There is a village in Bihar, where no family wants to marry their daughter and Shehnai has not been played in this village for almost 53 years. That's why this village has also been named 'the colony of bachelors'. In fact, there are no roads or networks in this village and even the hand pumps dry up in summers. Then the women of this village have to walk a kilometer away to get water.
This village is Barwan Kala situated in Kaimur hills. Whenever a boy's relative comes to this village, the girl's parents do not take the matter forward saying that how will their daughter live here, where there are no basic facilities. This village is still struggling with the lack of many basic facilities. That's why many times relationships break even before they are finalized.
Here electricity is provided from solar panels. She too is not available regularly. Despite being near tourist places, the village is still largely isolated. Hospital and police post are also far from this village. Not only this, the village also depends on rain for agriculture and people have to migrate for employment. The situation is so difficult that in emergency patients have to be carried to a far away hospital, covered in blankets.
In the year 2022, it was claimed on the government website related to rural tourism that no marriage had taken place here for 50 years. That is, no Shehnai has been played in this village for the last 53 years, but this was given misleading information at the local level. Barwan art received recognition not because of any grassroots tourism development, but after a mention on the government rural tourism website in 2022. On the website, the village was described as a colony of bachelors, due to which it came into discussion. However, there is neither any infrastructure related to tourism in the village nor the actual benefits of any scheme have reached here.
According to the 2009 report, there are 200 tribal families living here. Of these, 115 men are bachelors. A local says that his relationships are arranged and then broken. This has happened to him 5 times. In this village, due to local customs, marriage does not take place even with people from the same village, then the difficulty increases.
The villagers demand that more than tourism recognition, they want roads, electricity and water, so that they can live a respectable life, get married and start a family. Even today, Barwan art remains a symbol of struggle and patience, where people are hoping not just to survive but to have a normal life. Local people say that along with Barwan Kala, Barwan Khurd, Sarvandag, Surkur Khurd and Tori are the villages where there are maximum number of unmarried men.
