Women issues ignored in Adampur bypoll

Deepender Deswal

Adampur, October 30

A number of villages of the Adampur Assembly segment are ridden with women-specific problems, especially related to potable water, transport and education. However, there are no takers for these issues in the ongoing byelection.

Significantly, the Adampur Assembly constituency conventionally known as male-dominated segment has no women candidate out of total the 22 candidates in the fray in this election. Though the women from the villages want that their problems to be made the issues in the elections, however, they admit that they largely go by the advice of their male family members in casting the vote.

The previous electoral data of the Election Commission of India (ECI) too revealed that in 17 elections, including the ongoing bypoll elections held in the segment, there were only five women candidates; of which two women (who won in 1987 and 2011) belonged to the family of Bhajan Lal. While a total of 251 male candidates had contested the polls.

Ritu Rani, woman sarpanch of Ghursal village, who is a college student, said their village located about 31 km from Hisar has no efficient public transport. “The village has the nearest college in Adampur and most of the students prefer to go to Hisar for higher studies. But, there are no transport services to the village. Even girl students from adjoining Telanwali and Chaudhariwali villages located about 3 km away too need to catch the bus for Hisar from our village”, she said adding that in the absence of public transport, many girls students had to stop studies after schooling.

The girl students of Budak village located 7 km from Balsamand village where the college is located in the region, are also facing similar problems. “Sometimes, we have to wait for three hours at the bus stop in Balsamand for the transport as our village is located on the Rajasthan border is the last destination. In absence of the Haryana Roadways service, to cover this 7-km distance is a Herculean task for us daily”, said Nagina, a student from Budak village, who studies at Government College in Balsamand.