Gendered participation in water management: Issues and illustrations from water users' associations in South Asia

Abstract

The widespread trend to transfer irrigation management responsibility from the state to "communities" or local user groups has by and large ignored the implications of intra-community power differences for the effectiveness and equity of water management. Gender is a recurrent source of such differences. Despite the rhetoric on women's participation, a review of evidence from South Asia shows that female participation is minimal in water users' organizations. One reason for this is that the formal and informal membership criteria exclude women. Moreover, the balance between costs and benefits of participation is often negative for women because complying with the rules and practices of the organization involves considerable time costs and social risks, whereas other ways to obtain irrigation services may be more effective for female water users. Although effective, these other and often informal ways of obtaining irrigation services are also typically less secure. More formal participation of women can strengthen women's bargaining position as resource users within households and communities. Greater involvement of women can also strengthen the effectiveness of the organization by improving women's compliance with rules and maintenance contributions. Further detailed and comparative research is required to identify the major factors that affect women's participation and control over resources, if devolution policies are to address the tension between objectives of transferring control over resources to community institutions, and ensuring the participation of all members of the community, especially women. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.