Villagers carve out the road to development

During rainy days, the village road of Ramgaizang becomes more dangerous for the school going children due to slippery tracks and water-filled ditches.

Villagers were bound to travel extra 5-6 km to access market, healthcare, education and other economic and social needs.Poor farmers were forced to pay Rs. 40 daily (One way) to meet their daily needs.

The village is divided into two wards, one which links to Jiribam to reach Manipur and the other to Jirighat, Assam but there was no proper road to connect these two wards. Though there is a temporary road between the two wards which is almost 2 km long due to its bad condition villagers prefer to take alternate longer road.

“We have to walk far flung with our ill health for sending our products to the nearby market which causes more inconvenience for us in our day to day life,” says a local farmer, John Rongmei.

Gaitanlak Rongmei, the village headmen requested the Government department to construct the roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), it is a Govt. of India program to provide connectivity to unconnected Habitations as part of a poverty reduction strategy.

The primary objective of the PMGSY is to provide Connectivity, by way of an All-weather Road (with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures, which is operable throughout the year), to the eligible unconnected Habitations in the rural areas. The concerned department informed Gaitanlak Rongmei that the matter will be conceptualized in the next year, but Rongmei suspects that the process will positively take longer than what is informed.

“It is sad that no concern has been shown to develop the village road, one can witness that the construction of the road has been totally ignored during the course of development”, says Pougai Rongmei, the Farmers Club President.

Ramgaizang village is one of the biggest project target villages under Farm Northeast programme with 59 household and 360 farmers families in the Lakhipur development block.

Village authorities and Farmer’s club leaders took the decision to construct the road through a collective approach. The construction work for the road began on February 28, 2018, through local people’s skills and labour pooling. The complete stretch of road is designed into muddy trenches which can be easily maintained in future through local labour. The steps taken with the common objective and means will improve rural access as well and improve services to the village.

FARM Northeast programme has focused its approach to People Led Development (PLD) where people take responsibility in reflection and decision making through collective action. The construction of the road by the villagers is the stark example where people have transformed mere recipient to actors of development.