Water brings brides to Bihar village

It's a dream come true for the people of Badwan, a remote, hilly village under the Naxal-affected Adhaura block in Bihar's Kaimur district, reports PK Mishra.

It was a dream come true for the people of Badwan, a remote, hilly village under the Naxal-affected Adhaura block in Bihar's Kaimur district.

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Handpumps were finally installed in the village last month and the 3,000-odd villagers were thrilled that they no longer have to trek 5 km every day to fetch potable water — a routine they hated for more than one reason.

It was this trek that was responsible for the high number of bachelors in the village, according to tribal priest Madan Mishra whose five brothers had failed to get brides for themselves and who now have crossed the "marriageable age".

Mishra and other villagers said people in other villages in the plains or plateau were reluctant to get their daughters married to Badwan men because the village had no source of drinking water. They feared that their daughters would have to spend their entire life fetching water from distant places.

Former village headman (mukhiya) Ram Dayal Kharwar said that about 40 people of the village over the age of 30-35 were unmarried because of this problem. According to Birendra Yadav, a middle-aged bachelor from the village, about 50 per cent of the old men, who had remained unmarried, blame their single status on the water crisis.

It was difficult -- virtually impossible -- to send the rig machine to Badwan, which had no approach road. But the villagers did everything to help. They worked overtime to ensure that the rig machine reached their village, which it eventually did.