As their classmates set off to play after school each day, nine-year-old Sakshi Garud and her neighbour Siddharth Dhage, 10, are among a small group of children who take a 14 km (9 miles) return train journey from their village in India to fetch water.
Their families are some of the poorest in the hamlet of Mukundwadi, in the western state of Maharashtra, a village that has suffered back-to-back droughts.
India’s monsoons have brought abundant rain and even floods in many parts of the country, but rainfall in the region around Mukundwadi has been 14% below average this year and aquifers and borewells are dry.
“I don’t like to spend time bringing water, but I don’t have a choice,” Dhage said.
“This is my daily routine,” said Garud. Their houses are cramped barracks just 200 meters (220 yards) from the station. “After coming to school, I do not get time to play. I have to get the water first. “
They are not alone. Millions of Indians are unsafe water supply, according to the British charity WaterAid. He says 12% of Indians or about 163 million people lack access to clean water close to home – the most significant proportion of all countries.
Recognizing the issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to spend more than 3.5 trillion rupees ($ 49 billion) to bring running water in all Indian homes by 2024.
More than 100 families in the district of Garud Dhage and have no access to running water, and many depend on private water providers, which support up to 3,000 rupees ($ 42) for a tanker of 5,000 litres during the summer months.
But private water supply is something Garud and Dhage parents say they can not afford.
“Nowadays, I do not get enough money to buy food. I can not buy water from private suppliers, “said the father of Dhage, Rahul, a construction worker. “I do not get to work every day. “
Garud and Dhage and other children Mukundwadi take the train every day to fetch water from the nearby city of Aurangabad.
The train is often crowded, so a group of small children scramble to get on board with jugs to fill with water are not always welcome.
“Some people help me, and sometimes they complain about responsible railway pitchers to put near the door. If we do not place near the door, we can not take them quickly when the process stops, “said Dhage.
The grandmother of Garud Sitabai Kamble and help an elderly neighbour from time to time in the pushing edge face irritable passengers.
“Sometimes they blow away the pitchers, they complain,” said Kamble.
When the train from Aurangabad thirty minutes later they scramble to fill the jugs with water pipes nearby. Garud cannot reach the faucet, and it relies on its larger sister, Aaysha, 14, and grandmother.
Other Aurangabad as Anjali Gaikwad, 14, and her sisters, also on the train every day to Collect water and wash clothes.
Their neighbour Prakash Nagre often tags with soap and shampoo. “There is no water to bathe at home,” he said.
When the train pulls into Mukundwadi, they Disembark at least a minute. Sometimes the mother Dhage, Jyoti, waiting at the station for help.
“I’m careful, but sometimes pitchers down the door into the fray and our work is wasted,” she said, holding her baby in one arm and a launcher in the other. “I can not leave my daughter alone at home, so I have to take her along.”
