Water

Women and their woeful walk for water

Women are responsible for finding and collecting water for their families. They walk miles, carry heavy burdens and wait for their turn for hours. On World Water Day, we take a look at their life-long struggle for something as basic as potable water

Vikas Choudhary
Girls in rural India drop out of school to help family members carry the burden of fetching water. Girls as young as ten contribute to this task
Dependence on depleting groundwater for drinking purposes is on the rise as other accessible sources are drying up
More households are getting dependent on tube wells or bore wells as principal sources of drinking water
Rural women often take up to six trips a day to collect and transport water. The long and arduous task leaves them with no scope to contribute as an earning member of the family
Women members of 82.2 per cent rural households in Chhattisgarh walk almost 500 metres a day to fetch drinking water