Editor,
As we all are ready to embrace the New Year, a cup of coffee and a pen is what I am with now, thinking of how political, social, cultural and economic rejuvenation has taken place in Itanagar all these years. It’s been almost 20 since I last set my foot on this soil, from Daporijo, for higher studies.
Yes, like you all, I too believe in the concept of change and continuity, but one subject I believe needs to be placed for introspection is the dependency syndrome. Don’t panic, as it sounds like some medical terminology, but the side-effects it has been engendering all these years are more dangerous than it appears, and it will be catastrophic if we still let it remain for long in our society.
An astonishing fact I have come across in these 20 odd years is the graph level of the migrant workers in the state capital, particularly from neighbouring Assam, for various jobs that local people traditionally performed or could perform. Witness the scenario when the markets get closed for a day during their festivals; our people are left with no other option but to wait for the shops to be opened again. We are dependent on even the autorickshaws, Tempos and Sumos driven by them. The locals now depend on people from outside for agricultural works or horticulture works, many having leased their farms to these outsiders as caretakers.
A major factor I find is the increasing reliance of the local population of the state on outside labourers for key economic activities like agriculture, horticulture, and construction, as well as in domestic chores such as cooks, maids and drivers. The most poisonous tonic being fed to us in return is the side-effects it has upon our children. Right from behavioural change to the language being used, these children speak the language of their maids.
A primary reason I have noted is the reluctance of our indigenous workforce to offer their services for these tasks. The process of modernisation and go-as-you-like attitude has indeed taken a toll on all of us.
A strong reason along with the above is the reliance on government rations and aids, rather than fostering self sufficiency in agriculture or horticulture fields. Even for minor repairing of a door handle or even a bulb plug, migrant workers are called in for assistance. The fish/meat markets are in their hands now. In the last such festival of theirs, when they were off from their workplace for a day, I came across how the whole market was closed down and our own local people running helter-skelter for their kitchen items.
It is not that our state government is not doing anything related to it. It is into it through various youth-oriented programmes and yes, the youths even have reciprocated to these initiatives, many even in the fields of plumbing, electricians, etc. The elder lot too has come of age and many have started their entrepreneurship such as hotels and homestays, but it would be more effective if they invite our own local youths to such initiatives. Why give such opportunities to outsiders?
Someone has rightly said: India rises when Arunachal rises, and for me, Arunachal will only rise when its people, especially the youths, wake up to the clarion call of vocal for local and push for its implementation in practice.
Gyamde Gumja Tamin