below five years of age who are wasted (low weight for height) has declined in Meghalaya, from 30.7% in NFHS-3 to 15.3% in NFHS-4 and 12.1% in NFHS-5. However, the percentage of stunted children (low height for age) marginally increased from 43.8% in 2015-16 to 46.5% in 2019-21.
Under-five mortality, death before a child turns five years old, has remained the same, with 40 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019-21, compared to 39.6 per 1,000 in 2015-16.
The prevalence of anaemic women has increased in the state from 46.2% in 2005-06 to 53.8% in 2019-21.
The percentage of births attended by a skilled professional almost doubled from 31% to 64% in the 15 years between 2015-16 and 2019-21, but Meghalaya is still almost 25 percentage points behind the national average of 89.4%.
Employment
Since the government's Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) does not release quarterly employment data for Meghalaya, FactChecker looked at the Center For Monitoring Indian Economy's (CMIE) employment statistics for the state for a five-year period starting from January-April 2018 to September-December 2022.
The unemployment rate reduced marginally from 3.8% during the period of September-December 2018 to 2.7% during September-December 2022.
The female labour force participation rate increased from 43.6% to 51.4% between September-December 2018 and September-December 2022. The state's total labour participation rate rose by almost 4 percentage points (58.8% to 62.7%) in the same time period.