The Pochury youth of Meluri: a hill tribe’s answer to outmigration
A village cooperative is turning the Pochury homeland into a reason to stay.
Meluri, a Pochury town near the Myanmar border, watched its young people leave for decades — to Kohima, to Delhi, to anywhere with a job.
A village cooperative is trying to reverse the flow: a homestay circuit, an orange-processing unit, and paid apprenticeships that teach young Pochury the skills to build on home ground.
The first cohort of fifteen apprentices has already produced its first batch of bottled orange juice.