Struggles of Rural Women in Flood-Prone Districts of India

Written by: Kajol Tanaya; Story by: Arushi Narchal

In the mid of September 2021, heavy and incessant rainfall in the East and West Medinipur area swell five rivers into breaching several embankments and flooding the two districts. Close to three lakh people from both states suffered homelessness and loss of livelihood resources due to the flood. The water kept standing high above the land in the villages, immersing people, houses and cattle from feet to the waist. Inconveniences piled up as the struggle for existence continued.

Besides the overall pain incurred on the impacted population, a majority of the trouble about the management of domestic chores and hygiene added on to the women from the region. CASA, while distributing cooked meals to the impacted villages, came across several women whose predicament suffered massively under unspeakable distress. One of them was Manju Bag, a woman in her mid-thirties, belonging to the village of Chak Srikrishnapur.

Narrating her story Manju shares, “It has been 15 days since the flood water has been standing in the area. There is no food, no clean water to consume, and no livelihood resources spared. The only tubewell from which we fetched drinking water is under the unclean flood water. We can not even access the roads to commute to another place yet we somehow manage to walk far distances to bring clean water for the family. Living across this pool of stagnated water is not only unpleasant but very disturbing. But what can we do? Our concerns are unheard, we feel helpless and unsafe. All the shops that catered to the local daily needs have been shut. There is no food item that we can feed the children with.”

“We are surviving a huge difficulty that can not be spoken in words”, Manju adds, “We lost all that we had accumulated be it in terms of crops or our house or livestock. We are extremely helpless in this sort of situation, everything seems over. Amidst the pandemic, the hassle added by these natural calamities, first, in the form of cyclone Yaas and then the disruptive flood have impaired our everyday existence, halting transactions to an indefinite period. Is there any recovery from this? I wonder not.”

Standing barefoot in the floodwater, draped in a head covering light blue saree, Manju was speaking of the reality of the land. She belongs to a family of farmers who survive out of the crop and harvest. With the flood ruining their budding crops, not only did the family fall out of food security but also was insecure about never being able to recover the monetary and livelihood loss. Showing us her small farm holding that now resembles a pond, Manju glances in the direction with lost hope in her eyes and mouth squeezed into a thin straight line that conceals her emotional hurt.

“The fishes in the ponds have swum out during the floods. People who depend on the fishery are also out of a livelihood. We manage to light the stove only once in our flood-logged houses and cook for two days straight. Reptiles and big serpents exist in these waters. They could be roaming down here beyond our attention. We sleep in fear, breathe with disgust and eat in desperation. Menstruating girls are unable to get decent meals for a day. How would they think of buying sanitary pads? Where will the money come from? Even if there was money, no shop was open from where we could buy pads.”

Reeling under the danger of infection, poisonous creatures, and mosquito bites, women from the region are suffering the hell. With cooked meals provided by CASA for one week, they could finally sense some respite from the heavy distress. Manju expressed her gratitude to CASA for the support and wishes that the troublesome days are over soon.