Every Naga is a villager. A villager does not simply mean someone who resides in the village. One may not be residing in a village but, in the Naga context, every Naga hails from a certain village and, therefore, is a villager. In fact, the identity of a Naga individual would be unidentifiable if he is not identified to the native village of his origin. For a Naga, his village is more than just a residential address or a geographical location. The whole essence of his being, his very existence, is fundamentally rooted in his village. Therefore, every Naga is a villager, regardless of wherever he may be residing.
The intrinsic nature of a Naga being, being indispensably rooted in his village, is the greatest asset that we should capitalize on, in order to develop our villages. Government policies and schemes will come and go but our villages will remain. Depending on government policies and schemes to develop our villages is not the answer. Such policies and schemes can, at best, be considered as an add-on but the main course. The desire to develop our villages should emanate from deep within the heart and soul of the villagers, including those of us who do not reside in the village, and not the government.
Mokokchung is a land of villages and every one of us is a villager. Care we dream of making our villages smart? The union government has a Smart Village India program. This Smart Village India program “is a concept adopted by national, state and local governments of India, as an initiative focused on holistic rural development, derived from Mahatma Gandhi’s vision,” and there is also the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY or SAANJHI), launched on 2 October 2014, Gandhi’s birthday, by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Such programs, along with the regular ones, like the various Rural Development schemes are there to aid the villages. However, these schemes will never be enough to transform our villages so long as we, the villagers, do not take ownership and own up.
It will not be a matter of misplaced optimism to propose that every village can be transformed into a smart village. We should realize that fellow villagers living in the villages deserve the same opportunities as everyone else and that we are what we are because the village existed first. Every village is unique and, therefore, every village can be a model village.
A participatory approach, with active participation of the village community, in the drawing up and decision-making regarding the village’s development, should be encouraged. Our villages need innovative solution inputs to improve their resilience, building on local strengths and opportunities. While those villagers residing in the villages are expected to, and should, be receptive to new ideas, those villagers not residing in the villages should be audacious enough to participate in the development and transformation of the villages. Smart villagers will make villages smart. And we are the villagers.