Panchayati Raj Institutions

These five papers on Women and Water published in the Economic and Political Weekly, examine the relationship of women to water in the context of the new decentralised  governance structures that are based on the assumption that domestic water supply is the legitimate domain of women and thus power and authority needs to be granted to women to manage water resources.

However, there is a very little understanding of how this has benefited women and what are the challenges experienced during the process of implementation or the outcomes gained from these processes, in the context of the Indian society that continues to propogate patriarchal values and is based on structures that are inherently hierarchical and inequitable.

Some of the papers dwell on and explore the inherent biases in the literature and make an attempt to understand their implications for women in managing water resources, while some of the papers share case studies on the outcomes of the implementation of the decentralised water management policies at the village level.Read More

This report by the National Commission for Women looks at social conflict and tension that arise due to water crises and analyses the impact of these on women. The stress on water resources is a result of rapidly rising population and changing lifestyles, which have increased the need for fresh water. Intense competition among water users from agriculture, industry and domestic sector is pushing the ground water table deeper. Women bear the burden of fetching drinking water in rural areas and if opportunity costs are taken into account, it would translate to about 150 million women days each year. This amounts to a loss of a whopping 10 billion rupees per year to the national exchequer.Read More

Mazhapolima is a community based well recharge programme, initiated by the Thrissur District Administration in collaboration with the Panchayat Raj Institutions in the District, and implemented by networking NGOs/CBOs, households, departments and agencies, research institutions, private sector and all other key stakeholders, who are either a water user or a water provider/planner.

Diversity of approaches and implementation arrangements according to location specific needs centered on sustainable outcome and service levels are the underlying tenets of the programme. The programme envisages recharging of about 4.5 lakh open wells in the district to ensure sustainable access to water.Read More

SimTanka - a software programme for simulating performance of rainwater harvesting systems with covered water storage tankRead More