A FISTFUL OF WATER

By Meenakshi Shedde

Mumbai, India

In Mumbai, India—a city with 16 million population—Nandini Rao, a CEO’s wealthy and highly educated wife, is entirely dependent on the government water supply. The day there’s a water cut, she goes ballistic.

Nandini is rich enough to afford Bisleri bottled mineral water for daily use. The water she would use up in just the flick of the water flush, would mean

enough drinking water for a rural Indian family for a whole week.

Whenever there is a water cut in the city, those who can afford them, scramble desperately to get private water tankers that bring well water to the high-rises in the metropolis.

Meanwhile, Kutch district in Gujarat state, in the desert near the western Indo-Pakistan border, was much worse off. It got just 13 days of rain in a year and was so drought-prone, that water was once costlier than milk!

The men, cattle herders, would migrate in search of fodder, leaving the women to fend for themselves. The women had to walk five kilometers to fetch drinking water daily. Often, men don’t even know from where their women get water: it simply arrives!

The villagers were reduced to drinking awful, tea-coloured water, if even that was available. At one time, people would refuse to give their daughters

in marriage into this district, because of its acute water scarcity.

All that changed with Hansbai Buddha, a feisty 55-year old Rabari tribal grandmother of Karamta village in Abdasa district in Kutch, Gujarat. She heads a women’s water committee that actually turned their drought-prone village into a self-reliant one that gets year-round water, and is actually independent of government water supply!

The women were organised and trained by the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghatana and Sahjeevan, two NGOs, along with their partners. They started a ‘Water is Ours’ campaign to make thirsty villagers self-reliant in water, rather than rely on government promises.

The women’s collectives studied the local geology, before clearing traditional tanks and digging wells. Each collective also appointed a member on the NGO’s governing board, so cattle-grazing women could

now talk to government officials as equals. So the men often got jealous.

Men didn’t like the women getting ahead. When women worked to revive an old canal, the jealous landowner tried to get a court stay order. So the women worked overnight to finish its construction before the order was passed!

To defuse the situation, the women’s groups start with what men see as “women’s issues,” like eco-friendly stoves and toilets. As they understand ecology better, they move to water source development for the village.

In Khari village, women transformed drought relief work into drought proofing work. 45 women built a well by themselves. They were less corrupt and more hard working. Whereas men in the adjacent village only managed a shabby road under the drought relief programme.

Kutch has very diverse ethnic communities, including high caste Hindus, low caste Harijans, and ethnic Muslim communities, each living in their own worlds. The women had no reason to meet, and never went out

without a man. But building the village tank galvanised everyone.

In the Muslim-dominated Dador village, in Nakhatrana in Kutch district, it is very inspiring to see conservative Muslim women play public roles in leading water management. The men are very proud of their women’s achievements.

The women in the collectives enthusiastically go on “water tours” to Aurangabad, Ralegan Siddhi, Dungarpur and Udaipur to learn and share experiences that benefit everyone--villagers, agriculture and cattle.

However harsh and unforgiving nature is, with whatever little they have,

the women of Kutch know to truly celebrate life! .