Vikas Jha

Marathwada, comprising eight districts in Maharashtra, often makes the headlines due to recurring drought. Irregular rains and shifts to cash crops have made the water situation precarious in the region.

Women in rural India are always at an added disadvantage due to low literacy levels and socio-cultural norms characterized by inequitable access to resources. This automatically translates into reduced self-esteem and poor levels of confidence.

The problem of drinking water in India is becoming more acute by the day, as one can see people queuing up at wells, water tankers, and common water points during summers in mos

Lockdown in April to May 2020 due to COVID-19 led to the mass migration of workers from the cities to villages. Despite strict measures by the government to stop any movement, people facing lost jobs and high cost of living in the cities began to walk back or use whatever transportation was available to travel to their home villages.

Irrigation system in India is often about big dams and hundreds of kilometres of canals that incur huge capital expenditure. Hence, policies at the central and the state level are mostly tilted in favour of big projects and often neglect micro-level solutions.