Nonglwai is a small village located in West Khasi Hills District, 16 kilometres from the district headquarter, Nongstoin. Having 126 households with a population of 887 people, agriculture and livestock rearing are the main livelihood activities of the people of the village. Due to meager income from these activities, people still rely on the traditional barter system to engage labour for their farms in exchange for goods and services. Life is tough for many residents of Nonglwai.
In 2013, a group of 11 like-minded residents led by Kong Sketina Kharbani, got together and decided that there had to be some way for them to earn a better livelihood and improve the quality of their lives. After a lot of discussion and planning, these individuals came together on 11th June, 2013, and formed a Self Help Group (SHG) called Nongrwe Iamonlang. Today, this group is one of the most successful groups in West Khasi Hills and engages in multiple livelihood activities ranging from agriculture and livestock to sericulture. The group also owns numerous assets such as a collection centre, a grocery store, a tailoring centre, a pickup truck and a power tiller. In addition, the group runs a morning school which provides basic education to children from Nonglwai and nearby villages.
History of the Nongrwe Iamonlang SHG
Before the Nongrwe Iamonlang SHG was formed, its members were engaged in agriculture; they grew maize, sweet potatoes and rice for consumption. They also reared pigs and cows which were a form of insurance that could be sold in case of urgent financial need. Overall, this was fairly typical of most residents of Nonglwai. These future SHG members were also close to each other and often worked together. People in the village found this informal group to be a reliable source of labour and would hire them for village events and festivals. This provided the group with additional income especially during winter when returns from farming were low or absent. However, the members still struggled financially and also shared aspirations such as giving their children a good education up to college level.
During this period, the group had noticed that one of the local farmers was able to earn a good living by cultivating vegetables. He would sell all his produce on every market day and unlike their barren farm lands during winter, his land was cultivated throughout the year. This intrigued them and they decided to visit the Agriculture Department in Nongstoin to enquire about farming techniques and procuring vegetable seeds. Kong Sketina took the lead in meeting the departmental officers, but even she initially felt diffident and uneasy in expressing her queries. Thus she would visit the office often but not talk to anyone. Instead she would sit in the veranda until everyone left the office and then she would leave. This continued for about two weeks until one of the officers noticed this odd behaviour. Out of curiosity, the officer invited Kong Sketina to join her inside for a cup of tea and asked her why she kept coming to the office but leaving without speaking to anyone. Kong Sketina finally opened up to the officer and told her about the group and how they were interested in growing vegetables but did not know how to get seeds, technical guidance or even where to start. Kong Sketina told the officer that she wanted to buy the seeds, not knowing that she could obtain them for free through various government schemes. Touched by her simplicity and commitment, the officer handed her some seeds of carrot, peas and tomatoes, and also gave Kong Sketina her phone number so that she could call her for help whenever needed.
Initially, the group sowed these few seeds on Kong Sketina’s land, following the simple instructions of the officer. That initial harvest yielded the next batch of seeds and they hence did not need to purchase seeds again. The quality of vegetables from their initial harvest was fairly poor and did not sell well at the local market. After consulting with the same officer, Kong Sketina got the chance to participate in a vegetable cultivation training programme being conducted by the Agriculture Department at Nongstoin. Upon completion, the group restarted their vegetable cultivation initiative using the technical knowledge they now had. This time, their vegetables were healthy and sold out at the local market. Just as with the first harvest, they made sure to store some seeds from this batch of vegetables as well. They then shared the seeds with all the members such that the members were able to sow seeds on their individual land. Since all of them were also rearing pigs and cows, they faced no difficulty in sourcing manure to be used as fertilizer.
It was much later that the group officially registered itself as the Nongrwe Iamonlang SHG with Kong Sketina as the president, after being repeatedly advised to do so by various NGOs and local social workers. Since then, the SHG members have received multiple rounds of training from the Agriculture Department, Horticulture Department, Sericulture Department, Cooperative Societies, and most recently, through the Basin Development Unit in West Khasi Hills. While selling their produce in the market, the group realised that some members were better at negotiating and were able to sell their produce at a higher price. Thus they decided that the good negotiator from amongst them would aggregate their produce and try to sell it at the best price in the market. This arrangement eventually worked really well for all members in the group because not everyone had to handle market affairs and yet everyone got a good price for their produce.
The members of the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG have been sent for several training programs both within and outside the state. When asked why the members attended so many trainings and workshops, their reply was simply -– every member has to be thoroughly technically proficient before venturing into the field to ensure that their efforts are successful. The group perceives every invitation by various government departments to be a valuable opportunity and considers it their responsibility to sincerely participate in all sponsored programmes. The added benefit is that this frequent participation has allowed the group to build close relationships with government officials who are a valuable source of information and handholding for their farming operations. Officers from departments such as Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) West Khasi
Hills, and even senior administrative officials including the Principal Secretary and Chief Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya (at the time), have met and engaged with the group, providing guidance when needed. In fact the SHG has also been selected by KVK West Khasi Hills as a Model for Seedling Demonstration to enable other groups to learn from them. The members of Iamonlang Nongrwe continue to be driven and motivated, taking every opportunity to learn, to collaborate with resource persons, and to be open to new ideas and people. This has had commensurate positive impact on their farming enterprise and also made them into resource persons for other communities who want to emulate them.
The Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG has been able to leverage support from government schemes through constant collaboration and informational meetings with various departments. For example, they were able to avail of a 50% subsidy when purchasing a pickup truck with the support of the district Horticulture office in West Khasi Hills. This truck is used not only by group members but also by other farmers in the village to ferry produce from the village to the market at minimal cost. Similarly, the group was able to purchase a power tiller via a 50% subsidy scheme from the Agriculture Department.
Along the same lines, the Agriculture Department through their Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) Scheme was able to sanction funds to cover the cost of constructing a Multi Facility Centre. This centre was brought up with an aim to enhance their collective skill and capacity and where each member of the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG has attended training sessions, and participated in numerous programmes organised by government departments. The group also received a grant from the district Sericulture office in West Khasi Hills for the construction of a shed where they could rear and store silkworm cocoons for silk production. The plan is to produce silk here that can be used as raw material for the proposed Spinning-cum-Handloom Centre of the group.
Other Initiatives by the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG
The village of Nonglwai has a few grocery stores but the price of goods from these stores is typically very high and unaffordable for many residents. This motivated the group to buy goods from the wholesale market and sell them in the village at low prices. As a regular practice, whenever group members return from the market after selling their produce, they make sure to buy groceries and other items which they then sell in the village at low prices. A social initiative managed by the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG is the A.T. Shipara L.P. School.
“Shipara” means “Brothers and Sisters” signifying the school’s principle of universal inclusion. Since most of the residents of Nonglwai are farmers, they are often unable to send their kids to a good yet affordable day school. The A.T. Shipara L.P. School is free. The school teachers are mostly college students or graduates who volunteered to teach in the mornings. Before the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG took up school management, the school was facing challenges in getting necessary support and resources from the government. This struggle had gone on for almost 10 years. Witnessing the success of the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG, the school’s founders turned to them for support.
Under the leadership of Kong Sketina Kharbani and Bah Zacheus Tympuin (Secretary) of the Nongrwe Iamonlang SHG, in 2015 the school finally got the required approvals and sanctions and has now been listed for upgrade to Upper Primary Level. This is significant progress because it means that children from this locality need no longer travel long distances to neighbouring villages for their upper primary level studies. Recently, the support of senior government officials and community members has led to plans for creating residential facilities at the school and for expanding the curriculum at the school to include teaching of agriculture based activities in addition to emphasis on various skills and physical activities. The group is also thinking of yet another new venture - a biodiversity park. Having seen the rampant environmental degradation in this and other areas of the state, the members feel that it is their duty to help preserve local environmental resources. Through this park, the SHG particularly hopes to conserve indigenous and ecologically important species of flowers and spread more knowledge about the local ecological heritage. The MBDA team wishes the Iamonlang Nongrwe SHG good luck in all their wonderful ventures and social initiatives, and hopes that spreading the story of their journey will inspire many community members across Meghalaya to take initiative in the same spirit.
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