Life in the Indian Thar Desert

The Thar desert region of Rajasthan in North-west India is one of the most inhospitable landscapes on earth. Plan project and community workers here live and work in this vast, sprawling, arid and shape-changing environment. Apart from the huge distances between hamlets and settlements here, the landscape is constantly shifing with the sand, as wind and sandstorms re-arrange the terrain at will.

This, added to the lack of water in such an arid region, means that the ancient villagers of the Thar often find themselves migrating on foot across sometimes hundreds of miles towards neignbouring states in search of water. However, as soon as it's possible they return to their hamlets in the desert, the place where they belong. Life is a struggle here, but the ancient attachment the villagers have to their homes is strong, and this centuries-old way of life continues here against all odds.

Chimana

This virtual visit to Chimana will take you on a journey to the interiors of the Thar. The sandy tracts of Chimana are characterised by a harsh physical geography and a fragile ecology. Annual rainfall is low, ranging from 10-40cms. Temperatures range from 48 to 50 degrees in the summer, to below freezing points in winter. High wind velocity, shifting sand dunes which cover around 30-40% of the region, and very deep and saline water sources pose a challenge to sustained human habitation in the Thar. As you would expect, the area is also prone to devastating droughts.

History: Chimana, situated on the boundary of two native states of Jodhpur and Bikaner, was once an important settlement on the trading network of Marwar. It served as a resting spot for the long trails of camal caravans that connected the trade traffic from other parts of the Thar and northern plains to the western corners of Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Sind (Pakistan).

Today Chimana denotes a cluster of small settlements that have originated as offshoots of the old village Chimana. These are sparsely spread, unconnected by any lines of communication, and have negligible access to basic amenities like health and education.

Plan programs tackle these issues by building schools, teaching hygiene, and training local village representatives to be community health workers. One such health worker is pictured opposite - as a lower-caste member of the village she has gained from the training and extra income this work generates, and also from the well-respected status she now commands in the community.

Multi-cultural society: Chimana has a heterogenous population comprising of a range of castes and communities. Rajputs and Brahmins are the dominant upper castes; Jats and Bishnois who are predominantly agriculturalists and husbandsmen comprise the majority of the Hindu population. The Meghwals are the lower castes, downtrodden, mostly working as labourers, artisans and small farmers. Muslims, belonging to different ethnic groups, are in significant numbers, most are semi nomadic pastoralists and some are farmers. As well as this, there isolated hamlets and villages of tribal communities. Most of the people speak Marwari, the local dialect, and have a highly distinct dress code identified by striking colours and a variety of styles.

A peculiar feature of the demography of the Thar is the high degree of mobility practiced by almost all the communities. This makes communication and implementation of development processes more difficult. There are three major rhythms of migration - movement of families around monsoon to their hamlets in the fields in order to tend the land; distress migration of wage labourers to other States seeking work in the towns and cities; and around Holi (March-April) the semi nomadic pastoralilsts migrate with their livestock to find suitable grazing grounds in adjoining states.

Travelling to Chimana from any direction leads you onto single roads, barely four feet wide, zigzagging amidst sand dunes, giving way to sandy tracks leading to settlements in the interiors every now and then, suggestive of a fairly scattered set of community tied to a rudimentary road network. The natural landscape is predominantly sandy with permanent high sand dunes (50-70ft), bare shifting sand dunes and luxuriously stretched interdunal plains showing signs of human habitation and arable expansion.

Women in society: A feudal and conservative ethos keeps the women in the region silenced, exhausted, veiled and secluded from birth to death. The Thar has one of the lowest and declining sex ratios in India. The girl child is discriminated against, and girls are commonly married off as soon as they reach puberty, when they are sent to the husbands family home and from then on permanently veiled and secluded.