Barely 130 km from Thane city, Dapurmal, a tribal village in Thane district, continues to struggle for basic facilities such as roads, water, schools and healthcare, even as much of India rapidly develops.
The village is accessible only by foot. Anyone who wants to go to Dapurmal village must first travel by train to Kasara, then by road to Maal village, after which a seven-kilometre uphill dirt trail is the only route to Dapurmal, the path is so dangerous that a single slip can send a person down the slope and during the monsoon, the path becomes almost unusable, but residents are forced to traverse it daily because they don't have any option.
For decades, locals have demanded a proper road, but no progress was made. In 2023, after years of effort, electricity reached the village, but only because residents carried heavy poles and materials on their shoulders through the forest and hills.
Education remains a major concern. With no government-built school, villagers constructed a small one-room classroom themselves. Today, students from Classes 1 to 5 sit together in the cramped space, taught by government-appointed teachers. The single room, nearly 25 years old, is in dilapidated condition, forcing children to study in a midday meal worker’s house.
Each day, the teacher not only teaches but also walks two kilometres across rough terrain with 15–18 children from one village to another to ensure they can attend class.
Even then, the struggle continues where the Government is not able to provide a complete set of incomplete sets of books.
After Class 5, students must walk 7 km along the same difficult route to study up to Class 8, and later travel 20–25 km to Kasara or Shahapur for higher secondary education. As a result, most youths manage to study only until Class 12 before dropping out. Villagers also claim that despite repeated efforts, many still cannot obtain Scheduled Tribe certificates, leaving young people unemployed at home.
Villagers say no MLA or MP has ever visited their village. During elections, representatives arrive with promises, but none are fulfilled. “We don’t even know who our representative is,” a villager remarked.
Healthcare access remains dire. Pregnant women and critically ill patients are carried in bamboo slings across the dangerous trail to Maal village, and from there to Kasara, nearly 25km away, for treatment. The local anganwadi provides only limited medicines, while a government doctor visits just once a month.
Water and sanitation pose additional challenges. During summer, families wait all night at small ponds to collect just two buckets of water. Ironically, the nearby Vaitarna River supplies water to Mumbai, but Dapurmal villagers remain thirsty.
Women still defecate in the open, as toilets under government schemes have not been built due to the lack of road access.
Though road construction has recently begun, villagers say no timeline has been shared. Until the work is completed, Dapurmal continues to remain isolated, carrying its own electricity poles, building its own schools, and struggling daily for essentials that the rest of the state takes for granted.
