In 2008, the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes roughly estimated the NT-DNT population in India as 10–12 crore, that is, approximately 10 percent of the country’s population. And yet they are not counted in the census conducted by the government. Most of them do not have any land in their name, which prevents them from accessing several social welfare schemes.

Public services are usually not planned keeping NT-DNTs in mind. Their needs are different because they are constantly moving. They typically reside in kaccha tent houses or pakka rented rooms and struggle to access basic amenities such as water, sanitation, and electricity. The kaccha tent houses are built on any available piece of land and cannot have toilets inside them, so they have to resort to open defecation or visit paid or communal toilets.

In order to highlight the sanitation needs of NT-DNTs, Anubhuti Trust—a nonprofit that works with marginalised communities for the recognition of their rights—conducted an audit of the sanitation facilities for NT-DNTs in Thane district, Maharashtra. Based on our findings, we prepared a list of recommendations in our report Toilet for Tents. The entire process from conceptualisation to execution was led by youth and women from NT-DNT and Bahujan communities. The findings are from 209 interviews conducted with individuals from 11 NT-DNT communities residing in 22 pockets, 14 bastis (slums), and 6 municipal corporations of Thane. Twenty-eight toilets, of which 20 were community toilets and eight were pay-and-use ones, were audited. The conditions described below are applicable to both types of toilets. While pay-and-use toilets had better facilities, they remain inaccessible to NT-DNTs as they cannot afford to pay for them.  

Here are the main findings and recommendations from the report.

1. Recognise nomadic and denotified tribes and their patterns

Among those surveyed, 58.8 percent were living in kaccha tent houses and the rest in pakka rented rooms. These communities move from one place to another throughout the year. However, their migration route is planned and they stay at fixed or nearby spots every year for the same amount of time. Currently, the NT-DNT population is neither counted nor taken into consideration while planning for the provision of sanitation services. Therefore, it is important for the administration to recognise their migratory patterns (which are based on work opportunities), count them officially, and provide sanitation facilities accordingly. These can be constructed or mobile toilets in the locations where families set up their tent homes.

This is also how the audit was conducted—the community members that led the process took the community leaders’ help to identify where families were staying. Twenty-two pockets within the 14 bastis surveyed were home to approximately 6,880 families, but this data isn’t recorded anywhere.

2. Include NT-DNTs in government schemes

Certain social welfare schemes require households to provide proof of ownership of a house or of land to avail the benefits they offer. An example is the Swachh Bharat Mission, which aimed to make India open-defecation free by 2019 by providing access to toilets to all rural households. However, such schemes exclude nomadic populations and don’t have any provisions for the homeless who don’t own land or a permanent home. This is evident from the survey as eight out of 10 NT-DNT community members did not have a toilet at home.

These are the communities that provide the essential services of building, cleaning, and maintaining villages and cities. But they are denied basic amenities and have to use paid public toilets or are forced to defecate in the open, which poses a threat to their dignity, privacy, and safety. So, it is even more important that provisions be made for allocation of housing and land to NT-DNT communities and for their active inclusion in social welfare schemes and planning.

3. Build better toilets and improve existing ones

Seventy-four percent of those who were surveyed reported that they have a public toilet in the area they reside in, but that these are too far away from their homes since they live on the outskirts of the bastis. Eighty percent stated that they have to defecate in the open. This is due to several reasons. One of them is that when they try to access public toilets, the attendants and security guards often ill-treat them.

Some toilets didn’t have basic facilities such as basins and dustbins; only four out of 10 toilets had a window. While 67.8 percent toilets were open 24 hours (the rest were closed at night), it was difficult to use them because, along with the cleanliness issues and discrimination faced by the community members, 88 interviewees reported that the toilets near them did not have lighting. The water supply was also inconsistent in 16 toilets; six of these did have water but remained closed at night. This is why 62.3 percent respondents said that they have no option but to go out in the open at night.

The basic facilities provided at existing toilets must be improved immediately and new toilets must be built near NT-DNT settlements. In 78 percent of the areas surveyed, respondents said that officials from the municipal corporation or nagar parishad never inspected the public toilets. The new toilets should be public, free, government-owned, and inspected regularly.

4. Make toilets safer for women and transpersons

Women and transpersons reported feeling unsafe—some toilets didn’t have locks or even doors, in addition to being unclean and not lit properly. These conditions force them to defecate in the open, but the security guards nearby shout at them and women and transpersons are harassed by men.

The survey also found that six out of 10 toilets did not have any attendants. For the safety of women and transpersons, attendants should be allotted to all the toilets and be sensitised to their needs. CCTV cameras must be installed in the vicinity of the toilets to prevent harassment. Separate toilets for men and women and at least one gender-neutral toilet should be built in each area to make it more comfortable for transpersons to use these facilities.

5. Make toilets accessible for persons with disabilities

Out of the 28 toilets audited, only one had a support railing. There were no other facilities available for persons with disabilities. The one toilet that had been built for them was run-down, and its path was blocked by rocks and debris.

These sanitation facilities can only be accessible if every toilet has a ramp, support railing, appropriate basin height, and at least one separate toilet stall that is disability-friendly.

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Know more

• Read this report on community-youth-led research on NT-DNTs’ access to toilets at MSRTC bus depots.
• Read this article to understand the social exclusion suffered by the nomadic and denotified tribes in urban India.
• Read this article to learn about the mental well-being of denotified tribes in India.

Since India has a diverse geography and many social systems, the approaches taken vary from one region to the next. This photo essay documents the efforts of five nonprofits from across the country.

Osmanabad is an aspirational district in Marathwada, a drought-prone region in Maharashtra. Rainfall is irregular, which makes agriculture challenging and directly impacts both income and food security. The pervasive cultivation of cash crops in the area further depletes groundwater levels.

Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) works with women farmers to help them practise an innovative model called one-acre farming. It started with six women who used 0.5–1 acre of their family land to grow food crops such as vegetables, millets, and pulses—the cultivation of which ensured food security for their families. The women relied on bio-inputs and therefore did not have to spend large amounts on chemical inputs. In addition, they sowed crops that require less water and used sustainable techniques such as drip irrigation and sprinklers. The success of this approach has led to its adoption by thousands of women, who demonstrated the model’s benefits to their families and started practising it on larger plots of land. Eventually, SSP helped women farmers widen their market by setting up a farmer producer organisation.  

Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)’s work in the plateau regions of West Bengal faced a different challenge. These areas have an undulating topography, and high rainfall and deforestation in the region have led to heavy soil erosion. This has impacted the lives and livelihoods of the tribal communities that live here. While the state government made efforts towards watershed development, there was an urgent need to include locals in designing the solutions meant for them.

PRADAN worked with women’s self-help groups (SHGs), village-level organisations, and cluster-level federations to engage the community in the process. They gathered and discussed their challenges—from food security to water scarcity—and gradually came up with the solutions that worked for them. PRADAN also set up a project management unit to coordinate between grassroots civil society organisations and gram panchayats to develop detailed plans for water conservation. This has helped in the creation of natural water harvesting solutions such as tanks and ponds in villages.  

The Gujarat-based nonprofit Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction (VIKSAT) works in the northern districts of the state, such as Banaskantha and Sabarkantha, that have limited groundwater potential due to years of the overuse of chemicals in agriculture, among other reasons. These districts are largely populated by tribal people who have small plots of land and limited means to invest in expensive irrigational measures. 

VIKSAT, which actively involves women farmers in its programmes, has designed a water budgeting exercise; as part of this, the communities maintain a scorecard to keep track of water use in the fields. This has enabled the farmers to leverage data to make collective decisions about farming and has also encouraged them to adopt water conservation techniques such as building field bunds and check dams. Over time, they have also shifted to water-efficient wheat varieties and have started using bio-fertilisers such as cow dung that enrich the soil.

Agriculture is a critical driver of Punjab’s economy, with paddy and wheat—both water-intensive crops—grown extensively in the state. Over the years, this has contributed to depleting groundwater levels: 117 of 150 blocks in the state are overexploited.

Centers for International Projects Trust (CIPT) works with farmer cooperatives in Punjab to promote solutions for the water-efficient cultivation of paddy and wheat, including the use of new technologies. They have, for instance, introduced IoT-based soil moisture sensors that estimate the amount of water needed. When the fields require water, the sensors send advisory text messages to farmers who then irrigate their fields based on these inputs. This helps conserve both water and electricity.

In Balrampur, an aspirational district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, agriculture is increasingly becoming an unviable form of livelihood for small and marginal farmers due to rising input costs and poor yields. People’s Action for National Integration (PANI) has trained an all-women cadre of agri-water professionals. The cadre supports these farmers to adopt simple yet innovative agricultural practices that use resources more efficiently and improve farmers’ yields and incomes. Farmers are encouraged to shift away from entrenched behaviours through a range of approaches—video dissemination sessions where they learn about new irrigation methods, field demonstrations that visualise these techniques, providing access to high-quality seeds, bio-inputs, market linkages, and more.

In an earlier version of this photo essay, the location of the second photograph was incorrectly captured as Binpur village, Jhargram district, West Bengal . This was updated on March 27, 2024, to reflect the accurate location.

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Know more

• Read more about how nonprofits are making agriculture viable for small and marginal farmers.
• Learn about the right to water and how it applies to different groups.
• Learn more about groundwater in India.

Agriculture sucks up 89 percent of India’s groundwater, making it the world’s largest consumer of this resource. To add to this, more than half of India’s cultivable land is under water-intensive crops—paddy, sugarcane, wheat, and cotton. While crops such as sugarcane and paddy have a long history of cultivation in India, their cultivation has increased in recent decades, especially in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Haryana.

The growth of paddy and sugarcane

Paddy, or rice, has been grown as a staple food in many parts of India for centuries. In Punjab, the area under paddy cultivation was just 6.9 percent in 1970–71. Over time it has become the third largest producer of rice in the country, with 87 percent of total area under kharif (seeds are sown at the onset of monsoon) cultivation. The main catalyst for this shift was the Green Revolution.

The aim of the Green Revolution was to achieve food security in India. It mainstreamed paddy and wheat in Punjab and created an agriculture ecosystem in which high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds and subsidies on fertilisers and chemicals were introduced, agro-machinery was promoted, and access to water for irrigation and procurement of every grain was ensured. This infrastructure was built to ensure market security for farmers,” explains Sandeep Dixit, director of Centers for International Projects Trust (CIPT), an organisation that works on making water and energy management efficient.

Paddy farmers in Punjab are assured of a minimum support price (MSP) and a guarantee that the government will purchase their crop, which has further incentivised them to cultivate paddy.

Another example of agriculture adapting to the demand ecosystem relates to the cultivation of sugarcane in Uttar Pradesh. Deo Datt Singh, an agribusiness expert and the director of operations at People’s Action for National Integration (PANI), says, “Uttar Pradesh has the perfect climatic conditions for sugarcane cultivation. Over the past three decades, demand has been increasing, and since it is always in demand, farmers started growing it as a cash crop.”

Today, Uttar Pradesh is the second largest producer of sugarcane in India. Anoop Kumar, project coordinator at PANI states, “The opening of sugar mills made sugarcane economically viable for farmers. It is now considered an easy, hardy, and even a ‘lazy’ crop as it is sown just once a year.”

Impact of growing water-intensive crops

Both paddy and sugarcane are water-intensive crops. Depending on where in the country they are grown, up to 5,000 litres of water are needed to produce a kilogram of rice, and 2,000–3,000 litres to produce a kilogram of sugar. India’s water footprint for rice production is by far the highest of all the major rice-producing countries globally.

More than 96 percent of Punjab’s irrigation needs are met through groundwater, and 117 out of 150 blocks in the state are overexploited. Sandeep explains that agriculture in Punjab runs on a subsidised mechanism—electricity is provided free and farm machinery and various agricultural inputs are subsidised. This encourages farmers to dig multiple borewells, deepen them, and run them for many more hours than what the crop requires.

“In flood-irrigated paddy it is recommended to leave water on the field for just 15 days, but farmers leave the field inundated for 30–60 days, leading to severe wastage of water,” adds Sandeep.

Seventy percent of Uttar Pradesh’s groundwater is over-extracted. Deo Datt says, “Rainwater fulfils approximately 30 percent of sugarcane’s water demand. For the rest, farmers rely on diesel pumps to extract groundwater as the state doesn’t have enough electricity to power motor pumps. This increases carbon emissions.”

Course correction

Both PANI and CIPT are helping farmers shift away from inefficient and resource-intensive agricultural practices.

Some of the practices promoted by PANI for water-efficient sugarcane cultivation are:

1. System of sugarcane intensification (SSI)

In this method, sugarcane plant buds are prepared in a nursery and seedlings are transplanted to the fields. Anoop explains the benefits of adopting SSI. “First, planting buds in the nursery guarantees that every seed will germinate. Since there is no wastage of seeds, yield increases by 30–40 percent. Second, while the plants are in the nursery, short-duration crops can be cultivated in the fields, which generates additional income for farmers.”

Traditionally, over the course of cultivation (a duration of 10–12 months) the sugarcane crop has to be irrigated eight to ten times. SSI saves approximately 6,000 cubic metres of water per hectare, as the first two rounds of irrigation are not required. According to Anoop, this is a huge shift and helps farmers who adopt it save 25 percent water.

2. Ridge and furrow method

Before PANI’s interventions, farmers followed a traditional approach wherein the entire field was flooded with water when the sugarcane crop was sown. The ridge and furrow method takes a different approach. Anoop says, “The plants are sown in furrows, and water is supplied only to these furrows for the first three months. It takes half the time to irrigate the furrows in comparison to watering the entire field. This not only saves water but also reduces the carbon footprint of sugarcane cultivation.”

3. Mulching

Earlier, farmers used to burn the leaves left after harvesting half their sugarcane crop (following a practice known as ratooning). Burning produces some carbon, which is good for the soil. But this practice has a grave environmental impact and burnt soil also requires more water. The farmers that PANI works with are now trying mulching instead. Anoop says that instead of burning the leaves, farmers spread them across the field in a 1–1.5-inch-thick layer. This helps the soil retain moisture and inhibits the growth of grass, which in turn saves farmers one round of weeding and irrigation.

The decomposed leaves also act as compost and increase the soil’s water retention capacity. PANI notes that 2,500–3,000 cubic metres of water are retained per hectare—this saves 17–18 percent of the water supply.

Mulching has been one of PANI’s most successful interventions. Within five years of introducing this practice, PANI established it in 95 percent of the area they work in.

4. Intercropping

Sugarcane is planted in rows that are 2–2.5 feet apart. This provides sufficient space to grow two to three lines of pulses, allowing for their simultaneous cultivation with sugarcane, without requiring additional water. PANI has also been testing other crops, such as onion, that can be planted alongside sugarcane. 

Techniques used by CIPT to reduce water use in paddy cultivation in Punjab include:

1. Intelligent water-saving technology

Advances in technology enable better decision-making as they help farmers estimate the amount of water their crops need. CIPT deployed tech-based solutions such as tensiometers and soil moisture sensors to measure and assess field water requirements. Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) developed a tensiometer—a low-cost device that measures soil moisture. Between 2009 and 2015, CIPT promoted the use of tensiometers in nine of the most groundwater-depleted districts of central Punjab.

Building on the learnings from the tensiometer, CIPT then deployed digital soil moisture sensors that sent irrigation advisory text messages to farmers to start and stop their pumps based on soil moisture readings. “If farmers follow the SMS recommendations, water consumption could potentially be reduced by 25–30 percent,” adds Sandeep.

2. Alternate wetting and drying

Sandeep says that farmers in Punjab have traditionally flooded paddy fields for 40–60 days, which isn’t necessary. With alternate wetting and drying (AWD), the field is irrigated, and the subsequent round of irrigation is applied only after the standing water has permeated the soil.” This practice can save more than 30 percent water and reduce methane emissions by 48 percent.

3. Crop diversification

Before the Green Revolution, the crop profile in Punjab was quite diverse but the push towards crops such as paddy and wheat created a monocropping culture. In the absence of crop rotation, soil loses its nutrients, which leads to increased use of fertilisers, and pesticides.

Sandeep says that if farmers were to diversify their crops, it would help save water, generate additional income for the farmer, and help improve the quality of soil. The central government has also initiated a crop diversification programme in Punjab to push other crops such as maize, millets, and cotton.

Sowing seeds for a water-secure future

The experience of these organisations demonstrates that it is possible to reduce the amount of water consumed in the cultivation of these crops without negatively impacting productivity. Together, PANI and CIPT work with 90,000 farming households. Many of the techniques they employ can be replicated and scaled to farming communities in other parts of the country. Helping farmers adopt these practices, tools, and technologies can change the footprint of water consumption and ensure water and food security for the country.

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Know more

• Listen to this podcast that discusses the future of farming in India.
• Learn about the concept of virtual water and the implications of India’s trade in this resource.

However, even before this record-breaking month, India was not water-secure. Depleting groundwater reserves has been a very real threat for a long time now. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) estimates that groundwater in about a third of India’s blocks (an administrative unit within districts) is overexploited or critical or semi-critical. This means the rate at which water is extracted exceeds the limit or is close to the rate at which it is replenished.

Recognising this dire situation, the central government launched Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) in 2019. The scheme aims to address groundwater depletion and promote sustainable management practices by encouraging communities to prepare and implement water security plans in a participatory manner.

A field survey conducted by Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs, an environmental research and innovation centre under the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Krea University, in one of the ‘overexploited’ blocks in southern Karnataka, in a village called Nonavinakere, led to an important finding. The water budgeting process carried out under the ABY scheme by the gram panchayat failed to account for imported surface water, i.e. water that flows into the region through canals, but originates from outside the village’s jurisdiction. The interdependence between surface water and groundwater is a missing piece that must factored in for more effective water management.

Atal Bhujal Yojana’s water budgeting exercise

The primary objective of Atal Bhujal Yojana is to enhance groundwater management and mitigate depletion in areas where it is already overexploited, such as Nonavinakere in Karnataka’s Tumkur district. The programme adopts a decentralised and community-led approach, that involves gram panchayats, water user associations and local communities. It promotes groundwater conservation and recharge, improving water usage efficiency and strengthening institutional frameworks for sustainable groundwater management.

Water budgeting serves as a critical planning tool for effective water resource management.

A central aspect of the programme involves formulating and implementing a community-led water security plan at the panchayat level. This plan involves a detailed assessment of the groundwater balance specific to the panchayat, and is derived from measurements of available water resources and how much is used. Based on this water balance analysis, potential interventions for water management are proposed, with the goal of sustaining groundwater resources. This entire process is referred to as ‘water budgeting’.

Water budgeting serves as a critical planning tool for effective water resource management. First, it provides a comprehensive evaluation of water resources in a village, offering valuable insights into water source availability and utilisation. By identifying areas where water consumption exceeds availability, it highlights potential imbalances.

Second, it plays a vital role in identifying problems and generating solutions. By determining the major water consumers and activities, it brings attention to key stakeholders who can contribute to finding sustainable solutions. Water budgeting acts as an early warning mechanism for these stakeholders.

Finally, water budgeting also facilitates the development of a meticulous water management plan, enabling informed decision-making and proactive measures to tackle water-related challenges. The official guidelines for the preparation of the Water Security Plan, also known as ‘groundwater budgeting’, provide a comprehensive overview of all factors that need to be considered.

However, a significant gap exists in the section regarding water availability. Currently, the calculation of water availability takes into account rainfall, groundwater, and the static volume of surface water bodies. This approach overlooks the replenishment of these water bodies and the surface water imported through canals for irrigation and other purposes.

Nonavinakere’s water balance

According to the signboard displayed at the Nonavinakere Gram Panchayat, the water balance prepared under the Atal Bhujal Yojana scheme indicates a negative value of -823.46 Ha-m, based on how much water is available and how much is used by different sectors.

However, on-field observations and secondary information cast doubt on this data. The panchayat has a large Nonavinakere lake (tank) that is fed by water from its catchment area and the Hemavathi canal system.

The lake serves as an irrigation source for around 500 hectares (ha) of agricultural land in the village and surrounding areas. During the post-monsoon period of 2021-22, the lake spanned 410 ha, which later decreased to 226 ha in April, before the onset of monsoon. Even in the lean season, the lake contained approximately 1133.3 Ha-m of water, significantly surpassing the negative water balance reported in the Atal Bhujal Yojana plan.

Both the panchayat office and villagers verified that the lake consistently receives water from the Hemavathi canal system, indicating a higher availability of water. While this information is fragmented, it sufficiently establishes that the village has more water available than what is reported in the Atal Bhujal Yojana plan.

Furthermore, data from the programme’s website shows an increase in groundwater levels from 16.6 metres below ground level (mbgl) in 2016 to 5.46 mbgl in 2022.

The local residents claim that they had seen the upward trend in the water level after the lake’s rejuvenation, higher-than-average rainfall from 2020 to 2022, and water from the Hemavathi canal system.

These factors indicate that the water security plan made under Atal Bhujal Yojana does not accurately represent the ground reality.

Imported surface water 

Including surface water in water balance and budgeting exercises within a groundwater management programme is crucial for two important reasons.

First, excluding surface water from calculations results in an incomplete water scenario. Surface water is utilised in various sectors, such as irrigation, yet it is not accounted for in availability assessments. This omission can lead to a negative water balance, as it has in Nonavinakere, which may not reflect the actual situation. Failing to establish an accurate water balance hinders the recognition of potential problems and suitable solutions. Moreover, an inaccurate representation fails to capture the attention of stakeholders and obstructs their active participation.

By excluding surface water from calculations, a holistic approach to water management cannot be achieved.

Second, the surface water and groundwater are interconnected and should be considered together. Let us consider a scenario where canal water is utilised for irrigation. The water used for irrigation eventually percolates the soil and recharges aquifers. In another instance, canal water is utilised to fill ponds, tanks or lakes. These water bodies contribute to aquifer recharge and enhance local groundwater sources. This is evident from the rise in groundwater level in Nonavinakere.

By excluding surface water from calculations, a holistic approach to water management cannot be achieved. It is essential to recognise the integral relationship between surface water and groundwater in order to ensure comprehensive water management practices.

There is a need for a paradigm shift geared towards integrating imported surface water flows. Nonavinakere is not an isolated case where incorrect methodologies have led to inadequate water management. Similar instances have been documented, with stakeholders advocating for necessary corrections. However, little progress has been made.

One possible counterargument to address in this article is that the Atal Bhujal Yojana focuses on sustainable groundwater management, which is why imported surface water is excluded from the methodology. However, it is crucial to recognise that groundwater, soil moisture, and surface water are integral parts of a single interconnected resource, demanding unified planning, management, and regulation. Surface water and groundwater are mutually dependent resources, often forming a hydrological continuum, where surface water bodies contribute to groundwater replenishment through natural processes like infiltration and recharge.

By considering surface water, we gain a better understanding of the dynamics of water availability, allowing us to identify potential recharge areas and develop strategies to harness the potential of both sources in a sustainable manner.

This critique focuses on the methodology of water budgeting in the Atal Bhujal Yojana, regardless of the data and its sources. Accounting for imported water is a complex task, as it interacts with rainfall, local water bodies, and aquifers, potentially leading to double accounting. However, acknowledging this challenge opens up the discussion and provides an opportunity to explore possible solutions.

When formulating water security plans for groundwater management in gram panchayats, it is crucial to recognise the significance of surface water resources. By adopting an integrated approach that considers the interdependence between surface water and groundwater sources, we can improve water availability, promote sustainable water management practices, and ensure the long-term resilience of our communities. It is high time we rectify the existing gaps and work towards a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to water management.

This article was originally published on Mongabay.

Drought in Kalahandi was not a consequence of climatic events alone. It was also the result of socio-economic failures that led to a decline in productive incomes—this was highlighted by the sociologist P Sainath in his book Everybody Loves a Good Drought. Sainath argued that government policies, including the reduction of subsidies on food and other essential items in the 1980s, the displacement of people for development projects such as dams and mines, and the exploitation of the poor through bonded labour, exorbitant interest rates, and low wages contributed to the extreme poverty of the district.

In another work titled Between the Plough and the Pick, Arnab Roy Chowdhury and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt discuss how decades of rainfed agriculture, interspersed with artisanal gemstone mining, deepened the socio-economic divide in Kalahandi. These practices skewed the balance in favour of landlords and local traders who exploited the limited awareness of local communities. The quest for gems often meant that smallholder farmers did not have land to till during the monsoon, forcing them to turn to daily wage labour.

A new landscape

The grim situation was somewhat alleviated by the construction of Indravati Dam, which—once it became operational in 2001—enhanced farming and living conditions through improved water and power supply to the area. The majority of the population is engaged in agriculture, and 70 percent of the total water consumption in the area is due to agricultural activities. People also depend on animal husbandry and the collection of non-timber forest products for their income.

While Kalahandi district is divided into two sub-divisions containing thirteen blocks, this article focuses on one block—Lanjigarh. Due to the significant presence of tribal communities (chiefly the Gond, Khond, and Shabar tribes), the uneven distribution of landholdings, varying topography, the presence of a powerful industrial complex, prevalent agricultural practices and seasonal migration, Lanjigarh block can be viewed as a representative unit when discussing Kalahandi’s socio-economic development.

In 2007, Vedanta Alumina Refinery commenced production in Lanjigarh town, creating employment for more than 2,000 industrial daily wage workers.¹ Large projects—for instance, Indravati dam and the alumina refinery—supplemented through investments in irrigation, roads, and power, nudged the district into an era of sustained growth. The lift irrigation canal system is an excellent example of the downstream irrigation projects that fuelled regional development. These lift irrigation systems helped draw water resources to previously fallow lands, increasing agricultural output and incomes in Kalahandi.

By some accounts, such investments in irrigation precipitated a three-fold growth in rural income, increasing wage rates and spurring mobility. Over the past two decades, projects such as roads and bridges, in particular, have played a significant role in the development of the region by enabling mobility and access to services. Small bridges are under construction in several villages, such as Tentulipada and Dumermunda. These bridges are meant to improve access to adjoining areas, especially during the monsoon.

Locals claim that unlike before, both short- and long-term migration for work is now mainly within the district.

Today, the effects of economic development are evident both in Lanjigarh town and the villages surrounding it. The town’s growth is a direct impact of the refinery’s investments. Signs of construction are everywhere, as buildings and hotels spring up and new businesses—from luxury car dealerships to retail brands—abound to serve the fleet of engineers and executives working for Vedanta. In some areas, particularly around the plant, rents have quadrupled in three years.

Locals claim that unlike before, both short- and long-term migration for work is now mainly within the district. During the dry season (November to April), agricultural workers find jobs as construction labourers, utility workers, street vendors, drivers, and hotel staff in Lanjigarh town. Even when it happens, long-term migration is initiated by landholders who relocate to the town with their families and lease their land to small farmers back home.

Road(blocks) to development

Over the past two decades, various stakeholders have invested time, energy, and public resources to find pathways to dependable livelihoods. State entities such as Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation (OLIC), Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Odisha Agro Industries Corporation (OAIC), and Kutia Kondh Development Agency (KKDA) have supported development in the region. They have done this through schemes and subsidies designed to assist farmers with lift irrigation and borewell drilling and improve access to agricultural inputs. Several nonprofits have been working in the area, too. PRADAN, for example, has made significant investments in resources dedicated to developing incomes for rural communities.

Previously, farmers were dependent on seasonal rainfall for monocropping cotton, pigeon pea, maize, millets, paddy, or black gram. The assured supply of water and material assistance has now encouraged them to adopt multicropping, with many growing grains, bananas, and lentils. Yet, the benefits are not uniformly spread, mainly due to inequitable access to water resources and landholdings. 

Local money lenders remain a significant source of microfinance in the district.

The uneven topography and wide dispersal of villages in the region have meant that micro lift irrigation solutions typically benefit only two to three farmers over a five- to six-acre area. The Biju Krushak Vikas Yojana provides for a submersible motor and pipelines. Still, provisions made for drawing the water and the quantity extracted typically serve landholdings next to the canal structures. In the same way, MGNREGA resources deployed by local panchayat bodies to develop water harvesting pits only serve the farmers on whose land these pits are dug using community labour. Local money lenders remain a significant source of microfinance in the district. These lenders tend to provide loans to farmers at 36–60 per cent interest per annum, making it difficult for them to earn reasonable incomes from their harvest.

OLIC, OAIC, and ITDA, too, have achieved varying degrees of success in implementing policies geared at developing backward communities. The reasons for this include the problematic terms of these schemes. For example, some schemes for borewells and lift irrigation require farmers to make a collective application covering at least 20 acres of land. Many farmers are smallholders, and some need help to build the quorum. Cordial relations or community affiliations become a prerequisite to accessing these benefits, but neighbours are only sometimes on friendly terms. And so, conditions on the ground may be inconducive for smallholder farmers to tap into schemes of this nature, thereby producing unintended inequalities.

Another roadblock to equitable development comes from Indravati dam itself. While it has granted certain parts of the district perennial access to water, the canal system is more beneficial to settlements in the valley than those on higher terrain. The situation tends to compound disparities, as people in the valley already enjoy greater access to infrastructure and public welfare systems besides benefitting from the land’s flat topography. Although diversion-based irrigation (DBI) is used to guide water to higher-altitude cropping areas via natural slopes, such solutions only serve some farmers. The DBI trails follow the road network and benefit those parts of the land adjoining these trails. Typically, the landholdings next to these roads and canals tend to appreciate in exchange value, while easier access to water increases the productivity and output from the land.

Tailoring solutions for the terrain

Water resource solutions for livelihood development in the region require a deeper understanding of the local hydrology and closer engagement at the grassroots. Understanding the demography and physical distribution of communities in the hills can offer meaningful inputs for designing more effective water solutions. Similarly, a thorough knowledge of cropping patterns, supply chain constraints, and hydrogeological data from the region can combine to produce a more informed and equitable distribution of water resources, one which is based on upstream capacities and topographical variations.

A complex hydrogeological environment such as the one in Lanjigarh block demands a nuanced approach that considers local conditions to achieve sustainable development. Understanding the culture and context is an essential first step. Learning how people interact with one another as well as with the environment can help development practitioners identify needs and design interventions while respecting local customs and practices.

For example, communities ascribe cultural meaning to rain and harvest and practice rituals at the dharnikhunti (sacred tank) to this day. Ceremonies such as podmara (animal sacrifice) and bengliosa (marriage of frogs) are performed to heal the community, especially during periods of drought. Acknowledging these practices will help development workers align modern hydrogeological solutions with the cultural language familiar to these communities.

Therefore, a thorough exploration to identify a region’s needs should precede any efforts to design social interventions. Stock templates of development risk failure as they may not reflect the local context or lack relevance to the needs of the people.

Once micro irrigation solutions are deployed evenly on the ground, nonprofits can scale up their work, training farmers and building capacities to reap the benefits of engineering. In Lanjigarh block, social scientists and agriculturists from PRADAN have been working closely with farmers, conducting workshops to inform them about leading practices in sowing, transplanting, and nourishing the crop to fruition. Some of these inputs have enabled farmers to produce crops that are new to the region, such as brinjal, bitter gourd, mushrooms, and chillies. These commercial crops, grown individually or through self-help groups (SHGs), have enhanced the incomes of some tribal communities in the block. While a thorough survey is necessary to estimate the value of these gains, approximately five farmers in three different villages suggested that they earned between INR 5,000–7,000 per acre in three months.

Equitable access to water resources and a dynamic regime of development subsidies that can adapt to the microstructures of local village communities are essential for the continued progress of rural and tribal communities in the district. Improved access to financial solutions from banks, non-banking financial institutions, and rural cooperative banks is also an imminent need in the region. Equity is critical to moving the needle of development work from a needs-based approach to an ambition-led agenda that benefits everyone.

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Footnotes:

1. The company was found guilty of human rights violations and environmental pollution in 2013.

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Know more

• Read more about how Odisha’s Kalahandi turned into a ‘rice bowl’.
• Learn how migration is changing villages in Odisha.

The solution to the macro problem of natural resource management, and climate change, can be found at the micro level—on the field, and with individual households and farmers. At PRADAN, we have always believed that people are capable of driving the change they need. Community participation ensures that the needs and knowledge of the community are synchronised with the larger initiative. This bottom-up approach is not a new idea. Nonprofits have been fine-tuning participatory and community-based planning and implementation for decades now.

When we started involving women in planning processes beyond savings and credit, we were surprised to see their desire to learn quickly and adapt.

In our early days, we had set up women self-help groups (SHGs) for microfinance. But when we started involving them in planning processes beyond savings and credit, we were surprised to see their desire to learn quickly and adapt, and their strong commitment to the community. We witnessed the potential, wisdom, and enterprising attitude that they bring to any realm of engagement—be it financial, technical, social, or even political. We soon understood it was time to question the way we plan development programmes, and not just involve women but also make them leaders of our planning and implementation. Women have now taken ownership of programmes; many SHG members are fighting local elections and sitting in panchayats today. Thus, we are convinced that women are the key stakeholders in this process and should lead from the front.

We have mobilised farmers, especially women, for water security plans in rural areas since the early 2000s. Our Integrated Natural Resource Management model in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand spans more than 110,000 hectares of land and has improved the earnings of more than 740,000 farmers. What has made this possible?

Community participation

Communities feel motivated when they are working to their own plan. Planning at the level of the individual household gives members a sense of ownership of and attachment with the assets. In fact, what we need is a way in which the bottom-up plans of the community are consolidated at the appropriate level, so they can be funded by the various government departments. In this way, the government works to the people’s plan and not the other way round. Communities spend their time, energy, and even financial and non-financial resources to create and maintain a structure when they are invested in it from the beginning.

Before starting any project, community resource persons mobilise communities to understand their needs and challenges. We work with women’s SHGs, village-level organisations, and cluster-level federations. Members gather to reflect on their goals and objectives and weigh the options in front of them. They discuss the need for village infrastructure or schools and facilities for their children. Very often, issues boil down to those of livelihoods, and water is at the core of all conversations on livelihoods. Those who live by agriculture, forest produce, or livestock eventually bring up the challenge of access to water. This leads to the next set of discussions on how to ensure water and food security. Based on this, hamlets and villages create their own plans for water conservation that are aligned to their resources—land, water, livestock, and human resources—as well as their needs, preferences, and aspirations. We ensure that the locus of control, initiative, and influence stays with the community. But we provide technical assistance in converting ideas to plans and our professional assessment of their feasibility.

Use of public funds

Since 2005, public funds have been available under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for the creation of resources that safeguard a region from drought, deforestation, and soil erosion. Those seeking wage employment can use MGNREGA funds to build watershed assets, such as ponds, trenches, gully plugs, seepage tanks, and rainwater harvesting structures.

When SHGs work with the panchayat, it becomes possible to develop comprehensive treatment plans that are locally relevant.

The gram panchayat is the planning unit. When SHGs work with the panchayat, it becomes possible to develop comprehensive treatment plans, that are locally relevant and reflect the needs of the people. The panchayat then allocates this budget over three- to four-year plans. In implementing these plans, community members earn a wage while creating their own land and water assets. This in turn makes farming sustainable. PRADAN can then focus on improved agriculture productivity for better farming returns.

A template for convergence

PRADAN tries to ensure that SHGs are integrated into the gram panchayat planning process. This collaboration between Panchayati Raj institutions, SHGs, and the local administration is the backbone of the process of change. Once an execution model is successful—in this case with MGNREGA—it paves the way for other government departments, donors, and organisations to participate. The same template can be used to converge resources from other interested stakeholders. Depending on the quantum of resources that are deployed, this becomes a framework for scale-up where civil society organisations and the government play complementary roles. Financial institutions can also provide working capital and other market support within the same framework. Many interventions get integrated, and this has a multiplier impact, creating a whole value chain. In fact, in many places, it has now gone beyond agriculture to farmer producer organisations. PRADAN creates the prototype but, over time, it becomes only one of the many stakeholders in this thriving ecosystem.

Training for a ‘people bias’

Over the years, as we have built the capacity of local communities to manage their resources, we have learned that no single model is a ‘silver bullet’; there can be no one-size-fits-all approach. Solutions need to be customised for the local context and people need to be trained to effectively manage their resources.

This is why we recruit from the best technical and managerial colleges and put the recruits through an intense development apprenticeship programme. They spend a year embedded in the communities in which they will work. This one year is dedicated to learning and, more importantly, unlearning. An engineer may have an engineering bias, an agriculturist an agricultural bias. We want all of them to develop a ‘people’ bias, a bias for the person whose voice is least likely to heard.  

For real development, we as a society need to listen to those who are not always heard. We must believe in placing the last first. The community approach or the bottom-up approach provides precisely this—a space and platform for the most vulnerable and voiceless people.

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Know more

• Read more about the role that watershed management plays in moving people out of poverty.
• Learn more about watershed development programmes in India.
• Listen to this podcast that discusses the future of farming in India.

For decades until 2021, the Adivasi hamlets of Mahismal, Galwad, Deola, Kahandolsa, Palshet, and Shirishpada in Surgana block lived in extreme water scarcity. They had almost no water for domestic use for six to eight months every year. Women trudged for kilometres several times a day, and night, to collect water from a single source. Accessing water for basic needs was a challenge—children often missed school or attended classes with poor personal hygiene, villagers lost wage hours and suffered from several water-related health issues. The reputation of this cluster was such that nobody wanted to marry their daughters into families from these villages.

In 2019, a newspaper article highlighted how women from the region made regular midnight treks to collect drinking water. The article quoted Paribai Waghmare, a 60-year-old who came to Mahismal from Gujarat when she got married. After spending a majority of her married life focused on collecting water—either from a nala or from tankers—she thinks access to water is more precious than gold. The article prompted Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF) to take action by partnering with BAIF Development Research Foundation so they could identify and implement a scientific and sustainable solution to address the problem.

The know-how

Surgana is the very picture of extremes. In the monsoon, it is almost impossible to imagine just how dry the summer months are. Though the area receives up to 1,800 mm of rainfall a year, it has poor groundwater recharge potential. A technical assessment of the terrain, soil, and water revealed that this is due to the shallow soil depth and the formation of hard rock that does not allow water to percolate. Kumud Joshi, technical programme lead at HUF, explains, “Because of the steep slope and hard rock, the water drains off instead of soaking into the ground.”

To improve water access in the region, a long-term, multi-pronged plan was required. Given the undulating topography of the region, a ridge-to-valley approach was adopted to retain surface as well as underground water. The study predicted ideal locations for water conservation structures such as trenches and bunds that would help water percolate into the soil and recharge groundwater and existing water bodies. In addition, a detailed plan to repair, strengthen, and increase the capacity of existing water bodies was also prepared—wells were deepened and lakes were desilted.

Along with reviving community water structures, BAIF promoted rainwater harvesting at the community and individual level. Galwad, Mahismal, and Kahandolsa have community rooftop rainwater harvesting tanks with a capacity of one lakh litres each. Many households also have individual rooftop rainwater harvesting tanks. “One family can store approximately 5,000 litres and use it when everything else dries up,” says Suresh Sahane, programme manager at BAIF.

While these interventions have been used elsewhere, their success in Surgana depended on their localisation and customisation to the unique needs of the community.

People power

To ensure sustainability of the solutions, community involvement and ownership were critical. BAIF mobilised the communities, especially women, in meetings and discussions throughout the process. “We did not get their trust immediately, but won it gradually once we could prove that these solutions work. For instance, in Deola, the water level rose within 25 days of the treatment. This persuaded residents that it could work,” Suresh says.

The community banded together to secure a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Forest Department, because part of the pipeline passed through the forest. They gathered by the hundreds to ensure it was laid. Again, when it needed an extension, they contributed with shramdaan (voluntary labour), spending hours of labour on it.

Once operational, the system was handed over to the gram panchayats. Each resident pays INR 450 as annual charges for maintenance of these structures. This is a fraction of what they used to pay for the tankers earlier. Every village instated a water committee, with representation of women and key stakeholders from the community such as anganwadi sevikas and arogya sevikas. “In Galwad, the committee has four members apart from the gram sevak, and two of these are women. We decide the hours during which water will be available for collection. There are no fights over the distribution,” says Prakash Devrang Warde, a member of the water committee in Galwad. The secret to the project’s success lies in this sense of collaboration and ownership.

Wells and ponds that used to run dry by December now have water until June. This has set off demand for these solutions from nearby rural clusters in hilly terrains that face similar challenges. Paribai is happy and relaxed. “Now I can walk to the tap in a couple of minutes any time of the day. It is like amrut (nectar) to me,” she says.

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Know more

• Explore India Water Portal to learn more about water and related issues.
• Learn about India’s water crisis through this listicle.

Marathwada in north-western Maharashtra is one such example. A drought-prone region where availability of water is a pervasive issue, the land here tends to be dismissed by community members and policymakers as unviable. This translates into food insecurity, migration, and mounting debts. Further east, in the states of West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, there are densely forested regions that receive high levels of rainfall, albeit erratically. Here, too, water security is an issue owing to undulating topographies that lead to water runoffs.

Smallholder farmers in both of these distinct geographies face similar challenges and while efforts to ensure water security have been made, these have focused on improving supply. This approach has its limitations given the irregular rainfall caused by the climate crisis, the high cost of building and maintaining infrastructure (such as dams and farm ponds) for water storage, and the ineffective usage of water by communities.

Two organisations are showing the way

Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) is a nonprofit organisation that has been working on women’s empowerment in the Marathwada region since 1993, when it was set up to help communities cope with the devastating effects of the Latur earthquake.

“We had been working extensively with women for nearly three decades, training them in entrepreneurship and bringing them into decision-making at a community level. When we started seeing a lot of farmer suicides in 2013–14, we decided that it was time for us to work on agriculture. We did an initial study where we found that people were growing cash crops, which have high input costs. And when things went wrong—poor rainfall, increasing loan amounts, health shocks—they had neither the cash nor food,” explains Upmanyu Patil, the programme director at SSP.

In the eastern part of the country, the story is slightly different, but the outcomes are similar to Marathwada. In the 72 Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad blocks in West Bengal, the topography and reliance on rain-fed cropping led the community to practise single-crop agriculture. The region has a high Adivasi population and endemic poverty in terms of education, health, nutrition, income, and productivity. Many were unable to feed their families and would migrate to other parts of West Bengal and outside the state as well.

PRADAN is a nonprofit organisation that has been working on livelihoods in central and eastern India for the past three decades. They have engaged with women through a community participation model in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh and seen the radical shift that this has had on their confidence, incomes, and decision-making ability. When PRADAN started working in West Bengal, they carried forward some of those learnings.

“We spent time in this area to learn the development challenges and the problems faced by the Adivasi community here. Over time we enabled them to organise into various forms of women’s collectives, and created linkages for them with several stakeholders including Panchayati Raj institutions, the government administration, banks, and markets. In essence, we have been playing the role of a catalyst and facilitator here,” says Alak Jana, integrator of PRADAN’s West Bengal unit.

Transforming smallholder farming: How they did it

1. Collectivising women

The starting point was organising women from small and marginal landholder families into self-help groups. “We engaged with them to understand their needs, the issues they faced, and the resources they had. And we did this using participatory processes. We also explored livelihood opportunities they could work on that would match their aspirations of income, nutrition, and food,” says Alak. “We identified those families that didn’t have enough food for the year, where high levels of malnutrition were prevalent, and whose incomes were low, but nonetheless had high aspirations for their children and themselves.”

According to Ritesh Pandey, team coordinator at PRADAN, “Knowledge is power, and when women get inputs and learn skills across different aspects of their lives—such as nutrition, livelihoods, and health and access to markets, banks, and government schemes—it enhances their capacities and helps them address the many challenges they face.”

2. Using a combination of tradition and science

The starting point was to get the women to interact with the elderly in their villages to understand the history and genesis of farming in the region. Local knowledge of topography and traditional practices is critical, and much of this wisdom, such as what to grow, how to improve soil health, and what can be done to tackle water scarcity, resides in people’s heads.

Alak explains that they helped women farmers adapt and optimise traditional practices for modern markets—for instance, what they did with heirloom rice varieties that were traditional to the region. “When appropriate practices are followed, these varieties are almost as productive as mainstream paddy. The challenge then was to help them adopt large-scale production of these varieties through improvement in certain practices, rather than looking at them as niche, small-volume products.” 

Both PRADAN and SSP also brought scientific knowledge into the fold. They connected their farmers with eminent scientists from agricultural universities and research institutes, who would interact with the women, visit their land, and then provide recommendations. “We partnered with universities to carry out some of their interventions at the farmers’ fields instead of the university labs. Learning by doing helped to build the women’s confidence. For instance, professors from an agriculture university—Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya—would visit the women farmers’ fields, set up their instruments to measure soil moisture, and accordingly provide recommendations on which crops could be grown in which seasons,” says Ritesh. 

Due to various interventions undertaken in collaboration with PRADAN and the recommendations of scientists, there has been a gradual shift from water-intensive paddy to growing crops that can be sold in open markets. In the case of Marathwada, SSP has helped farmers move away from water-intensive cash crops to nutrient-rich food crops such as pulses, fruits, and vegetables.

3. Understanding that more input does not equal greater output

The general understanding among most farmers across the country is that to drive greater output, one must inject it with more input—more water, more fertilisers. However, both SSP and PRADAN have shown that far better productivity can be attained through better input management.

Bio farming, which requires less water and uses bio inputs such as leaf waste and vermicompost, reduces the cost of production for the farmers.

Many of the techniques adopted by women farmers have helped reduce the demand for water on their farms. An example of this is bio farming, which requires less water and uses bio inputs such as leaf waste and vermicompost that are easily available locally and reduce the cost of production for the farmers. Another technique is the use of drip sprinklers that deliver small quantities of water to the roots of the plants at slow rates (2–20 litres per hour). This has worked well in Marathwada where SSP has provided women access to schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana that subsidise the cost of sprinklers. Adopting these techniques has resulted in a substantial reduction in water use as compared to the earlier approach of flood irrigation, and proved to be a critical change in a drought-prone region like Marathwada.

The impact of these techniques has been very visible. In the last three years, Marathwada has seen good rainfall and there has been a four-metre increase in water-table levels. Simultaneously, the region has seen a drop in farmer suicide rates. 

4. Diversifying crops and multicropping

Women farmers in both the regions shifted from monocropping to multicropping models. Alak explains that usually at the end of the kharif crop season, 85–90 percent of the land would stay fallow. “Now, based on the new knowledge they have, women have explored cultivating short-duration paddy varieties during kharif so that some of the moisture in the soil is retained. This approach ensures that there is enough soil moisture (or the soil requires only light irrigation) for a second crop—those that have low water requirement, such as pulses, oil seeds, or vegetables. Some farmers also use the same land for a third crop—for instance, a creeper crop that requires less water but offers food and cash during the summer months.”

In effect, women are constantly thinking about how to maximise food security, nutrition, and incomes through their crop choices, input, and water management—something that was unheard of in these regions a few years ago.

The results are showing

According to Alak, “When it comes to paddy in this region, the traditional productivity per hectare was 1.9–2 metric tonnes. With the adoption of improved practices, this has increased to 3.5–4 metric tonnes. This has boosted the women’s confidence, increased productivity, and ensured food sufficiency. At the same time, there is an increase in income.”

Increased water security is resulting in other positive outcomes as well. In a study undertaken by Sambodhi, in 2014–15, in the highland region of West Bengal, the migration rate was more than 50 percent. Four years later, it reduced to 30 percent. The region no longer sees high rates of distress migration.

Cultivating food crops has increased food security and led to an improvement in the health of women’s families.

The outcomes are similar in Marathwada. Cultivating food crops has increased food security and contributed to an improvement in the health of women’s families, according to Upmanyu. It has also led to a rise in women’s incomes, and an accompanying rise in their agency. On a societal and environment level, these practices have led to reduced demand for water and better soil health, both critical in coping with climate change–induced pressures that farmers are increasingly facing.

The government has played a key role

Both SSP and PRADAN talk about the increased receptivity of the government to these new techniques and approaches. “We are seeing not only the panchayats and rural development departments, but also the agriculture, horticulture, and water resources investigation and development departments adopt natural resource management and improved horticulture interventions in their programmes,” says Alak.

Upmanyu talks about the increased focus by the Union as well as the Maharashtra government on organic farming. “We worked on the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana, which is funded by the central government. They want women to be recognised as farmers, and are keen on prioritising food crops and organic farming. So, big budgets have been allocated for this. Our job is to ensure that women are involved and have access to these schemes,” he says.

While PRADAN and SSP have been working with women in their regions over several decades, this is not a pre-existing condition for success. Upmanyu explains how this model has seen tremendous uptake even in the new areas they have expanded into, which are districts where SSP has no historical presence—Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, and Washim. In fact, in these districts they have gone directly to the government. “We don’t have any presence in the community in these districts, so we’re training government frontline workers to do this in the villages.” Upmanyu predicts that in this first kharif season itself they will reach out to approximately 20,000 farmers in the two districts of Aurangabad and Nagar.

Both SSP and PRADAN have shown that it is possible to make smallholder farming viable through simple and consistent innovation—whether it’s in how women are collectivised, the use of technology for irrigation, or changes in the cropping patterns. The solutions are universal in nature, making them easy to deploy and replicate.

By focusing on the demand side of the equation, women farmers with small landholdings have shown that they can cultivate land previously deemed unviable and ensure that their families are fed and healthy, even as they have surplus to sell in markets, thereby transforming the landscape of smallholder farming in India.

Know more

• Explore India Water Portal to learn more about water and related issues.
• Listen to P Sainath’s perspective on water security and the agrarian crisis in India.

Coastal protection

Ensuring Life Below Water begins with protecting marine areas. In India, this is achieved through the Marine Protected Area (MPA) network, which has been used to manage natural marine resources for biodiversity conservation and the well-being of the people dependent on them. While India has identified 129 MPAs, this accounts for less than 0.3% of the total geographic area. 26% of the total Indian MPA lies in West Bengal.

India’s mangrove cover has been steadily increasing in the last two decades. About 493 Sq. Kms. of mangrove has been added to the coasts for India since 2001.

Water quality

Alongside protecting coastal environments, ensuring quality water in coastal waters and rivers can help improve Life Below Water. Three important parameters which determine the quality of seawater are—dissolved oxygen, nitrogen content and pH of the Water. In India, Odisha has very low levels of dissolved oxygen at 3.41 mg/L and extremely high levels of Nitrogen, 65 μM. This combination of low dissolved oxygen and high Nitrogen presents a big threat to the regions marine ecosystem.

Quality of sea water at coastal area (at Shore < 1Km)—Peninsular India & islands (2020)

In Indian rivers, a pH value in the range of 6.5-8.5 is considered safe for living organisms, with many aquatic organisms and plants adapting to specific water pH. The Central Pollution Control Board data shows that in 2019, water in river Ganga was acidic with an average pH value of 6.05 (min 2.2–max 9.9) while river Krishna had an average pH value of 8.25 (min 6.6–max 9.5), making it very alkaline, and harmful to aquatic life.

Aquaculture & fishing

Sustainable fishing is critical to ensuring life under water. In 2011-12, at constant basic price, share of Fishing and Aquaculture in India’s GVA (Gross Value Add) was only 68,027 Crores. However by 2019-20 this had increased to 1,26,370 Crores—85% increase. As of 2019-20, this industry constitutes 0.95% of India‘s total GVA, a 40% increase since 2011-12.

The significant growth in Fishing and Aquaculture share is a result of India becoming the 2nd largest fish producing country in the world, with 7% of the world’s total fish production coming from India. In 2019-20, India produced 14,164 thousand tonnes of fish, with 74% coming from Inland fisheries and 26% from marine fisheries. However, despite a 250%+ increase in fish production, the share of marine fish production has declined. With India’s Fishing and Aquaculture industries booming, it’s more important now than ever to ensure our institutions continue to regulate the usage of coastal areas and ensure sustainable fishing practices to ensure we meet our SDG 14 goals.

Corporate contributions

Although SDG 14 aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, we believe quality of river water too plays an important role in preserving marine life. Projects related to Clean Ganga and Swachh Bharat Kosh are some of the sectors where corporates are spending their CSR funds. Over the last 6 years, a total of 1,058 INR Crores has been contributed to these sectors. The largest share of funds was contributed in 2015-16—358 Cr (34% of the total amount spent in these sectors). Higher skew towards PSU seem to be major contributor in these areas.

For more data assets on SDG 14 – Click here

This article was originally published on India Data Insights.

Currently, water sector practitioners lie at one of two ends of the spectrum: they either present numbers without narratives or narratives without numbers. What we really need are data-based stories and tools that help create them.

Rural India faces a water crisis

In India, agriculture accounts for only 15% of GDP but it uses over 80% of the available water. Over half our population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities. While 54% of arable land is rainfed, the rest is irrigated, largely through private borewells. Excess groundwater extraction has resulted in a decline in water tables.

In the last 20 years, there have been substantial efforts to boost groundwater and soil moisture through watershed interventions. As a result, in many places, all the available rainwater is now being tapped, and no water leaves the watershed. In such ‘closed watersheds’, building more structures like check dams or farm ponds, cannot increase water availability. Rather, it increases water for some farmers, leaving less for others—a zero-sum game.

The challenge in such places is not how to harvest more water but how to allocate what is available efficiently and fairly.

Government policies like Atal Bhujal Yojana now require participatory water security plans to be made at the gram panchayat level. This requires good water data to make informed decisions.

Need for good data, decision-making tools

Creating a water security plan entails understanding how much water is available, how much is being used, and by whom—also known as water budgeting—and then working with the community to develop a suitable set of interventions. The problem is that creating a water budget is a technical exercise and the expertise required to do this accurately is hard to come by.

It is even harder if a watershed is overexploited. Designing interventions then requires an understanding of what approaches can induce farmers to grow less water-intensive crops while increasing their incomes.

The root of the problem is a general discomfort with using data to inform decisions.

Currently, most intervention planning is ‘bottom-up’, starting from scratch. Gram panchayats work in collaboration with civil society organisations to help farmers collectively plan for crops or irrigate optimally by providing more accurate weather forecasts and so on. But these are not really scalable; in the sense that they rely on years of deep engagement before the interventions are arrived at. Where this is not possible, the tendency is to simply replicate solutions that have worked elsewhere. But often these fail, because there is no understanding of the conditions for replicability and scalability of solutions—the so-called ‘what works where and why’ question.

While deep engagement will still be needed, there is an urgent need for decision support tools that can build on the work done by others to identify what options are likely to work based on the geology, rainfall patterns, prevailing cropping practices, culture etc. Free, open-access digital tools, like the Jaltol QGIS plugin developed by the Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation (CSEI) at ATREE, could make a difference by providing unified layers of water data together on one platform in an easy-to-use format, making water accounting easy.

For a broader culture of data-based decision making

The root of the problem is a general discomfort with using data to inform decisions. It reflects a larger disconnect between researchers and practitioners on how information is used and communicated.

For instance, consider how the scientific community communicates water data. Often, water data is used for making predictive models, but modellers rarely reflect on the meaning or implications of the trends observed or the uncertainties and assumptions built-in. Numerical models are not tallied against stories from the field to identify discrepancies. Stories from the field that contradict the model predictions are dismissed as hearsay. So even if the data is incorrect, biased or not being interpreted correctly, no alarm is raised.

Good data, decision making tools and data stories that embody ground realities are all needed to achieve rural water security.

An equally problematic approach to data lies at the other end of the spectrum, where images and personal life stories are used to weave a fantastic story of transformative impact of interventions. Stories are compelling and help trace a complex pathway of causation. But often, attribution does not prove causation. Further, the story may not be representative, and even mask an unintended consequence. The reason for water levels rising in an area could merely be attributed to good rain in the preceding year.

We need good data stories

Data-based storytelling—narratives accompanied by sound data analyses may offer a good pathway forward. Creating data stories requires us to ask the right questions, analyse the data correctly, formulate a narrative, triangulate against other narratives and position the data analysis for use by stakeholders in specific use cases, by using effective communication.

Obviously, as writers of these stories, we will have to put serious thought into what stories we tell and whose stories they are. Usually data are biased, reflecting the concerns of the privileged. For instance, civil society organisations often tell stories of ‘program beneficiaries’, without noting that they are the relatively large farmers. This requires a change in the culture of data collection and use.

Good data, decision making tools and data stories that embody ground realities are all needed to achieve rural water security. Digital tools can help make this happen.

This article was originally published on The Wire Science.