Editor,
“The payment is still yet to be cleared by the administration.”
This sentence is not just familiar in Arunachal Pradesh, it is personal. I write this from firsthand experience, having myself failed to receive payment for products procured by government-associated event organisers.
Despite having the privilege of access, networks, and the confidence to repeatedly follow up, I continue to wait. If this is the reality for someone like me, one can only imagine how much more difficult it is for self-help groups (SHGs) and small women-led enterprises who lack the same reach and resources.
Across the state, government bodies and event-organising agencies routinely procure products from SHGs and local businesses for conferences, gift hampers, cultural events, and official visits. These products, often handcrafted with remarkable skill and cultural authenticity, become symbols of our identity and pride. Yet, the women who create them are too often left waiting for months for payments that are not in lakhs, but in mere thousands. Amounts that determine whether they can buy raw materials again, keep their enterprise running, or meet the needs of their families.
The justification frequently offered is familiar: “Your products will get publicity”
But publicity is not payment. Exposure does not put food on the table, nor does it replenish bamboo, cane, threads, seeds, fibres, dyes, or labour. When agencies delay payments, the message is clear, whether intended or not: the labour of these women is negotiable. And that must not be acceptable in a state that claims to uplift its rural economy.
SHGs and small entrepreneurs are further disadvantaged because many do not know whom to approach, how to file claims, or how to assert their rights within bureaucratic processes. Meanwhile, their products are displayed, gifted, photographed and forgotten, along with the invoice.
If the state is genuinely committed to strengthening grassroots enterprise, then empowerment must begin with the most basic principle of professional ethics: pay people on time.
What must change
To ensure dignity and fairness in government-related procurement, I propose that the following steps be institutionalised:
- Mandatory 30% advance payment for all orders placed with SHGs and small entrepreneurs.
- Final payment within 7-14 days of delivery and verification of products.
- Interest applied to delayed payments, holding agencies accountable for financial harm caused.
- Clear escalation channels for SHGs and small businesses to lodge complaints.
- Public disclosure of vendor payment status for transparency.
These are not radical demands. They are standard practices in professional institutions worldwide.
A matter of respect, not just economics
The women who weave, carve, ferment, stitch, pickle, process, and preserve our indigenous knowledge are not merely vendors in a supply chain. They are custodians of our cultural economy. When they are made to wait endlessly for payments, the state erodes not just livelihoods, but dignity.
If we truly want Arunachal to become a thriving example of rural innovation, then we must begin by recognising a simple truth: empowerment is not achieved by praising SHGs in speeches, but by paying them on time.
Let us build a professional culture worthy of the land we are so proud of.
Anonymous