Over dozen tribal girls quit studies amid potable water shortage in J&K's Doda

Bhaderwah, November 21

More than a dozen tribal girls have left their studies midway in the last two years in a remote hamlet in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district amid severe shortage of drinking water there.

The Chenara village falls under Misrata panchayat in Bhaderwah sub-division — 57 kms from the Doda district headquarters — and is inhabited by Below Poverty Line (BPL) Gujjar population.

It is reeling under severe water crisis since the last two years due to the drying up of natural water resources caused by scanty rainfall.

The girls claimed that the non-availability of water forced them to quit school even as an official said that the village would be covered under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) soon.

According to villagers, women, especially girls, are forced to travel through a dense forest for miles every day to collect water for themselves and their cattle.

On several occasions, they return with unhygienic muddy water and have to spend a lot of energy to make it drinkable, they said.

“I have a passion for studies and with great difficulty, I managed to study till Class XII. However, I quit studies last year for the sake of my family as I have to collect water every day and I was not getting enough time for studying,” said an 18-year-old Rubina Bano.

Bano said girls like her have no option but to quit studies as they have to spend hours every day on locating and fetching water from far off areas.

Corroborating her views, 16-year-old Fatima said due to lack of time for studies, she appeared twice for her eighth standard exams but could not clear them on both the occasions.

“The reason for my poor performance was largely because I was spending hours every day on fetching water instead of studying. I do not want to write the exam again as I don’t believe that I would do any better this time around,” she said.

A local resident, Abdul Rashid Gujjar, said when piped water supply is not given to homes, the burden of fetching it falls disproportionately on women and children, especially girls.

“The given circumstances have taken a serious toll on the education of girls as at least 15 of them have quit their studies in the last two years,” said Gujjar, whose daughter Nazia was in the fifth standard, but dropped out of school recently.

Bibi Begum (45), another local resident, said they want their daughters to go to school but having access to potable water is the top priority as “we have to save our lives and the lives of our cattle.”

Meanwhile, district youth president of the J&K National Panthers Party Rashid Choudhary claims to have accompanied various delegations from the village to different government offices to sort out the issue, but accused the Jal Shakti Vibhag of giving the villagers a cold shoulder.

Sarpanch of Misrata panchayat Satish Kotwal said the village is facing a severe water crisis for the last two years and so far, no action has been taken by the authorities to mitigate the sufferings of local residents.

Executive Engineer, Jal Shakti Vibhag, Doda Harjeet Singh said according to the reports of the field staff, the hamlet is without piped water supply. — PTI

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