Thirst

Mumbai is the largest city in India, with a population of over 12 million people living within the city proper and over 20 million living in the broader metropolitan area. It is located on the western coast of the country and is the capital of the state of Maharashtra. Despite being the epicenter of some of the country’s largest industries—including Bollywood—socioeconomic disparity remains one of Mumbai’s most pressing social issues. The second-largest slum in Asia, Dharavi, is located just north of the city center and houses roughly one million people. The people living in Dharavi typically belong to the most socioeconomically challenged castes in India, including a large percentage of Kolis—an agricultural and fishing caste—on the western side of the slum who are descended from the area’s original settlers. Despite extensive criticism of the caste system in modern India, ethnographic hierarchy still plays a key role in determining the quality of life for much of the country’s population and is manifest in the inequalities experienced by those living in Mumbai’s poorest neighborhoods.

In Thirst, Bajaj alludes to the influence of the caste system rather than discussing it in explicit terms (Minni’s caste is only mentioned a total of four times). Instead, she focuses on the resources that are withheld from disadvantaged communities to illustrate the injustice of these hierarchical systems. A 2016 study by the Safe Water Network found that roughly 6.5 million people living in Mumbai resided in areas “without access to safe drinking water” (“Mumbai City Report (2016).” Safe Water Network). In these areas, private taps are the primary source of drinking water, but “every slum suffers from water hoarders and water mafias” (“Mumbai City Report”). Furthermore, such privatized, unsanitary water conditions correspond with high rates of disease and immense financial costs; high rates of cholera, jaundice, typhoid, and dysentery were reported among slum residents reliant on purchasing water from private taps. Costly and dangerous, water inequity places burdens of survival on the portions of Mumbai’s population least financially equipped to protect themselves from the problem.

Issues of water inequity are not discrete. They have a far-reaching impact on the lives of individuals and the city of Mumbai more broadly. The same 2016 report found that a lack of access to drinking water “adversely affected” many essential aspects of life, including education and political inclusion. In Thirst, Bajaj illustrates this phenomenon when a contaminated water supply triggers a domino effect of misfortune for Minni and her family. Rohini’s illness, brought on by contagions in the water, poses a threat to the continuation of Minni’s education. In this way, the systems of water inequity in Mumbai perpetuate broader systems of inequality by preventing its poorest residents from achieving social mobility. This dynamic becomes clear throughout the story, as other socioeconomic considerations, such as education level and household income, are affected by the issue of water access.