Annie Banerji -
Ram Hetu was sure his 16th proposal would finally secure him a wife, but it didn’t — just like all his other attempts to find a partner in central India’s Bundelkhand region, where years of drought and water scarcity are keeping possible brides at bay.
Wells have run dry across the semi-arid region, with scant rains forcing some villagers to walk miles for water and pushing others to migrate to cities in search of work, as harvests fall.
But the drought also has more pernicious consequences.
In towns and villages across sparsely populated Bundelkhand, home to 20 million people, parents of would-be brides are dismissing the overtures of hopeful suitors, fearing a betrothal could land them in financial ruin. “The parents usually tell me ‘no water, no daughter’,” said Hetu, 42, a farm labourer who earns Rs 4,000 ($58) a month.
“In January, one father said ‘maybe’ and immediately I started daydreaming about my wedding.” But calls to his would-be father-in-law went unanswered.
“Parents fear their girls will spend the rest of their days fetching water,” Hetu said in his village of Baragaon, known for growing wheat, barley and chickpea.
His story is echoed by other men from Bundelkhand who said that years of drought had ruined their crops and trapped them in bachelorhood. It is just one of many social impacts linked to climate change in a country increasingly hit by extreme heat, rising sea levels, frequent floods and powerful cyclones.
“The effects of climate change are dangerous,” said Sanjay Singh, secretary of Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan, a group working to empower rural communities. “If efforts aren’t made while we still have time, then existing problems of unemployment, starvation (and) malnutrition will only become more severe,” he added.
India’s northern areas were lashed by monsoon rains and fatal floods in recent weeks but dry spells have gripped other parts, including the city of Chennai which was plunged into crisis in June when its four main water reservoirs ran dry. Normally Bundelkhand, blighted by 13 episodes of drought in the last two decades, receives 52 days of rainfall a year. But the number of days has more than halved since 2014, according to Skymet Weather, a private weather forecasting agency.
“Water is everything. It is a currency. If you have it, you have everything, including a wife. If not, you have nothing,” said Dhaniram Aherwal, head of Bangaon village’s water council.
Small, rain-dependent farms growing wheat, millet and pulses are the mainstay of Bundelkhand’s cash-based economy. When rains fail and crops perish, incomes and marriage prospects suffer, prompting waves of migration to nearby cities. — Thomson Reuters Foundation
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