Two hours distance is shortened to half an hour. The people of Mawmuthoh village in the East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya has made this possible through their commitment and strong zeal.

Drorstar Mawthoh, the village secretary of Muwmuthoh always used to see his village people struggling to climb the rough terrain and unfurnished footpath to carry the raw materials for cultivation and agricultural produce to the connecting road for transporting it to the market.

With 330 households, the village is majorly an agrarian community and earn their livelihood from agriculture and livestock rearing. The major problem for them is of connectivity to their cultivated land.

Mawmuthoh is one of the villages under FARM NE II programme of Caritas India which aims to revive and strengthen Traditional Socio-Economic, Governance and Health Systems through People-Led Development (PLD) in Northeast India.

The implementing partner Social Service Center (SSC), Meghalaya saw the challenge as an opportunity to overcome with people’s participation. The community along with the village secretary Drorstar Mawthoh took this problem as their priority.

Since most of the land is under private ownership and under the custody of the clan, the hurdle was the availability of land for road construction. Seeing the earnest desire and experiencing the difficulty faced by people, Drorstar voluntarily donate his land for road construction.

Villagers were willing to do labour for the betterment of all but financial assistance was needed for levelling the land by JCB and for purchasing raw materials for road construction. After due discussion, the community decided to approach Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) for financial assistance. The desire of the people came into reality when KHADC extended the financial support of three lakhs.

Soon the work began and the community came out in large number as volunteers for road construction.

The constructed road is near completion and it is a great achievement for the people of Mawmuthoh village under PLD. This road will not only help them to reach the market but also open many other opportunities and avenue for their prosperity.  The community sees a ray of hope in their life as it makes their life easier.