Dehradun. The daughters of Uttarakhand will soon be seen rafting tourists on the Ganges River in Rishikesh. For this, 14 women have been trained as white water river rafting guides by the Tourism Department. Now, after the completion of the registration process, they are ready to start their career as professional rafting guides.
Rishikesh has emerged as a major center of rafting in recent times, more than five lakh tourists are coming here for rafting every year, in this way rafting activity is becoming a source of business as well as employment. But till now the work of rafting guide was being done entirely by men. On the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, for the first time, the Uttarakhand Tourism Department has given training to women as river rafting guides. After this, the Tourism Department gave free training of three months between April and June to selected 14 women. In this, along with training, the cost of accommodation and food was also borne by the Tourism Department.
Priyanka Rana, a resident of Siransu village in Pauri district, is 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 food and lodging facilities along with three months of training from the Uttarakhand government. Kamakshi is calling it a big effort towards women empowermen.
Muskan, a resident of Rishikesh, has also received training in the first batch. Muskan is currently pursuing graduation from Rishikesh, Muskan tells that for three months, foreign instructors gave her training in river rafting, during this time she also did rafting in the Ganges from Devprayag to Rishikesh for a week, this campaign run entirely by women was amazing, Muskan now wants to pursue a career in this field, she is thanking Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for this.
There are immense employment opportunities in the field of adventure tourism in Uttarakhand, now a large number of women tourists are also coming 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 daughters and women of Uttarakhand.
