Village Life - meet the people who've made our stories - Nayagaon village

Nayagaon, Morena



Siva and Ramniwas, Nayagaon

Siva & Ramniwas live in the remote village of Nayagaon in Madhya Pradesh and have 1 son, Prashand, who is 4. Ramniwas is 1 of 5 brothers, 3 of which are married, there are only 2 children within the extended family group.

There are 73 families in the village with an approximate population of 250. There is no opportunity for farming here as they are living in a hot, rocky desert environment.

 Her husband collects firewood for a living and sells it at a local market. This brings them an income of less than US$1 a day. He has to walk 15km to reach the area where the firewood is collected which is a 6hr walk, sometimes he stays overnight. Once he's got enough to sell, he then has to walk 3km to get to a bus that he can catch to the market. The firewood bundles sell for around 150 Rupees but it cost 50 Rupees for transport and collection and sale takes at least 2 days.



Siva at the spring

Siva looks after the household, fetches the water and prepares all meals. The spring water supply in the village, which is about a 500m walk, is of good quality most of the year but this isn't guaranteed. During the summer it dries up which means she has to walk much further to the next nearest supply, during the rainy season it gets contaminated.
To provide water to drink and prepare meals Siva has to do 3 trips to the well every day to bring back about 30 litres of water each time - each person in their family of 3 uses 30 litres a day, in the UK we're probably us 5 time that amount. I'm only 5ft 2inches and I felt like I towered over her, I suspect that the weight of water she carries over tough rocky terrain is probably half of her body weight.



Carrying water back to the village