Women Handpump Technicians Face Fear and Hostility During Covid-19

In rural India, women are primarily responsible for collecting water for both their families and their livestock, which is why the technicians’ work particularly enhances women’s welfare. Across India, women spend the equivalent of 150 million working days annually collecting water, according to United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

About 35 percent of rural households have access to drinking water at home, according to India’s census. But the primary source of water for most residents of India’s 600,000 villages is a shared handpump that extracts water from a shallow aquifer. Because mud, silt, and the salinity of groundwater degrade the moving parts over time, the handpumps require regular maintenance provided by teams authorized by the district government.

On top of that, the Institute of Social Studies Trust conducted a study from April 15 to May 3 which illustrated Covi-19’s disproportionate impact on women in India, with 66 percent reporting an increase in unpaid work at home and 36 percent an increased burden of child and elderly care work. Additionally, 83 percent of the women said they faced a severe drop in income. In August, the number of reported cases in the country exceeded 2 million, and experts said India was likely months away from hitting its peak.

“There is no question that the pandemic has unfairly and unequally affected women,” said Deepali Khanna, Managing Director of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Asia Region Office. “But then again, in the development sector we know that women are the resilient cogs in keeping the socio-economic machinery running. When we empower women leaders in the field like the SEWA sisters, societies prosper, and benefits reach all. That is why we continue to partner and invest in organizations like SEWA, especially in times of adversity like Covid-19, because enduring impact at scale can only be actualized when women are at the front and center of it.”

Naimisha Joshi, the coordinator for the Aravalli District, acknowledged that she initially wasn’t sure if her teams should keep working in the face of Covid-19. If they kept working, the technicians would need to travel together in vehicles, visit a variety of villages, and interact with villagers in each location. “What if something happens, someone gets sick?” Naimisha asked herself.

“But after three days of thinking, I decided we had to work. Water is one of the essential services. And the women themselves did not hesitate. That gave me confidence.”

In addition to training on basic practices of social distancing, mask wearing and hand sanitation, the women also received communications guidance about how to listen and reassure village leaders and others that they could safely repair handpumps. Right away, they needed those skills.

At the outskirts of one village, for instance, Tarulata said the local leadership greeted them with one word: no.

“One man said, ‘I don’t want you to come to the village. It’s okay if the handpump doesn’t work,’” she remembers. “We explained and explained, but he refused. So we left. We returned a week later and by then he realized all the village was suffering without water.”

He let the technicians enter but warned them to make sure residents didn’t gather. “We said, ‘Why would we assemble people? We are only here to do our work,’” Tarulata said.

Chandrika had to contend with pressure from neighbors who wanted her to give up the work. “Men from the neighborhood came to our house and started questioning my husband and me,” she recalled. “They said, ‘If you bring infection and our families get sick, who will take responsibility?’ I told them I have been trained and know the precautionary measures. I showed them the gloves, the hand sanitizer.”