Hima Biam and Baiakmenlang Sumer of Martin Luther Christian University share their experience in Saitsama village in West Jaintia Hills
SAITSAMA, SITUATED in West Jaintia Hills, is a village 60km from Jowai town and has 260 household. It falls under the Thadlaskein circle and rural development block. The inhabitants comprises mostly the Pnar and the Sakachep tribe, the latter having established the village in 1944.
The Sakacheps, originally from Tripura, migrated to Saitsama following a war with the Khochung tribe. The name Saitsama in their language means ‘washing away all the dirt and evil that have been experienced during the war’.
The villagers followed the Hindu religion but later converted to Christianity. Since time immemorial, the Sakacheps followed patrilineal, patriarchal and patrilocal systems. The village has five schools – one government LP, three SSA and one Presbyterian secondary school. The government services available in the village are sub-center, police outpost, veterinary, horticulture, agriculture, sericulture and forest department.
The available schemes in the village are MGNREGS, ICDS, SSA, PDS and JSY. Self-help groups function in the village too. The different groups in the village are the village defence party, women’s wing and youth wings from the church. The existing denominations in the village consist of Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Church of God.
The villagers are either daily wagers or farmers. We conducted a one-month block placement in Saitsama after getting the permission of the village dorbar in April. The placement is part of the fieldwork curriculum of the Social work course. Saitsama was chosen in order to get knowledge about the village, lifestyle of people, the problems faced by them and the social work intervention based on the identified problem.
During the placement, we conducted various process of problem identification that includes participatory learning action, need-based assessment, home visits and focus group discussion. We also visited the schools available in the village, the different department functioning in the village besides interacting with the village authority and its members.
The assignment entailed visiting the ICDS centre, the fair price shop, police outpost, veterinary center, sericulture farm, horticulture farm, sub-center, Nambdong PHC, main water source in the village, office of the West Jaintia Hills deputy commissioner, the BDO of Thadlaskein C&RD Block and the market the villagers depend on.
We found out the main problems faced by the village include water scarcity, lack of proper facilities in the sub-center and the improper functioning of the public distribution system. For the intervention part, we approached the public health engineering office in Jowai as one way of addressing the problem of water scarcity in the village. The sub-divisional officer and other employees went to the village to check the main water source along with the headman and the village members. Two-three days later, the overseer of the department with the help of the headman appointed few members from the village to clean up the stored water tank that was in a very unhealthy condition, besides repairing the water pipe.
We also went to the doctor in charge of Nambdong PHC to have a brief discussion about the problems in the sub-center. The doctor said the challenges faced by PHC staff include shortage of medicine and manpower, and lack of proper facilities for the staff. Through interaction with some of the schoolteachers in the village, it was found that the percentage of dropout students increases every year, one of the reasons being the parents’ lack of responsibility. From the police outpost, we learnt alcoholism was a major problem in the village.
On the brighter side, Saitsama villagers are talented weavers and craftspeople, but they have not been able to make handloom and handicraft their livelihood options owing to lack of proper training.
Helped by the village dorbar, we were able to gather knowledge about the existence of the Sakachep tribe even though people get confused between Biate and Sakachep and often generalise them as Hadem.