Z. K. Pahrü Pou
Village means life, fresh air, clean water, fresh vegetable, fresh fruits and different species of birds, fish and animals. Village life is filled with humorous and laughter! We do not need to teach a village boy/girl how to earn a living. They learn things as they grow. Villagers know how to enjoy life. They are the ones who produce everything for themselves and for town dwellers. It is important to protect the life of the villagers if we are sincere for the growth and development of Nagaland. Naga people will not be able to live in crowded towns and big cities. Since time immemorial, they were accustomed to village life - which formed their political and social unit. Each village was independent and sovereign and their lives revolved around it. In this setting, decentralization or village-ization of development is essential. Gandhiji’s ideology of gram swaraj is very relevant for the development of Naga society. Small is beautiful. Human beings are small. Our fore-parents never think for big things. We cannot manage to handle big ‘development’ and ‘projects’. If we try to do so, we will end up like the builders of the Tower of Babel. Prevention is better than cure.
Today, younger generations are attracted towards town and cities because of developments and modern infrastructures. They do not want to live in village anymore. The responsibility of working in the fields and forests (agricultural work) thus is becoming the sole burden of older men and women. If younger generations continue to migrate to towns, agriculture in Nagaland will collapse sooner or later. Once the villagers are dislocated and migration to towns and cities took place, the age-old cultural heritage will be gone too. This will lead to ‘cultural crises’. The State must take concrete measures to arrest these problems before it goes out of hand.
Development has to disperse to all parts of the state - to each district and blocks- not only in Kohima and Dimapur. This is in a way dispersing various crimes to various blocks and villages that are likely to be committed in big cities or towns. We may call this ‘decentralization of crime’ where a crime committed will be solved at the concerned village or block level. Concentration of more people in a certain town or city means more crimes. What is happening in Dimapur is an eye opener for all of us: prostitutions, drug peddling and abuse, murders, black market, extortion, etc. What has happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is happening in our state today. The State government, instead of spending crores of rupees in ‘modernizing’ police force to tackle all these problems, would be wiser to develop the periphery areas with those money so that such crime do not take place at all. There is no question of lack of fund for development in all parts of the state as Nagaland is getting more money than many big states in India. Corruption among the elite groups and random implementation of ‘developmental project’ is causing misery to thousands of our people today.
Nagaland state is unique and so are prospects and problems of development. I do not understand why our Naga ministers often go abroad (spending huge amount of money) to learn ‘something new’ but which do not have any relevance to our life-setting here. They try to impose such ‘new learning’ on our people (society) without knowing its consequences. Instead of learning from others and trying to teach our people, it is far better to start something new from our own context. Communitisation Programme in Nagaland is being appreciated by many people within and outside the state. Many of the problems faced today can be solved through revival and improvement of our traditional practices of agriculture, communitarian life, culture of sharing, helping one another, and broad-based participation in decision-making process. There are many things that one can learn from village life.
As the future of Nagaland lies in the wellbeing of village life, we may take into consideration the following suggestions:
1. Disperse various developmental works and administrative offices to all district headquarters and blocks so as to enable villagers to connect themselves with the state. Mini secretariat office can be constructed in all the district headquarters. Why not even try having ‘mobile offices’ in all the district headquarters so that ministers can stay for a week or two on rotational basis. It is not necessary that our ministers stay all the time in Kohima and Delhi.
2. Hospital and educational institutions are other factors that attract people to towns and cities. Hence, proper health care facilities must be made available in all the rural areas. All Government servants (Doctors and nurses, teachers, etc) must compulsorily stay in their respective postings (whether in villages or towns)
3. Modern means of communication such as tv, internet facilities and telephone lines have to be connected to all parts of the state. A good lesson can be learnt from Kerala state where even in the deep forest people live with live cable news and internet facilities. People in Kerala prefer to stay in villages as they are well connected to other parts of the world through modern means of communication and good road.
3. Proper market infrastructures have to be constructed in all the district headquarters and small towns. This will enable the farmers to sell their produce at handsome price in their own place. It is a shameful thing to see in capital Kohima where every now and then, vegetables vendors (who are mostly poor sisters and mothers) being chased away from the pavements. Whereas there is enough space for parking vehicles, there is not enough space for these women to earn their daily food. Is it not Christianity all about love and caring of the downtrodden and poor people?
4. Good roads must be connected to all villages. Safe drinking water supply and Electricity should be provided to all villages like they are available in towns and cities.
5. Various welfare schemes and entitlements such as PDS, NREGS, Old age pension, etc. must reach to the villagers. This calls for iron hand to deal with corruption.
I believe, proper development (both human and infrastructures) in all parts of the state will solve many problems and bring in social cohesion and harmony in the long run. The state policy makers must plan for small development projects that would benefit the villagers. Villagers are the backbone of the state’s economy and are the keepers of age-old culture. Love them and help them to live happily in their village. The future of Nagaland lies in the wellbeing of villagers. Do not force them to migrate to towns and cities. If villages erode, Nagaland will become stagnant and collapse. Do not go hastily with modern development paradigm. The ‘signs of the time’ says that we carefully walk forward looking backward.
