President Kalam inspects hand-made silk cloth at a loom during his visit to Sualkuchi on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Oct. 17: It was in stark contrast to the deserted streets of Imphal only a day ago. Hundreds thronged either side of the kutcha road to catch a glimpse of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as the sleepy hamlet lined up a warm welcome for the country’s first citizen.

On the last day of his three-day Northeast visit, the President arrived at Gumoria village under Hahara gaon panchayat of Dimoria development block in Kamrup (metro) district.

The audience broke into a huge applause when the President welcomed them in Assamese. “On both sides of the road I saw ducks and they appear to have benefited your lives,” Kalam said to the women members of the self-help groups.

In 2003, the Chara Chameli breed of ducks were brought from Kerala to selected villages in Assam to make the traditional activity of duck rearing a more feasible vocation. In fact, duck rearing has become the prime activity of the women of the village, who earlier had time in their hands but nothing much to do except household chores. Five hundred women have been organised into 50 self-help groups.

Impressed by the work of self-help groups in the village, Kalam urged them to work on the concept of “one village, one product” which has helped villages in Madhya Pradesh to sell their products globally.

He asked the villagers to take an eight-point declaration for all-round development of the villages.

He said the panchayat should have physical connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity for all-round development. “The panchayat needs to get the latest technologies for their development,” Kalam suggested to the government.

As regards knowledge connectivity, he said the village should have a chilling plant to know how value addition can be done.

Tulika Deka a member of a self-help group narrated how duck rearing has changed her life and has made her financially independent.

Ikon Talukdar, who has been president of the Hohora panchayat for the past five years, informed Kalam on the development of the village after it took up duck rearing. He also met members of the self-help groups.

The Kerala Agricultural University during a study in the village found that the egg laying capacity of the Chara Chameli duck here is higher than in Kerala.

Deputy director of State Institute of Rural Development, M. Zakir, said all the 50 self-help groups have received bank loan supported by government subsidy, which is a remarkable transformation as women at the initial stage of formation of the groups were not to comfortable with the idea.. The annual income of each member ranges from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 and they have been regularly repaying the bank loan.