Marora, a tiny village in Haryana’s Nuh district, shot into the limelight on June 18, 2017 after Sulabh International renamed it ‘Trump village’. The announcement came just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC. The NGO wanted to trumpet its project aimed at ending open defecation in the village by building a toilet in every house.
Located around 60 km from Gurugram, more than three-fourths of its 1,800 residents fall below the poverty line. The sole primary school here is rundown. Sulabh has also promised free education for the children of widows, as well as an approach road to the school and a community centre.
Local authorities, though, retaliated swiftly by removing the new signboards, saying they had not given permission for the change.
The villagers, however, are happy to hang on to the name of “the world’s most powerful person” — the US President. After all, it put their nondescript village on the world map. Marora sees it as its only shot at much-needed development, never mind Donald’s Trump’s controversial views on most things.
Girls from the village even hand-crafted rakhis for Trump and sent them to Washington, hoping to secure his ‘brotherly affection and security’ for their blighted birthplace.
Rajeev Tyagiis a Delhi-based photojournalist
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