Mahakumbh-2025: Tourism dept training boatmen as river guides in Praygaraj, other cities
The state tourism department is training 4,000 boatmen in storytelling and safety skills to serve as river guides for Mahakumbh-2025, enhancing tourist experiences.
In order to exhibit best hospitality to both domestic and international tourists during the Mahakumbh-2025, the state tourism department has started training boatmen of Prayagraj, Ayodhya and Chitrakoot as river guides.
As part of the initiative, storytelling skills of the boatmen and their knowledge of historical and mythological details of various popular sites of the region are being brushed up, say state tourism department officials.
The aim is to impart training to some 4,000 tourist guides and boatmen across the state under the initiative. “The state tourism department has penned a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Manyawar Kanshiram Institute of Tourism Management, Lucknow and an NGO “Bewajah Society” for this mission of empowering the boatmen community and help give their earnings a fillip,” said regional tourism officer of Prayagraj Aparajita Singh.
“Anticipating over 40 crore devotees at Prayagraj during the mega religious fair, preparations are in full swing,” she added. The mission of developing the skill of storytelling among boatmen has been assigned to the NGO “Bewajah Society”.
Its president Masto Gaurav Srivastava said the boatmen have good knowledge of local folk tales. “If they can present them to the tourists in an interesting and traditional way using the content of regional folk tales in an emotional form, the visitors can be more impressed by the tales. In the training session, stress is on teaching the boatmen the interesting manner of narrating the stories,” he added.
“Around 60 boatmen were given the training in Prayagraj on August 17. After this, a batch of 30 boatmen have been given storytelling training in Shringverpur on August 18,” he said. Srivastava said the initiative is also underway at other select religious places of the state, including Chitrakoot, Mathura, Ayodhya and Baat Bateshwar.
Around 35 boatmen have also been given training in Chitrakoot. With these training sessions, the boatmen will now be able to move beyond mere rowing the boats for visitors and play the role of river guides for them, he said.
As part of the training, the boatmen were given essential information related to the facility of water transport system by Prakhar Tiwari, assistant professor of Manyavar Kanshiram Institute of Tourism Management, Lucknow.
Regional tourism officer of Prayagraj Aparajita Singh said in training sessions, these boatmen were also being given special training in disaster management so that they could be entrusted with the responsibility of security at various ghats in times of need.
In this training, the boatmen will be given basic information about life saving and CPR techniques by a specialist doctor. In the third phase of training, basic information about boat handling, relief and rescue measures during floods or accidents are being given. At the end of the training, the boatmen will also be given tips on digital payments.