Nagaland can be definitely called as the Land of NGOs because a Naga automatically becomes the member of about 20-30 NGOs whether to his liking or not, necessary or unnecessarily, registered or unregistered and if anybody avoids any of these NGOs then he/she is duped as anti-social, non entity or just useless person. Of course, the NGOs (Union or Associations) are formed for the benefit and betterment of the people but as a matter of fact, too much of everything is bad for any people in any kind. The problem is not about just being a member but the membership fees collected each year by the different NGOs formed. How can you expect a grade-IV staff living in a big town to spend about Rs 2000/- to Rs 3000/- on average as membership fees and all the fares required to attend the meeting of this unions or organizations. It is a classic situation of ‘caught between the deep sea and the devils’, where you are the main target of gossiping and name calling if you don’t clear the membership fees, and if you clear it, then a big hole is created in your pocket making life very difficult and terrible.
The NGOs are formed by other people too and every person in this world is a member of one NGO or the other but not like our Nagaland where the NGOs are formed at every level, every field, every purpose and every day. The NGOs start from your clan union, village union, range union, tribe union, group of tribes union, union of group of tribe’s union, churches etc. Also there are staff unions of clan, village etc for govt. servant and union of every type of vehicles like Auto, Taxi, Bus, Trucks etc. Even professions like drivers, contractors, weavers, farmers etc have union and different enterprise like steel fabrication, tyre retreating, printing, groceries shop, wholesalers, meat selling etc too have unions. The educated and unemployed also cannot be seen lagging in this race for forming unions and even the students community have different union of tribes, colleges, range, area, districts etc. Does we really need all this Ngo and whether it is having a negative or positive impact in our social and economic fields? Oh dear! We really need to think seriously and sincerely, and bring about changes because in this present world quality is more important and precious then the quantity. Who knows in future we may even have unions of sleeping, eating, clothing, heights, shapes, colour etc and total membership fees may even go upto Rs 10,000/- to Rs 20,000/- in a year. To prove the above points, at present I am a member of about 10 to 15 NGOs and office bearers in about 5 NGOs which is making my life very hard and difficult. So, what about people being members in about 20 to 30 NGOs?
N.T. Thamlong Phom
Signal Phom Colony, Dimapur
