After 22 years, wedding bells ring in Dholpur village of Rajasthan

When 23-year-old Pawan Kumar brought his bride from Madhya Pradesh to the nondescript Rajghat village in Rajasthan’s Dholpur district earlier this week, the poor villagers had much to rejoice. The wedding bells had tolled in the village after 22 long years because no parent was willing to marry their daughter off to anyone in the village.

For over two decades, the pathetic state of Rajghat, situated 5 km away from Dholpur town, ruled out the possibility of its eligible bachelors getting any marriage proposals. The last marriage took place in the village in 1996.

Situated on the banks of Chambal river, the small and dusty village – with a population of only 350 – has no roads, electricity supply, water pipelines or basic medical facilities. The lone government primary school has only a few students. When the sun sets, the village is covered in total darkness. Till recently, the villagers living in the vicinity of the river had no access to clean drinking water.

Change in the air

Much has changed in the village thanks to Ashwani Parashar, a final year MBBS student in Sawai Man Singh Government Medical College in Jaipur and a native of Dholpur, who moved a public interest litigation in the Rajasthan High Court on the conditions in Rajghat last year and wrote letters to the Prime Minister's Office. He also launched a social media campaign with hashtag #SaveRajghat.