The community has
traditionally played a very strong role in Sikkimese society, especially in the
rural areas. Many of the functions that are now being dispensed by the state can
be taken over by the community, perhaps via the panchayat or the farmers’
cooperatives. A Cooperatives Department was set up in Sikkim at the time of the
state’s merger with the Union in 1974-75, and it now has offices at the district
level and sub-divisional levels. At present, there are 304 registered societies
in the state, with a membership of 32,881 farmers. There are relatively few
non-governmental organisations functioning in the state.
Greater utilisation of the
existing facilities could be ensured through inspection by government officials,
provision of incentives to the intended user or through greater participation
and oversight by the local community of users. Greater participation by the
local community associated with inspection by government officials should ensure
greater and more efficient utilisation of the existing facilities.
The biggest danger to
development in the state is environmental degradation and only the community
at large can prevent this from occurring. Hill communities, having developed
in
relative isolation, are relatively closely knit and are the most effective
guardian of forests, lakes and the environment in general.
Education
Non-formal
education programmes can supplement primary schooling in the areas that
are not located near a formal institution. These programmes are
most successful when there is active community participation, when the local
people themselves design the programmes and take responsibility for it. The
building is often donated by the local community, school hours and holidays
are determined keeping in mind local needs, learning is practical and costs
low to make it affordable. Most important, the schoolhouse is in the vicinity,
and bad weather conditions and poor roads and transport facilities do not
keep children and the teacher form attending. Teachers, with a minimum of
stipulated
training, should be selected from within the community, to cut down on teacher
absenteeism.
Another system, that has worked in other states, is to employ a village woman
(who has been educated till at least Class V) who will teach in school in
place of the frequently absent teacher. Experience shows that education levels
improve
especially when local monitoring controls the quality of education. Frequent
training workshops are held for these teachers to learn and teach, and they
are encouraged to make their classes relevant to local needs.
Health
*
NGOs in the area can be encouraged in various aspects of health at the grass-roots
level through logistical and technical support. They
along with the panchayat’s can help raise people’s awareness about identifying
their own health problems and solving them with local resources. A large proportion
of health problems can be resolved or prevented by people themselves if they
have the knowledge. Preventive health programmes can be run by NGOs, the panchayat’s,
or other community-based groups, using as a medium the radio, television, community
gatherings etc.
* A system of community health workers can help complement the work of primary
care providers in rural areas. They will spread information on sanitation,
nutrition, family planning, child health and immunisations, be on hand at all
times to provide primary services first aid and be a valuable referral point
between the PHCs and the rural community. Apart from imparting information
about family planning measures, health community workers or NGOs should encourage
couples to postpone the birth of their first child, better space their children
etc.
* Alcoholism is an emerging problem. Successful alcohol rehabilitation programs
in south India show that community efforts are generally more effective than
medical intervention in helping individuals overcome alcohol dependencies,
partially because of the importance of sustained encouragements, which is more
easily offered by the community than the health service institutions.
* Many of the rural people rely on more holistic indigenous medical remedies
and local hers for prevention and treatment. This could be effectively incorporated
into the community health programmes as they provide effective and low-cost
solutions to many health problems.
Horticulture
and Animal Husbandry Producer’s cooperatives have an important role to play in horticulture
and animal husbandry, by supplementing direct government involvement
in a host of areas such as input and credit supplies and marketing.
The aim of the cooperatives should be to improve market efficiency
by improving access to information and reducing imperfections such
as excessive middlemen’s margins. They can help compliment private
ventures by better dissemination of information, pooling of risks
and helping to fill in gaps in private initiatives. These include
keeping members informed about prices of relevant products in important
trading centres in the country-through internet or the telephone-and
borrowing from banks and financial institutions against the collective
security of all the members ( as in the Bangladesh Grameen Bank
model).Apart from this, they can use technology to supplement government
extension work by disseminating information on the latest techniques,
seeds, and other in outs. As one of the immediate steps, the government
should promote producers cooperatives in the two major cash crops,
cardamoms and ginger, to disseminate marketing information and
technical know-how. The scheme will be initiated on a pilot basis
in a few areas, and the success of the scheme evaluated at the
end of the fiscal year. It will be extended to other areas only
if successful.
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