A day-long event that brought together voices from rural Meghalaya to discuss how the development agenda should be framed for rural India was organised by Rural Voice, Socratus and NESFAS.
The ‘Agenda for Rural India – Shillong’ involved 60 rural stakeholders from seven districts of Meghalaya, including farmers, women self-help group (SHG) members, rural entrepreneurs, beekeepers, artisans, teachers, Village Employment Council (VEC) members, village council members and weavers.
The convening participants discussed and deliberated on a multitude of issues they face as rural citizens, a NESFAS press release stated today. They also presented their aspirations for their respective villages and the kinds of policies they would like to see implemented.
Agenda for Rural India – Shillong is part of a series of convening of rural people being organised nationwide by Rural Voice, a digital media organisation and Socratus, an NGO working in the social and rural sectors. Earlier convening was organised at Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh in June, and Bhubaneswar in Odisha in August and in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
In his opening remarks, Harvir Singh, editor-in-chief of Rural Voice, said, “The focus of these convenings is to tap into the rural voices of the citizens from the grassroots. Our goal is to provide a bottom-up approach to bridge the divide between the rural communities and policymakers, bureaucrats, politicians, experts, and media. This is crucial in order to create a more inclusive and representative decision-making process. By amplifying the voices of those living in rural areas, we can ensure that their needs and concerns are being heard and addressed. Together, we can strive for a more equitable and informed society.”
Participants raised a large number of issues and problems they are facing as rural citizens and as farmers. Some of the issues highlighted by the participants related to agriculture, rural infrastructure and the social sector.
In agriculture, poor soil health, soil erosion, unavailability of quality seeds and bio-inputs, increasing incidents of pest attacks, poor irrigation facilities and poor rural connectivity are pulling back the agriculture sector. In addition, there is poor marketing infrastructure for agricultural produce, low price realisation and lack of proper storage facilities and cold storage. Climate change is a big problem for the agriculture sector as more extreme weather incidents are increasing.
In the area of the social sector, participants flagged the issue of poor health and educational infrastructure. The absence of teachers in the village schools and poor building infrastructure was raised. Unemployment, the high rate of drug use, early marriage and no proper childcare facilities were raised as big social problems. Rural connectivity, drinking water provision and electricity supply are also not good.
Participants demanded that the government should support farmers in adopting traditional farming, providing bio fertilizers and bio pesticides to reduce the use of chemicals. The government should start schemes for better irrigation facilities and increase the irrigation coverage through check dams and by improving power supply to farmers and act to remove middlemen from agriculture marketing for better price realisation.
One important issue raised by participants from Garo Hills region was increasing human-wildlife conflict.
This event is part of a series of convenings being organised by Rural Voice and Socratus across rural India. The aim is to share the compiled insights from these convenings with policymakers and experts at the national level in November.
