Groundwater rarely features in employment debates, yet it has silently powered rural livelihoods across India for decades. Beneath fields and villages, this unseen resource has sustained irrigation, extended cropping seasons, and generated millions of days of casual farm work. Now, as water tables fall in large parts of the country, that invisible employer is slowly disappearing with serious consequences for rural workers.
India’s groundwater picture looks stable at the national level, but the reality on the ground is far more troubling. According to official assessments, while overall recharge still appears sufficient, hundreds of blocks are already extracting more water than nature can replenish. In these over-exploited and critical areas, wells are running dry, pumping costs are rising, and farmers are being forced to cut back on irrigation.
This matters deeply for employment because groundwater irrigation has long supported labour-intensive farming. Transplanting, weeding, harvesting, and multiple cropping cycles all depend on reliable water. When irrigation declines, farmers reduce cropped area or switch to less labour-demanding crops. The immediate result is fewer workdays for casual agricultural labourers, who form a large share of India’s rural workforce.
For daily-wage workers, the impact is swift and harsh. A farmer who once hired ten labourers for a season may now hire five, or none at all. Women are hit especially hard, as they make up a significant portion of informal farm labour and have fewer non-farm job options. At the same time, falling groundwater forces households to spend more time fetching water, increasing unpaid work burdens and reducing opportunities to earn.
The decline in workdays sets off a chain reaction. Lower incomes lead to food insecurity, rising debt, and distress migration to cities. Unlike sudden droughts, this crisis unfolds quietly, block by block, as aquifers recede and employment dries up without drawing much attention.
Yet the situation is not without hope. Community-led groundwater management efforts in several states have shown that aquifers can recover when recharge structures, local monitoring, and scientific planning come together. Programmes such as Atal Bhujal Yojana have demonstrated that restoring groundwater can also generate local employment through construction, maintenance, and monitoring work. In these areas, rising water levels have brought back irrigation and with it, farm jobs.
Experts argue that groundwater policy must now be seen as labour policy as well. Targeted reforms could make a crucial difference. Redirecting electricity subsidies toward direct income support can reduce over-pumping while protecting small farmers. Prioritising watershed and recharge works under rural employment programmes can simultaneously restore aquifers and create much-needed jobs. Linking groundwater stress data to employment guarantees and social protection schemes can help cushion workers when water scarcity reduces farm labour demand.
Groundwater is more than a natural resource; it is a form of shared economic capital that sustains millions of informal jobs. Treating it as a private tap has pushed it toward depletion. Treating it as a common asset could help revive both aquifers and livelihoods.
The choice before India is stark. Act now to restore this invisible employer, or allow falling water tables to deepen rural insecurity and joblessness. As wells run dry, so do opportunities — unless policy catches up with what lies beneath our feet.