Political Pulse

From her mud-thatched home in the Bharkuwa hamlet in Gujarat's tribal Chhota Udepur district, Shobhli Rathwa travels to a well one kilometer away nearly twelve times a day to gather water for her family of five people and two calves. She goes past the cement water tap "installed" in her courtyard a year ago as part of the Center's ambitious "Nal Se Jal" program every time she hauls water back home. "I've been observing this water faucet for more than a year... Although a small tank and tap have been erected in the community, Shobhli notes that "not a drop of water has come to my house through this tap and there is no network of connecting pipes."