Exclusion from Water:

An Enormous Resource Deprivation

by

Rajesh Patnaik

What is a Resource

A resource can be defined as an element of natural environment appraised by man to be of value (Selman 1981). Broadly speaking resources may be categorized as renewable or non-renewable. Non-renewable resources become scarce through exhaustion of finite stock. Renewable resources depends upon the rates of natural replenishment: these resources also become scarce through over exploitation.
Selman, P.H., 1981 Ecology and Planning: An Introductory Study. London: Godwin.

Water as a resource?

We would have to understand as to what is meant by resource and how water is to be considered as a free resource but its value is based on the distance from where it has to be fetched. Conservation of useful resource is one of the functions of Human ecosystem. Human energy is the basics on which a society functions, it is the chain of exchange of resources. In real terms it is the energy expended to acquire the necessary water at a family / individual level.

Anthropology and Water Usage

Water is the most useful resource of the humankind and the mechanisms of its use and conservation by human groups is a cultural response to meet the biological and sustenance needs (food production) in a given environment. The activities related to the water usage are conditioned by adaptation of culture to the environment, It opens a way to the study and analyses from a perspective of Cultural Anthropology. Anthropological inquires into water usage and storage are a part of ethnographic descriptions (RAI 1951:249), but explicit studies of water usage by communities are rare (Patnaik et.al. 2000). Water scarcity is a relative term: the availability and effort involved in the collection of water defines it. Acquiring control over water resource is one of the key parameters for the growth and development of human settlements. The different environmental zones and the local topography play an important role in shaping the human responses to the collection and storage of water. Abundance of water in a given environment is no measure of the actual availability of water for utilization.
Royal Anthropological Institute, Notes and Queries on Anthropology, (6th Edition) London: Kegan 1951 Patnaik, R., T.Harpham and K.V.Moorthy. Scarcity of Water : A Study of Standpipe Users of Fort Cochin Mattencherry Area, City of Kochi, South India, South Bank University, London. In collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) Chennai, Report submitted to the Department for International Development (DFID) UK. 2000

Dalits as described by Human Rights Watch

More than one-sixth of India's population, some 160 million people, live a precarious existence, shunned by much of society because of their rank as untouchables or Dalits--literally meaning "broken" people--at the bottom of India's caste system. Dalits are discriminated against, denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the state's protection. In what has been called "hidden apartheid" entire villages in many Indian states remain completely segregated by caste.
Broken People: Caste Violence against India's "Untouchables", New York, Human Rights Watch, 1999, pp.1-2.

Dalits as a group are excluded from utilization of water from a common and energy efficient point of origin.
Water has been one of the major resource from which the dalits have been kept out almost universally in all the villages throughout India
Scheduled Castes, or Dalits, who comprise the lowest layer of the caste system and represent 16% of the total population (at least 167 million), according to official 2001 census data.

Dalits as a group are excluded from utilization of water from a common and energy efficient point of origin.

Water has been one of the major resource from which the dalits have been kept out almost universally in all the villages
throughout India Dalits, who comprise the lowest layer of the caste system and represent 16% of the total population (at least 167 million), according to official 2001 census data.

Himachal Pradesh

I would like to show you the certain aspects of exclusion dalits from water in a state which is Mountainous and rural with major Himalayan rivers like Beas, Sutlej and others following though it. According to the census of India, Himachal Pradesh is having the maximum rural population of 90.20 percent which is lowest among all the States and Union territories in the country as per Census 2001.

Himachal Pradesh is a state consisting of numerous minor Hindu kings and chieftains Mountainous chieftains never barred any particular community from the usage of traditional water systems

Historically local kings chieftains and village communities evolved the traditional irrigation system of kuhls surface channels for drinking water from natural springs and streams (khuds). These systems were not barred for communities which are now defined as dalits

WATER PROBLEM IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh is endowed by snow fed mountain rivers, which provide a perennial source of water. In the foothills, there are some monsoon fed rivers with seasonal flows. Despite abundant water resources, in reality the rugged mountainous terrain and situation of human settlements on the higher levels makes it impossible to harness sufficient usable water for irrigation facilities. Historically local kings chieftains and village communities evolved the traditional irrigation system of kuhls surface channels for drinking water from natural springs and streams (khuds). It has been said that drinking water has always a problem for people in the region. The supply from springs and streams was often deficient in the lower reaches. It has been recorded that the town of Nahan (Sirmuar District) had insufficient water during the summer as early as the end of 1800s (Government of Punjab 1906). The shortage water is has been felt quite severely in recent times. The district of Solan and Hamirpur has been in the grip of water shortage.

Dalits in Himachal Pradesh

Schedule castes in Himachal Pradesh constitutes,25.34 per cent of its total population. Chamar, Dumna and Julaha are the major dalit groups. Rajputs and Brahmans are the highest castes.

Women and water collection

Collection of water for domestic use has always been the role of women. In a sample of over 600 households we found that 92.65% women were involved in water collection in Kerala, which by all means is an advanced society as far as women are considered. In Himachal Pradesh in a village in the District of Kangra it was found that all the domestic water was collected by dalit women only. In the case of dalit women water collection is generally more burdensome because their wells are usually situated far away and where the water table is deeper. Even when they collect from rivers they do have to travel downstream to do so.

Recommendations

Data about wells from each village has to be collected During next census special attention should be paid to collect details of wells from which Dalits draw water- to understand the deprivation of water resources Also information were no discrimination is practiced in utilization of water

Dr Rajesh Patnaik Social Anthropologist Plot 82, Daspalla Hills Visakhapatnam-530003. India <rajesh009@gmail.com>