It is late at night. Asha is waiting for her father to come back home. Usually, her father is always home by now, but today she knows he is late because he has gone to check the new water pump installed at her grandmother’s house. Due to the erratic rainfall and dry spells, the pond near the house has almost become dry and the water is not drinkable anymore. So now Asha’s father is installing a pump that will force out water from under the ground. Asha remembers how her grandmother hated the idea of drilling the earth for water. She said ‘You will hurt her. Don’t drill the chest of mother earth.’ Asha is just 5 years old and in her 5 years of existence, she has never heard something like this. She wonders how anybody can drill into mother earth.

Today, while waiting for her father in the living room, Asha pops out her head from the window only to find that it is raining heavily. She puts her hand out to catch the cool rainwater. A drop of water fell on her little hand .Oh! How cool it feels! It is as if a chilled current runs through her arm and landed on her palm. She felt it on her cheek and started playing with the raindrops.

Watching her little daughter play with water, Rekha smiled slowly. Her mind trails back to that hot day in May 2008 when she went to visit the villages of Bundelkhand. Even that day, it had started raining in Bundelkhand after 4 years of drought. Yes, the sky had been clouding over for the last 5-6 days but suddenly, it actually rained that day. Rekha, along with her colleagues Ashutosh and Praveen was talking to the villagers about the impact of climate change on water availability of the region. The concept of climate change is quite complicated; to expect an illiterate villager to understand climate change and answer questions related to it is somewhat impractical.

Anyway, this was the task Rekha had set for herself. While these participatory activities with communities were going on, suddenly the clouds burst open and started pouring. After 4 years of continuous drought, the people of Bundelkhand felt the raindrops falling on its very land. All the people jumped up and started dancing. Everyone welcomed the rain with laughter, dances, songs and hugs. It was a sight to see these men, beaten by time, throwing away all caution and enjoy. Suddenly, Rekha noticed a young mother instructing her daughter to collect the falling water. The poor child went inside her hut with a very long face; it was obvious she didn’t want to stop enjoying with others. Rekha’s heart went out with the child; after all, she also had a girl of almost the same age. She went to the girl and started helping her collecting water in her various broken vessels. Seeing Rekha helping the little girl, her mother came along to try to stop Rekha. But Rekha ignored her and within half an hour, all the vessels of the household were filled and the rain had also become more of a drizzle.

Rekha and her colleagues then sat over a cup of tea with the family. Rekha was curious to know why the mother had stopped Pushpa (the little girl) from enjoying the rain. She asked Pushpa’s mother, ‘Sister, why didn’t you let Pushpa play in rain? What’s the urgent need of filling the vessels when you know it will rain for awhile now?’ Rekha was quite stunned with the answer. Pushpa replied, ‘Madam, you don’t know how erratic these rains are; they can vanish just like that. Then, for drinking water, Pushpa will have to walk for an hour twice a day. At least this water will last us one and a half days, which means a little rest for her.’

‘Why don’t you have water supply in your village? And how can you send such a little girl to fetch water and that too alone?’ by now Rekha was furious. She started thinking of all the social crimes that can happen to this little girl. ‘But madam, if she does not go then who will? Her brother has to attend school, her father is in the city, trying to earn some money for us, and I have to look after my two little children here at home and cook. Why don’t you tell the government to install a water tap here?’ Pushpa’s mother stopped for a while to serve more tea and then said, ‘You know, madam, four years back Pushpa started going to school. She was a bright student, her father was very proud of her and keen to let her study but this four-year drought has broken our backs. We are now trying to just survive and not think at all.’

Wow, Rekha thought. This was too much. For one, you are not letting a girl child go to school. Then you are asking her to work like a mother to her elder brother. At first, I thought this is just a water availability problem. Climate Change does impact the water availability of a region but the situation here is far more critical. In four years of drought, a happy family has been torn into pieces. The most dis heartening thing is they are aware of the consequences but still they are keeping their eyes closed. They have no options left. Rekha could not speak any further. She bid them farewell and left as early as she could. She too had a daughter; it disturbed her to think of the other mother. ‘How to handle this?’ she kept thinking. There is no one solution that will solve the problem of this and many such villages. ‘Perhaps, making water available is the first step’. Rekha was convinced that making water available would herald a new beginning. From that day onwards, she steadily worked on making water available in these areas.

Standing behind her playing daughter, Rekha thinks about the phone call she has received in the morning. It was from her colleague working in the village. In a cheerful voice he said, ‘Madam, we have installed the tap. The villagers are taking water from it now. They are very happy.’ It was such a relief to hear his words. A promise had been fulfilled.

The road is arduous, the work hard, but change has begun. The first hurdle has been crossed and the vision is in sight. q

Soma Biswas
sbiswas@devalt.org
 

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