Swimming is considered as one of the best exercises for physical fitness as it not only helps the body gets energised, but also the bones become strong. Children and elders in rural areas used to swim and play in ponds, rivers and canals. Sometimes, ponds and canals get dirty in the absence of proper care preventing children and elders from swimming. However, MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) has helped conservation and rejuvenation of ponds in villages.

 

According to information, the pond in Bokramuda village, 25 km from Janjgir-Champa district headquarters, has got a new life under MGNREGA. The pond, which was once filled with dirt and silt, has turned into a swimming school for children of the village. In the summer this year, the pond had almost dried up. It was once being used for irrigation, farming and water sports for children in the village. Sarpanch Jagjivan along with the villagers found a solution and got the proposal of its deepening approved in the Gram Sabha and started the work in February this year. After the completion of the work of deepening and construction of the pond in April-2021 due to the hard work of three months of MGNREGA workers, the pond got its old shape. 155 families of the village got direct employment of 4232 man days. In lieu of this, wages of seven lakh 52 thousand rupees were paid to the villagers.

 

Children Ayush, Aryan, Dhruv, Surendra and Sahil, who used to play and swim in the pond of Bokramuda, said that it was not so clean before the deepening work was done. Now the water of the pond has become clean. “We really enjoy swimming here everyday,” they said. Farmers Sukdev Rajak, Nathuram Rajak, Santosh Das, Mohanlal and Ramadhar said that after the deepening of the pond, now enough water is available in the village for disposal. Rain water has started filling in the pond. This will provide water for agriculture and will also increase the groundwater level of the surrounding water bodies.