The punishing weather is taking a toll on them. Parched water sources, deaths due to sun stroke, closed schools, halted outdoor activities and migration are inundating daily news as India and its children face one of the worst water crises in the last 10 years. With their villages reeling under the scorching sun and facing an acute water shortage, many are forced to look for ways to support their families in gathering water, often from far-off places.As India battles between rising temperatures and drying up water resources, two contradictory recent images capture the imagination one of a train carrying water to Latur, which has gone completely dry and the second of an upcoming bountiful monsoon, which has sent the stock market soaring in anticipation. Here are some images from across the country that depict the drudgery that some children have to go through on a daily basis just to drink a few drops of water…
Piryanka fetches water in Malegaon village, Parbhani district in Maharashtra. (Photo: Amit Haralkar)Children from the village of Kankroli look for shells in the dried out bed of the Rajsamand lake near Udaipur in India’s drought-hit state of Rajasthan. The lake has dried up for the first time in living memory. Thousands of villages in Rajasthan are facing an acute shortage of water and animal feed with most sources of water having dried out in what is seen to be the worst drought in 100 years. (Photo: Unknown)
Water levels in wells is so low that one cant get enough water from a pail. A girl got into the well to fetch water at a remote village about 180 km from Mumbai. (Photo: Aditya Waikul)