From Kanupriya Harish, Jal Bhagirati Foundation, Jodhpur
Posted 7 July 2009

I work with the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF). The Jal Bhagirathi Foundation works in the Thar Desert, with the support of Italian Development Cooperation and UNDP. JBF has been promoting community-based, decentralised water harvesting systems in the region.

Equity of access for women is one of the guiding principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) for community development. But in practice, issues of equity are often sacrificed for efficiency. Similarly, in water harvesting schemes community perspectives on the role of women and the expected impacts on women are seldom examined during programme development.

Equity and equality are not coterminous, although they are sometimes conflated. Equity requires the presence of justice in outcomes and is intricately linked with local culture and ethics. Equality, on the other hand, implies equal opportunity and access to resources. The two are related and assessment of equity must take equality into account.

We wish to analyse gender equity in community-based water harvesting programmes in Rajasthan.

In this context, I seek members’ inputs on:

• How we can ensure gender equity in water harvesting projects in particular, and watershed management in general? Please give examples of where this has been achieved in India.
• How can IWRM help improve women's equity in water harvesting schemes?
• Is it possible to develop a framework to ensure women's equity in community-based water harvesting systems? Is there an existing framework that one can adopt?

Based on your inputs it should be possible to draw comparisons between different water harvesting systems vis-a-vis gender equity. Further, we can understand what works, where and why. This will help us in incorporating aspects that promote gender quity in our work in rainwater harvesting; both at the grassroots and policy levels. It will also strengthen IWRM in our work.

Please see attachment below for the responses.