Knotty affair: No water, no bride for Buxwah men

Bhopal: As the wedding season approaches in summers, Kanshiram Yadav, 58, of Bundelkhand region in MP is a nervous man. A resident of Teriyamar village of Buxwah block in Chhatarpur district, his village is facing worst ever water crisis and no girl from his caste in neighbouring districts is willing to marry his son Raghuvar, 28.
Reason: Women of his village have to walk a long distance, at times two to three km, to fetch water.
All the villages of Buxwah are facing severe water crisis. "My mother gets up early in the morning and walks down to 2 km to fetch a pot of water on her head from a private well on village outskirts. Nobody wants to marry his daughter in this village. They know we are facing acute water crisis," said Raghuvar.
In a small village of about 2,500, there are as many as 150 eligible bachelors waiting for the crisis to be over so that they can get married.
In Buxwah block, the number could cross 2,500, said another eligible bachelor of Buxwah, Umesh Bilthare. It is known as "hub of bachelors", he said. Sitting on diamond mines owned by Rio Tinto, a British-Australian multinational, Buxwah is part of Badamalehara assembly constituency once represented by Uma Bharti. Interestingly, she is now Union minister for water resources. Rio Tinto diamond project is still underway and about 350 youth from the village work here as labourers.
In the last Vidhan Sabha elections, villagers of Teriyamaar had boycotted polling over the issue of water. "We went to poll at 5 pm only when the then MLA, district officials and others promised to make water available in a year," said Kanshiram.
"Of 900 voters, only 110 could cast their votes," he said, while alleging they were betrayed again. "Water is still a distant dream for us," he said.
Vinita Jain, tehsildar of Buxwah, said, "The government has approved Judi project on a lake, few km from Buxwah. Survey work for the project is over and land acquisition is underway."