Denied water access, Dalit man digs 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 his revenge on a social milieu which still discriminates large sections of people, Tajne took it upon himself to dig a well in his village, and is quenching the thirst of the entire Dalit population of the area now. He finished digging in a mere 40 days and was pleasantly surprised to find water. 

Beaming with confidence, a seemingly content Tajne told PTI over phone that he felt fortunate to have discovered abundantly available ground water 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 strong will power”, the tehsildar said. 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.