Imphal, October 20: The Barak Valley Meitei Convention, Lakhipur, Cachar has appealed to all the people of Manipur to extend their generous aid in helping the indigenous Meitei speaking community settled in the valley to retain their identity as well as to provide earning avenues to the youngsters.

Outside Manipur, Lakhipur is perhaps the largest home to the Meitei speaking community, said the Convention and added that being a minority in a land of others, they have no one else to look up to for help.

The main economic activities of the people here include agriculture while the women folk chip in with making clothes.

Some women also add to the family's kitty by selling vegetables gathered from the jungles and grown on their farms.

However with the changing times and with the challenge posed by the rapid process of globalisation, the Meitei community, including Meitei Pangals of the valley are hard pressed to find meaningful earning avenues and quite a large number of young people are left without any employment avenues, said the Convention.

It was to help the Meitei speaking community of Barak valley that the Convention was formed on Jan 18, 2004 and though still a very young organisation, the Convention has been doing its best to provide whatever little help it can to the people.

Under the objective of helping the Meitei community retain their identity and earn a living, the Convention introduced a collective farming scheme for rabi crops at Telen village.

Ten looms were also provided for girls to make clothes, said the Convention.

However this is still not enough and in the absence of any highly qualified instructors, the girls are finding it hard to master the work of weaving clothes.

It is with the objective of helping the Meitei community of Barak valley, that the Convention has taken up a plan to set up a Handloom Weaving Programme.

Under the programme, 30 looms are to be provided each costing Rs 12,355 with all its components.

Four Warping Drums costing Rs 18,000, 15 spinning wheel (complete set) at a cost of Rs 4,500 and to construct one work shed measuring 20 by 300 square feet at an estimated cost of Rs 3.5 lakhs.

The total estimated amount comes up to about Rs 7,43,150, said the Convention and appealed to all to extend cooperation in making the programme a reality.

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