Kshipra · September 2026
Madhya Pradesh Field Survey- Kshipra District
Near the Kshipra dwell a second body of Bhil households, echoing Dhar in their social arrangement: led and worked by women, yet governed still by the custom that seats the men first at every meal. Their earnings lie between four and six thousand rupees, their households number some five persons, and not one holds a ration card.
- Conducted by
- -
- Location
- Kshipra
- Respondents
- 4 households
FINDINGS
Food insecurity was found to be complete and severe, affirmed by every household on every measure. What distinguishes Kshipra, and darkens its prospect, is the matter of water: where other localities draw, however meanly, from a hand-pump or motor, these households take their water from the river and from open sources that are not clean. The principal finding here is therefore one of compounded hazard — to the universal hunger is joined the peril of tainted water, so that a body already underfed is set further at risk, the two afflictions conspiring each to deepen the other.
FIELD NOTES
- 01The survey at Kshipra was much hindered by the monsoon. Rain fell heavily, and the open and riverine water-sources ran visibly turbid and swollen — a sight that lent weight to the frequent reports of illness. The approach to the settlement was poor: the roads were not of pukka construction, and in the wet they became scarcely passable, so that reaching certain households demanded patience and some difficulty. The general condition of the village was mean, and the rains had rendered it meaner still. Interviews were conducted with care and prior consent, several of the women speaking only after reassurance. Kinship among the households surveyed should again be noted as a limit upon representativeness.
PHOTOS
