By HH Mohrmen
No doubt the impact of the corona lockdown on the people is multi-dimensional and will definitely be immeasurable. Perhaps no one will be able to establish the extent of negative impact that the lockdown will have on the country, the state or the individual. But one thing is certain – it is the poor and the needy who have been hit the hardest. Some of these stories testify to the fact that they are at the receiving end of the crisis. But the outcome of the lockdown will also be judged by the resilience of the people and particularly the spirit that keeps their hopes alive.
In Meghalaya the first impact that the lockdown had was on the Meghalayan Age tourism festival which was supposed to showcase the state’s tourism potential. Unfortunately the project was a non-starter and every rupee spent in the preparation of the festival had gone down the drain. Now fortunately for the organisers and unfortunately for the state and its people, the blame will be on the pandemic but everybody knows that the event was ill-planned. Other event managers have organised music festivals in the same locale and they draws crowd from all over the country and even abroad. The NH7 festival was always a huge success. The Meghalayan Age festival was bound to fail because of the lack of publicity and was ill-timed. Not even the people of West Jaintia Hills were aware of the festival. After the battle against the pandemic is over the Government will have to make public the expenditure and the outcome of organising the Meghalayan age festival at Mukhla West Jaintia Hills.
There are estimates by economist in the country and the world that a large percentage of the country’s population will slip back to below poverty line due to the pandemic. This is happening right in front of our eyes. The impact of the lockdown due to the pandemic has already showed its ugly face in the life of the poorer section of the population. Perhaps the section which is hit the hardest is the urban poor whose livelihood depends on what they earn daily. The category includes the daily wage earners, the porters or coolies, the cobblers, the vendors and the hawkers who are the most vulnerable section. They were the first casualty of the lockdown. They have no savings to even see them through a few weeks so how can we expect them to sail through the pandemic. The government will do itself a service if a study is conducted on how this most vulnerable section of the population is affected by the pandemic.
There are some cases which are living examples of how the plight of the poorer section of the population played out during this time of trials and tribulations. One case in point is a family of four of which the wife is a daily wage earner and the husband is a taxi driver and the two children were below eight years. Although the wife lives in a quarter provided by the employer and was able to work throughout the lockdown period because of the proximity of the quarter to the residence of the employer, the family still has to struggle to make two ends meet because taxis cannot operate during lockdown period.
Another single mother who moved from the village in the Thadlaskein block to Jowai along with her grown-up children for better opportunity was doing well selling tea at Ïawmusiang market in Jowai. That was until the lockdown happened which dealt a dead blow to the dream. When the lockdown was first lifted, she came to Jowai but only to collect her goods and return to the village because the situation was not favourable for her. She has to pay rent for her house and the shop and has no more savings to continue with the business.
During the lockdown people distributed help and support to the poor and the needy, but the question is whether the help really reached the poor and the most deserving families in the society? With regard to the supplies provided by the MLAs from the MLA special scheme, there were allegations that the support did not reach the deserving families. The reason is because many MLAs entrusted the task of distributing the support to the party and its leaders and not surprisingly the help went to the wrong hands. It is no surprise that the party cadres tend to favour only those who belong to the party and the deserving families were left out. Even in a locality where I live the support provided by the MLA was distributed by the party cadres instead of the Dorbar Chnong. In the rural areas, some villagers alleged that rice was instead given to those who have many paddy fields and have rice in their granary to last them throughout the year.
The MLAs would have achieved their goal the objective of the government if the support was channelled through the Dorbar Chnong. Each community in the rural areas already have the list of bottom twenty families handy which is part of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guaranteed Scheme (MGREGS) program. The list consists of the twenty poorest families in the village and that would have been of a great help in deciding the deserving families in this time of crisis. But how many MLAs and MDCs even care to know how schemes like MGREGS function. MLAs and MDCs or any political leaders for that matter are happy that they have done their job in distributing rice which also provides them a photo opportunity to share in the different social media platform or publish in the press. But the question is whether this really serves the purpose of reaching out to the poorest and the most neglected sections of the population. Politicising the work of rice distribution through their party cadres even during a time of global crisis like this is the worst kind of politics than they can play.
The little experience that one has, also gives one the idea that the poor who survive are the ones who are quick to adapt and reinvent themselves. A commercial area like Ïawmusiang in Jowai town provided them with a living example of how people struggle to survive during the lockdown. There is a case of a shoe store seller turn fish retailer and a dalal who worked as an usher of passengers for the Jowai-Shillong tourist taxis who changed his profession to a coolie to survive the crisis. These are only few examples of versatile people and how their versatility helped them adapt and change with time, quickly.
Living in a Dorbar Chnong which also looks after the biggest and the oldest market in Jaintia Hills is an opportunity to see firsthand how the Waheh Chnong (head man) and his team help the traders resume their trade when the district administration decided to open trade and commerce in the area. There were news reports in the media about the opening of Ïewduh and Police Bazaar but no report about Ïawmusiang because the transition went smoothly without any glitches. Like they say, if a dog bites a man that is not news, but if a man bites a dog, that is news, hence the opening of Ïawmusiang did not make any headlines. The credit of opening of the market unhindered goes solely to the headman and his committee.
The Waheh Chnong of Dorbar Chnong Tympang Ïawmusiang implemented the lockdown, provided community quarantine for the chnong’s young returnees and simultaneously helped the district administration and the traders in opening up their business activities. It is not easy to deal with hundreds of traders coming from all over Jaintia hills to resume their business. It is even more difficult to help them restart their business and help them adopt to the new normal.
It was a delightful experience to see this happening and knowing that the entire team have done the job voluntarily for weeks together without any complaint. This in fact is the story of all the Dorbar Shnong in the Khasi Jaintia region of the state which have done a commendable job and yeoman’s service to the state and its people during the corona lockdown. If there is any valuable lesson to be learned from the pandemic, it is that the spirit of ‘bhalang ka imlang ka sahlang, ka bhalang uba bun balang’ which is part of the Khasi Pnar value system is still alive in the community. All the Dorbar Shnong performed their duties pro-bono because they all work for the common good which is one of the most important moral principles of the people and an intrinsic part of Hynniew Trep life.