The road in Manipur that made history

The telephone gets disconnected for the seventh time in 10 minutes It bluntly cuts the conversation Armstrong Pame the 28yearold IAS officer posted in Manipur is trying to have He was speaking about how remote and inhospitable Tousem is Tousem where Armstrong is posted is the most backward of the four subdivisions of Tamenglong which in turn is the most backward of the nine districts of Manipur On the eighth attempt Armstrong comes back on the line and rues quotWell I donrsquot think I need to elaborate anymore You can judge what life is like here just by the quality of this callrdquo A part of the 100km TameglongHaflong road in Manipur PICS COURTESYJeremiah Pame Tamenglong may still be struggling with electronic connectivity but thanks to Armstrong and his brother Jeremiah it is connected to the world outside This February the brothers helped residents of 15 villages in Tamenglong build a 100kmlong road which now connects the district to Assam and Nagaland The construction began in September 2012 and in just seven months over 150 locals across Tamenglong pooled in Rs 10 lakh from their meagre earnings for the road A larger contribution of Rs 40 lakh came from donations through the social networking site Facebook More than 150 locals from 14 villages helped construct the road between September 2012 and February this year Just for the record the government estimate for the same road was Rs 100 crore The road says Jeremiah has changed life in Tamenglong forever Thirtytwoyearold Jeremiah is assistant professor at the Delhi University and memories of the erstwhile Tamenglong make him bitter The government he adds promised a road to Manipur in 1976 but all people saw was sporadic construction and ministerial visits over the past 40 years ldquoUntil February our farmers travelled for two days to sell their produce in the market and make only Rs 100200 over four days The nearest hospital takes two days to reach and 10 people carry a patient on bamboo stretchersrdquo says Jeremiah In 2004 the brothers lost their uncle to belligerent outbreaks of typhoid and malaria He was one among hundreds Since Armstrongrsquos tenure in Tamenglong which started in May last year 10 women have died in childbirth due to lack of facilities Jeremiah adds that he and his six siblings grew up in Impa village where the nearest school was 60 kms away ldquoOur father a primary school teacher wouldnrsquot receive his salary for a year at times and worked as a carpenter to make ends meet Till date most teachers donrsquot come to schools in Tamenglong Out of 300 students in Tamenglong now only two have done their postgraduate studies The literacy rate here is an abysmal 40 per centrdquo says Jeremiah It was early last year that Armstrong and Jeremiah first thought it was time to rise against the deplorable conditions they called life At his first Gram Sabha meeting in Phoklong Armstrong asked the people what they wanted the most It was then that an elderly man stood up to speak ldquoHe had spent the best part of his life walking for days to sell his produce and was worried that his grandson will have the same fate throughout his life In spite of the grind he was resigned to what would probably be a painful death due to the lack of a road I was deeply moved and wanted to change my helplessness into actionrdquo Armstrong discussed the issue with Jeremiah who had been thinking on the same lines after watching local after local perishing due to sickness year after year Armstrong approached the government for the last time but found no solace there ldquoSo we began putting our own money into thisrdquo says Jeremiah ldquoMy wife and I gave a monthrsquos salary each Armstrong put in five monthsrsquo salary our mother put in my fatherrsquos pension money and one of our brothers put in some more We collected around Rs 4 lakh and then went around our village People laughed at us but we didnrsquot give uprdquo Jeremiah followed a Naga tradition to gather funds To seek help traditionally the Nagas distribute a pinch of salt to encourage donation ldquoWe distributed 6000 kgs of salt across 15 villages Thatrsquos when people knew we were serious and one village decided to give us a JCB machine for free Soon another businessman heard of the effort and donated a bulldozer Another contractor donated another JCB machine We collected Rs 6 lakh through the Naga tradition and were readyrdquo Locals from the village where the construction took place came forward and worked for free Jeremiah and Armstrong say they could provide food for everyone only rarely so the workforce arranged for their own meals despite bad harvests rains and landslides The operators of the machines and some locals didnrsquot go home for three months Jeremiah says they didnrsquot hire an engineer and only worked with locals By August however some local engineers came forward to volunteer for the project In September Jeremiah started a Facebook group about the project which soon got 10000 memberships Donations came from US Canada UK France Switzerland Germany Israel Saudi Arabia and Kuwait ldquoBenevolent people who had lived in the North East contributed NRIs came ahead even disgruntled Indians who had sworn never to return to the country said they were moved by our effort and contributed We raised Rs 40 lakh that wayrdquo says Jeremiah Wholehearted donations from underprivileged Manipuris moved Jeremiah and Armstrong most ldquoA man confessed his love for a girl who lived in a village which would benefit from this road and said he was donating the money so she could see good timesrdquo remembers Jeremiah The road was inaugurated on February 16 and the two brothers organised a bike rally to flag off the new member in their lives Jeremiah says they plan to hold celebrations in Delhi Mumbai and Bangalore too since most of their donors came from these cities On May 4 Jeremiah is organising a resource and network building programme in Delhi Their work he adds doesnrsquot end with the road ldquoWe now plan to work on our crumbling healthcare and education facilitiesrdquo On June 1 2 and 3 the brothers have organised a health camp which will see some Mumbaibased doctors live in Tamenglong for a month to tend to the sick They are also sponsoring the treatment of a visuallychallenged local a fiveyearold boy in Delhi ldquoAn elderly woman who is suffering from goitre once walked to a hospital for two days and returned because she couldnrsquot afford treatment We will soon take her to Imphal for treatmentrdquo By next year Jeremiah also hopes to start a good school in Tamenglong Work has also begun on an extension of the road mdash a 12kmstretch ldquoThe villagers heard of us and asked us to help They have been digging that road for 20 years in vainrdquo says Jeremiah Donors have contributed Rs 16 lakh Armstrong says a woman recently suffered major injuries after a fall in his village but they couldnrsquot use the road to transport her to a hospital ldquoIt is a kacchha road It isnrsquot an answer to all our problems but we hope to make it work for most of themrdquo To donate log on to thegreatindianroadin