Kids from the age group of three of Mukundawadi, Maharashtra travel 14km in train every day to fetch drinking water. Water shortage has always been a problem of Mukundawadi villagers. But, this time it is huge.
It is surprising, where cities are flooding because of rainwater in monsoons. The rainfall rate was 14% below average in this part of Maharashtra.
These kids do not travel by train for fun everyday but for survival. Water is the basic necessity of life and even that is not reachable for these families. Borewells have gone dry, utensils empty. And the village had suffered back-to-back droughts.
These families stay just 200 metres from the railway station. And travel up and down to Aurangabad to get water via train.
9-year-old Sakshi Garud and her neighbour Siddharth Dhage, 10 comes to fill water every day from home. And they say travelling by train is not so easy. As people fight and some even complained to the officials about them keeping their pitchers near the door.
They do not even have water to bathe or wash clothes. These kids fill the water every day and then go to school which makes it very difficult to reach on time.
Some people come with their small kids as they cannot leave them at home alone. Then the struggle doubles as they have to hold one kid in one arm and the pitcher in another. And if by chance the pitcher falls off the train since it is overcrowded all the time then all the work go waste.
Private water tankers are there in the area but all cannot afford it. More than 100 families in Garud and Dhage’s neighbourhood do not have access to piped water in their homes. This is not a movie story but a struggle for life which Mukundawadi region villagers face every day.
