‘Better arrangements drew women, youth to Mahakumbh’
Citing findings of various studies conducted on mega religious fair that concluded in February this year, UP chief secretary
Usually big religious events like Kumbh attract elderly people more than those of other age groups. However, the Prayagraj Mahakumbh 2025 saw increased participation of those below 40 and most of them were women, suggest findings of various studies conducted on the mega religious fair that concluded in February this year.
Citing the findings of these studies, Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh said better arrangements led to increase in visitors’ footfall in the mega event.
“In the last 30 years, we have witnessed marked changes in sanitation field. A good example of innovative thinking in terms of sanitation is the recent Prayagraj Mahakumbh where people from all parts of the world turned up,” Singh said while speaking at HCL Foundation’s Samuday programme, a flagship initiative for rural development, at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow on Tuesday.
“In 2013 Kumbh, tents were put up with a red flag to let people know about defecation in that place. That area was known as flag area. And when the mega event got over, the excreta went into the river. In such a situation, not many people can think of visiting places where there is no arrangement for sanitation,” he added.
“In 2019, for the first time the government decided to make toilets for everyone at Kumbh. Around 1.15 lakh toilets were planned then and the cost of it was around ₹250 crore,” the chief secretary said.
“This time in Mahakumbh, I can say with my experience that the single biggest factor which has made the difference is sanitation. Around 20 to 22 studies were conducted and their findings have revealed that out of a group of 10 people who visited the Mahakumbh, 7 were females and of them more than 70% people were in below 40 age group. This means new people from diverse sectors came to Mahakumbh for the first time,” Singh said.
For Mahakumbh 2025, the Uttar Pradesh government installed 1.5 lakh toilets across the mela area. Speaking on the U.P. government’s zero poverty campaign, the chief secretary said, “We all know that helping the poor is difficult. We recently launched a zero-poverty programme in which the government has decided to work rigorously on it.”
On October 2, 2024, Uttar Pradesh decided to eliminate extreme poverty from the state and called it the zero poverty campaign. “Under this initiative, the government has decided that 25 poorest families in every gram panchayat will be identified so that benefits of welfare schemes pertaining to education, ration and skill development could be given to them,” Singh said.
“A person each from these families will be given an opportunity to earn at least ₹1.25 lakh per annum. So far, 13.5 lakh families have been identified from 57,000 gram panchayats across the state,” Singh added.
On developing state-of-the-art facilities for farmers at Jewar international airport in GB Nagar, he said, “The government is developing Jewar airport and we are making arrangements for agriculture or horticulture treatments needed for fruits and vegetables while exporting them to other countries. We are setting up a facility there where all testing, treatment and certification will be done.”
