Maharashtra: With his wife denied water by upper castes, Dalit man digs his own well

Nagpur, May 9: Anguished over being denied access to water by upper-caste people, a Dalit labourer from a village in Washim district of Maharashtra's drought-hit Vidarbha toiled for hours to dig his own well.

The wife of Bapurao Tajne, a resident of Kolambeshwar village in Malegaon taluka, was not allowed to fetch water from a well by villagers.

In a bid to take revenge on a social milieu which still discriminates against large sections of people, Tajne took it upon himself to dig a well in his village, which now caters to the entire Dalit population of the area. It took him 40 days to complete the digging work.

Beaming with confidence, Tajne told PTI over phone that he felt fortunate to have discovered abundantly available groundwater after his hard work.

"I was ridiculed by my family among others, but I was determined," Tajne said.

The news of the incident soon reached the authorities, following which Washim district administration officiated tehsildar Kranti Dombe to visit the village.

Hailing Tajne's act, the district administration felicitated him for being "a face of determination and will power", the tehsildar said. When asked if any government aid would be provided to Tajne, Dombe said there was no such proposal as of now.

However, she said the government had taken note of the Dalit man's extraordinary achievement.

On whether action has been initiated against the villagers who did not let the labourer's wife draw water, in view of the incident attracting punitive provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Dombe said the well in question was not identified yet nor were the villagers who stopped the woman.

PTI