Shantabai Babulkar’s day begins before dawn with a 5-kilometer (3-mile) trek across barren fields and dusty scrubland to fetch water from a distant well. She balances two metal pots of muddy water atop her head, and carries a third in the crook of her arm – the only water she and her family of five will have for the day’s needs of drinking, cooking and washing.
Babulkar’s village of Shahapur, in Thane district of the west Indian state of Maharashtra, is in the grips of one of the worst droughts in decades. Parched fields, burnt crops and wasted cattle have helped drive up the number of suicides by distressed farmers unable to repay their loans.
Hundreds of millions of people in at least 13 states are reeling from severe drought, a situation that is expected to worsen in the coming months.
Failed harvests force poor farmers to borrow money at high interest rates for buying seeds, fertilizers and even food for themselves and their cattle. They often mortgage their lands and, as borrowings mount, many are driven to suicide.
Last year, 3,228 farmers in Maharashtra alone committed suicide, according to government data. In the first three months of this year, 273 farmers took their lives just in Marathwada.
The situation was so dire in Maharashtra that the government sent a “water train” of tankers carrying half a million liters to Latur. The train, travelling a distance of 350 kilometers (220 miles), was stopped along the way by angry villagers wanting a share of the water. Finally, the police had to escort it to its destination.
In cities and towns across India, water shortages have led to the formation of private water companies that control water that is supplied by tankers often at exorbitant rates.
Farmers are selling their cattle and moving to nearby cities in search of daily wage labour.
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