Women in Bundelkhand are being liberated; they are not only becoming self-reliant but also getting freedom from the drudgery of fetching water
The land of Bundelkhand district, especially south-eastern Bundelkhand, is full of hills, plateaus, slopes, high and low, rocky, rocky, rocky and dry forests. Rain water does not stagnate on the land of this region, due to which there was always a shortage of water in Bundelkhand. In Bundelkhand, which has a population of around 1.25 crores, getting drinking water is a daily struggle for many people, especially women. Dhanwantari, a resident of Mahoba district of the district, gets emotional while saying this and says that the hand pump installed near the house did not work, even though water came after a lot of hard work, it was dirty. Therefore, she used to go about one and a half kilometres away from home to fetch water.
Whereas in ancient times, the Chandelas, Bundelas, Gond kings and Marathas along with the British had constructed more than 4,000 ponds in total in this water-scarce Bundelkhand region. Most of the ponds have dried up. However, the remaining water sources are proving to be a boon for this area today. The Jal Jeevan Mission Scheme of the Uttar Pradesh Government, whose objective is to provide clean drinking water by tap to every rural family is changing lives.
The Har Ghar Jal Yojana of the Government of India was implemented on priority by the Yogi government in those districts of the state where the problem of water was a cause of concern for many years. Under Har Ghar Jal Yojana, 55 litres of water is to be supplied to every villager per day. Bundelkhand women have gotten a big relief due to pure drinking water reaching their homes. Especially in Bundelkhand and Vindhya, women had to fetch water from miles away, but since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme, they are now devoting time to their children's education along with household chores. They are becoming self-reliant by setting up their employment. There was a time when there were thousands of such villages in Mahoba, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Chitrakoot, Banda, and Jhansi of Bundelkhand where people did not marry their daughters due to the water crisis. Anurag Srivastava, Principal Secretary, Uttar Pradesh Government, believes that the Jal Jeevan Mission is not only ensuring the supply of clean drinking water from taps in rural areas but is also providing employment to promising and needy people. In such a situation, 13 youths are being given training for this in a gram panchayat. For their skill development, 1,16,366 youth are being given training in plumbing, 1,16,366 electricians, 1,16,366 motor mechanics, 1,16,366 fitters, 1,74,549 masons, 1,16,366 pump operators across UP. In the direction of making rural women self-reliant, along with making rural women self-reliant in UP, 5 women from every village are being given training in water testing (water test kit) for clean drinking water. In such a situation, women are testing water in the village with field test kits. And making the local administration aware.
In such a situation, till now more than 4,87,955 women have been given training in water testing. And in every village, women are doing 11 types of tests for the purity of water. Due to this, the quality of water from taps, wells, hand pumps and tube wells is also being tested.
Jal Jeevan Mission has changed the picture of Bundelkhand and Vindhya region which has been suffering from every drop of water for years. Namami Gange and Rural Water Supply Department's Har Ghar Nal Se Jal Yojana has become a new story of Bundelkhand and Vindhya region. Jal Jeevan Mission's Har Ghar Jal Yojana has saved large areas of the state from the major drinking water crisis. The supply of drinking water from the tap to every home in thousands of villages is living proof of this.
(The writer is a senior journalist; views are personal)
