The poem ‘Water’, besides chronicling a few typical and poignant situations which portray the anguish, the humiliation, and the helplessness of the Dalits in their struggle for procuring ‘water’ for their everyday needs, also challenges the reader’s moral conscience and rationality by highlighting the paradoxical and biased role played by water in modern life. The speaker probably wishes to question the wisdom of the upper caste people, who have now comfortably accepted the role of water as a marketable commodity. Incidentally, the speaker highlights the self centeredness of the upper caste people for using ‘water’ as a source of comfort and luxury.

While the upper caste people of the entire village bathed luxuriously twice a day all through the week, the Dalits who lived in wadas were given water only once a week. Only on that day, the Dalits used to take their weekly bath. Though water is the universal source of life and was available in plenty, yet the Dalits were denied water on account of the practice of untouchability. This is true even today. Thus one can argue that water is a luxury for one class and a struggle for another in our society.