Caste Divides Make Hot Summers Even Harder in India's Driest Region

Every morning, a 40-year-old woman named Mamta walks to a handpump in her village in Bundelkhand, a dry region of northern India. She carries three empty plastic buckets and makes this trip up to ten times a day to get water for her family of eleven and their animals. Temperatures in her area can rise above 40°C, making each trip exhausting. But the blazing heat is not the only thing standing in her way — her caste is, too.

Mamta belongs to a community called the Valmikis, who are part of a larger group known as Dalits. For hundreds of years, Dalits were labeled 'untouchable' under India's caste system, a social ranking that treated some people as lesser than others based on their birth. Even today, many Dalits face discrimination in daily life, including at shared water sources. Mamta says she must wait at the handpump until people from higher-ranking castes are done before she can fill her buckets.

She described what happens after she uses the pump. 'If they are standing there, we cannot fill water. We have to wait until they leave,' she said. Some upper-caste residents even pour water over the pump afterward to 'cleanse' it. 'It has been happening for decades,' she added.

Bundelkhand stretches across parts of two Indian states: Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The land is rocky and dry, making it hard for rainwater to soak into the ground and be stored. The region has faced several major droughts since 2002, and researchers say temperatures have been rising for over a century. In recent summers, some parts of Bundelkhand have reached nearly 48°C.

Water is already scarce here, and climate change is making it worse. When there is less water to share, arguments break out more often — and experts say Dalit communities are hit the hardest. 'Conflict over water is not new,' said Mitashi Singh of the Centre for Science and Environment. 'What is changing is the role hotter summers are playing in making water scarcer and intensifying tensions that already existed.'

About 50 kilometers away, a man named Shiv described a very similar experience. He said his community will not approach the handpump while dominant-caste families are using it. 'No matter how hot it is, even if we have to wait for hours for one bucket of drinking water, we wait because we do not have a choice,' he said. In summer, when his family needs more water, the waiting grows even longer.

Three years ago, Shiv's mother, Parmi Devi, was attacked during an argument at a village handpump. 'I was thrashed and beaten up and thrown on the ground three times,' she said. She believes the attack was about more than water. 'It was not just about water. It was because of our caste.' She filed a police complaint, but no arrests have been made.

A nonprofit group called the Dalit Dignity and Justice Centre tracked many similar cases. Police registered 113 cases under India's law against caste-based mistreatment in the area in 2025 alone. The group's leader said most complaints during the hottest months involved water access. 'To truly understand the impact, you have to see it from the perspective of the communities that are the most excluded,' said Kuldeep Singh Baudh.

Local government officials disagree with these accounts. The District Magistrate's office said there is 'not even one instance' of caste-based discrimination at water sources. Officials pointed to a national program called the Jal Jeevan Mission, which aims to bring piped water to every rural home, and to community groups called Jal Sahelis, women who monitor water and teach conservation.

Researchers say more water alone is not enough to solve the problem. Mukul Sharma, who studies caste and the environment, says climate change does not create these injustices — it makes them worse. 'Climate change is not the origin of these injustices, but a threat multiplier,' he said. More water will not help if the caste system still controls who gets to use it. Back in her village, Mamta keeps making her daily trips, going early in the morning or late in the afternoon to avoid trouble, carrying her buckets home each time and knowing she will return again before the day ends.