Shillong, March 17: Meghalaya’s rich cultural landscape—from indigenous festivals to traditional food and crafts—is now part of a nationwide digital archive, with 7,012 villages in the state mapped under the “Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar” (MGMD) programme.
The initiative, a key component of the National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM) under the Union Ministry of Culture, has so far documented cultural data from over 6.23 lakh villages across India, creating one of the largest repositories of grassroots heritage.
Implemented by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, the mission aims to preserve India’s diverse cultural identity while exploring its potential to support rural livelihoods.
Through the MGMD portal, villages across Meghalaya are being profiled with detailed cultural portfolios. These include heritage sites and historical significance, fairs and festivals unique to tribal communities, traditional art and craft practices, indigenous food systems, traditional dress and ornaments, oral traditions, beliefs, and customs, profiles of prominent artists and personalities and geographic, demographic, and developmental data.
Officials say this structured documentation helps create authentic village-level cultural identities, which can support tourism planning, education, and local development initiatives.
The MGMD Programme leads to the strengthening of rural identity by creating authentic, village-level cultural profiles that recognise local traditions, practices and heritage assets. The availability of structured cultural data on a single national portal supports planning for rural tourism and schools, thereby contributing to sustainable livelihood generation and rural economic development.
Officials say the MGMD programme doesn’t have any provision for leveraging the mapped heritage data for direct benefit to local artisans and institutions.
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