AS INDIA continues to urbanise and integrate into a global economy, an increasing number of young people from the states of Northeast India are migrating to cities in search of a better education, employment, and safety. While this trend reflects aspiration and ambition, it also reveals deep-rooted issues at home and in city life that pose a challenge to the purpose and success of the NE Diaspora, particularly the NE Christian youth.
Why Do They Leave the Comfort of Home: Root Causes of Migration
Northeast India remains one of the most underdeveloped regions in the country. Major issues such as poor infrastructure, lack of quality educational institutions, and widespread corruption in the region have pushed many parents to send their children to cities. In several states, government jobs are allegedly sold through bribes, making it difficult for deserving candidates from poor or humble backgrounds to get jobs. Not only that, but many parents who are against corruption and bribery do not want to buy jobs for their children from corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.
Many parents, despite their financial struggles, choose to send their children outside the region, with the hope that they will receive a better education and secure employment by their merit and hard work, and set an exemplary life for the future generations. Insurgency and safety concerns in some areas further motivate this migration. For others, it is the growing drug-related problem in local communities that prompts parents to send their children away, sometimes as a form of silent rehabilitation. Increasing opportunities in the private sector, especially in cities, have also drawn a large number of Northeast youth into urban workplaces, beyond traditional government jobs. Some have thrived. Young entrepreneurs from the Northeast are now running successful businesses in hospitality, food, handicrafts, and running student hostels across Indian cities. But not all stories end in success.
Struggles in the City: When Dreams Fade
For many students, the transition from village life to that of a bustling city is overwhelming. They struggle with freedom, loneliness, and a lack of proper guidance and a mentor. Without the structure of home, and with no one to keep them accountable, some lose sight of the very reason they came to the cities. To reduce expenses, students often share rooms. While some find supportive roommates, others fall into peer pressure, leading to unhealthy relationships, late-night partying, or even cohabitation before marriage, which can distract from their academic goals. Many struggle to assimilate into other cultures, especially foods and local life.
Tribe Student Organisation: Tribal student organisations and churches, originally founded to support and encourage students, have sometimes shifted from their core purpose. Instead of focusing on mentorship and spiritual guidance, many have become busy with political networking, organising social events, or building personal influence. Some students spend more time raising funds for events than attending their classes. In short, they become busy for nothing.
Tribe or Community Church: Churches in the cities also face challenges. Instead of adapting to the urban and cultural and lifestyle of the city church context, many replicate the extensive programmes of their home states, weekly prayer cells, multiple fellowships, house visits, and numerous “Special Sundays.” While spiritually well intentioned, these activities often consume time, energy and money that students need for their studies. They are in metro city not for mission work but for building their career for future purposes.
Games and Sports: Sports, especially football and badminton, though healthy in moderation, can become distractions. In some communities, students train daily, participate in tournaments, and organise inter-tribe competitions, sometimes more seriously than they take their education. This activity consumes most of the time and the students miss most of the classes, and fall into telling lies to parents and teachers for missing the classes. The freedom of city life has led many students astray. Some lose themselves in nightlife, alcohol, or unhealthy relationships. When it is time to return home to their respective states, they come back empty-handed—not with degrees or jobs but disappointment. This shatters the hopes of parents, who sacrificed everything, believing their children would return educated and empowered, and they arrange a “Thanksgiving Programme” in honour of excelling in studies and securing a government job with the community.
Time for Introspection: Individual, Community, Church, and Change
There is no instant solution to this complex issue. But meaningful change begins with honest introspection by individuals, mentors, elders, families, student bodies, and church communities. We must ask: Are our community churches in cities truly supporting students, or overburdening them? Are our student organisations staying true to their founding mission, or becoming platforms for politics and performance? Are we guiding our youth spiritually and morally or just keeping them busy?
Churches must consider streamlining their programmes in urban areas. Not every fellowship, celebration, or committee is essential. Students need spiritual support, not social overload. A few focused programmes, such as Sunday services, small group Bible studies, and mentoring, can be more impactful than a calendar packed with events.
Student organisations must evaluate their priorities. Helping a fellow student in medical need is admirable, but why are students always asked to donate blood when well-off patients come for treatment?
Events, such as freshers’ meets are important, but overactivity can drain students off the very purpose for which they came to the city to study. At the heart of the solution is purpose. Every student who comes to the city must be reminded of their purpose or goal: education, physical and spiritual growth, and life transformation.
Elders and leaders must walk alongside them with prayer, wisdom, understanding and motivating and encouraging them. Mentor and Church must also talk openly about the consequences of certain lifestyle choices, such as live-in relationship, excessive partying, unhealthy relationships, not with judgment, but with love, compassion and clarity.
Results of Joyfully Journeying Together With God the Father
Not all is lost. Many young people from Northeast India, who regularly meditate on the Words of God and always focus on the reason and purpose of their stay in the city, are thriving in cities—excelling in their studies, holding respectable positions in government offices, private universities, and companies, and starting businesses, and even giving back to their communities.
Let us build a system that supports these success stories. Let us equip our youth to stay focused, live with integrity and accountability, and return home with more than just a certificate but with a testimony of resilience, faith, and purpose. If we reflect, reform, and respond together, we can turn the Northeast Christian Diaspora into a powerful force, both in the cities and back home, for nation building and for the expansion of God’s Kingdom. With God, all things are possible. Amen!
(The views expressed are personal. The author can be reached at letlal.haokip@gmail.com)