Access to water is a crisis for the powerless

Almost 100 years ago around 3,000 Dalits, or "untouchables", dared to drink from a public water tank in Mahad, Maharashtra, that was forbidden to them.

The Mahad Satyagraha — referred to as India's first civil rights movement — was led by noted lawyer, social reformer, and Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar who then took on the upper-caste people of the area who claimed the tank was private property. The ensuing legal battle lasted a decade. Dr Ambedkar won the case.