Khirendra who hails from the strife-ridden ‘red corridor’ region of Bastar is an eccentric renaissance man. He is sculptor, a painter, a street theater artiste and an ex- football player for his district. He is a long distance runner by passion and claims impressive distances and impressive speeds. He is a dalit. The oppression that he experienced and witnessed while…

Khirendra Yadav

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Half of India’s population lives in villages, but they do not live in isolation. They need roads and bridges to reach the nearby areas for their daily needs. A robust road connection is a major attribute for the economy and well being of the populace.

The Community Correspondent (CC) Mr Khirendra Yadav here in this episode of ‘Awaaz ho Buland’ is telling us about the state of roads that connect remote, interior villages with nearby towns or facilities. 

In a remote place in Jammu and Kashmir, because of the lack of a pool on a river with heavy currents, they lost 26 people in a year. In another issue, as the approach road of the bridge is broken, the entire population of 10k people are disconnected, this is in Uttar Pradesh. 

In a district in Madhya Pradesh, when a broad river swells up in Monsoons, the young school school children have to take an 8 kilometres detour to reach school. In summers and winters they wade through the river. 

Compared to before, in 2022, now we have a huge network of roads but the quality of roads in remote areas are still a point of concern. In many far flung areas, the villagers make ‘Chachri’ (a temporary bridge made of bamboo) to cross the rivers and rivulets in Monsoon Season. These connecting bridges or pools or culverts on remote roads are a major concern across India.

During the monsoons, few interviewees in this video mentioned that the makeshift bridges break, and they have to either repair the bridge in heavy monsoon or a detour which takes considerable time and resources. 

In a sad scenario from one North Bengal Dooars area tea garden, the movement of people and goods becomes extremely difficult in monsoon season. It is in an interior place and the shallow but wide river has no bridges across. The labourers for their daily needs go to the Bazaar often wading through that dangerous river with currents, or hire vehicles, with 3 times more the fare than on general days.They do not have proper access roads, around 500 of the labourers daily cross a canal to reach work, in that tea garden. 

Under the second phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) the government plans to connect 50,000 Km. of rural roads to the national highways. According to governmental figures, they have approved around 49,885 Km. of road length and 765 Km. long spanning bridges.

Lack of roads creates a domino effect on all factors of the economy, be it agriculture related businesses, health, telecommunications or education. We do hope that very soon along with proper roads, proper bridges will also be constructed in these areas and the communities will avoid using ‘Chachri’, the temporary bridges made from bamboo. Please share this video, so that more people are aware of the realities of remote villages of India.