Sushila Devi
Player Number 8
Location: Udaipur District
Pay close attention to the rules and conditions mentioned below, it is crucial that you play your turn accordingly. Do not reveal or mention these rules to the other players.
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During your turn, all three dice are rolled once by the facilitator.
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You will move forward the lowest value of the three dice. For example, if you get 3, 4, 6 - you will move forward 3 tiles.
Who is Sushila Devi?
I am a 50-year-old illiterate Adivasi widow. I live with my son, his wife, and their three children in rural Udaipur in Rajasthan. Our family traditionally were cowherds, but a few decades ago, the state acquired the open land where we used to graze our cows, and we were left with no place to tend our cattle. The government said that they were going to use that land for development, but we never saw any development. We rented this small piece of land to grow some produce for food. But we have to give the landlord a significant amount of the harvest as rent. The rest is just about enough to feed the family once a day.
Our only source of water is a well two hours’ walk away. My daughter-in-law and I balance three pots each on our heads and bring back water – this gives us enough water to last two days for our family of six. Although a water tanker comes near our village, we can’t afford to pay for water. We should get water for free -- I can’t understand why we have to pay for it. Who owns the rivers and the lakes? How will our village see any development when we don’t have convenient and free clean water?
We tried to make some money on the side rearing cattle, but since the new cow slaughter bill came in, this work too has suffered. We weren’t able to feed the cows, and now we aren’t allowed to sell them before they are three years old. So we had to let them loose. But then last year the stray cows returned to our field and wrecked the harvest. So now my son has to spend the night in the fields watching out for stray cows. However, even if he didn’t have to do this, he wouldn’t have helped with fetching the water as that is a ‘woman’s' job, after all.