Tap water brings big relief for women, they respond with increasing community involvement

Tap water brings big relief for women, they respond with increasing community involvement

Lakshmi Kushwaha lives in Bahera village of Niwari district in Madhya Pradesh. She comes from a 10-member joint family. Until some time back, she used to go to a hand-pump located at a distance of about 1 km from her home six times a day for meeting the water needs of the family. Her sister-in-law also helped in a similar way. In one round Lakshmi used to fetch about 35 liters of water. She used to carry a pitcher on her head and a can in one hand.

Despite her willingness to work so hard for fetching water, during the summer and other times of water scarcity there was no certainty that she would immediately get water at the hand-pump. She often had to wait her turn for a long time. To avoid long delays sometimes she got up at 3 am at night to leave to fetch water.

For Lakshmi the most frustrating experience was to keep thinking about arranging water even when she was away from home for some time. Sometimes as soon as she returned home, regardless of how tired she felt, her first task was to leave to fetch water.

The difficulties experienced by Sudha Ahirwar, who lives in Churara village of the same district, were no less. She comes from a smaller 4-member family and there was no sister-in-law to share the burden. She went 7 times a day to fetch water from a hand-pump located at a distance of about 1 km. She also carried a pitcher and a can.

However in her case there was also an additional complication. The nearest hand-pump was located across the railway track. So if a train came, she was held up for a long time, waiting for it to depart.

This also meant that she had to take extra care for safety. So while covering the short stretch of the railway track, she could not go with both the pitcher and the can. The most difficult part of water fetching is to place the pitcher properly and balance it on the head cover. However in her case she had to take down the pitcher as she approached the railway track, and carry it in her hands to place it on the other side of the track, then similarly carry the can and finally balance the pitcher again on her head before starting the second stretch of her journey.

In addition Sudha had to cope with long delays while waiting for her turn at the tap. Sometimes her pitcher and can were placed so far behind in the line that she found it time saving to come home after placing the utensils in the line, then cook a vegetable before returning to fill in the pitcher and the can. To avoid such delays she too sometimes went around 3 am to fetch water.

Sudha realized soon after her marriage that fetching water every day was to now become her most regular task. However she had no experience of this from pre-marriage days. As a result in the initial days her water-filled pitcher fell down several times from her head and was smashed to pieces. This sometimes led to anger in the family as she was found to be lacking in an essential skill.

Keeping in view their highly tiring, time-consuming, and occasionally frustrating experiences with fetching water, one can imagine how relieved these women, and so many others like them in their villages, felt when tap water started coming to their village recently under the Jal Jeevan Mission. As Lakshmi said, the village in which we were married suddenly started appearing more beautiful and attractive.

To their credit both Lakshmi and Sudha are utilizing the extra time now available to them for not only their personal tasks but also for social responsibilities relating to helping their communities. They are both Jal SahelisWater Friends/VolunteersWomen volunteers, often from local communities, who are trained and empowered to promote water conservation, manage water resources, and ensure water adequacy in their villages. (women volunteers who together take forward initiatives of water conservation and adequacy). This initiative of Parmarth social organizationParmarth Samaj Seva SansthanAn Indian non-governmental organization (NGO) actively involved in rural development, particularly focusing on water conservation, sanitation, and women’s empowerment in regions like Bundelkhand. has attracted widespread attention in recent years. Now Jal Sahelis like Sudha and Lakshmi are also able to get more time for such community work as they are free from the responsibilities of fetching water. Hence their contribution for community work is also increasing. In fact Sudha recently joined a march from BundelkhandGeographical Region in IndiaA historical region in central India, divided between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, known for its challenging terrain and frequent water scarcity issues. to Delhi for spreading the message of protecting Yamuna river.

Thus while tap water has certainly brought big relief to many women like Sudha and Lakshmi, our story will not be complete without recounting the situation one or two generations earlier. In another village of this region I spoke to an approximately 75-year-old woman about her experiences of about 40 years back. She said that she lived in a 35-member joint family and many women shared the responsibility for fetching water from a well. She had to walk for about 300 meters for this. She said she routinely could take four utensils in one trip, balancing two pitchers on her head, and two utensils in her hands. However it was interesting that she did not speak of this experience as a burden, just as easily accepted, routine work. Did she ever break pitchers? Well, she tried to remember, once a naughty family member said something terribly funny as she was passing by and as she burst into laughter, one pitcher fell down.

So probably the difference then was that the well was well-filled, not requiring any wait or tension of not getting water. Additionally, many women members in the big family shared the burden, while some water needs, like for bathing, were met away from home at a tank or well.

So while we cannot say that fetching water was a big burden throughout history, what we can say is that due to various changing circumstances, it has indeed become a significant burden in recent times. Therefore, it is truly positive that women are now feeling relieved of this major burden in villages where tap water is reaching all or most homes.