The forgotten people of the Ravi River
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the hundreds of people who live in a cluster of villages between India and Pakistan, a map drawn up long ago still causes daily struggles. Punjab - the land of the five rivers - was carved up to create Pakistan during The Partition of 1947 when India gained its independence. Two rivers went to Pakistan, two stayed with India and one, the Ravi, crosses both countries. For 72 years, communities who live by the Ravi on the Indian side have been asking for a permanent bridge, so they can access hospitals, schools, shops, banks. What they have is a makeshift pontoon bridge, which has to be dismantled for the monsoon season. Journalist Chhavi Sachdev travels to the western part of India to meet the Indian people whose lives are shaped by the Ravi river.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a story about a community cut off from the Indian mainland by a river. |
| 0:13.0 | The water was |
| 0:15.0 | The water was so high the boat couldn't cross the river. |
| 0:20.0 | When she died, I was so high the boat couldn't cross the river. |
| 0:23.0 | When she died I was two and a half years old. |
| 0:27.0 | My brother was half an hour old. |
| 0:30.0 | My mother might still be with me if he had a permanent bridge. |
| 0:35.0 | And this is a story about a border drawn up in a hurry almost 80 years ago that still causes immense daily hardships for the people who live by the |
| 0:44.2 | Riverside trapped in a kind of no man's land. We want our kids to |
| 0:51.6 | study and become officers and do well, but they can't even finish their education |
| 0:56.7 | uninterrupted. |
| 0:58.7 | Not a single government has reached us. |
| 1:04.0 | Don't we also deserve good things? |
| 1:06.0 | We have forgotten. |
| 1:08.0 | We've got nothing. |
| 1:10.0 | Welcome to the documentary The Forgotten People from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:19.0 | I'm Chavi Sacheteve. I'm a reporter based in Mumbai India India, and I've traveled to a very remote region in the northwest of the country, an area in between India and Pakistan. |
| 1:30.0 | I'm standing at the confluence of the river Uj and the river Ravi. |
| 1:37.0 | We're very close to the small village of Maccotta Patan and it's rather beautiful with the golden crops along the shore. |
| 1:45.0 | Not a single antenna or TV tower in sight. |
| 1:50.0 | I can see wildflowers, popular trees, alone egg-rit, lots of butterflies, lapwings, bees, a few motorcycles. |
| 2:00.0 | And the ravi water is very clear and blue |
... |
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