Raindrop in the Drought: Godavari Dange

Raindrop in the Drought is a comic book based on the life of Godavari Dange, who has spent decades organising women farmers and promoting sustainable farming methods in the drought-prone Marathwada region. The book is dedicated to these women and offers an insight into the ongoing agrarian crisis in India. It was written by Mumbai-based journalist and researcher Reetika Revathy Subramanian, with drawings by freelance illustrator Maitri Dore – as part of an initiative by Goethe-Institut Indonesien. This document contains the book in English as well as Marathi.She was named after the river Godavari – worshipped as Goda Maai, the mother who nurtures, in the arid terrains of Marathwada. Born into a farm household in Maharashtra’s Tuljapur taluka, Godavari was forced to drop out of school and get married at the age of 16. Five years later, she lost her husband to an accident and returned to her mother’s house with two young children.Godavari joined a small savings group in Ghandora where she was introduced to women who too were trying to rebuild their lives, devastated by the 1993 earthquake and continual droughts. This is when she began learning about and promoting sustainable farm models – informed by local climate patterns and the social pressures faced by women in the region. Her work has had an impact on over 60,000 women farmers since, giving her the opportunity to share platforms with activists and practitioners from across the world.The Marathwada region suffers from severe droughts, made worse due to the trend of growing water-intensive cash crops among rich farmers...