Catalog

Pictorial
Easing Her Burden

Photos By Halsey Street

Women of the Ahir ethnic minority in northern Gujarat, India, don’t need to be told how precious water is. For the past 3 years, the Indian state of Gujarat has experienced a prolonged drought, and the women have watched their water supply steadily diminish. The village pond is their main source of water.

Fetching water used to fill much of their days. Time is also precious to these women. Time spent carrying water means less time to devote to livelihood activities to increase family incomes. The village men, mostly farmers, have also been hit hard by the drought. Fields are so parched most crops can’t grow.

Now, as a result of an initiative by the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), a trade union of 500,000 poor women workers in the informal sector, women in drought-stricken Banaskantha District in northern Gujarat have easier access to the village water supply.

In the village of Barara, local SEWA leader Kakuben mobilized the community to expand the village pond and build underground cement tanks to store drinking water. Instead of spending much of the day hauling water, the women are now busy working on their famous embroidery, which they sell to help support their families.

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