Jamsol village, 60 km from the Steel City of Jamshedpur in Meniyar panchayat of Musabani block, has opened a new chapter in women’s liberation. With around 150 families, the village currently boasts of around 25 tribal damsels who are engaged in the hard work of repairing hand pump[s]. “When these girls take to the street clutching their tool bags on back, people get the message: females are as efficient as males in all walk of the life,” a local social worker said.

“Musabani block alone registers presence of around 1,400 hand pumps. Therefore, we have no dearth of work in our area. Our earning is not bad either. But yes, it indeed feels good when our group draws appreciation for their repair work. But for us, there can be nothing more heartening than the fact that Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) is planning to engage our group in an annual maintenance contract (AMC) to maintain 60 hand pumps of the public sector unit,” said Sona Tuddu.

The engagement of tribal unmarried women in hand pump repair is now almost a two year old story. The Drinking Water and Sanitation Department (DWSD), Jharkhand in collaboration with UNICEF provided the required tools and a successful training programme. This helped train a group of seven women to repair hand pumps. They were also provided the required tools to make them complete professionals. Today there are 25 women technicians.

More information on women handpump caretakers is available via IRC’s digital library

Related news: Water supply: impact on gender and income in Gujarat, India, Source South Asia, 16 Dec 2008

Source: Sandeep Bhaskar, Deccan Herald, 06 Jun 2009

Tags: gender, rural wash, south asia, water lifting devices