But, in the village of Pachegaon in Maharashtra’s Beed, the villagers say it’s not just the lack of rain that has brought them to this point.
The rivers that once sustained their fields are now clogged with silt and stone and thus, cannot absorb the rain when it does come. Crops begin to wither just weeks after being planted.
As Durga Mukund Rathod, a farmer, shares, “The fact that we receive rainfall but we cannot use it for a long time, troubles us. Our borewell runs 300 feet deep. If only it could capture the water in the ground, we wouldn’t have any problems.”
One of the most painful outcomes of Pachegaon’s water crisis has been distress migration. Farmers from the Marathwada migrate to far-flung villages in western Maharashtra, where they work as labourers in sugarcane factories for months.
At the sugarcane factories, the farmers live in makeshift shanties, toil for 15-hour stretches — work starts at 4 am and goes on till 7 pm, breaking for only lunch in between.
Their hands get sore hacking the stem of the cane with the koyta (machete-style knife), following which they bundle the cane, load it onto their heads and carry it to the tractor.
While at the site, the workers are also expected to see to their own medical problems and expenses.
One of the most worrying among them is the rise in alcoholism. With little rest, no comfort, and nothing to look forward to, many workers turn to alcohol as the only escape they can find.
But this is the year we want to flip the script.
Sarpanch of the village panchayat, Vishnu Rathod, explains, “Excavating the silt from the river will help us make optimal use of the 650 mm rainfall that we receive. We will be able to irrigate our land.”
Through our campaign, The Better India, in collaboration with Nabhangan Foundation — an NGO working to empower villages and make them self-reliant — is attempting to revive the Pachegaon river.