Spurned By Upper Castes, Dalit Man Digs His Own Well in 40 Days

Refused access to water for being Dalit, Bapurao Tajne dug the ground for 40 days till he hit water.

The Dalit community of Washim district of drought-hit Vidarbha, Maharashtra now have access to water thanks to Bapuro Tajne. (Photo: AP Photo/ Rajanish Kakade )

Anguished over being denied access to water by upper caste people, a Dalit labourer from a village in Washim district of Maharashtra’s drought-hit Vidarbha, toiled for hours to dig his 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 the 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 Times of India (TOI) reports that Tajne devoted six hours a day, daily without any help; people thought he had gone crazy.

Prolonged dry spells in the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra triggered farmer suicides in the summer. (Photo: AP)

I don’t want to name the well owner for I don’t want bad blood in the village. However, I feel that he insulted us because we are poor and Dalits. I came home that day in March and almost cried. I resolved never to beg for water from anybody. I went to Malegaon (the closest town) and bought tools and within an hour I started digging.

Bapurao Tajne, resident of drough-hit Vidarbha

Speaking to TOI, Jaishree, a neighbour said, “Thanks to Tajne we get water round the clock. Earlier, we had to travel a kilometre to another part of the village and get insulted sometimes.”

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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. When asked if any government aid would be provided to Tajne, Dombe said there was no such proposal as of now. However, she said the government has taken note of the Dalit man’s extraordinary achievement.

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.

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(PTI report with inputs from Times of India, curated by The Quint)