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 revenge on a social milieu which still discriminates against 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 the 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 reported that Tajne devoted six hours a day, daily without any help; people thought he had gone crazy.
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