In the hills, time does not always move according to a fixed schedule. It stretches, pauses, and often depends on factors that are beyond immediate control – the arrival of a vehicle, the completion of daily chores, or the availability of people. What might be considered a “delay” elsewhere is often a normal part of everyday life.
During my fieldwork in rural Uttarakhand, I began to notice how waiting is woven into daily routines. It is not always experienced as an interruption, but as something that people have learned to work around and live with.
One of the most visible forms of waiting emerges even before fieldwork begins in the act of reaching the field. Travel in the hills is deeply dependent on shared taxis, which operate on uncertain schedules. At times, one has to wait for an hour or two for a vehicle, and even then, its arrival is not guaranteed. The rhythm of transport itself shapes mobility: in the mornings, most shared taxis move from villages toward market areas, making it difficult to find transport going in the opposite direction. In the afternoons and evenings, the flow reverses, creating similar challenges for returning from field visits.
This uneven availability of transport makes even short distances unpredictable. Planning a visit is therefore not just about fixing a time, but about navigating the uncertainty of whether and when one will reach. Travel to larger towns such as Haldwani is similarly limited, with only a couple of shared taxis operating at fixed times one early in the morning and another later in the day. Missing one often means waiting several hours or postponing the journey altogether.
Waiting, however, is not limited to mobility. It extends into the functioning of the health system itself.
There are instances when health workers, such as ASHA workers, are unable to arrive on time for postnatal care visits. This is not simply a matter of delay, but a reflection of their dual roles. As members of the same community, they are also engaged in household responsibilities, caregiving, and daily labour. Their time, like that of others in the village, is stretched across multiple expectations.
Similarly, village health and nutrition days (VHNDs) and clinic days do not always unfold according to schedule. Pregnant women or postnatal mothers may arrive late or sometimes miss these sessions altogether. At other times, health workers themselves may be delayed. These variations are not unusual; they reflect the realities of everyday life rather than exceptions to it.
For women in the mountains, time is closely tied to labour. Daily routines often involve physically demanding tasks such as collecting firewood from the forest, cutting grass, or working in the fields. These responsibilities are not easily rescheduled. As a result, participation in health visits or community sessions is often negotiated around these tasks, leading to delays or rescheduling.
In this context, waiting is not simply about time passing, it is about how time is organised, prioritised and experienced differently by different people.
Not everyone has the same capacity to wait. For some, waiting may be an inconvenience; for others, it is a constraint shaped by labour, mobility, and responsibility. Women, in particular, often navigate this more acutely, balancing household duties with opportunities to access services.
At the same time, systems themselves operate within limitations. Frontline workers manage multiple responsibilities across dispersed and often difficult terrains. Transport constraints, workload, and administrative requirements all influence the timing of service delivery. Delays, therefore, are not always a result of inefficiency, but of structural conditions within which both communities and systems function.
This creates an intersection where uncertainty becomes normalised. People learn to adapt, to return later, to wait longer or to adjust expectations. Waiting, in this sense, becomes part of the rhythm of everyday life.
These experiences point to an important gap between how systems are designed and how they function on the ground. Plans are often made with fixed timelines and clear expectations, assuming that people will be available, services will run as scheduled, and participation will follow accordingly. However, field realities are far less predictable. Delays and rescheduling are not always disruptions, they are often shaped by everyday constraints such as labour, mobility, and competing responsibilities.
Looking at waiting through this lens shifts the way we understand it. Instead of seeing it only as inefficiency, it becomes a reflection of how time is experienced differently across contexts. It also highlights the need for greater flexibility not just in scheduling but in how engagement is planned and how outcomes are interpreted.
At the same time, it is important to recognise that waiting is not neutral. While people may adapt to it, delays in accessing services, especially healthcare, can have serious consequences. The issue, therefore, is not only about reducing waiting, but about making systems more predictable and reliable. Clear communication, better coordination, and consistency in service delivery can go a long way in reducing uncertainty and improving people’s overall experience with the system.
Seen this way, waiting is not just a delay in the system; it is a condition through which everyday life is organised. Time, in these contexts, is rarely fixed or predictable. It shifts with movement, labour, availability, and circumstance. What appears as inefficiency from the outside is often an adaptation to uncertainty from within.
This makes it important to rethink how we understand both time and systems. Rather than expecting rigid schedules to hold, there is a need to recognise that uncertainty is built into how these systems function. The challenge, then, is not simply to eliminate waiting, but to make it more manageable to reduce the unpredictability that surrounds it.
When people know when a service is likely to arrive, when a visit will take place, or how long something might take, waiting becomes easier to navigate. In contrast, it is uncertainty not just delay that disrupts routines, limits participation, and affects access.
Field experiences in rural Uttarakhand suggest that time is not merely something that can be controlled through planning. It is something that is lived, negotiated, and constantly adjusted. Understanding this shifts the focus from speed to reliability, and from efficiency to experience.
Ultimately, engaging with rural systems requires recognising that waiting is not an exception, it is part of the structure. The question, then, is not only how to make systems faster, but how to make them more certain, more responsive, and more aligned with the rhythms of everyday life.
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