A study of dependency syndrome on outsider labourers - some empirical evidences from Itanagar, Naharlagun and Doimukh Circles of Papum Pare district, Arunachal Pradesh

The ‘dependency syndrome’ is perceived as an attitude and belief of a group of people of their inability to solve their own problems without outside intervention. It is seen as a tendency to depend on others in the course of socio-economic development of a particular area or community. Dependency syndrome is often attributed to a peoples’ unwillingness to initiate activities on their own to improve wellbeing thereby hire and fire others. In olden days, indigenous people of the Papum Pare district had been constructing their house with the natural resources like- bamboo, wooden planks, leaves cane etc and had not to depend on outside resources or persons. Also in agriculture domain, people of the study area were using indigenous technology with family members being the prime source of man-power without having to depend on outside labour. However, in recent times the people of state are totally dependent on outsider may it be for agriculture or construction works or household & domestic works. The present study has revealed the fact that people of the study area have felt non-availability of local labourers offering their labour to be the most important reason for tendency of high dependency on outsider labourers. Again, the degree of dependency syndrome is found to have been highest in construction & allied activities in terms of wage payment to hired labourers in the study area. During the study, it is uncovered that outsider labourers are mostly paid per day wages in between Rs 201 to 300. Also the present study has found that majority of the local people hold view that they should depend on outsider labourers for agricultural works, household & domestic works and construction & allied works. With this background, the paper makes an attempt to identify the reasons for hiring outsider labourers by local people in Doimukh, Naharlagun and Itanagar circles of Papum Pare district. Also, it has made analysis on status of wage for outsider labourers in the study area. Moreover, it has made assessment of insiders’ perception on dependency on outsider labours in the study area.