The Indian women rappelling down a 60-foot well to find water

In the summers, women rappel down the well in Nashik and spend hours waiting for water to seep into ditches at bottom.

Nashik, India – Two years ago, Leela Pardhi was rappelling down a 60 feet-deep (18 metres) well to fetch water when the rope holding her slipped and she fell into the well, badly injuring her legs and hips. She is still in pain. That dangerous descent was the only way the 29-year-old find could find water in the hamlet of Bardechi Wadi, in Trimbakeshwar in western India’s Maharashtra state. “I thank God that I only fell from further down the well and not from the top. I may not have survived,” Leela told Al Jazeera.