Report about ‘snow’ and water parks in drought-hit rural India axed from textbooks

Nearly two decades ago, the Fun ‘N’ Food Village water theme park in drought-hit rural Nagpur, an area with a high rate of farmer suicides, was shut down after a report by P. Sainath, then Rural Affairs Editor, in The Hindu, published June 22, 2005.

The gist of the report became part of a case study for Class 11 school textbooks. Today, however, the park is functioning again, and the report has been subjected to censorship. Actual cuts and elections by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which have reportedly not been notified, will go into effect in schools across the country, says Sainath in a recent Twitter thread.

1/7. And so the NCERT strikes again. A Hindu report shows them slaughtering case studies in Class 11 textbooks, including one derived from a piece by me on Vidarbha’s water crisis. (Link to original story, now on PARI, in last tweet of the thread). #NCERT#Vidarbha#PARI pic.twitter.com/erPwkSHLLK

— P. Sainath (@PSainath_org) April 11, 2023

The extravagant water-themed amusement park offering 18 different types of water slides and games is located near Bazargaon village (population 3,000) where women walk up to 15 kilometres a day to fetch water.

Read more at Vidarbha: No rains, but ‘snow’ and water parks by P. Sainath 11 April 2023

Lead photo courtesy P. Sainath