Oasis woman

While these tribal families used the nearby lake water for washing and cleaning, their only way to get an access to drinking water, till recently, was to work at the houses of the upper caste families in

the village.

For 25 years, Matki Devi worked as domestic help to some upper caste families in this village for two pots of water daily. There were others like her. The women of this community finally decided to help themselves. They sought the help from Heeron, a woman from the village who often extended help to them, to learn the mason8217;s job. The women constructed their own water tank to provide themselves with drinking water.

Soon working for the village families for two pots of water a day was a thing of past. They now plan to build individual tanks for their homes. Impressed, the state authorities have also promised to help them get loans to construct small water tanks in every house. 8220;Six months back, this was a dream. But today, we are actually thinking of constructing more such tanks here,8221; said Matki Devi.

8220;Working for water was something that my mother and my grandmother did. In fact, even my daughters did it till sometime back, but not anymore,8221; she added. Men from these families are mostly engaged as daily wage labourers in the nearby mines.

Gattu Devi, another of these women, said, 8220;Things would get really bad in summer. We were made to work till it was night and then we had to pay Re 1 per pot of water.8221; Last summer, the women had even approached the local leaders and the authorities with their problem but there complaints had fallen on deaf ears.

8220;They didn8217;t have enough money to buy vessels to store water, how could they think of tanks? A fter a lot of discussion, it was decided that they would themselves construct the tank. The best thing was that they had their minds set on finding a solution and they were ready to do anything,8221; said Heeron.

Heeron, along with a group of girls from the community, approached an NGO, which agreed to train them in construction work. After the training, they managed

to build a tank, which also has the facility of rainwater

harvesting.

8220;We are surrounded by hills and the tank has a channel through which rainwater from the hills will accumulate in the tank. Meanwhile, we will shell out money to buy a tanker of drinking water every week to fill up the tank,8221; said Rajjo Devi. Though the upper caste families in the village have not taken it in the same spirit, these women are not bothered. Moreover, they have the support of the village sarpanch. 8220;Being a woman, I can understand their difficulties. I provided them with an NOC and told the villagers that if something goes wrong, I would file a complaint against them,8221; said Varju Devi, the sarpanch. 8220;We had to face taunts almost every day from people in whose houses we were employed,8221; said Savitri.