Thursday, March 28, 2024
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When Adversity turns to Opportunity

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By HH Mohrmen

The World Health Organisation describes the COVID-19 pandemic as the most unprecedented public health and socio-economic crisis of our lifetime. It affects all but especially the poor and vulnerable section of the population. Much of the impacts of corona virus pandemic in the world are dismal in nature. Some of these have been documented and many are yet to be documented.  In the West Jaintia hills district however, there is one unique incident which is a different story altogether. It is a story of how adversity is turned into an opportunity.

This is a story of how the Dorbar Chnong has been able to turn the tables in its favour and turn hard times into opportunity. The Dorbar Chnong used the pandemic situation to bring a change in the premier market in the district which many thought impossible to achieve. It is the kind of change which took the citizens of Jowai town by surprise.

Ïawmusiang is not only the biggest market in Jaintia hills but it is also a market which has a story to tell. It is one of the oldest markets in the entire Jaintia Hills and in fact there are many folk stories connected with the market. One of the stories is about the market itself. It appears that Ïawmusiang was earlier located at Nangbah village. Till today there is a place in Nangbah village called Ïawmusiang and more importantly there is a collection of monoliths in the locality which is connected with the market. Although the market has shifted to Jowai, the Daloi of eleka Nangbah till today performs sacrifices to pay obeisance to the deities of the market in its earlier location. The popular narrative amongst the people of Nangbah is that the traditional leaders of the eleka came into an understanding with the leaders of Jowai and shifted the market to its present location in Jowai from Nangbah village. So while the location of the market has changed the name remains as Ïawmusiang.

Till few months back it was the dirtiest place in the district and the market had become an eyesore for passers-by. For many years Ïawmusiang was in the news but for all the wrong reasons but mainly for being one of the dirtiest places in the region. The streets were always littered with waste nearly every day and even on Sundays when much of the market is closed. The sweepers of Jowai Municipal Board find it difficult to ensure that the streets and the markets are kept clean even for an hour in a day. The condition of the market was a cause of embarrassment to the Dorbar Chnong under which Ïawmusiang is located and also to the people living in the area.

In their effort to keep the market clean, the erstwhile Jowai town committee and the district administration regularly organised cleaning drives to educate people about the importance of keeping the market clean.  Awareness programmes at different points of time were organised to inculcate the habit of not littering the road and to keep the market clean. Deputy Commissioners have come and gone and the many efforts to clean Ïawmusiang initiated by the Deputy Commissioner’s office in collaboration with the Dorbar Chnong Tympang Ïawmusiang and other stakeholders become a futile exercise. In fact it has become like a ritual that every October 2, the DC, the Jowai Municipal Board, the Dorbar Chnong would continue with the exercise which did not yield any satisfactory outcome.

Since a major part of the festival was also celebrated in the area, every year prior to every Behdieñkhlam, the Seiñ Raid Jowai too, organises cleaning drives but the endeavour became a wasteful exercise because no sooner did the volunteers clean the area than waste started to collect everywhere all over again.

Last year there was an effort by the Jowai Clean Green campaign to help maintain cleanliness in the entire Ïawmusiang area. The campaign was the outcome of the meeting on October 9, at Orchid Inn initiated as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebration of The Shillong Times daily newspaper. As part of the celebration, The Shillong Times was working on a Clean Shillong Campaign rightly named ‘Operation Clean-Up’ which was intended to culminate at the end of the jubilee celebration on August 9 this year. Taking leave from this campaign, some residents of Jowai town who met Mr Manas Chaudhuri and Patricia Mukhim of the Shillong Times decided to launch a similar campaign in Jowai too. It was later called the ‘Clean Green Jowai Campaign’ and it has only two goals, – to make Ïawmusiang the main market area of Jowai clean and to ensure that river Myntdu is also clean.

To achieve these twin goals, the organisers of the campaign solicited the support of all stakeholders starting with the office the Deputy Commissioner West Jaiñtia Hills, the office of the Jowai Municipal Board, the Jaiñtia Hills Autonomous District Council, Jowai, the Police Department, the Dorbar Chnong Tympang Ïawmusiang, the management committees of different markets in the Ïawmusiang area and of course the shopkeepers, hawkers and vendors. It may be mentioned that although the place is called Ïawmusiang, the district council market has in fact been shifted to a new place called Ïawthymme near Dongmihsngi, Ladthalaboh, Jowai. The District Council market is under construction and heaven knows when the new market will see the light of day.

After Ïawmusiang was shifted to Ïawthymme, the place saw the emergence of three more markets. All the three markets surfaced in the space owned by different faith groups in Jowai and this made matters more complex because there are many stakeholders involved in the issue.

Initially on October 18, the Clean Green Jowai Campaign organised a meeting at Thomas Jones College where all the stakeholders were present. The meeting was a platform where for the first time in the history of the market all the stakeholders which included the District Administration, the Jowai Municipal Board, the management of different markets which included Seiñ Raid Jowai, Presbyterian Church Jowai, Church of North India Jowai, the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, the Police Department, and the Traders Associations met to discuss on this very important issue. The meeting came up with many solutions which the stakeholders hoped would help bring change in the market area.

The first awareness campaign cum cleaning drive was organised by the Clean Green Jowai Campaign on October 9 and the second cleaning drive and awareness campaign was organised on the December 21. Both the campaigns were supported by the NSS volunteers from the Kiang Nanngbah Government College and Thomas Jones College. The Jowai Clean Green Campaign also paid for weekly cleaning of the area in which the members contributed to the cost.

Then lockdown due to the corona virus pandemic started and coincidently the Dorbar Chnong Tympang Ïawmusiang has just elected a new Waheh Chnong and his komiti chnong. The young dynamic leader immediately took the task head on. When lockdown was gradually unlocked and the District Administration decided to open the biggest and the oldest market in Jaintia Hills, the Dorbar Chnong at the same time took the opportunity to maintain cleanliness in the market. As the traders were allowed to resume their trade and shop and commercial activities in the area opened up, maintaining cleanliness was made mandatory for all those engaged in doing business in the area.

The Waheh Chnong of Dorbar Chnong Tympang Ïawmusiang in collaboration with the JMB, the office of the DC, Jowai and particularly the management committees of the different private markets have been able to bring the much desired facelift to the Ïawmusiang market. It has been more than a month since the new arrangement was made and Ïawmusing now wears a different look. Encouraged by the success of the cleaning of the market, the Dorbar Chnonng recently decided to ban the use of plastic carry bags in the market. Shoppers are now encouraged to bring their own bags when they do their shopping in the Ïawmusiang market.

In the near future when people recount the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the people of this state, this will be one positive story to recount, because it is a story of how adversity was turned into an opportunity.

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