Power Cuts hampering business and growth in Nagaland

This video by a volunteer for India Unheard, Renchano Humtsoe talks about the effects of shortage of power supply in Wokha District in particular, and may be applied to other districts of Nagaland in general. The consequences are that it affects overall business and growth. Entrepreneurs who have set up business are hampered to a great extend, electricity being a necessity.

Long power cuts and bills irrespective of supply have been a nuisance for residents. On the other hand, in an interview with a Power Department employee, the employee highlights that there are many users tapping power illegally, which is a reality in many areas and also an offense. Read more about the video below.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/VideoVolunteers
An excerpt from the YouTube video description:
"Recently Nagaland government has shown much seriousness in achieving higher industrial growth. In fact, currently a special Industrial Growth Centre with high standard infrastructure is being set up at Ganeshnagar near Dimapur. The Growth Centre, beside sufficient water supply and communication facilities, also aims to provide dedicated Power supply. However, heavy dependence on on the neighboring States of Meghalaya and Assam for its power requirement has been a big obstacle in its road to achieve industrial growth. At present there are hours of power cuts everyday, affecting business units, especially the smaller ones like internet cafes, restaurants, computer centres and xerox centres. While some run their businesses on generator, those who can not afford a generator, simply shuts down the shop. This, is turn, affects ordinary citizens' lives. Renchano Humtsoe, our Correspondent is one of them. As there was no power, she couldn't charge the batteries of her camera for many days. There is only a single Internet centre in her area and when power cuts forced the owner to shut down the café, Renchano couldn't use a computer to burn a DVD with her video. She couldn't access mails and above all, even though the video is available to a global audience, Renchano herself must wait for days before she can watch it on the web. Recently the state government has commissioned three new power projects in the state. These are: 75 MW Hydel Project at Doyang, 24MW Hydel Project at Likhimro and another 24KW Thermal Project. With this, the power availability in the state is expected to improve, making the supply of adequate power to industry possible. However, according to the Association of Power Engineers of Nagaland (APEN), the state must also have new distribution lines, transformers and more employees. In short, along with capacity additions there should be increased manpower for manning the new assets."

No School for Special Children by Renchano Humtsoe (Video Volunteers)

This video from a volunteer, Renchano Humtsoe for India Unheard, talks about the lack of educational system that caters to the needs of 'special children'. So they remain isolated from society, disengaged from some sort of educational or developmental activities. Read the excerpt from the video description below for more details about this presentation.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/VideoVolunteers
An excerpt from the video:
"There are 112 primary schools, 34 middle schools and 23 high schools Wokha, but not one for children with special need. However, the Right to Education bill' 2009, for the first time, gives disabled children statutory right to education. Clause 3 (2) of the bill specifically mentions that a disabled child "shall" have the right to free and compulsory education in accordance with chapter V of the Disabilities Act. Chapter V exclusively deals with education for special children. But in small towns like Wokha, where Renchano's family lives, children with special needs have no option but stay uneducated as 'normal' schools can not cater to their needs.

These schools lack the infrastructure that special children need. They also do not have education materials that can help a special child overcome learning difficulties. So even if they are technically admitted by a mainstream school, it can't educate special children. The boy with special need in Renchano's video is her own nephew who has been deprived of his rights to education, as there are no schools where he can learn. Watching a teenager grow up only to have a bleak future is an agony for any family with children like Pilamo. Renchano and her family share this agony. It was this agony and frustration that led Renchano to produce the video, because children with special need had been ignored for a long time and Renchano felt, as a community correspondent, she has a responsibility to highlight their plight. Around 1,331,338 people in India today have Down Syndrome. About 36,000 babies are born with Down syndrome every year. This is 16% of all those born globally. Must all these children remain ignored even when they have a constitutional right to education? That is the question Renchano asks".

Video Volunteers -Weavers Need A Helping Hand by Renchano Humtsoe

Source: Video Volunteers
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/VideoVolunteers

An excerpt from the YouTube Video description:
"The weaving tradition of Lotha Naga tribals is becoming rare as young generation stays away from it. In Wokha district of Nagaland where Lotha tribals like our correspondent Renchano lives, most of the young men and women are unaware of the great value attached to their hand-woven clothes. The craft is now practiced only by a few women of the older generation and the fall out of this is, young Nagas are getting alienated from their history and traditions. For a Naga tribe, any hand-woven cloth is much more than just a piece of warm clothing. It is an indicator of his community and his social standing. So every Naga tribe has it's own distinct designs. Each of these design has multiple patterns and together they are supposed to reflect the wearer's complete identity -- which tribe he belongs to, the group of villages he came from, his social status and the number of ritual feasts he had performed. The clothes, especially the shawl woven by the Lotha tribe has several patterns which indicate the number of social feasts given by the wearer. Interestingly all the designs are woven only by women. But unlike before now young Naga women often travel to other states either for higher education or jobs which keep them away from home. As a result, they don't get to learn weaving which is so crucial for their tribe. Renchano, a Lotha Naga tribal herself, doesn't know how to weave as she spent several years out of Wokha. She points this out as a reason why the tradition of weaving slowly vanishing. And as production of shawls and other woven materials decrease, imitations of Naga shawls are now being produced by machines in Delhi, Chennai, Patna or wherever and being sold at a little over Rs 100, when an original shawl of the same design should fetch nothing less than Rs 1,000-1,500 in the Nagaland government shops. Renchano says, it's important that the tribals themselves value their tradition, instead of blaming others for creating replicas of their hand-woven crafts. As we see in her video, Renchano herself became more aware of the value of weaving while producing this video. She has now decided to learn the art of weaving and practice it in future. She wants others young members of the community also take pride in their craft and help preserve it."