Debramal
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Well climbers
2023
Aditya Waikul, June 13, 2023: The Times of India
Nestled on a craggy hilltop, Debramal, Valvi’s village in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, offers a panoramic view of the Narmada river beyond the slopes of the Satpura ranges. The river seems close, but it is not.
For over five decades that he can remember, March arrives in his village with brutal water scarcity that lingers till the monsoon. At least 50 families in Debramal have one or two people who can slither down the rope to the lone well and scoop the collected water to fill their pots.
The trek to Vadi Vihir (the bigwell) on the slope of the hill, starts early and continues till late in the night with LED lights leading them in the darkness. The well used to be a narrow one. Now, it is wider, its structure and a generation of climbers have changed. Only the lack of water has remained constant, schooling generations of well climbers. Currently, there are at least 50 well climbers from 11 to 50 years of age.
The villagers have a choice between remaining thirsty and battling exhaustion from scooping water for hours from a really deep and dry well. They choose the latter.
Khetya Valvi waits for his turn, which comes at midnight. “I have seen my father going into the well. It has been our life for many yearsand it’s a habit now,” he says. In the darkness, he lies flat on the boundary wall of the well, then grasps the rop e to lower himself. After descending about five feet, it is pitch dark, and he only has his senses to guide him as he bounces off the jagged well wall. When he hits the bottom, he s pends almost an hour collecting water in the flickering light of an LED. Once his buckets are full, a relative pulls them up and drops them back for a refill. By the time Khetya climbs up, he is gasping for breath and utterly exhausted. However, he still has to walk an hour to his hut carrying the water.
Fourteen-yearold Dinesh Valvi has been descending into the well since he was 10. “It depends on your strength. Some use their feet, but I use my hands well. Children as young as 10 go down easily but climbing up is difficult and sometimes they sit inside buckets and are pulled up. I am a good climber,” he said.
Debramal was part of Maharashtra government’s social transformation mission. A rusted, forgotten board announcing the scheme greets a newcomer after kilometres of a road that has caved in at many places. “One day in 2017, government officials came here for surveys and told us that our village is under a scheme, and they would build us a tank and our water problems will be solved,” a villager said. There is a water tank, 17 hand pumps and two wells, but no water.
Nandurbar’ s collector Manisha Khatri says she had visited the village last year. “We did launch some schemes for Debramal through zilla parishad and PESA funds, but the topograph y is such that there is very little groundwater. It’s a technical problem. Now, under the Jal Jeevan mission, we are surveying many such villages and will look for long-term solutions. ”
The race to get to the bottom of the well is more rigorous at night when it’s cooler. More families, including women and children, trek over the rough terrain to book their place in the queue. “From March, we sleep near the well every day. If we don’t, we will miss our turn. We cannot always fetch water in the scorching heat. Almost 40 families depend on this well,” says Dhirsing h Valvi (25). The waiting families and their wellclimbing troop catch up on sleep whilein the queue, then get their share of water and walk home.
At 13, Akash Valvi is an expert climber. After a three-hour wait, it is his family’s turn in the morning. He swings over the parapet wall and is at the bottom of the well in a few seconds. Once he collects his bucket, he puts his feet against the wall andpulls himself up quickly. “Even if you are tired, you have to climb fast in one go. If you slow down or halt, then you struggle,” says Akash, while panting for br eath. Those who cannot descend or endure the wait walk for three hours downhill to fetch water from another village.
Rahul Padavi, a class XI student, is home for the summ er vacation but spends most of it inside the well. “It’s suffocating at the bottom and climbing up is difficult. A small error in judgement or a loose grip and I can go hurtling down to the r ocks. For us, this is like cycling. Everyone in the village can do it, even the women and small children,” he said.
Last year, Shirish Valvi had just turned 11 when his father put him into a bucket and lowered him into the well. A few feet in, panic gripped him. He shouted to be brought up, but his father knew better. In his absence, Shirish should know how to fetch water for the family.
This year, Shirish is prepared for the task. A new well climber has joined Debramal’s community.
