“Outspoken and young at heart” — this is how Sudha (53), describes herself. A seasoned Kanwar pilgrim, however, it is getting difficult for her to cover long distances on foot with age, she says. So, this year, she and her family are travelling by train with a group of pilgrims.
A resident of Delhi, this is her 16th year of participating in the Kanwar Yatra, the annual pilgrimage that devotees undertake in North India. They carry water from Ganga and offer it to Shiva temples in their hometowns. Sudha’s husband, daughter Kusum (26), mother-in-law Asha Devi (71), and niece Poonam, who is all of 12, are part of the group, which is undertaking a 200-km-journey. Sudha, however, complains about the lack of medical, and sanitation facilities.
Poonam skips school for this annual family ritual. This is her fourth yatra but this year, her parents could not come along due to work. She has to use the same washroom and bath area as all the other men in the Kashmere Gate camp. The camp is supposed to be the largest of its kind and claims to be able to accommodate 20,000 people at once. While Delhi Revenue Minister Atishi had also announced separate halls for male and female pilgrims, there doesn’t seem to be any provisions for female washrooms. An open area is the designated space for bathing, and it consists of just nine huge tubs of water.
Mamata, 51, another pilgrim, fights through a crowd of men to get to a tub of water. “What is the purpose of undertaking the Yatra if you have a comfortable time,” she says. This is her 27th year of lifting the kanwar, which refers to the bamboo pole with pitchers full of holy water from Ganga hanging on two sides.
Devotees are supposed to bathe after every meal. Lakhs of kanwars pass Delhi every year but women constitute just 2-10% of women, as per estimates.
With improvement in facilities, however, number of women pilgrims is also improving, some say.
(Devansh Mittal is an intern with The Indian Express)
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