As rainfall patterns shift, Bihar’s handpump boring workers struggle to reach falling water table

As rainfall declines and groundwater recedes, Darbhanga’s ageing handpump installers find their livelihoods drying up and their risks rising.Darbhanga, Bihar: Mohammad Abul Hasan (70) has worked in the manual handpump boring trade for over 40 years in Bharwara village in Darbhanga, Bihar. But in summers, which ideally should be his busiest season, he avoids taking up new installations.The reason, he said, is the falling groundwater table in the region. “If the pump doesn’t yield water, we don’t get paid,” Hasan explained. He attributed the change to the absence of annual flooding, which was once common in the area. “Earlier, floods used to recharge the groundwater. Even in peak summers like June, we had enough water. That’s no longer the case.”Since 2019, flooding has been noticeably absent in Darbhanga district. Once a water-rich region, it is now facing an acute water crisis. Traditionally known for its paan (betel leaves), maachh (fish), and makhana (fox nutes), the district is struggling with rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and intensive farming that has hardened the soil. Groundwater recharge has reduced, and several villages are reporting drinking water shortages.The Bihar State Disaster Authority has observed that in the absence of adequate rainfall, large parts of the state—especially North Bihar, usually prone to floods—are now experiencing drought-like conditions. The India Meteorological Department’s annual monsoon report for 2024 also showed large parts of Bihar in red and yellow, indicating a rainfall deficit and large rainfall deficit. This led to widespread crop failures across several districts, including Darbhanga.The Bihar State Disaster Authority has observed that in the absence of adequate rainfall, large parts of the state—especially North Bihar, usually prone to floods—are now experiencing drought-like conditions (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)At the same time, Darbhanga experienced intense flooding between September 26 and 29 last year, affecting nearly five lakh people and causing significant displacement and damage. According to the IMD, Bihar, along with Arunachal Pradesh and Assam-Meghalaya, was among the few regions to record deficient rainfall during the southwest monsoon this year. The state, accounting for 9% of India’s total area, now oscillates between flood and drought conditions.Amid these shifts, manual handpump installers like Hasan are finding their work increasingly difficult.High risk, low rewardManual handpump installation is typically carried out by teams of three to four workers. Using bamboo poles, rope, and a steel jack, they can drive pipes to depths of 40-60 feet in a day under normal soil conditions. Reaching 100 feet manually takes several days. One worker at the base holds and guides the pipe, while others use bamboo poles and a jack to move it up and down in a steady rhythm.The most strenuous position is that of the bottom worker, who bears much of the weight and vibration while controlling the pipe’s direction. The top worker, balancing 10-12 feet above the ground, faces the greatest risk: standing for eight to ten hours a day without safety gear.Shivchandra Baitha (59), a resident of Singhwara, has been installing handpumps since his teenage years. “Boring the pipe while standing on top is not easy; it requires balance, patience, and experience. A small slip can mean falling 10-12 feet,” he said. Injuries from such falls are often serious, even fatal. Despite decades of experience, Baitha earns between Rs 450 and Rs 600 per day.Living high on falling water: In an effort to build houses higher than the road level, some people raise the plinth of their homes by 6 to 8 feet (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)The handpump installers say that the younger generation is leaving the trade. “Our sons see no future in this,” Baitha said. “They’d rather go to Delhi than dig for water that isn’t there.”A survey conducted by this reporter in several villages under Singhwara block—such as Rampur, Sadha, Hanuman Nagar, Simri, Khurd Manihas, Atarwel, and Bithauli—found that piped water supply was absent, and residents depended entirely on handpumps and motor pumps. In such circumstances, Baitha’s work remains crucial.Workers often hit layers of stone at depths of 60-80 feet. Upendra Mahto (59) and Ranjeet Das (58), both handpump installers from the same block, explained the associated physical challenge. “It’s nearly impossible to break the stones manually. Sometimes we try, but usually we have to abandon the spot and start fresh elsewhere,” they said.Drying livelihoodIn villages like Rampura, Vaidehi Devi (62) said her earlier handpump was only 100 feet deep. “Now we’ve installed a new one at 180 feet,” she said. “But even that dries up in May and June.” At such depths, manual boring is no longer possible; motorised drilling rigs, which cost several thousand rupees, are required.Though the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has marked all blocks in Darbhanga as “safe”, a 2021 survey by the state’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) classified 11 districts in Bihar, including Darbhanga, as “water-stressed”. During the summer, workers are forced to dig deeper than ever before, and if their efforts fail to yield water, they return home empty-handed.Small rocks, workers hit while digging, can sometimes be dislodged manually, but larger stones force them to abandon the site. In 5-10% of cases, they receive no payment at all. Many villages that once struck clean water at 100-120 feet now need to go down 180-220 feet.Sushil Thakur, a handpump supplier in Singhwara, said, “Out of 30-35 handpumps we install each month, two or three fail completely. Either the pump stops yielding water or dries up soon after.” He blamed declining rainfall over the last few years for this trend.Harijan Tola, Singhwara North, Darbhanga (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)Data decodedDr Shashidhar Jha, Climate Scientist and Director of Research at the Bodhi Centre, pointed to a 5-10% decline in cumulative annual rainfall and 10-15% fewer rainy days in Bihar. “Yet, extreme rainfall events—more than 100 mm a day—have become more frequent. These intense downpours often fail to replenish groundwater, instead flowing directly into rivers like the Ganga and Kosi,” he told 101Reporters.Data shows a sharp decline in rainfall over the last decade. Researchers at Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, found that while the region received over 1,000 millimetres of rain annually until around 2020, the average has since fallen by nearly a third.Professor Colonel Sanjay Srivastava, chairman of the Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council, said long-term data points to a clear shift. “Regions like Rajasthan and Gujarat, once drought-prone, are now getting above-average rainfall, while eastern states such as Bihar and Jharkhand are facing deficits,” he said.Economist Mani Bhushan Jha of the Bodhi Centre described the falling water table as a “tragedy of the commons.” “Where water was once available at 40-60 feet, it now often requires boring beyond 200 feet, even in floodplains,” he said. “Multiple borewells compete for the same aquifer, depleting it faster than it can refill.”This project is supported by the Internews Earth Journalism Network with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)Cover photo - In Singhwara block, Darbhanga, Ramvilas Baitha, Upendra Mahto and Ranjit Das install a hand pump (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)

A teacher who writes poems, creates Mithila paintings ingrains quest for education in students of Bihar

Chandana Dutt not only builds an identity for herself as the first shiksha mitra to win the teachers' national award, but also facilitates her students to earn their place in lifeMadhubani, Bihar: At the Ranti Higher Secondary School in Madhubani, Chandana Dutt (49) is reading a story to her students. The theme revolves around the identity crisis that married women in Bihar face, wherein they are not known by their own name but as gudia ki amma or maa (mother of her first child). The bahu (daughter-in-law) or wife is never addressed by her own name.“The story is very close to my heart as this question troubled me a lot in my childhood. Therefore, right from my early days, I wanted to become a successful woman whom people will recognise by my own name… Both my sisters got married before graduation, but I managed to complete it in 1996 and got married the next year,” says Chandana.Her zeal for success did reflect in her work when she joined the school as shiksha mitra in 2005. Her salary was just Rs 1,500 per month. “When I joined the middle school in 2003, the student strength was between 400 and 500. However, they were not attending classes regularly, especially girls. After two years, Chandana and some more teachers joined. At that time, we decided to visit Muslim and Dalit tolas (colonies) to motivate parents to send their children to school,” Lal Dev Kamat, Chandana’s colleague, tells 101Reporters.According to Kamat, Chandana used to go to the Dalit colony holding her infant son all along. Some people opposed this act, but she did not stop. Gradually, her dedication started to bear fruits, as she kept on motivating girl children and their parents. When she started out, only 10% of girl students were coming to the school. Fast forward to 2024, the school boasts of nearly 60% attendance of girls. "It was not so easy to convince parents as girl children were doing household work and taking care of their younger siblings. They felt that learning household chores was more important as it will be useful after marriage," says Chandana. Chandana with her girl students (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)Fighting societal barriersChandana entered the teaching profession when her son was just one year old. At that time, the Bihar government had not made provisions for leave for shiksha mitras. She had to hear a lot when she joined the school. Her relatives fussed over the decision, asking what was the need to join the school for Rs 1,500. Undeniably, shiksha mitra’s job was not considered good at that time. Chandana’s middle class family did not want her to do that job, despite her father-in-law late Pratap Narayan Dutt and grandfather-in-law late Rama Prasad Dutt being social workers. Rama Prasad had worked to promote literacy and had built a library at Ranti to educate children. However, when it came to Chandana, his major concern was that the daughter-in-law of the house would visit Muslim and Schedule Caste tolas.  Nevertheless, Chandana had always done things differently. After her marriage to Sunil Kumar Saroj, a realtor, she too became busy running the household like other women. However, she did not see household chores as the only option before her. She spent hours in the library that Rama Prasad had built, reading anything and everything that came her way.“The art of Mithila painting has been prevalent in our villages and families for centuries. I used to do Mithila paintings before, but I learnt its nuances after marriage. My mother-in-law and grand mother-in-law Padma Shri Godawari Dutt taught me everything in detail,” says Chandana, while recalling that her first painting, done on a silk cloth, was sold for Rs 700. She shares that her house is visited by foreigners who are keen to see and learn about Mithila paintings. During the COVID-19 period (2020-21), when unemployment increased and people were struggling to get two meals a day, Chandana’s family launched a face mask business. She went to the Dalit and Muslim colonies along with her students and gave work orders to make masks with Mithila paintings etched over them. Once these products became ready, she began to sell them to her relatives and acquaintances.She claims to have sold over 10,000 face masks, the profit of which went to the artists themselves. She also involved her students in the business to ensure that they learn a new activity and are engaged fruitfully.  Not just that, Chandana made women of Dalit and Muslim tolas literate. “Under Akshar Aanchal Yojana, our team visited their hamlets to teach women how to write their names. At that time, they used to tell us, ‘hum log is umra me padh-likhkar kya karenge [what will we do at this age after becoming literate?]’. Now they thank us for our endeavour. At present, we motivate our students to teach their parents and other family members to write their names and do basic accounting,” Chandana explains.(From left)Chandana and Principal Dr Chandan Kumari (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)What changed in 19 years? Chandana will complete two decades of teaching in the school next year. Many things have changed for the school in the last 19 years. Earlier, education was only up to class 7. Class 8, class 10 and class 12 upgrades happened in 2007, 2020 and 2023, respectively. At the time she joined the school, some of the classrooms were made of bamboo. The building was renovated to a concrete structure after delegates from Japan donated the necessary funds.Chandana's way of teaching is different. She includes elements of Mithila paintings and their stories in her classes. The children also liked this method, and they started to discuss this new concept  with their friends, due to which the attendance began to increase.The school has only two classrooms to house students of class 9 to 12 and three teachers — Chandana, Principal Dr Chandan Kumari and Dr Jyoti Kumari, a Hindi teacher on deputation. There are no subject teachers for mathematics and science.“I have worked with Chandana for a year. She is very hard working and talented. We are trying to improve the quality of education, but lack of teachers and infrastructure are the hurdles. We have written to the district education officer and district magistrate in this regard. We need a separate campus for the safety of students as the present school has no boundary wall. Post-school timings, it becomes a den of anti-social elements. There is no water supply to bathrooms. It is difficult to stay here for a long time without basic facilities,” Principal Dr Chandan Kumari tells 101Reporters.Soon after her marriage, Chandana had learnt Mithila akshar (script of Maithili). “I did a Master of Arts course in Maithili. It has come handy as I now teach my students Maithili and English.” She also acquired mastery over Kaithi, Nepali, Bajjika and Bhojpuri. “I learnt these languages and scripts because I want to write in these languages… My father Dr Nityanand Lal Das and mother Malti Das always encouraged me to write stories and poems,” she adds. “Chandana ma’am teaches us Maithili and English. She also helps us to make projects on different subjects. She has taught us Mithila painting, too. Her pictorial style of teaching is unique and we love it,” attest Mansi Kumari, Aditi Jha and Chandni Kumari, all class 9 students. Chandana has written poems and children's stories. Ganga Snan, her first book, was published in Maithili in 2013. Chahak, her collection of poems for children, got published last year with its cover page designed by her daughter Shreyasi Dutt. She has also contributed to Dalit Maithili Katha Sanchayan. Her poems are published in Kavya Kiran, and stories in more than a dozen books. She has many feathers to her cap, including Rashtriya Jeevan Gaurav Samman, 2022, Karnpriya Lalita Vishishth Kavya Pratibha Samman, 2020, and Dr S Radhakrishnan Samman, 2020.  However, the most prestigious of Chandana’s accomplishments is the National Award to Teacher, which she received in 2021. She was the first shiksha mitra to win this award instituted by the Ministry of Education. (Left) Chandana with National Award to Teacher (right) Chandana with one of her old students (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)Chandana is an artist, author and a poet, but it is the teaching profession that has given her the unique identity that she cherished since her childhood. “Teacher’s job is the best. We nourish the future of our students. It is a great responsibility and we try our best. Without the support and help from the government and society, our efforts sometimes fail. It is necessary that everyone come together for this noble cause,” she concludes.Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Chandana teaching her students (Photo - Saurabh Chaubey, 101Reporters)