Fetching water for drinking is a grueling daily job done by millions of women in India.
Even when they don't have to contend with hot or freezing temperatures, they walk kilometers every day, carrying jugs on their heads and buckets in their hands to provide the necessary amounts of water for their households.
"It is a daily struggle.
"I get so tired that I collapse when I'm done," says Sunita Burbade from Tringalwadi, a tribal village 180 kilometers from India's financial center of Mumbai.
- Can air be the new source of water?
- Extreme heat can double the risk of stillbirth, research shows
- Ten Years Later: Lives Changed by Gang Rape in India
Burbade spends four to five hours every day to go to the nearest place where there is reliable water - a dried up lake - to fill the vessels with water and take them home.
The water is dirty and she has to dig holes in the side for the water to filter naturally and flow out gently.
"For four to five months a year, women have no choice but to bring water from quite distant places, as nearby wells and springs dry up," she says.
To add to the irony, her village is among those with the highest rainfall in the region.
Due to such strenuous daily work, he constantly complains of back and neck pain, fatigue and weakness.
This daily obligation prevents her and other women from the village from looking for paid work.
"Nobody will hire me even on the farm because they won't let me come to work in the afternoon," she says.
"If I go to fetch water, I cannot earn a living.
"If I try to earn money, my family will remain thirsty."
According to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, from 2023. The, 1,8 billion people around the world fetch drinking water from sources outside the buildings they live in, and in seven out of 10 households fetching water is the responsibility of women and girls.
This is especially true in India, where the obligation to fetch drinking water prevents women from working, which hampers economic growth, experts say.
"Firstly, women cannot accept paid work because they have to do all the housework, and secondly, even if they want to work after completing all their daily duties, there are not enough paid jobs for women in rural areas in India," says Professor Ashwini. Deshpande, head of the Department of Economics at Ashoka University in the capital, New Delhi.
BBC is in Serbian from now on and on YouTube, follow us HERE.
The value of unpaid work by women in India is enormous.
According to a report by the State Bank of India, the country's largest commercial bank, the total value of women's unpaid work is about 22,7 billion rupees ($276,8 million), which is almost 7,5 percent of India's total gross domestic product (GDP).
The non-governmental organization Organizations for International Development estimates that every year Indian women spend 150 million working days fetching water.
Experts say that if women were to do paid work during that time, they would be able to be financially independent, which would also stimulate the country's economic growth.
The Indian government says it is constantly improving the water system across the country and that by January 2024, water supply will be provided to nearly 74 percent of rural households.
For those who previously had to fetch water from distant sources, household water supply has changed their lives.
"I open the faucet, and water pours out, like in a dream.
"I have been fetching water since I was five," says Mangal Kadke, a married 30-year-old woman who lives about 30 kilometers from Burbada.
But there are still millions of people who do not have access to tap water.
In the village of Akiju in the central Indian district of Amaravati, about 700 kilometers from Tringalvadi, village head Indrajani Javarkar spends most of her days fetching and fetching water.
"It's so dry here in the summer that I wake up every day with the same question: where can I find water today?" she says.
Indrajani has two responsibilities: first, to find and bring water for her family, and second, to organize water tankers for her village.
"Both tasks are becoming more difficult every day," she says.
Burbade says tap water is still a distant dream for her.
"(Women) start bringing water as children.
"Someone gives them a small bucket and says: 'Bring as much as you can carry.'
"And then, it's a lifelong commitment - until he dies, he brings water," she says.
Burbade can't remember a single year when she didn't have to bring water from places miles away in jugs on her head.
We asked her what she would do if she didn't have to fetch water and had free time.
After thinking for a while, she answered that she likes to sing.
But her songs are also about water.
"Radu nako bala mi panyala jate", she sang for us.
It means: "Don't cry my child, I'm going to get water".
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube i Viber. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
