SIRSI (UTTARA KANNADA) : To ensure water for an anganwadi, 55-year-old Gowri C Naik from Sirsi is digging a well on the school premises all by herself without taking help from anyone. Teachers at the anganwadi at Ganeshnagar near Sirsi have to walk nearly half-a-kilometre to a well to fetch water, which is used for cooking and drinking.
Moved by their plight, Gowri decided to help them. “They have to teach the children, cook for them and look after them. On top of that, they have to bear the burden of getting water from a far-off well. I promised them last year that I would dig a well on the school premises,” she said.
She started the work last week by choosing a spot behind the anganawadi. She digs the earth and climbs out using a ladder to dump the soil. “I am planning to construct a 4-foot diameter well and I won’t give up till I hit water,” she said as she came up the ladder to dump the soil and got down into the pit with the same speed. She hopes she will get water at 50 ft and the digging will continue over the next few weeks. The anganwadi has 15 children and the water supplied by the municipality once in two days is not sufficient. “This well will not only help the anganwadi, but also residents of this locality,” she said.
This is the third well Gowri is digging. Earlier, she had dug them at her farm and her house. A farmer with 1.5 acre land, she dug her first well in her farm. The amount of water she got at 45 feet was sufficient for her areca and coconut farm. To get water for her house, she dug one behind her house. But there, she had to go deeper at 65 feet. Because of her effort and hard work, she is known as Bhagirathi, another name for River Ganga.
Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Gangubai Mankar, when she heard about Gowri’s efforts from the media, said she is doing great work. “She is a role model to women. We would like to honour her,” she added.