Bihar’s village on Centre’s tourism list despite lack of basic amenities

Patna: Around 10 km from the Maa Mundeshwari Wildlife Eco Park and Telhaar Kund Waterfall ecotourism facility, inaugurated by CM Nitish Kumar in Kaimur district on Wednesday, there lies a village that finds itself in the Centre’s website (rural.tourism.gov.in).
While this should be an achievement to celebrate, since it is the only village from Bihar to make it to the list, people at Barwan Kalan are perplexed given that their village is bereft of basic civic amenities.So how did this village make it to the Centre’s list?
It seems that Barwan Kalan was selected for the wrong reasons. The village has been described as the “hamlet of bachelors” having “absence of services and infrastructure”. The description in the Union tourism ministry’s website read, “Since no one has been married here for more than 50 years, the area is known as the hamlet of bachelors... No one sends their daughters to this area because of the absence of services and infrastructure.”
Barwan Kalan panchayat mukhiya, Nand Lal Singh (55), questioned the information on the website that no one has been married in the last 50 years, but admitted that many eligible youths in his panchayat remain bachelor because of “lack of motorable road, potable drinking water and electricity.”
Speaking over phone from Bhabua, the district headquarters, Singh told this newspaper, “Out of the 14 villages in the panchayat, Barwan Kalan, Barwan Khurd, Sarwandag, Surkur Khurd and Tori have the maximum number of bachelors due to lack of basic infrastructure. There is no pucca road or drinking water facility.”
He rued that handpumps go dry during summer. “The only well is situated outside the village. Solar lights fail frequently. There is no proper electricity supply in the area. Our cellphones also don’t work because of power problem and missing towers,” Singh said.
According to Singh, more than 50% are eligible bachelors in the panchayat with a population of 5,000. “Whenever there is any function in the village, villagers prepare a ‘kutcha’ road,” Singh said.
Pappu Kumar of Barwan Kalan, who lives at Bhabua, and is preparing for competitive exams, said, “Men from the panchayat migrate to other places for livelihood as paddy and wheat cultivation in this hilly area depends on rainwater, which is few and far between. If there is any function in the village, a tanker is the only source of water. And that, too, when villagers prepare a makeshift road for the tanker to reach our villages. In summer, women have to walk almost 1 km to the well to fetch water for household chores. Families buy their own solar lights for use.”
Many feel Barwan Kalan’s name was added to the tourism list to belittle the state. “What the hell is wrong with the tourism website …. Is this a new way to defame Bihar under the garb of promoting tourism?” asked a social media user. When contacted, Bihar tourism minister Nitish Mishra said he was not aware of it. “But I will check and, if true, will write to the ministry of tourism about it,” Mishra said.
Local Chainpur MLA and minority welfare minister Md Zama Khan admitted that the area lacks basic facilities, but said efforts are being made to resolve the issues. “The land for the road belongs to the environment, forest & climate change department (EFCCD). Though it’s difficult to build roads in the area, we have sought the NOC.”