Development Up Close: Gender Programming in Village Water and Sanitation Projects in India

This is an interview carried out by a spokesperson from The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) who asks Sanjay Joshi and Jalpa Bhatt a series of questions concerning a campaign run by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) – a national institute in India engaged in environmental awareness projects. The discussion is framed by this question: "Could you please explain the water and sanitation project you were involved with and the role of women in the project?"

According to both Bhatt and Joshi, the campaign was centered around a Community Managed Ghogha Regional Water Supply and Sanitation Project (CMGRWSSP) which, covering 82 villages, mostly focused on the result of excess mining water leading to seawater ingress and the subsequent water supply and sanitation issues. CMGRWSSP is described as finding ways to get clean and safe drinking water from local sources, strengthen the local sources through water resource management structures as well as change communities’ attitudes towards sanitation and hygiene.

The project's two components included the creation of in-village water supply systems; and the educational and motivational activities to help with sanitation and hygiene awareness.

Bhatt and Hoshi describe the project as having a very strong gender approach and that women's participation was key. The reason women where allowed to participate was based on the fact that the issue of water was not deemed important by men and because the meetings were held during a "non economic time” period.

Bhatt and Hoshi further describe how the project found subtle ways to encourage womens participation. They point to one example where a water committee meeting would originally be planned at the premises of the President of the village water committee but then the venue would be shifted so that the meeting would instead be held at the school where women felt more comfortable attending. The consequence of this was that decisions were made by men and women "together." The other way women's participation is encourages is through offering art competitions where the prizes would be slanted toward girls who were worthy achievers to help them gain confidence and to help promote their parents to consider educating them further.