Bharat Ek Khoj Ep 3: A Glimpse Inside a Village in Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh 🇮🇳🏠
Welcome back to our journey with Bharat Ek Khoj! Today, we’re taking you with us to a village situated near the Mirzapur and Chandauli border in Uttar Pradesh. Our aim? To spend a day there, understand the lives of the people, and see the ground reality beyond the headlines.
Life and Work: Earning Daily Bread 🔨🪨
Our visit begins with meeting Ajay Kumar, whose place of work is right there in the village. His primary source of income is working with stones that “come from the mountain”. They make things with these stones. He tells us, “This is how we earn our daily bread”. It seems to be the main occupation, as he states, “No, this is it. We make things with stones only”. You’ll apparently “find one everywhere,” in “every household”. Another resident, older, also works with stones, doing “hard work to get some shade,” noting that otherwise, everything gets ruined if it rains.
Lack of Basic Facilities: A Daily Struggle 💧💡🚽
One of the most immediate observations is the living conditions. We see mostly kutcha (makeshift) houses, and a villager confirms that “All houses are kutcha,” or at least most of them are like that in the village.
More critically, there’s a significant lack of facilities. A major issue highlighted by multiple residents is drinking water. They don’t have drinking water facilities, and there’s no arrangement for water, “not even a river that we could drink from there”. The sole source of water for the entire village, or at least large sections of it across multiple settlements within the panchayat, appears to be a well.
Getting water from the well is a daily task for everyone in the village, including girls. It requires going ten times sometimes for the household. The route to the well is described as “risky”, and the possibility of slipping and breaking a leg while carrying heavy water loads is a real fear. There was a hand pump on the school premises, but it’s not functioning right now. Instead, people have to go to the Hanuman temple, about half a kilometre away, to fetch water. The water crisis is particularly bad in the summer when water becomes scarce.
Beyond water, other basic amenities are also missing. There’s no road, electricity or water. A villager mentions “We don’t have any facilities here”. Even the school, Purv Prathmik Vidyalay in Mubarakpur village, has a non-functioning toilet, meaning girls who come to study don’t have one.
Politics, Promises, and Disillusionment 🚩🗣️🗳️
Despite the evident lack of development, the village displays BJP flags. While some residents support SP in other areas, here, most support the BJP. One young man asserts that the basis of support is not caste but “nationalism”.
However, there is widespread disillusionment with political leaders. Villagers report that political figures, whether from BJP or SP, come and make false promises, like asking for a water tank. They promise that if they win, they will “definitely do it,” but “once they win, you don’t hear from them at all”.
This pattern of broken promises is a recurring complaint. A villager explains that “all these politicians make big promises” but don’t follow through. They feel that no political leader ever comes to help them. Even for government schemes like the Awas Yojana (housing scheme), which provides rice and allows growing some crops, the benefits don’t reach everyone. The villagers believe that the village head will only give Awaas Yojana benefits to those who are on his side, sometimes even to people who already have houses, while those who need one get nothing.
One resident emotionally states, “No one asks us about pain”. They were touched just by being asked about their difficulties.
Other Challenges 😥🎒
Unemployment is another issue. There are no government jobs, and when there’s nothing for the men, there’s nothing for the women either. Women work, like breaking rocks or picking up bundles of rice, even if it hurts their eyes. During the season when they don’t grow crops (only kharif season happens in Jobha village), villagers have to go out and work as labourers. This can involve travelling far, even to places like Tamil Nadu, for 4 to 6 months a year to work in fields or dig borewells. Labourers in Tamil Nadu are often from Chhattisgarh, not just from this specific village but from the state.
Basic necessities like cooking oil are expensive (200 rupees per kg), making it difficult to afford vegetables, leaving them to eat mashed potatoes.
The village road itself is in poor condition. The school in Mubarakpur, despite being a Purv Prathmik Vidyalay, has a non-functioning toilet. The cook at the school travels 3 km daily to cook for 150 kids from Monday to Friday and earns only 1500 rupees per month, an amount that was only recently increased by 500 rupees but hasn’t been deposited yet.
Many people in the village are uneducated. Decisions on who to vote for are often based on what the majority in the village says.
A Plea for Change 🙏📢
The host reflects on the situation, noting the sharp contrast between talking about developments like McDonald’s and Subway in cities like Lucknow and the reality of basic needs like roads in these villages.
The villagers express that they have hope only in themselves, “not in any parties or our government”. They feel like there is “no Messiah for the poor”.
The host ends with a powerful message, asking viewers to share the video as much as possible. The goal is to ensure the video reaches the authorities and departments who can bring change for these people. It’s a plea for someone to take notice of the village’s problems and do something in reality. The host offers for others to even take credit for any change, as the main objective is for the situation to improve. It’s a call to ensure the existence and struggles of these citizens are acknowledged.