Patna, June 16: For a government which takes pride in its roads, Badwan Kalan should serve as an eye-opener.

For years, the residents of this hamlet, in Adhaura block of Kaimur district, 200km southwest of Patna, have been clamouring for a road.

If not for anything else, just to help them get married.

Badwan Kalan is a village of unmarried people. To reach it, one has to hop from rock to rock, a deterrent for most people, more so if the matter involves sending their daughters to the village.

A view of Badwan Kalan village in Kaimur. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Apart from the remoteness of the village, outsiders are also fearful of the Maoists who roam the Kaimur hills. Healthcare is yet to reach the hamlet. Education is a far cry.

Tribals and milkmen inhabit the village located about 1,700 feet above sea-level on the Kaimur plateau. They make a living selling milk, carrying it down the hills to a collection centre.

The last marriage in the village took place some 12 years ago.

Heera Kharbar (55) is a prosperous farmer and proud owner of a herd of cows and buffalos as well as a sprawling bungalow. But he is still a bachelor.

As are Modi Singh (55), Shiv Muni Kharbar (50), Shyam Sunder (60) and Babhan Yadav (45). Not just the men, even women like Aarti Kumari (35), Nikku Kumari (32), Dhannu Kumari (30), Kusum Kumari (36) and Sunita Kumari (35) are looking for bridegrooms.

“The biggest problem faced by us and outsiders is the difficult hilly terrain,” said Heera. Also, the area is within a wildlife protected zone, where road construction has to be done following strict guidelines.

It is not that they don’t want to marry. The problem is quite the opposite: no family wants their daughters to get married into the village and prospective grooms balk at the idea of getting a bride from such a remote place. “It is a fact that people don’t want to marry in Badwan Kalan village. There are no roads, no healthcare or hospitals or any school,” said Adhaura block development officer (BDO) Harendra Singh.

He said there are proposals for the development of the area but nobody wants to go there because of the Naxalite threat. “The area is considered a hotbed of the Maoists,” he said, adding that some other nearby villages like Tala and Chhotki Bargaon face the same predicament.

The three villages have a combined population of about 1,200. Most of the houses are made of mud. Pucca houses can be counted on fingers.

In 2005, the unmarried villagers were given hope that their access to potential partners would be eased when the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, Ramchandra Singh Yadav, assured them that he too would not get married unless he could get a road for them. Believing his words, the villagers backed Yadav in the 2005 Assembly elections.

But Yadav reneged on his promise. After winning the Bhabua seat, not only did he do precious little to get the road built, he also got married in May 2007 at a glittering ceremony at the New Patna Club.

Needless to say, Yadav had to shift constituencies in the 2010 elections. He moved to Chainpur in Saharsa district, fought the polls on a Samajwadi Party ticket and lost his deposit.

BDO Singh said there is a residential school for tribals but the teachers live under constant threat from the Maoists. “The situation will improve only with the co-operation of the residents and public representatives,” he added.

Mukhiya (village head) of Badwan Kalan Nan All Singh said the last marriage in the village was solemnised in 2000 when Durra Kumari married Harridans Kharbar, a resident of Patanahiya village.

“Since then no male or female has been married. The village has not received any baraat nor has any baraat gone out of the village after 2000. Nobody is interested,” Singh told The Telegraph. “What is astonishing is that the majority of the residents are economically sound. Prosperity is all around. You will find milk and milk products in abundance as every house has cattle. The only thing that you miss is the lack of roads and medical facilities,” he said.

The village head recalled that an expecting mother died when she was being taken to a hospital in Bhabua, about 17km from the village, during the Seva Yatra of chief minister Nitish Kumar earlier this year.

“You need at least eight people to take a patient to a hospital in a charpoy (bed). There are chances of getting hurt while climbing down from the hills because there is no road,” he pointed out.

The residents have to go to Adhaura, about 9km from the village, to get even articles of daily use. “We, in fact, live in a different world,” said Heera.

The residents of neighbouring Vinoba Nagar organised a feast when two youths of the village — Binod Kumar Suman (19) and Shiv Mangal Paswan (18) — passed their Intermediate examinations recently. They are the only literate habitants of Bihar’s nowhere land.