For Suraj Prajapati, a mother of two who lives in the arid northern Indian state of Rajasthan, fighting for access to clean drinking water at her doorstep required extraordinary measures.
Tired of having to spend hours fetching water and desperate for a piped water connection to their rural homes, Prajapati and a band of more than 10 other women in her neighbourhood began a crusade in 2018. At one point they even locked up one of the village leaders in his home until he agreed to speak to authorities about their demands.
About 200,000 Indians die every year due to inadequate access to safe water, the National Institute for Transforming India Aayog, a government think tank, said in a report in 2018. Before the taps were fitted in their homes, the women often compromised on their own health, skipping baths on alternate days and walking in the searing heat to fetch water for their households.
More than 52% of India's 191 million households had access to tap water connections as of Aug. 30, according to federal government data, up from a mere 16% in August 2019, when Modi announced his plan to provide piped water to rural homes.
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