Around 400 farmers' crop has been ruined, they say, after the government in April raised the water level of the Omkareshwar dam.
Twenty protestors, from Gholgagon village along the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh, have been standing in waist-deep water for the last 25 days. The soles of their feet are completely stripped of skin and are infected with fungal sores.
"Our health condition is deteriorating, epidermal skin from the soles of our feet is peeling. This has made standing and walking very difficult," says 63-year-old Sakku Bai, who's been spending over 14 hours a day in the water, under temperatures of 40 degrees.
Around 400 farmers' crop has been ruined, they say, after the government in April raised the water level of the Omkareshwar dam. These farmers decided to protest by standing on those flooded fields in a, "jal satyagraha."
More farmers -- from the Narmada Bachao Andolan -- have since joined this protest. Their feet, too, are beginning to show infections. "We are not going to end jal satyagraha till the state government gives in to our demands. The administration has now initiated talks with us, but the dead lock continues," says Alok Agrawal, a protesting member of the Andolan.
The farmers allege that they were initially compensated, but that they returned part of that compensation to the government in 2012. They were promised land in exchange, which they haven't got. The farmers are also demanding lowering of water levels of the dam by two metres from 191 to 189.
The government says most of the affected farmers have been compensated. It adds that it has rehabilitated almost all of the 6,000 farmers -- except around 400 -- who returned that compensation. The government doesn't want 400 farmers to hold it hostage.
"All Omkareshwar Dam oustees have either got compensation or land. These 213 farmers without even seeing the land refused to accept it as compensation. We have a land bank of 5000 hectare and are willing to give them a land of their choice," said Rajnish Bais, Vice President of the Narmada Valley Developement Authority.
Still, 400 farmers have lost their entire crop. Making the problem worse, they say, is that they had already spent that compensation - originally awarded in 2005-2006 -- and to return part of it to the government, they had to borrow from moneylenders at interest rates as high as 40 percent. Now, they are still under debt and still have no land.
Tomorrow, around 500 more people are expected to start protests in the state capital, Bhopal.