Parched state - For women in Shingnapur, prayers can wait, water can't

SHANI SHINGNAPUR (AHMEDNAGAR): Scores of women from various states now throng the Shani Shingnapur temple here after right-to-pray activists succeeded in getting the temple trust to allow the fairer sex access to the chauthara (platform) to offer prayers to the deity. But Sonabai Daware, who lives just a kilometre away on the fringes of the town, hasn't even made a trip to the temple after the much-acclaimed victory.For her, the priority right now is identifying sources from where she can fetch drinking water.
Sonabai and other women in Dawari vasti have a struggle on hand in their search for water.“We have to walk 4-5 km to fetch a pot of drinking water. We use polluted water for other daily needs. Of course I want to climb onto the platform and take a darshan of Lord Shani, but not now. My family is struggling for water. And no body is bothered about us,“ she said.
Most members of the 50 families in this vasti are daily-wage workers and cane-cutters. Their livelihoods depend on the Mula sugar mill. In Yelwande vasti, located at walking distance from Shingnapur, Sumanbai owns a small shop selling biscuits and groceries. She says angrily, “The access for women on the temple's chauthara got publicity across India, but what about our problems? We are almost dying here without water. We start our day very early and the first thing is the search for water. Our lives are centred around literally one pot of water. Don't you think water is an important issue?“ Women also complain about how the Shani temple trust has planted trees on the road leading to the temple to create a green welcome arch for devotees. “They commission tankers to water those trees. But they don't give us even a drop of water. When we run after a tanker, the driver shoos us away, abuses us and throws our pots,“ another woman said.In Sonai, Parner and other villages close to Shani Shingnapur, the water situation is at its worst. “Water is available to those who have money. We have to walk for an entire day to fetch a single pot of water.Nobody is ready to give us even a glass of water,“ Akkatai Solkunde said.
The abandoned well in the arid landscape of Parner from where Akkatai fetches water to wash her family's clothes and utensils has no wall. The water in the well is green, filthy and stinking. It is difficult to breathe while standing near the well. Akkatai's biggest fear is that she could miss a step some day and fall into the well.
“We don't know why the water is so green and smelly.However, we have no option but to use this water. Women are the biggest sufferers in times of water scarcity. We are the ones who walk for miles to fetch water. Just as standing on the chauthara of the Shani temple is a woman's right, so is water. But who cares about us? We have not seen our elected representatives since the last elections," another woman said.
The temple town itself gets water through tankers as the village water scheme cannot cater to the residents and visitors. “Already, four lodges have shut down as their borewells have gone dry. Shingnapur has water for just 10-12 days. The canal is almost dry. In the next few days, the entire town will have to depend on tankers,“ a villager, Pandurang Gurav, said.
As devotees, especially women, flock to the temple town, the number of tankers is multiplying. But these tankers are for tourist devotees like Kavita from Madhya Pradesh. She exults about the temple entry fight, saying it was for women's rights and that justice has been done.But for the unsung, unheard local women, getting clean water in adequate supply would alone constitute true justice.