Photo Essay: The life of children in Mawiong Village

Mawiong is a small village located in Umling Block of Rebhoi district, Meghalaya with a total of 120

families and population around 420. It is a Garo village and a matrilineal society. The village

community is underprivileged and majority of the population is children. If you go to this village, you

will see children sitting and playing all round.

Photo 1: A child is taking care of his little brother and enjoying a football match being played by the

children of his age.

Child marriage is very prevalent in Mawiong village. And the birth rate is very high. When parents go

to stone quarries and other works for livelihood, the older children take care of the younger siblings.

And hence they don’t get enough time to play and study, and sometimes they also don’t get time for

attending classes in the school. From our case study, we came to know that the infant mortality rate

of Mawiong village is very high. There is no government health centre or any other kind of

healthcare facilities in the village. The villagers can’t afford to buy medicine and healthcare services

because of their poor economic condition.

Photo 2: A Child from Mawiong village wearing ‘Tokmando’-a Garo traditional dress.

Photo 3: The road to Mawiong village

There is no public transportation facilities in Mawiong. People who are relatively better off use their

personal vehicles. Lack of transportation facilities hamper education of the children. The nearest

school is about 2 kilometres away. So the children have to traverse the hilly track of about one hour

to reach their schools. Some of the students are studying in schools of Meghalaya government. They

need to trudge up a hill and cross another hill to reach their schools. Some children are studying in

schools run under the government of Assam—they need to walk down to the plains to reach their

school, situated in a place called Borpothar.

Photo 4: Women in Mawiong are carrying loads of firewood to their home.

The people of Mawiong village are mostly daily wage labourers, workers at stone quarries, and

drivers. They get only 400 rupees per day, which is not sufficient for a family of 6/7 members,

because one household has minimum 4/5 children. So the women also collect firewood and sell

them the boost their livelihoods. In most cases, both the parents go for work, leaving the children

alone, which likely hamper the mental growth and education of the children. Students can’t afford

to buy books because of the poor economic condition of the parents.

Photo 5: Elder sisters taking care of their little younger siblings. This is a common sight in Mawiong.

Photo 6: Unhygienic and unsafe conditions of toilet and well.

Most of the families of Mawiong village do not have proper toilet and sanitation and drinking water

facilities. For drinking water, they don’t use filter. That’s why they are prone to suffering from

various water-related health issues like diarrhoea, jaundice, cholera etc. Unhygienic water is also

one of the causes of high infant mortality rate in Mawiong .

Photo 7: Nikita Nongrum, Ashoka Youth Venture of Mawiong Village.

Nikita Nongrum, a 19-year-old youth change maker of Mawiong village, has been teaching the

children in her village various cultural activities, life skills, and awaring them about the evils of child

marriage. She has also been teaching the poor students without charging any fee. She is a student of

B.com 1st semester. She started her work at the age of 17 in her village after she passed her

matriculation exam. She is also an Ashoka Youth Venture, 2018. In August 2018, with the help of WE

ARE YOUNG FOUNDATION ( a non-governmental organisation) she started a football academy in

Mawiong for the children of Mawiong and neighbouring villages.

Photo 8: Students of football academy -Mawiong, during their practice time.

Photo 9: A facilitator from We Are Young foundation teaching the students of Football Academy-

Mawiong

When I asked Nikita Nongrum how she came about the idea of a football academy in Mawiong, she

said that in March 2018 three members from We Are Young foundation, Mr Indrajit Sinha, Mr

Abenthung , Mr Sonal Roshan came to Mawiong to take stock of the problems of the villagers,

particularly the problems of the children and adolescent. After coming to know about the problems,

they asked the village headman and other villagers what can they do for the youth of the village.

Then Nikita told them that the youth of Mawiong are very much into football but they lack proper

training. The members from WAY Foundation gave a suggestion to open a football academy in

Mawiong. That was the starting of the football academy in Mawiong. The students need to give 200

rupees per month for the salary of the coach, who is from the village itself. In December 2018,

13,14,15 the students from this football academy got selected for participation in a Zonal level

football match in Kolkata. And they are improving their skills day by day. The football academy of

Mawiong village is certainly a great initiative and achievement of Nikita and We Are Young

Foundation.