In this Rajasthan village, har ghar jal hasn't taken off: 'Men forced to migrate, women go far off to earn a living'
Chittodia village, located in Suhagpura block of Pratapgarh district (Rajasthan), is finding sustenance increasingly difficult because of water scarcity during the first half of the year, before the advent of the monsoon rains. It is not just a matter of shortage of irrigation water, even drinking water is increasingly difficult to access for people as well as farm and dairy animals.
As Gangabai, one of the women gathered at a group meeting, told me—There is only one working hand pump for the scattered settlement of nearly 80 Meena adivasi (tribal community) households in this remote village. As the summer nears, even this will yield water only haltingly and queues at the hand pump will increase. There are other hand pumps but due to decline of water table these do not yield water during these difficult months.
As a result of this situation, another woman Kesarbai added, a typical woman has to walk for a km. to the hand pump five to six times a day to get drinking water. She has to do this even in extremely hot weather, when waiting time at the tap can also increase. At times a woman is close to collapsing or even losing consciousness as a result of walking time and again with pitcher in hot weather. While generally a woman carries one pitcher, at times she may be carrying two pitchers.
At the same time, water for farm and dairy animals also has to be arranged, and this is obtained from a tanker costing Rs. 400 which lasts at most four days, forcing very poor households to spend Rs. 100 per day on this.
As they have very less land and irrigation is even more scarce, these difficulties in meeting the most basic daily need of water forces more and more young men to migrate to various cities in Rajasthan and Gujarat in search of some earning. As they are desperately in need of work, they often accept high risk and exploitative work. People here tell about young men of village who died or were disabled in high risk work, or were cheated of their earnings in distant places.
Meanwhile during the harvesting season the women who have stayed behind in the village daily leave before sunrise for more prosperous villages in terribly overloaded tempos to toil all day and return late at night, earning about Rs. 300 per day in the process.
A voluntary organization SRIJAN brought a ray of hope in the form of orchards and improved natural farming methods. These brought good results, but the problem of water remained. So SRIJAN took up the work of deepening of traditional wells here so that the water in them can increase and can be available during the scarcity months. This has brought some badly needed relief to people, but as the villagers say clearly this is not adequate and more needs to be done as early as possible to help the entire village community by improving its water access as well as the overall moisture and recharge conditions.
There is an old anicut which needs repairs to the extent that the repair and renovation costs amount to almost a new construction. However stopping the rainwater at this place and conserving it for the village can bring really significant relief and the costs can be brought down if the villagers can contribute some voluntary labor too to contribute to the project. Thus just about a million rupees, the villagers estimate, can help to bring significant relief to people in terms of reducing their water scarcity, and providing helpful conditions of recharge and moisture, so that the water level for existing traditional wells and hand pumps can also improve. If taken up in a participatory way with the cooperation of people and making full use of their knowledge and understanding of local conditions, such work can be very useful for this village and must be taken up soon. In addition, creating some farm ponds will also be helpful.
However in terms of ‘har ghar jal’ or government’s ambitious program of water taps for all village households, this has not yet taken off in this village and what is more, villagers here wonder that even if the taps come tomorrow, where is the water source from which water can be obtained regularly for these taps. Hence it is water conservation at the village level which must get top priority.
Somewhat similar is the situation in the next village that I visited—Bari Ambeli village located in the same block. Here also there is extreme water scarcity that is increasing the burden of women and driving men to migrant work. Here also the taps have been elusive and there is lack of knowledge regarding the water sources to feed these taps and pipelines sustainably when these are installed. At the same time villagers point out the place at Simaliya nullah where if anicut is constructed for water conservation then water scarcity in the village can end considerably and in addition about five other nearby villages will also benefit to some extent or the other.
Hence it is clear that water conservation remains the biggest need of most villagers here and this should also be reflected in the development priorities for such villages. If water conservation works taken up at a budget of Rs. 1 to 10 million can improve the development, environment protection and welfare scene in an entire village or settlement in sustainable ways, then such projects remain a very cost effective way of rural development and welfare, and their contribution to increasing greenery and climate change adaptation is also very significant. When special care is taken to link these benefits to weaker sections and women (as in the case of SRIJAN working with women from Meena tribal community members) then the benefits of such projects are even more significant.
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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food, Man over Machine, Planet in Peril, and A Day in 2071
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