Participatory Water Governance through Gender Sensitisation in the Indian Context

Equity  in  water,  through  gender-sensitization  of developmental projects in the sector, is now recognised as an international agenda, owing to the commitments made in  the  Johannesburg  Plan  of  Implementation,  and declaration  of  ‘Water  for  Health’  as  a  human right. However, governments in developing countries have been found  to  be  limited  by  social  fabric  existing  at  the community level, strongly held together by long standing traditions and social structures. The study  discusses  issues  and  concerns  with respect to effective participation of women in governance of water projects, and provides case studies/ examples to illustrate  the  practical  implications  of  success(es)  and failiures(es) to engage women for decision-making.

The study concludes that efforts that penetrate into the existing social structure to built opportunities for a re-allocation of power amongst different groups of people are required. Participatory appraisal of projects, inclusive of women, is a  key  for  identification  of  appropriate  entry  points  for achieving  the  above  objective  in  water  sector.  Several intra-gender  differences  however,  impede  success  of programmes  that  consider  women  as  a  homogenous group.