Message 17: A.K. Mishra

Dear all

Regarding the integration of gender issues in agriculture and enhancing water productivity, I will agree with the issues raised by Drs Matiru and Juana Vera. Water is the most important and precious natural resource for life and development of agriculture. Therefore, gender imbalance with regard to rights and access to water need to be adequately addressed with suitable interventions (social, political as well as technical) to enhance the participation of women in water concerns. It is essential for policy makers to address women's rights to basic resources, especially land and water and formulate gender-oriented policies. Many studies have demonstrated that men and women as equal partners can prevent the degradation water resources through efficient management, which can lead to sustainable development.

Traditional wisdom of Indian women provides plenty of opportunities for efficient and variety of uses of water in a domestic situation. Also, there is a range of activities in which women are involved in water use for production purposes namely kitchen gardening, nursery raising, floriculture, poultry, dairying, piggery, aquaculture and subsistence farming. These activities are taken up on a small scale often as subsidiary occupations around the homes or homesteads wherein women do most of the operations. This creates employment for family members and adds to family income.

In all these activities, women take major decisions on consumption of water and its use whereas decisions on marketing are partly the domain of men. Quite often women acquire substantial knowledge and raise money for small-scale businesses through informal women networks within the village. However, in most of the training programmes and meetings, it is men who volunteer to talk about small businesses, water consumption and use. As a result, many of the policies/programmes related to water are gender insensitive. That is why partnership building and collective decision-making are required. Thus, there is a need for more women to be involved in training, research and development as consumers of water and small-scale producers to accelerate the pace of sustainable development.

It is interesting to note that in India, while women play a dominant role in consumption of water at the domestic level and use for small businesses, men do most of the functions engaging themselves in big businesses that is commercial agriculture, livestock, fisheries and small scale industries. Water management including distribution and regulation in most of the above sectors rests with men. In addition, mostly men are represented in water user associations and in the higher bodies concerned with irrigation and water management. Further more, it is men who are involved in conflict resolution pertaining to water business.

As for choice of number of bore wells for providing drinking water and sites to be drilled are concerned, men have the major power to decide. A similar situation can be observed in irrigated agriculture too where men have greater roles to play in operations and also in decisions compared to their women.

I would like to explain the importance of gender mainstreaming in water management with examples taken from the case study conducted by Rani Jhansi.

The concept of participatory irrigation management (PIM) was promoted in Andhra Pradesh by constituting Water User Associations (WUAs). The basic objective of the PIM programme was empowerment of farmers in managing the irrigation system on their own and bringing about social justice and equity in sharing the resources. The Act provides the water users who own or lease land to become members of WUAs with voting rights. There is no specific clause as such to integrate women in the programme. As a result, only a few women have found a place either in the management committee or in the position of president because the land ownership in India is generally in the name of men.

Even most of the women have occupied the positions in the WUS at the behest of their male members, who obviously were motivated by their self-interest of acquiring the de-facto powers. Coming to their roles, the women office bearers are aware of the WUA's main activities as undertaking maintenance works and equitable water distribution, but with regard to the actual performance, male members are invariably playing the major role.

Another example is the Andhra Pradesh Well Project. The main objective of the project is to improve the living conditions through sustainable and environmentally sound interventions in such a way that women farmers become equal partners with men in agriculture and allied activities. The women members of water user groups are also organized into self-help groups. This has resulted in the empowerment of women (economic, psychological, social, and technical) to become part of the bore well user associations (BUAs). They take part in decision-making processes and other developmental activities in the village. As a result of gender integration in the APWELL project increased participation of women in the consumption, management and regulation of water.

Education and training has improved their knowledge and decision-making power thereby enabling them to use water efficiently and involve themselves in small and big businesses as well. Furthermore, the empowerment of women (because of their membership in self-help groups) has also given courage and conviction to get themselves represented in higher bodies like BUAs and also to work for the welfare of their community through social organizations.

The major issues related to mainstreaming of gender in agriculture are:

• How can one ensure women taking an increasing role in commercial agriculture? Will it not overburden the women who are already involved in water consumption and use in small businesses?
• Can increased education and training change the attitude of men and women to share the responsibilities in water consumption and management? To what extent are such changes necessary and be accomplished?

Dr A. K. Mishra

Senior Scientist

Livestock Production and Management

Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture

Santoshnagar, Hyderabad 500 059, India