[dropcap]M[/dropcap]y visit to Longleng district of Nagaland was scheduled during the summer of June. I took the train from Guwahati till Furkating and then proceeded from Golaghat outskirts to Longleng in a shared sumo. It’s a distance of around 300 kms which took some 6 hours from Golaghat to Longleng. The route was taken by the sumos through Mariani, Titabor, Amguri, Tuli, Merangkong, Chongtonya and finally Longleng. The journey through the plain areas was comfortable till the slopes of Tuli and Chongtonya. But as I started from Chongtongya to Longleng, our sumo driver warned me and said, now the road is not going to be like your plain areas. It is going to be difficult. He was so true for the next 2 hours the road was terrible and a journey of 34 kms seemed to be endless. By the time I reached my destination, the road condition had a toll on my back and knees. The scenery along this road was awesome but I could hardly take a good look at the surroundings.Many thoughts crossed my mind while crossing the stone crushing machines, scrapped skin of the hills dug intensely for extracting coal and gravel stones. I was wondering what if the roads were not there, we could not have travelled this far. At the same time I also pondered that how can people be resilient to such pathetic conditions of the roads. All those who are affluent and those travelling by trucks may not feel the pangs of these roads but those who travel in local public transport like the Sumos will really have a hard time. I kept wondering about development and its aftermath. We are craving for development of infrastructure and other such amenities but what happens after the resource is created. Why can’t it be maintained in a way that it is convenient for all sections of society. Our indifference and resilience has taken deep roots and we are used to the culture of silence in terms of lack of quality in the resources. We can settle for very little and always under-estimate the needs of our own people. We are busy catering to the world with the best standards when it comes to exports or resources, intellect and services, but when it comes to the most disadvantaged sections of the society, we like to do away with all the frills and luxury. Is this a form of inequity or some sort of social exclusion? Inequity as the resources sharing process is very much one-sided. It only favours the haves and the ones with power. Resources like land, water, rivers, minerals, roads, electricity and forests are exploited in such an indiscriminate ways that it will cater to the rapid growth and urbanization mirage. People in the margins are strategically excluded from the inclusive growth parameters of the powerful rungs of society. In the struggle for identity and freedom how does common people of Longleng district are coping with the changes is indeed a big question. Longleng town strangely has good road connection within its periphery. Like any other big town or small city in north east India, approach roads to the towns and cities are difficult. Inequity has an impact on people for future as well not just in the present. Somehow social justice for all categories of people seems a far cry in this kind of development process. Inequity means lack of quality in goods, resources and services for different sections of society. People have diverse needs and their aspirations keep growing, to be able to cater to the changing needs and aspirations without being partial to one individual or group would constitute an equitable process of growth. But in Longleng district, equitable sharing of resources seems to be still an unknown agenda.
In Longleng, Jhum agriculture is practiced in most of the areas. Traditionally Jhum farming practice helped the farmers to maintain an agro-biodiversity eco-system with more than 25 varieties of crops but gradually this process is shifting to cash crop monocultures. Farmers are very keen on growing high-market value trees, crops and plants which will fetch them good money. They are gradually transforming their Jhum fields into cash crop fields with rubber, teak, pine and cardamom plantations. Interestingly farmers produce food crops for self consumption and cash crops for the market in the same Jhum field. I managed to meet a women’s self help group who worked in their farms owned individually by their respective families but as a group engaged in cardamom cultivation. The women seemed very enterprising and initiative savings activities in their village and worked very hard in their farms. They spent almost 12-14 hours in a day working in their farm lands and later worked in their homes for the regular household chores for more that 4-5 hours every day. If a woman farmer is engaged in productive labour for both farm and at home, they deserve to be compensated with adequate wages and social security measures. The wage-rate for agricultural labour in the Tukpang village is Rs 60 for the women and Rs. 200 for the men. Men get more wages as they have to remove big stone boulders and similar agricultural work as the women. Infact, women spent much more time in the field and engages in labour intensive and back breaking drudgery. This kind of wage disparity can lead to adverse forms of violations of human labour and dignity. Women too deserve to be compensated well for their toil and struggle for survival.
Technological innovations have only resulted in sophisticated software, but the irony is that such innovations have not yet led to equity, justice and lessening of human hardship for growing food. With the advent in mechanization of agriculture, women farmers are getting more and more excluded from the mainstream development paradigm. Women grow herbs, diverse food crops, leafy vegetables of high nutrition value and other food crops to sustain their families and communities in Nagaland, which is the root of well-being and good health while all other forms of agrarian reforms have been making a few people rich. Technological innovation also has to cater to the needs of the most disadvantaged groups in farming communities. More specifically since more than 80% of the farming in Nagaland is done by women farmers, their specific needs have to be taken care of while designing farm tools through technological innovations. Changes in the agro industrial sector has to benefit the local skills, needs and markets along with that this sector have to develop the eco-system in the sustainable manner as all natural resources are limited and easily perishable. Any development planning and strategic move towards such sustainable use and regeneration will ensure a healthy and self sufficient Naga farming society.
Samhita Barooah
(Researcher and Faculty at TISS Guwahati)
