Image: Wikipedia
To overcome acute water scarcity in the area, around 300 women have turned well-diggers in a village in Pookkottukavu in Palakkad district of Kerala.
The work is not just confined to young women. Even elderly women climb down pits using makeshift bamboo ladders and dig for hours using pickaxe and shovel in search of water.
Despite a number of obstacles, these homemakers, aged between 35 and 70 years, have dug up over 190 wells across the drought-hit village since last year under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The village relies only upon wells and tiny ponds for water in the hamlet.
These women have done a commendable job despite the fact that they had no training. They are easily able to construct 10-12 metre-deep wells single-handedly now.