Who were the bisti-wallahs during the colonial period?

Workers who supplied water to households

The correct answer is Option 1: Workers who supplied water to households 

NCERT: Parbatpuri had always been an important offloading and loading point. The doughty British managers and their mems always came down from the estates surrounding Parbatpuri when a steamer docked there. In spite of the inaccessibility of the gardens, they had lived lives of luxury. Huge, sprawling bungalows, set on sturdy wooden stilts to protect the inmates from wild animals, were surrounded by velvety lawns and jewel bright flower beds…They had trained a large number of malis, bawarchis and bearers to serve them to perfection. Their wide verandahed houses gleamed and glistened under the ministrations of this army of liveried servants. Of course, everything from scouring powder to self-raising flour, from saftey pins to silverware, from delicate Nottingham lace tablecloths to bath salts, had come up the river on the steamers. Indeed, even the large cast-iron bathtubs that were invitingly placed in huge bathrooms, tubs which were filled every morning by busy bistiwallahs carrying buckets up from the bungalow’s well, had been brought up via steamer. (Phukun 2005)