S Henlly Phom
Mon, March 14
What would a parent dream for their children or a child dream of his or her future? An established foundation with education to face the world and secure one’s future is what every parent or a child dream of. But Phomching area Villages under Mon District are not fortunate to see these dreams in the near future.
Phomching area under Mon District comprises of 10 villages making up two towns with Longwa Village as its Sub Divisional Officer’s (SDO) Headquarter. In this hi tech generation where education is only a click of the finger away, the children of Phomching area are not privileged enough to be at par with children their age.
The area has eight Government Middle School (GMS) and thirteen Government Primary School (GPS) but ironically no high schools. The four GMS are said to be functioning and the other four which was upgraded recently are yet to function as there is a shortage of teachers and the school building is still yet to be completed. This is not the end to their setback. Phomching area students and parents, say the situation gets really complicated when the children pass out from the middle school as the area does not have a single high school. And being in an area which borders Myanmar and most importantly many of them coming from underprivileged families they have no means to send their children outside their village for further studies.
What would a hapless parent do when they have no opportunity or alternative but to accept their fate? As if this setback is not bad enough, they are deprived of their Mid Day Meal (MDM) and when the Right to Education (RTE) guideline clearly says that there is a provision for transportation of MDM, the villages are bearing the costs of transportation of MDM. If the RTE is not utilized judiciously what hope is there for the future of the children. The violation of this right is snatching away the rights of hundreds of future leaders.
Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) initiative for ‘Advocacy Tour’ around the four districts of Longleng, Mon, Tuensang and Kiphire continues to unearth hitherto untold anomalies in practice in these areas.
The highly questionable issue laid down by the gathering the implementation of the National Social Assistant Programme (NSAP) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA). People of Phomching area questioned the MGNREGA scheme on what the 50% of VIP share holds entails for the 100 days wages and more importantly where does this 50% share go to. The villages of Phomching area revealed that in 2013 under MGNREGA, the job card holders signed for 33 days wages but received payment against just 3 days of work. Lamenting that the exact amount was drawn by the concerned authority, they did’nt receive their rightful wage making a mockery of the scheme.
Even for the NSAP scheme, it was learned that the village has more than 90 beneficiaries listed against this scheme but none of them have benefitted from the same. Many elders of the villagers have since left this world without ever receiving any benefit from the scheme.
The villagers were curious about the procedures of the schemes and how they work. They said they want the rightful share of what they deserve and what is theirs. A village elder also appealed that those in authority should put themselves in the shoes of the villager and ensure that these schemes are judiciously executed and implemented by the government.
