Tradition requires that women and female children carry water on their heads or backs over long distances. Physical deformities are common. Human dignity suffers acutely. Children are deprived of the opportunity to attend school. And girls are locked into poverty in perpetuity.
Marginal farmers farm marginal lands.
They are often on the periphery of irrigation facilities. In many parts of the People s Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and Thailand, they are at the tail end of the distribution systems and almost never able to reliably access water. Low productivity and crop failures create food insecurity. Uncertain incomes perpetuate indebtedness, and social misery is compounded. The urban poor in densely populated towns and cities in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal queue interminably at public standposts to access limited quantities of water of dubious quality.