Easing Women’s Burden Through Water Security

Nakhtu Devi’s story In the village of Bamnu, in the state of Rajasthan, water is a critical issue and has a direct influence on women’s lives. Nakhtu Devi lives in Bamnu with her husband, together with her daughter & three sons. Her husband, Jagdish, is mentally ill so he cannot work in order to generate income for his family. Instead, Nakhtu herself has to go to work in nearby villages, as a day laborer to earn an income for her family. She earns just 1000 Indian Rupees (US$23.45) in a month.

Nakhtu was always anxious about what would happen with her family. Her children did not go to school, even though she wanted them to. Nakhtu had to work just half-day so that she could go home to fetch water from the nearest water source, which was about 2km (1.24 miles) far from her house. Hearing her story, a Village Development Committee (VDC) in Bamnu met with Nakhtu and saw her as someone who could use the support of a taanka.

As a result, GRAVIS constructed a taanka for her family. Thanks to the taanka, she is no longer worried about fetching water for her household consumption. Her daily tasks are less stressful now. She wakes up early in the morning to do some household work and then goes to work that she can now perform for a full day. As a result, she’s paid for a full day and thus, her income has increased. She comes back home in the evenings to cook for her husband and children. She has now purchased two goats for milk, providing more nutrition to her children.

She’s planning now to send her children back to school this coming school year. She is happy and less anxious about family. A single taanka has changed her life. Now she participates in her community and plays an active role in her village’s VDC meetings & mobilization of her community. Nakhtu feels self-reliant.

In setting up seed banks, GRAVIS uses local varieties of seeds such as Moong (Green gram), Moth (Legume), Jowar (Coarse millet), Bajra (Pearl millet) and Guar (Cluster beans), which are collected from the villages during harvest season and preserved in pots with ash, dry calcium carbonate and dried neem leaves.

Calcium carbonate absorbs the moisturizer of seeds, ash helps it to remain dry and neem acts as pesticide to prevent insects from affecting the seeds. The mouths of the pots are sealed with mud. This is how traditionally the local varieties of seeds are preserved in the villages. These seed banks are managed by community-based organizations like Village Development Communities (VDCs) and Self Help Groups (SHGs), which GRAVIS helps to form.