Jawhar, Thane: In a tribal belt of Maharashtra on the outskirts of Mumbai the water crisis is so bad that thousands of children of residential schools have been sent home.
"There's no rain. There's no water. So we had to send the children home," said B B Patil, Assistant Headmaster, Sakhare Ashram School.
The ashram school in tribal Thane was shut, as there's no water for washing or drinking.
"The last bit of water in the wells is not safe. We can't take risks," said B B Bidave, Teacher, Sakhare Ashram School.
In tribal areas of Thane, the state runs 87 residential schools for poor children. Of these 23 are now shut. Over 10,000 students are on a forced holiday.
The students who have gone back home to the villages nearby will face water scarcity there too. What's worse is that there they may not even get food.
In Nivale village NDTV met one such student Makhni Pawar.
"The water looks like the chai with milk that city folks drink. We have to drink it anyway," said Makhni Bhagya Pawar, student, Khorshi Ashram School.
At the ashram school in Zaap nearby five students have come back in desperation, now using boxes meant for their clothes to store water from the first showers.
"We will put bleaching powder in the water to make it safe for drinking," said Arya Chavan, Teacher, Zaap Ashram School.
In the hunger belt of Maharashtra, tribals depend on the poorly managed ashram schools for their children's food and education.
That last hope is also on the blink.