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Paper short abstract:

Participation of the marginalised communities by social, class and gender in watershed development initiatives, access to & control over resources, decision making process at different levels is not fully understood. Intersectional inequalities need to be tackled for gender transformative change.

Paper long abstract:

Integrated watershed development is a strategy for protecting the livelihoods of people inhabiting fragile, water-limited ecosystems because they tackle the challenges of soil conservation, land productivity and sustainable use of natural resources. Bundelkhand region in Central India is a hotspot of water scarcity, land degradation and extreme marginalization. Watershed development interventions have been implemented here for decades, both by official and nongovernmental organizations, with expectations for economic, political, social and environmental transformations. The strong gender norms are limiting the visibility, mobility, and communication of women within the household and the community. While women’s decision-making ability is restricted due to unequal power distribution within their households, formal and informal membership rules of local management organizations exclude poor, landless and marginalized women from community participation. The end result is the exclusion of the poor and powerless from the benefits of improved natural-resource management. To move towards gender equality, a gender transformative approach (GTA) needs to be adopted. Gender responsiveness, inclusion, and participation in water policy-making & management need to be strengthened to achieve sustainable local & global water security. More nuanced perspectives that conceptualize gender as socially constructed relationships, shaped by intersecting ties of ethnicity, caste, class, age, marital status, religion, and other forms of social difference must be taken into consideration in the design.