“Our lands used to lay wasted”
Sometimes all it takes is a smart woman to know a good idea when she hears one. This is the story of Shanku Ben, one of the Gujarati women who convinced the men in their village of Mubarakpura to use a special pipe to harvest rainwater and turn their saline, clay soil into a fruitful field. Here is Shanku Ben's story in her own words.
Can you imagine what happens when the rainwater can’t be used? We couldn’t grow any crops. That was the situation we were in.
In our village in Gujarat, the soil has become saline. So, when it rains for a whole week in August, our fields get flooded. But the water can’t seep through the soil because it’s clayey and saline. Then when the water evaporates, the land would be covered in salt.
Farming was out of the question. Some farmers migrated to become labourers in cities. Some of us stayed behind and worked as maids.
Our situation totally changed when Biplab (Ketan Paul of Naireeta Services) told us about bhungroo. You know, it’s a pipe which drains rainwater into the ground. We have changed the gradient of our land so that the water can flow towards a constructed pit. Through a pipe that goes down from the pit, the rainwater reaches underground (to an aquifer identified by Naireeta). We use a portable motor to pump the water stored underground and irrigate whenever necessary.
Biplab’s wife Trupti said they would install only if women were in charge of the fields and irrigation. When my friend Leela told her husband that, he told her to get out of the house. But all of us joined together, supported each other and convinced the men.
You have no idea how our lives have changed. Our lands used to lay wasted. But now we grow many crops including cumin, sorghum and millets over two cropping seasons a year. We even got medals and awards for the way we store rainwater and use it later.
Growing crops make us happy. But you know what makes us feel empowered? The way we contribute to our families. We all own a house, sent our children to school, cleared our debts. We even bought milch animals and household items.
Won’t you ask me about Leela’s husband? The man who told her to leave the house uses a tractor that she bought for him
Reporting and photos by Jency Samuel – a civil engineer and a freelance journalist based at Chennai.