Modi's tap water scheme implemented 'only on paper' in Gujarat's backward tribal district

By A Representative
Is the backward Dang district of Gujarat deprived of Nal Se Jal scheme, a flagship programme of the Union government to provide potable water to all 18 lakh villages, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day in 2019? Under the scheme villagers will themselves decide how much to pay for the water they consume, it seeks to provide a minimum of 55 litres of water per person per day.
Said to have been inspired by Gujarat “model”, where the government claims to be providing potable tap water to 79% of the state’s households via the Water and Sanitation Management Organisation. a letter addressed to Modi by a civil rights leader, Jatin Sheth of the Nagrik Sashaktikaran Manch (NSS), says, the scheme has been implemented in paper in the district.
While taps have been “commissioned”, water supply arrangements are “missing” in as many as 50 villages of Dang, which happens to be predominantly tribal, he says.

Forwarding the list of the 50 villages for Modi’s perusal, Sheth insists, the district collector should be asked to make “water supply arrangements by tankers urgently” in order to “address immediate needs of the families to reduce the severe drudgery of tribal women”, who have to “walk 1-2 kms to fetch water from dug wells.”

Pointing out that even “hand pumps also not working” in Dang villages, Sheth says, while the scheme itself is “very sensible”, as it would help reduce the drudgery of women to fetch drinking water for the family, “It seems from the plight of these villages that the authorities/officers responsible for implementation of the scheme are implementing in on paper only.”
“Here, in most villages, taps have been installed but water supply arrangements have not not been made”, the letter says, pointing out, in the 50 villages Dang, a hilly district, water scarcity is “beyond one’s imagination”, adding, not only tribal women have to walk a distance to get potable water from dug wells and ponds, “The quality of water is absolutely unsafe for drinking.”

Sheth continues, “It is an irony that Dang is known as Cherapunji of Gujarat, where the season’s average annual rainfall is 2,500 mm or even more, and yet people suffer from acute water shortage.” Releasing photographs he has forwarded to Modi, he adds, “The pictures posted here speak very well about the plight of these families, particularly of women and young girls who have to leave their study to bring water for the family.”
Sheth has forwarded a copy of the letter, among others, to Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and concerned officials of the Government of India and the state government.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Search This Blog