Women in Draman trek miles daily for drinking water

Without piped water supply, residents, especially women of Draman village in Tehsil Kahara of Doda district have to bear physical, economic and psychological hardship for drinking water.

It is particularly difficult for the 110 below poverty linefamilies of the village during Ramadan when the women must trek miles in thehilly area daily for fetching water for their homes.

   

Located on a hilltop southeast of Bhadarwah, Draman inKahara Tehsil is 65 Km from Doda town. The village with no motorable road andnearly no electricity supply in mostly inhabited by people whose mainoccupation is daily wage labour.

The villagers, especially women folk have no other optionbut to first trek the hill then stand in queues for hours at least thrice a dayin blistering heat to fetch the water from a natural spring for their dailyneeds.

“Women have to walk more than 5 kilometers to collectwater for daily use. This is total injustice,” Abdul Razzaq Parray,panchayat member of Draman village, told Greater Kashmir.

“We have raised this issue several times before theauthorities after water pipes got damaged due to heavy snowfall in Novemberlast year, but the demand is yet to be fulfilled.”

A study by University of Illinois says that the amount oftime that women and children spend traveling to fetch water prohibits them fromliving out their full potential. Young girls often times have to miss schoolbecause they are traveling to provide water for their families, the study says.

Nahida, a teenage girl in Draman, has appeared twice for hertenth standard exams, but was unsuccessful on both the occasions. The reasonfor her poor performance in studies is largely because she has spent most ofher time fetching water for the family. “I don’t want to write the examagain. I don’t think I can do any better this time around,” she toldGreater Kashmir.

Mustoor Begum, a 60-year-old widow, has to make severaltreks and then stand in a queue for collecting water from a small spring in thenearby hills.

“Perhaps we are cursed, as this is holy month ofRamadan and like others, we also want to offer namaz (prayers) five times a daybut without water how can we?” Mastoor said.

District Development Commissioner for Doda Dr Sagar DattarayDoifode said, “This is been brought to my notice just now, there is sometechnical issue as Draman village but the PHE division of that particularvillage falls under district Kishtwar.”

“But the issue you have raised will be resolved onpriority,” Doifode said.

“We will immediately tie-up with the concernedengineers of Kishtwar PHE division and will replace all the damaged pipes atthe earliest, so that potable water supply can be restored without any furtherdelay.”

According to survey of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO),in the rural areas of Jammu Division, 42.6 % households get drinking waterwithin their premises, as compared to 68.3 % in Kashmir Division. In urbanareas, it is 94.3 % and 79.2% in Jammu Division and Kashmir Divisionrespectively.

In Jammu Division, where there is no drinking water sourcewithin the premises, 29.9% people in rural areas and 4.2 % people in urbanareas travel less than 0.5 km to reach principal source of drinking water.

In Kashmir Division, 26.1 % households in rural areas travelless than 0.5 km to reach a water source outside their premises

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