Mubashir Naik
As autumn arrives, the hopes of hopes of the poor people in village of Manthori, District Doda of Chenab Valley start turning into despair.
A downtrodden village, Manthori, is just twenty kilometres away from District Headquarters, Doda but it seems that the village has never come in the limelight of the government.
The arrival of summer brings a lot of hope to the poor villagers because every politician in power had promised to provide them with roads, good health care and quality education.
Though summer is considered as the best time for construction of road and building in this area, with the end of summer and arrival of autumn, their hopes are shattered like leaves of trees in this season.
Like most of the villages, the lack of basic amenities like road, drinking water, schools and hospitals is the most common reason for resentment among the villagers of Manthori.
“The development in towns and other villages, having more political importance is quite appreciable but nothing has changed in our village for the last 30- 40 years. In the 21st Century, when we look at our village, our heads hang in shame. We have every reason to believe that our village is deprived of all the basic facilities of life,” Akhter Hussain Naik, a 22-year-old student of Kashmir University told The Kashmiriyat.
While talking to our correspondent, Akhtar Hussain, said, “Govts have ignored us in each department, be it education system, health care, road or drinking water, we are suffering everywhere. We have numbers of problems in our village but in my opinion educational issue is one of the core issues to be addressed. Decades ago, In 1970, govt school was established in our village but unfortunately, It hasn’t been upgraded for the last 40-50 years”.
“We have suffered a lot and I wish that our next generation shouldn’t witness the same. I felt very sad when I hear that many young girls are saying discontinuing their education due to the absence of higher education institutes in our village. We have walked 5-6 KM daily by foot to get higher education but for today’s children, it’s very hard, especially for girls,” he adds.
A few years ago, PM Modi gave a slogan “Beti bachoo,beti padhao” But it seemed just a political slogan with no practical implementation. “Our girls are saying leaving education due to the absence of higher education in our village. The people of our village have given up their hope regarding this issue and why not? When other schools which were established after our school have been upgraded but why not ours?” he added
The illiteracy rate is very high in village Manthori and the primary reason for such high illiteracy is the absence of high and senior secondary schools.
A few years ago, the government built six rooms in a two-storey building. Akhtar Hussein hopes that someday, the children will be educated and development will happen in the village. Little did he realize that it has barely begun.
Besides education, village Manthori has been neglected in healthcare as well as road connectivity. “We have produced many memoranda before government & district administration for the construction of road but each time we were forced back with never-ending promises. Road and hospital are the lifelines of any village or town but our village has neither. In absence of a road, we are disconnected from the rest of areas, causing numbers of problems to us,” said Abdul Qayoom, sarpanch of the area.
People of the village Manthori blamed the government for neglecting and keeping them out of sight deliberately.
Government, as well as District Administration, has ignored us every time. We are still yearning to get the basics necessities lof livelihood. Three roads have been constructed around our village within the radius of 2-3 km. But, our village has been kept disconnected deliberately. If roads are built for the public? Why we have been ignored? Why each time roads are taken more & more away from our village? He questioned. people leaving in Fargllung areas have got road connectivity but we are just 20 km away from district headquarter and we are being ignored, work like horses and donkeys to build our houses.
Mohd Saleem Lone, another habitat of the village Manthori said that among all the problems we are facing “absence of hospital in our area is troubling a lot. Health care facilities are located several kilometres away from the distantly placed hamlets. In case of emergencies, we carry the patient on our shoulders in a cot. Crossing strenuous paths to reach the road & if the case is of a serious patient or pregnant lady. There is a high chance of death or miscarriage of child”.
Mohd Saleem blamed and cursed politician for all these sufferings. “Politician make misleading and false promises to take our votes. Besides physical suffering, we undergo psychological turmoil as well. We have to put our lives at risk and walk kilometres in the jungle to reach the road. Such is the ignorance of the government that a health centre was established in our village almost thirty years ago but it is still waiting for a government building. Many health centres were established in surrounding areas at that time have been upgraded to sub-hospital having government buildings but we have been left to suffer,” he added.