Uttarakhand’s Women Embark on Rafting Adventures

Daughters ready to conduct rafting in Rishikesh: After three months of training, they will now provide tourists a ride on the waves of the Ganges

The daughters of Uttarakhand will soon be seen providing rafting services to tourists on the Ganga River in Rishikesh. For this, 14 women have been trained as white water river rafting guides by the tourism department. Now, after completing the registration process, they are ready to start their career as professional rafting guides.

Rishikesh has emerged as a major center for rafting. 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 14 selected women. In this, along with training, the cost of accommodation and food was also borne by the Tourism Department.

CM Dhami said efforts are being made to empower women

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that 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 good that women have shown interest in this. This will prove to be an important step towards empowering the daughters and women of Uttarakhand.

Everyone appreciated this effort of the government

Priyanka Rana, a resident of Siransu village in Pauri district, is studying BBA. Priyanka is also a kayaking athlete. Priyanka says that a large number of rafting takes place near her village. When she came to know about the training of women as rafting guides under the Uttarakhand government, she registered herself for it. After this, rafting training was given by the Tourism Department and now she is fully prepared as a rafting guide.

Kamakshi Goyal 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. Similarly, Muskan of Rishikesh has also received training in the first batch. Muskan is currently doing graduation from Rishikesh, Muskan says that foreign instructors gave her training in river rafting for three months.