Fifty-four years after Meghalaya became a state, a child died midway, in his mother’s arms – and the parents walked back carrying the very life they had set out to save. That single image should shame us all.
The death of a three-year-old child in Domkyrkoh village under Rambrai C&RD Block in Rambrai-Jyrngam constituency is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of a system where announcements are mistaken for achievements.
The family called for help through the night. Drivers refused. Not out of cruelty, but because the road does not exist in any usable form. They offered a compromise – walk till Mawdet, we will pick you up from there. In 2026, in a state that talks about Act East and tourism circuits, a family still has to trek for three hours to reach a motorable point for healthcare.
The West Khasi Hills district administration has responded. It says it has taken serious note, has sought reports from BDO Rambrai, DMHO and EE PWD (Roads), and will send a multi-disciplinary health team to Domkyrkoh on October 6.
Its preliminary assessment inadvertently exposes the system. It says Domkyrkoh falls under Mawkhiat Sub-Centre, which is one and a half hours on foot from the village. A sub-centre that takes ninety minutes on foot to reach is not access, it is abandonment. It says a Chief Minister’s Safe Motherhood Scheme emergency vehicle exists but local health workers were not informed. In a village with poor mobile connectivity and no road, how is a panicked parent supposed to inform? The system expects the victim to activate the system. It admits vehicular access passes through Mainop village and the road becomes non-motorable during adverse weather. Translation – there is no road.
The administration puts on record that the road from 4th km of Rambrai-Mawrok PMGSY Road to Nonglang via Domkyrkoh, Phase-I, 10 km was sanctioned under Central Road and Infrastructure Fund. This Rs 25 crore project whose foundation stone was laid by Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong. Sanctioned, yes. Executed, no.
In December 2022, the Deputy Chief Minister himself, while inaugurating a 2.5 km road from NH-6 to Umskun in Ri-Bhoi, had said if construction does not commence within a month, destroy the foundation stone. By his own standard, what should happen to the stone at Domkyrkoh?
This is not just a PWD failure. It is a failure that breaks the Health Department. While PWD fails to build, it is the health workers who break their backs trekking impossible terrain, pushing vehicles stuck in mud for routine immunization. The Health Department posts those videos as resilience on social media. It is not resilience. It is humiliating. No amount of health infrastructure means anything if PWD cannot ensure a road to reach it.
When the state fails to provide basic connectivity, it fails in its most elementary duty. Article 21 guarantees the right to life. How does that right exist for a child in Domkyrkoh if he cannot even reach a sub-centre that is one and a half hours away on foot?
A probe will not bring the child back. The district administration’s field inspection on October 6 is welcome, but it should have happened before the death, not after.
What might prevent the next death is fixing responsibility – not with reports awaited from three offices, but with a timeline made public on the village notice board. When will machinery reach Domkyrkoh? Who is the contractor for the CRIF road? When will it be completed?
Until then, every foundation stone this government lays will read like an epitaph. In Domkyrkoh, one already does.
