Presentation short abstract

This research examines intersectional and gendered experiences of urban water stress in Jaipur, India, through an emotional and embodied lens. It demonstrates how women’s emotions influence coping strategies under water scarcity, challenging technocratic governance through a justice lens.

Presentation long abstract

This research offers a critical analysis of mainstream narratives on water scarcity and adaptation in climate change discourse, highlighting the intersectional and gendered experiences of water stress in urban India. Adopting an intersectional feminist approach, this research keeps an emotional and embodied approach at the centre of analysis. Year-long data collection in 2023-24 using qualitative methods was conducted in Jaipur, northwest India, a city facing extremely high groundwater stress (Hofste et al., 2019). The research focuses on an understudied city in India since most urban academic research based in the country focuses on mega-cities, overlooking the situation faced by ‘ordinary cities’ (Zérah & Denis, 2017).

By centering on the body and emotions in the analysis of water infrastructure and response to water stress, the presentation argues that emotions influence the daily negotiations and coping strategies that women employ in response to water stress. Embodied emotional experiences, such as anger, frustration, hopelessness, and stress, shape the everyday lives of the residents and how water infrastructures are accessed, used, and controlled in the context of manufactured scarcity (Sultana, 2011). However, the emotional response and strategies are uneven. This differential access underscores the need to critically examine who can adjust and how much versus who cannot.

Emotional geographies challenge technocratic approaches to water governance by highlighting the need for empathetic, justice-oriented policies, without which there is a risk of deepening inequalities, overlooking the everyday struggles faced by women in informal settlements.