THRISSUR: Finding a good location, digging test holes, and drilling through dirt and rock till you find that flash of water ripples! It is believed that only men would be able to undertake all these tasks involved in digging up a well, but not anymore.Proving that women in the state are at par with men, a group of housewives, without any previous experience, have dug a 26.5 feet-deep well in a hilly area near Wadakkancherry.The work was carried out under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in a bid to solve the water woes faced by the people in the Mundathikode panchayat.Buoyed by the feat, they now plan to dig another 30 wells in the panchayat before the monsoon sets in.When the summer reaching a crescendo, the water scarcity in the area had worsened as compared to previous summers.A group of housewives, who was bearing the brunt of water scarcity, approached the panchayat authorities and expressed their willingness to take up the task.“Nowadays, the traditional well diggers are extinct species.Initially, everyone was quite sceptic, but after they successfully completed the task, we got around 30 applications from the residents in the panchayat,” said Ajith Kumar, Mundathikode panchayat president.“They have already begun the work of digging wells in other areas as part of the project,” he added.“We worked for over six hours a day for the last three months and we were on cloud nine when we struck water,” said Santha, a housewife who was engaged in the work.Ammini, Sarojini, Umadevi, Saraswathy, Chandra, Lakshmi and Sumati were the other members of the group.It was Clara, Kudumbasree ADF in the area, who encouraged them to take up the work.“I used to come daily and guide them, but they were already doing a good work and belying expectations, they have proved to be quite good at it,” she added.More women have been recruited to finish the newly taken-up works before the onset of the monsoon.The shortage of water during summer is a perennial problem in several regions near the Bharathapuzha.The unprecedented drying up of the river much ahead summer this time has resulted in an acute shortage of drinking water in the areas on the riverbank.The MNREGA has helped women in the state to storm many a male bastion, said Chitralekha, a social activist
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