• Akash Satyawali, Kulisha Devi

This year marks a decade since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Assam. When the Party won the mandate in the 2016 Assembly elections, it did so on the back of a sweeping vision document that promised a new era of growth, employment, and development. It pledged to implement the Assam Accord in letter and spirit, generate jobs for the state’s youth, improve healthcare and education, protect tea workers, empower women, and address the issues of floods. As Assam heads to elections, it is important to take a look at what has become of the promises.

Perhaps the most politically sensitive promise made in 2016 was the commitment to implement the Assam Accord in letter and spirit, including constitutional, legislative, social, and cultural safeguards under Clause 6. However, the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act contradicts the very spirit of the Accord. Meanwhile, Clause 6 remains unimplemented in practice even after a decade of BJP rule.

In 2016, the BJP promised employment generation and economic opportunity. Instead, the decade since has been marked by rising unemployment, migration, and despair.

Only 19 percent workers have stable wage/salaried employment. Youth unemployment in urban areas crossed 25 percent. In 2024, over 21 lakh educated people registered with the employment exchanges. Of these, 0.1 percent were provided jobs.

Assam’s youth is forced to migrate to other states because the government has not been able to generate jobs and create an environment where investments flow into the state. Since 2019–20, the number of factory workers in Assam has been declining even as the number of job seekers continues to rise. The consequences of this crisis are deadly. Suicides among unemployed individuals have nearly tripled during the BJP’s tenure.

Tea garden workers form the backbone of one of the state’s most iconic industries. In 2016, the BJP promised to raise the daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs. 351.Ten years later, that promise remains unfulfilled. Workers continue to struggle with low wages and difficult working conditions, even as the tea industry remains a vital contributor to the state’s economy.

At the same time, small tea growers have faced severe price volatility. Last year, prices for raw tea reportedly crashed by nearly 50 percent. Despite earlier commitments, the government has failed to establish a floor price that could protect growers from such fluctuations.

The despair prevalent across Assam wasn’t always the default condition. A decade ago, Assam’s economic trajectory was far more promising. In 2015–16, the state recorded a growth rate of 15.67 percent, making it the second fastest-growing economy in India at the time. But the momentum was lost due to the economic mismanagement of the last decade. In the past ten years, the state has not matched that performance even once.

Instead, Assam has slipped dramatically in national rankings. According to the NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals Index for 2023–24, Assam is ranked 23rd out of 28 states. The vision document promised increasing revenue that would be utilised for welfare measures. The reality is: the state’s debt has ballooned. By March 2026, Assam’s outstanding liabilities are expected to cross Rs. 2 lakh crore, increasing nearly 400 percent in a decade.

Even more troubling is the fact that large portions of welfare and development funds have remained unspent in recent years. In 2023–24, significant allocations meant for public welfare and development went unused.

Healthcare was another sector where the BJP made ambitious promises. The 2016 vision document pledged to establish at least one multi-specialty hospital with round-the-clock services in every subdivision and to construct a high-tech 500-bed hospital in every district.

Yet healthcare infrastructure in Assam continues to struggle, particularly in rural areas where the majority of the population lives. Most health centres function without adequate medical professionals, forcing patients to rely on expensive private healthcare. There are wide shortages at Community Health Centres in rural areas – there is a 97 percent shortage of surgeons and a 94 percent shortage of physicians.

Persistent neglect of healthcare reflects in the nutritional indicators. Around 43 percent of children in Assam are stunted, while 17 percent are underweight. In terms of stunting, Assam performs worse than historically underdeveloped states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.

Education sector has met the same fate as healthcare. Since 2015–16, more than 8,000 government schools have been closed across the state. Nearly 7,000 of these were primary schools.

The BJP also promised a future of empowerment for women. Yet the reality today paints a troubling picture. Unemployment among young urban women in Assam is above 36 percent. Rather than creating meaningful employment opportunities, the government has largely relied on token cash incentive schemes that barely keep pace with the rising cost of living.

The law and order remains dismal. In 2023, an average of 19 rape cases were reported every week in Assam. In cases involving children, the situation is even more disturbing. Nearly five cases of child rape were reported every day during the year, with the state’s crime rate in this category about 75 percent higher than the national average.

Floods and river erosion have long been among Assam’s most devastating recurring crises. Entire villages are displaced every year as rivers swallow land and homes. During election campaigns, the BJP repeatedly promised a flood-free Assam. But ten years later, floods continue to wreak havoc across the state with alarming regularity. Instead of meaningful structural solutions, the promise of a flood-free Assam has simply been postponed. The target has now been pushed to 2031.

The BJP came to power in Assam promising transformation. It has failed on every front.

(Akash Satyawali is Joint Secretary and Ms. Kulisha Devi is National Coordinator of the AICC Research Department)