exclusion from water:an enormous resource deprivation

8/12/2019 Exclusion From Water:An Enormous Resource Deprivation

1/14

Exclusion from

Water:An Enormous ResourceDeprivation

by

Rajesh Patnaik


2/14

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-renewableresources become scarce through exhaustion of finitestock. Renewable resources depends upon the rates ofnatural replenishment: these resources also become

scarce through over exploitation.Selman, P.H., 1981 Ecology and Planning: An Introductory Study. London: Godwin.


3/14

Water as a resource?

We would have to understand as to what is meant byresource and how water is to be considered as a freeresource but its value is based on the distance from

where it has to be fetched.

Conservation of useful resource is one of the functionsof Human ecosystem. Human energy is the basics on

which a society functions, it is the chain of exchange ofresources.

In real terms it is the energy expended to acquire thenecessary water at a family / individual level.


4/14

Anthropology and Water Usage

Water is the most useful resource of the humankind and the mechanisms of its use andconservation 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 areconditioned by adaptation of culture to the environment, It opens a way to the study and analysesfrom a perspective of Cultural Anthropology. Anthropological inquires into water usage andstorage are a part of ethnographic descriptions (RAI 1951:249), but explicit studies of water usageby communities are rare (Patnaik et.al. 2000). Water scarcity is a relative term: the availability andeffort involved in the collection of water defines it. Acquiring control over water resource is oneof the key parameters for the growth and development of human settlements. The differentenvironmental zones and the local topography play an important role in shaping the humanresponses to the collection and storage of water. Abundance of water in a given environment isno measure of the actual availability of water for utilization.

Royal Anthropological Institute, Notes and Queries on Anthropology, (6thEdition) London: Kegan 1951

Patnaik, R., T.Harpham and K.V.Moorthy. Scarcity of Water : A Study of Standpipe Users of FortCochinMattencherry Area, City of Kochi, South India, South Bank University, London. In collaboration with theIndian Institute of Technology (Madras) Chennai, Report submitted to the Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID) UK. 2000


5/14

Dalits as described by Human Rights

Watch

More than one-sixth of India's population, some 160 millionpeople, live a precarious existence, shunned by much of societybecause of their rank as untouchables or Dalits--literallymeaning "broken" people--at the bottom of India's caste system.

Dalits are discriminated against, denied access to land, forced towork in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the handsof the police and of higher-caste groups that enjoy the state'sprotection. 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.


6/14

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 totalpopulation (at least 167 million), according

to official 2001 census data.


7/14

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.


8/14

Himachal Pradesh

I would like to show you the certain aspects ofexclusion dalits from water in a state which isMountainous 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 percentwhich is lowest among all the States and Union

territories in the country as per Census 2001.


9/14

Himachal Pradesh is a state consisting of

numerous minor Hindu kings and chieftainsMountainous chieftains never barred any

particular community from the usage of

traditional water systems

Historically local kings chieftains and village communitiesevolved the traditional irrigation system of kuhlssurfacechannels for drinking water from natural springs and streams(khuds). These systems were not barred for communities whichare now defined as dalits


10/14

WATER PROBLEM IN HIMACHAL

PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh is endowed by snow fed mountain rivers, which provide aperennial source of water. In the foothills, there are some monsoon fed riverswith seasonal flows. Despite abundant water resources, in reality the ruggedmountainous terrain and situation of human settlements on the higher levelsmakes it impossible to harness sufficient usable water for irrigation facilities.Historically local kings chieftains and village communities evolved thetraditional irrigation system of kuhlssurface channels for drinking waterfrom natural springs and streams (khuds). It has been said that drinking waterhas always a problem for people in the region. The supply from springs andstreams was often deficient in the lower reaches. It has been recorded that thetown of Nahan (Sirmuar District) had insufficient water during the summer as

early as the end of 1800s (Government of Punjab 1906). The shortage wateris has been felt quite severely in recent times. The district of Solan andHamirpur has been in the grip of water shortage.


11/14


12/14

Women and water collection

Collection of water for domestic use has always been the role ofwomen.

In a sample of over 600 households we found that 92.65%women were involved in water collection in Kerala, which by allmeans is an advanced society as far as women are considered.

In Himachal Pradesh in a village in the District of Kangra it wasfound that all the domestic water was collected by dalit womenonly.

In the case of dalit womenwater collection is generally moreburdensome because their wells are usually situated far away and

where the water table is deeper. Even when they collect fromrivers they do have to travel downstream to do so.


13/14

Recommendations

Data about wells from each village has to becollected

During next census special attention should be

paid to collect details of wells from which Dalitsdraw water- to understand the deprivation ofwater resources

Also information were no discrimination ispracticed in utilization of water


14/14

Dr Rajesh Patnaik

Social AnthropologistPlot 82, Daspalla Hills

Visakhapatnam-530003. India

exclusion from water:an enormous resource deprivation

Documents