By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 5 Oct: Young women from the state are being trained as river rafting guides by the tourism department. So far 14 women from the state have been trained to become professional river rafting guides by the state tourism department. Most of them are soon expected to begin their professional life from Rishikesh which has emerged as one to the top river rafting destinations in the country. More than five lakh tourists are reaching Rishikesh for rafting every year, and the river rafting has become an important source of livelihood and tourism here besides spiritual and Yoga training.
So far this field of river rafting has been totally dominated by men only. However, for the first time, on the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Uttarakhand Tourism Department has imparted intensive training to women to enable them to work as river rafting guides. So far 14 selected women have been imparted intensive training of three months between April and June this year. It may also be pertinent to point out here that the training to the selected women has been imparted at the cost of Tourism Department and even the expenses of accommodation and food were also borne by the Tourism Department.
Among the girls who have completed their training and are ready to take up this challenging profession of rafting include Priyanka Rana, a resident of Siransu village in Pauri district, who is also currently pursuing BBA. Priyanka is a kayaking athlete. Priyanka says that a large number of rafting takes place near her village, so when she came to know about the training of rafting guides for women under the Uttarakhand government, she registered herself in it. Expressing gratitude to the Pushkar Singh Dhami government for this, Priyanka says that now she wants to make her career as a rafting guide.
Kamakshi Goyal, a resident of Ramnagar, is currently working in a nautical company in Goa. Kamakshi says that she was already working in the white-water field, so she took rafting training to enhance her skills. For this, she got free accommodation and food along with three months of training from the Uttarakhand government. Kamakshi is calling it a big effort towards women empowerment.
Muskan, is a local resident of Rishikesh, who has also been trained as a river rafting guide. She is currently pursuing graduation from Rishikesh, Muskan tells that for three months, foreign instructors have trained her in river rafting, during this time she also did rafting in the Ganga from Devprayag to Rishikesh for a week, this campaign run entirely by women only. Muskan wants to pursue a career in this field, she is thanking Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for this.
Commenting on the training of women as river rafting guides, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami observed that there are immense employment opportunities in the field of adventure tourism in Uttarakhand. A large number of women tourists are also coming to the state for rafting. In such a situation, efforts are being made to train women as raft guides. It is a good thing that women have shown interest in this, this will prove to be an important step towards empowering the women of Uttarakhand.
