Aditi Sajwan

Aditi Sajwan
Remembering Mahad Satyagraha: Untouchability and water
Connection to basic infrastructure and access to essential services such as water are often used as a tool for social discrimination and exercise of power. Posted on 21 Mar, 2020 10:28 PM

The worst and most inhumane form of discrimination and untouchability is seen when it comes to water. Even today, many villages have a different source of water allotted for Dalits. Many a times, upper caste men and women forbid Dalit women from touching the public source of water fearing the source will be “polluted".

Can the simple act of drinking water be revolutionary? (Illustration by Chetan Toliya)
Neeru and the Nilgiris
Conserving springs, small hill wetlands and their catchment in the Nilgiris. Posted on 24 Jan, 2020 11:36 AM

Locally called Neeru, water of the Nilgiris in its springs and wetlands has been the fountainhead for two main rivers systems of South India. Today, with growing anthropogenic influences, there is a water crisis in the hills that needs our attention more than ever before.

A view of the Nilgiris (Image credits: Golkul Halan)
All work and some play
Collective action games trigger conversations around the nature of the invisible and immeasurable common pool resource - groundwater. Posted on 02 Aug, 2019 12:11 PM

India is, by far, the world’s largest groundwater economy. India’s annual withdrawal of fresh groundwater (253 Billion Cubic Metres in 2013) amounts to one fourth of the global total and is more than that of China and the US combined. Over 80% of water extracted is used in agriculture. The share of tubewells in net irrigated area rose from a mere 1% in 1960-61 to over 40% in 2013-14.

Villagers in Magradeh, Madhya Pradesh watching neighbouring farmers play a game. Image credit: Water Practitioners Network
Springing back to life
CHIRAG in Uttarakhand works with communities to revive local springs to achieve water security. Posted on 25 Jul, 2019 12:48 PM

In popular imagination, steeped in consumer culture, the hills are exotic and aesthetically sublime places to find solace away from busy urban life. This kind of imagination conveniently ignores and de-contextualizes the hills and the problems they face today. The Himalayas, often known as the Water Tower of Asia, are revered because many of the world's important rivers originate from them.

Image source: Water Practitioners Network
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