In Killabandar Village, Even Little Girls Have to Make Sure There’s Enough Water to Go Around.
A photo-essay by People’s Archive of Rural India reveals that there’s more to this hardship.
The women and girls often scrape the bottom to be able to access water.
This isn’t just Killabandar; water scarcity is a huge problem in India.
But Killabandar’s story tells us how inefficiently and unfairly water resources are being distributed.
What its residents resent is that while they depend on wells, tankers, and the extremely erratic and unhelpful municipal supply, water from Palghar district is redirected to the Mumbai metropolitan region.
“The well has only a little water [in the summer] in one corner.
While most of the 75 existing wells in and around the Vasai fort are out of commission, the taps receive water for only around one-and-a-half hours, once in two days, the villagers confess.
We don’t get any holidays,” one of the women says.
Like PARI reports, “The need for water pushes even the youngest members – almost always girls – of many families into this daily labour.” The girls of Killabandar wake up at 7 am, some of them collect water till 10 am, and then go to school.