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The Indian Children Who Need to Take a Train to Get to Water

Reuters

   MUKUNDWADI, INDIA - As their classmates set off to play after school
   each day, nine-year-old Sakshi Garud and her neighbor Siddharth Dhage,
   10, are among a small group of children who take a 14-km (9 miles)
   return train journey from their village in India to fetch water.

   Their families are some of the poorest in the hamlet of Mukundwadi, in
   the western state of Maharashtra, a village that has suffered
   back-to-back droughts.

   India's monsoons have brought abundant rain and even floods in many
   parts of the country, but rainfall in the region around Mukundwadi has
   been 14% below average this year and aquifers and borewells are dry.

   "I don't like to spend time bringing water, but I don't have a choice,"
   Dhage said.

   "This is my daily routine," said Garud. Their cramped shanty homes are
   just 200 meters (220 yards) from the train station.

   "After coming from school, I don't get time to play. I need to get
   water first," she added.

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