Paper short abstract:

How gender-class-race-caste nexus play a role in water conflicts at community level and studying such intersections will help guide building gendered transformative water governance in the Brahmaputra river basin?

Paper long abstract:

Household level water insecurities are enmeshed into the power dynamics at the inter-community level. Water conflicts can be managed by gender-sensitive pathways in order to transform community water conflicts. Therefore, local peacebuilding strategies can be unearthed amidst the risks related to local water conflict. In a sense this paper problematizes the understanding of 'local', the fluctuating intensity of conflicts and cooperation regarding water resources and intra and inter-community hierarchies forming part of the social infrastructure around local water resources. How do men, women and queer part of the community contribute to peace regarding water security? Does such peacebuilding strategies unravel whether water securitization becomes embedded with masculinist connotations of security? The paper will study the Brahmaputra river basin which traverses transboundary river politics in order to advocate for transformative water governance.