Skateboarding is breaking caste barriers, delighting kids in this Bundelkhand village

"Our greatest achievement that we've brought this positive energy with the kids into this village."
Skateboarding is breaking caste barriers, delighting kids in this Bundelkhand village
Skateboarding is breaking caste barriers, delighting kids in this Bundelkhand village
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The last thing you might expect to see in a small, sleepy, village in Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh is a bunch of kids skateboarding. But that’s exactly what you’ll find in Janwaar. Besides delighting the village children, it has brought the two dominant village communities together as per this video by 101 India.

Ulrike Reinhard, the founder of the skating rink named 'Janwaar Castle' explains how the rink could have been built in any of India's 7 lakh villages, but this particular village, with its peculiar socio-economic situations appealed to her.

Watch a video here:

The video explains how in Janwaar, Yadavs and Adivasis live strictly segregated from one another. There's hardly any electricity or sanitation, and the situation of women, Ulrike says, is "tricky". 

A young girl talks about how she no longer feels afraid of the boys in her village and even mingles and plays with them. A young adivasi boy says that at the rink, adivasi and Yadav children play together. 

Ulrike also says alcoholism has gone down in the village. She recounts how when a couple of drunk boys were not allowed to play in the rink, they in turn went home and told their fathers to go away and not come back drunk. 

"I think, our greatest achievement that we've brought this positive energy with the kids into this village," Ulrike says. 

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