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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

‘Naga people work very hard; so should we’
-The Morung Express

Chizami: “The Nagas are very hard working people,” said Swarupama continually on her first visit to Nagaland from Yedakupalli village in Medak district of Telangana State. She is a senior leader among the team of Dalit women farmers, videographers and coordinator here for the International Women’s Day and Biodiversity Festival observed by the North East Network in Chizami, Phek district, on March 8 and 9.

The women are part of the Deccan Development Society’s Women’s Sangams (collectives) that have a membership of 5000 farmers who have changed the landscape of their drought-hit region into a food secure area by growing millets. Their harsh struggles on a harsh geographical, social, economic and political landscape have resulted in zero farmer suicides, over the years, in a region otherwise known for them.

The Telangana collective of women farmers has been celebrating a biodiversity festival of their own for the past 20 years. Her observations on Naga people come only after she chats with women of the village, aided by a translator, reviews the food systems and observes the lack of governance in sustaining livelihoods in Nagaland.

“We are small farmers who conserve our own seeds and food growing methods—they give us our food and fodder; they provide us with overall and multiple security. We cannot trust seeds brought into our land from outside,” noted Swarupama in a solidarity message to the women farmers of Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya.

The farmers of their region, she informed, have also begun to switch to cash crops, forgoing traditional food systems. The biodiversity festival is an attempt to preserve and protect traditional seeds and methods, culture and sustainability.

Noting the lack of government initiatives to promote indigenous life and livelihood in Nagaland State, Swarupama stated to the Naga women, “There is no one here to teach you all this, but in our area there are many interventions from government and non government bodies to encourage millets and other sustainable seeds.” When the women hold their festivals/events, the media in Telangana floods them with exposure, spreading the message far and wide.

They were surprised at the minute interest Nagaland State media showed towards such issues—the media presence at the Festival at Chizami was next to nil. The honouring of women leaders from the villages for their work towards gender parity, the vast showcase of indigenous biodiversity, thus, remained restricted to those who could, or would, carry the message forward.

The biodiversity festival celebrated by the Telangana women farmers is not just a call to preserve and promote traditional food and systems, but also an attempt to create a dialogue with the government.

“The festivals have helped us dialogue with the government, so that we can tell them what we want. They have learned many things from us, particularly what to promote for the people. Through our efforts, scientists, bureaucrats and politicians have recognised our knowledge systems,” said the Dalit woman farmer. They have now asked the government for a “millet bonus” as the rapid growing of millets has helped save both water and electricity in the region.

Millets are a wonder grain that can be grown on infertile land, with minimal irrigation. They need no chemical inputs; they are traditionally grown by small, marginal farmers in central and south of the Indian sub-continent, while in Nagaland it is often planted in the second and third jhum cycle. It is a subsistence crop that allows for biodiverse farming and provides for a range of nutrition. Millets—the grain, songs and methods attached to it—are slowly disappearing from the Nagascape. Women farmers in different pockets of Nagaland are now trying to revive the indigenous systems of millet farming with a little encouragement from the North East Network in Chizami.

“Since the past two days I have seen women working very hard. It shows in the buzzing life and livestock in Nagaland—please continue to celebrate this,” said Swarupama on a parting note, before a few of them sang a song of the women’s collective from Telangana. They were moved by the ageing Naga women, without footwear or aid, carrying on harsh physical labour, and the almost equal absence of men from traditional spaces of work.

Their observations were echoed by farmers from the Garo hills and East Khasi hills of Meghalaya, and the representatives of Naga farmers in Manipur, who stood in solidarity at the Biodiversity Festival in Chizami. Encapsulating it, “In the Garo hills we say Naga people work very hard; so should we.”
 
The Morung Express, 15 March, 2016, please click here to access