NAMCHI (SIKKIM)It’s not business as usual at the Namchi District Collectorate once a week. Every Thursday, groups of villagers set up stalls on the Collectorate’s courtyard, measuring about 138 square metres, to sell their wares – home-cooked meals, snacks, farm products and utilitarian handicraft items.They also utilise a passage in the Collectorate building, the district’s epicentre of administration, 78 km southwest of Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim.Sikkim’s Yakten declared India’s first digital nomad villageFor Nirpara Rai and other members of the Nirpara Self-Help Group (SHG), travelling 2 km from their village Dabuwa to be trade-ready at the Collectorate by 10 a.m. every Thursday has become a habit. Ditto with Laxmi Tamang and fellow members of the Samjhauta SHG from a village 6 km away.Yet, they did not expect Thursdays to be their best-selling day of the week when Anupa Tamling, the District Magistrate, experimented with Prayas almost a year ago after finding that farmers and villages engaged in small-scale industries struggle with visibility, value, and volume.
Only SHGs, farmer-producer organisations (FPOs), and rural cooperatives were allowed to set up 15 stalls at the Collectorate, provided they maintain cleanliness, shun single-use plastic, and avoid selling pre-manufactured goods.
