Abstract
Water access is vital in realizing and demanding the human right to life and securing the self-dignity of every global citizen. The disparate effects of climate change and mismanagement of water resources have increased the burden of rural women and poor, in access to water for their domestic and livelihood needs. Rural women, who are performing the socially assigned gender roles of fetching, transporting and providing domestic water, have disproportionately affected due to the legal difficulties in challenging and attaining their rights over water. Consequently, water law and policies are significant in achieving water equity and managing the depleting resources. However, scholarly works describe the reforms in water sector as often directly or indirectly over-looked the importance of women's involvement and fulfilling their interests of water use. In a contrasting way, globally, community-based water laws found satisfying the poor rural women's water needs and supporting their livelihood, though customary norms are often gender biased due to the societal influence. The pragmatic clash between the laws makes women more vulnerable for water access and control. Thus, this paper attempts to review the discrepancies between statutory and community water laws and analysing the ways for positive synergy with the vision of gender justice and water equity.
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Vignesh, K. (2022). Revitalizing the Paradigm of Water Equity with Gender Dimension: Options and Opportunities for Symbiotic Water Law. In: Mahajan, V., Chowdhury, A., Kaushal, U., Jariwala, N., Bong, S.A. (eds) Gender Equity: Challenges and Opportunities. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0460-8_53
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