Borders are Safe Because of the People
- They do care for us but do we reciprocate? -

Amar Yumnam *

I have recently been in the interior mountains of this land of jewels. Whereas the mountains are not new to me having visited every village where the state roads exist, this time the impact and impulses caused have been different, unique and deep.

The visit this time took me to the last international border villages of the land where there is no power, no water supply, no roads, no schools, no hospitals and what not.

While the academic and other developmental implications felt as the result of the visit are for another forum, I would be failing in my duty as well as be an ingrate if I do not record the personal psychological feeling if do not record the psychological impact the visit has had on me.

Earlier Feelings and This time:

Well I have been articulating and emphasizing on the need for developmental transformations in the mountains and enhancement of quality of life of the people living there for more than a decade now. But all these were largely based on my training in the subject of specialization and insights gained from that perspective.

However the recent visits have tremendously deepened and transformed my feelings and bases for articulation for the mountains. I now feel for the mountains and the people living there in my body, in my blood and in my bones.

Seeing the life being led by these people and the training I have had on welfare principles of development now make me relentlessly think over and dream about how we can transform the life in these areas and of these people.

They Have Nothing, But Give You Everything:

I would like the recounting from the village where residents are only two minutes walk away from the Myanmar border and where any kind of official has not yet visited before me. The villagers later told me that when they first saw me they were wondering if I were not afraid of death.

Well I was not and need not for I have development in every place at the core of my academic and personal commitment. From here on, I and my team visited every farthest village, farthest from our perspective, and nearest to the Myanmar border.

In every village we visited, we were overwhelmed by love, warmth, care and invitation for stay and food - cultures we have long forgotten in the valley now ruled by suspicion. Remember as I have said earlier, these villages have no roads, no schools, no hospitals, no power, no water supply, no television entertainment and whatever we take for granted in this modern world of information technology. Yet they were ready to do everything for our comfort.

The warmth of the people in these places takes a lovelier turn and gets reinforced if we land at any village in the heart of night. As we undertook the non-stop journey, we would stop at any village we reach at about 8.30 or 9 in the night.

We would be offered shelter, food and hard-fetched water even before we could dare ask for. Well all the mountains in Manipur are inhabited by people who have nothing but ready to give you everything. The big question now is: Have we given them any in return?

Our People, Safe Borders:

One touching feeling is the way the people in the international border villages feel about the national boundaries. They feel so strongly and closely about our national boundaries. They want them to be safe and protected as vehemently as possible by the government of the land from any type of incursion from across the border.

They all want the other side to be more dependent economically and socially on our side rather than the other way round. They value and are much more appreciate of whatever is there on our side. Further they still have not lost heart even after six decades of planning and planned negligence.

Well it is at this point that I would like to remind all of us living in the better served places a well-respected welfare principle of policy. This principle says: The accuracy, appropriateness and effectiveness of any policy is to be judged by how much it serves the interests of the most downtrodden of the downtrodden.

The sooner we have a state alive to this principle the better for all of us. Our people are making our borders worth living for, it is now the responsibility of the state to make their living worth.