Water Women Make Community Happier With Two Hours a Day

A group of around 600 women from over 200 villages in central India have gathered together as the “Jal Sahelis” – water women friends – to restore the water infrastructure in the conservative region of Bundelkhand.

Women in the region commonly need to endure miles of walking several times a day to add water to their pots, to avoid their families facing thirst and hunger. The Jal Sahelis, determined for a better solution, have transformed the water-deprived villages by gathering daily to repair water pumps, revive wells and build check dams to restore rainwater.

The increasing improvement in the water situation as well as the Sahelis’ unaltered work at home has allowed the water women’s husbands and in-laws to shake off their initial hesitation in allowing the women to go out on their own.

With a goal of ensuring their families a future free of water worries, most women dedicate at least two hours a day for their Saheli work, meeting government officials, forming a water conservation plan for their villages, and learning how to handle tools for chores traditionally taken care of by men.

Sanjay Singh, secretary of Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sangathan, a grassroots charity behind the Jal Saheli programme, tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation that thanks to these women, “the index of happiness has increased” in the region.