Assam polling, Phase-1: Jokaichuk is ready to vote on Monday

Nath points at floods, unemployment, anomalies in distribution of PDS items, lack of scientific agricultural inputs and absence of science education in the higher secondary stage as the other major problems faced by the people of over 100 big and small villages that comprise his mouza. “Jokaichuk is also a major granary of entire upper Assam, yet farmers are gradually losing interest because the price of paddy has been falling every passing year,” Nath said.

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Centuries ago this place Jokaichuk, which has a massive paddy-field shaped like a Jokai – a triangular fishing implement made of bamboo – used to be close to Rangpur, the then capital of the Ahom kingdom, but somehow out of the way and backward. The people of Jokaichuk of those days probably were considered ‘backward’ by those who lived in the capital, so much so that the name of the place also became a synonym of backwardness. As time flew, Jokaichuk also led to another word “jokaichukiya” – it denoting both backwardness and narrowness in thinking.

“Though Jokaichuk and jokaichukiya have become synonyms of backwardness, this place is not at all backward. There are three colleges in the greater Jokaichuk area. The national highway passes through it, and two enlightened towns Sivasagar and Jorhat are not far away from here. And if you consider the adjoining Jhanji and Phulpanisiga areas, then many important personalities from Assam were born in this area,” pointed out Haren Bhuyan, retired founder principal of Dikhowmukh College, one of the three colleges that are located in the greater Jokaichuk area.

“Unemployment and poor returns from agriculture have together triggered off poverty, prompting many boys to go out to far-away states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra in search of jobs,” pointed out mouzadar Nath.

Makhan Neog, a retired school teacher on the other hand points at lack of good roads, safe drinking water and absence of government doctors as the three most important problems of Jokaichuk. “The ground water here has very high iron content. People in villages like Hatighuli, Dimoruguri, Mautgaon, Chintamoni and Kholagrazing have a serious drinking water problem.

Bornali Baruah, a local free-lance journalist who had won several awards including the Laadli Media Award on the other hand is worried women of Jokaichuk are lagging behind in empowerment. “They may be members of self-help groups. But I have doubts about the returns they get from the hard work they do. Women here, like elsewhere in the country do almost everything from much before sunrise to late in the night. Yes, they want to do something in life, but where is the way?” asked Baruah. “Monday morning the women will reach the polling stations much before the menfolk. But voting in large numbers has hardly changed their lives,” she added.

Minati Gogoi, who teaches economics in the Jhanji Hemnath Sharma College near here however says women of Jokaichuk are hard-working. “The women here are very hard-working. They work in the fields, weave cloths and rear poultry too apart from the domestic chores. Hundreds of them have bank accounts after becoming part of self-help groups. But that do not always mean they are really empowered. The awareness level is still very low, and this is reflected in widespread open defecation especially in the tribal villages,” said Gogoi, who hails from Morona-gaon near here and belongs to the family of Padmanath Gohain Barua, founder of the Asam Sahitya Sabha.

Gogoi also points at several polling stations in the Jokaichuk area where women voters clearly outnumber men. “In the Khonakhokora Balika MV School polling station there are 239 female voters against 223 men. In Teliadonga Mising MW School (W) polling station there are 394 women voters against 360 men,” she said.