Social Exclusion of Women in Water Governance: An Experiences of villages

Abstract

Water is the common resource for life-sustaining and right of all human beings. It is essential to the livelihoods and well-being of the world’s population of human and animals. But water has been under crisis in access, distribution, optimum utility and affordability in recent days where water has become a commercial-cum-commodity in market and erratic monsoon, encroachment and poor management of water bodies and unaware of new creation of water resources have resulted in uncritical about the water governance. Poor governance and improper management of water resources pushed village poor people from native to migrate the nearby cities in search of jobs; whereas women and girls are trudging still further (NCW, 2005). In this understanding this research paper aims to understand the relationship between women & water and explore how women are facing the struggles to access water and explains in what ways they are socially been excluded from taking part in water governance and management system. This practice of social exclusion of women in participation from the water management and governance worsens their access, maintenance and asserting rights on water even though they are closely associated in the process of collecting, using and conserving. The embedded gender discrimination in public and private spheres of society directly or indirectly alienate women from owning the resources in general, natural resources in particular i.e. water.