Location: Namkum Block, Ranchi, Jharkhand
Focus Areas: Water | Women’s Burden | Rural Access
In rural Jharkhand, collecting water is not a task it is the axis around which life turns.
By Parinaama Development Foundation
At a village on the outskirts of Namkum block, Ranchi, the day starts long before sunrise.
Women begin assembling near the community hand pump as early as 4:30 a.m., often with young children wrapped in shawls, balancing steel pots, waiting their turn. For these families, water is the first and most urgent item on the agenda. Without it, nothing else moves.
In India’s urban centres, access to water is often taken for granted a turn of the tap, a running shower. In these villages, the reality is different. Water scarcity is not just about drought or depleting sources. It is about time, effort, and daily trade-offs.
The Hidden Cost of Collection
Across many rural parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal, it is women who are primarily responsible for water collection. The burden is physical and economic. Time spent queuing for water is time lost from education, childcare, wage labour, or self-help group meetings.
The implications are subtle but far-reaching. Girls often miss school because they accompany their mothers or manage chores, while others fetch water. For adult women, aspirations are regularly deferred, a skill training missed, a health camp skipped, simply because the day’s water had to come first.
As Parinaama expands its work across districts, the focus remains the same: listen first, build with communities, and stay rooted in the everyday realities of rural life.
Water remains at the centre of these realities, not just as a resource, but as a gatekeeper to what a woman can or cannot do with her day.
The Way Forward
In a time when conversations about development often revolve around infrastructure or innovation, stories like these serve as a reminder.
To learn more about Parinaama’s work in sustainable livelihoods and rural development, visit www.parinaama.org
