Women and Climate Justice

Sunita* was in grade 6 when the well they drew water from dried up. The solitary water pump in the village was reserved for the exclusive use of the upper caste people, so the family now had to fetch water from a natural well five kilometres away. Since her mother worked as a domestic help, and her older sister was in grade 9, the burden of fetching water now fell on Sunita. Each trip took almost 2 hours. Sometimes, if she was a little late, the others would have depleted all the water, and she would have to wait till the underground spring filled the well again, before she could fill her 3 pots, and return home. Though she enjoyed going to school and was a reasonably decent student, Sunita was forced to drop out of school because fetching water took up so much time.