A self-initiated study in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh brought us face to face with the many realities of climate change and its effects. From less to no rainfall, no water conservation technologies, the villagers are facing a water crisis. This study has been initiated in an attempt to create action around the crisis from the community as well as the local administrative bodies.
You enter the Madna Block of Tikamgarh District on a hot summer afternoon and one can see women and children each carrying at least two pots of water on their heads or in their hands.
When we decided to follow these women, we learnt that they will be walking back to their village which is a kilometer away from the well from which they just collected water. A woman, alongside whom we walk to her village, tells us that this has been the case every day since last 2 year, when this district first faced its acute water shortage due to minimal to no rainfall. The villages in this block have been facing water crisis for a long time now and there is a shortage of sources of water in and around the villages such as wells or hand pumps.
Water and Social Discrimination
On further study, the understanding of factors that lead to the problem of water in the villages points you to its social aspect as well. The inaccessibility of water to many of the villagers is not only due to a physical factor such as shortage of rain and unavailability of sources of water but also due to the presence of various forms of social discrimination. There is social control that the upper castes in the village enjoy over the marginalized and lower castes when it comes to using the sources of water in a village. Most of the upper castes households either have their own boring well where they do not allow someone from a lower caste household to withdraw water till they have completed their chores from the well which results in a member of the lower caste household waiting for hours to withdraw one bucket of water. There is also a very clear co-relation between caste and class that can be understood in some of these villages of Tikamgarh. It is seen that most of the sources of water, especially the wells are privately owned, mostly by the wealthy and the upper caste families which results in the exploitation of those who cannot afford to own a well or are of a particular caste and therefore do not enjoy the same privileges. There are hand-pumps around the village but most of them are lying dry. There are days and nights when people who aren’t wealthy or privileged enough to own a well would put out their beds next to an upper caste’s well throughout the night so that they can get the first chance to fill water the next day.
The shortage of water has become so acute over the years that some days when there is no electricity and the bore wells don’t fetch the required water, most of the women and children from these families go up till 2 km in search of water.
Gendered Water
The worst affect of this is borne by the women and the children of the households as it is being seen that most children from most marginalized families have stopped going to school, especially girl children to help their mothers get water from the far away distances for everyday chores
Alongside caste, gender discrimination is another social factor that is interlinked with the problem of water. In the villages of Tikamgarh, it is mostly the men who approach us for information or to give information on our first visit. Most of our initial data and the narratives were given by men of the community. However, it was interesting to note that it was mostly women who were at different water sources to collect water for their household chores alongside their children though they were completely absent from the narratives around the problem of water. Whenever the interviewer would try to ask a woman for her opinion, the men would jump in to narrate. This was worse when a Dalit or Adivasi would start narrating their side of the story. Men who already enjoy the privilege of being a man, would also use their upper caste privilege to create control over the voices of the marginalized as well as the assets of the village.
The district is facing an acute shortage of water in its villages but there seems to be an absence of any role by the administration. This study is still in the process of collecting data to understand the schemes and the policies that have been implemented to combat this acute water shortage issue however there is also a dire need to work on the social factors that are in play. The issue of caste discrimination and gender which is at the core of the problem needs to be on the agenda of policy makers in order to help unite the community towards a common goal. Due to the discrimination, there is a depoliticization of the voices and which has resulted in making the problem of water more complex by complicating it with an interplay of social factors such as caste and gender. However, to deal with the social isn’t an easy task and it is a belief that community mobilization and collectivization will be key towards the holistic development of the district.
The team which has initiated this study in Tikamgarh is in their first stage of ground research. The project has identified young literate women who are part of the baseline survey team and based on the data collected a report will be presented to the district administration. If you wish to help with the project in any way, please write to us at shataakshiverma@gmail.com.