Engendering Watersheds through capacity building ....

Discrimination in the lines of gender roles is nowhere so prominent as in large scale public investment programs in natural resources management. Mainstreaming gender concerns at multiple levels -from government to community in a large scale programs like watershed development has been an arduous task. This is one of the tasks that WASSAN has taken up in partnership with SDC-IC. Such a change is to be brought about at four levels ; creating a policy space, at state and district administration levels (influencing the administrative procedures), at the level of program facilitation (both in influencing the attitudes and also in developing appropriate methodological tools and at the community level (effective strategising, capacity building inputs etc.). Typically positioned as a state level support organisation WASSAN is making efforts at these four levels; capacity building and policy formulation are the major routes to effect a positive change.

The participatory watershed development program in India, started in 1994-5 is considered as a major leap in relocating the decision making powers in to the hands of groups of primary stakeholders- the user groups (UGs), self-help groups (SHGs) and a watershed committee at the watershed level. These groups would plan and implement about 2.4 million rupees of project investments over a period of five years for development of land, vegetation, soil moisture and water harvesting in a village. 

The program is managed by the District Water Management Agency (a government department) and facilitated by a Program Implementing Agencies (NGO or GO) in the field. WASSAN is supporting this program in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state in India. Capacity building and policy formulation/ advocacy are the major areas of such support. Andhra Pradesh has about 9000 such programs at various stages of implementation. 

Paradoxically, while women are the primary workers in dryland agriculture, they are almost excluded from the core of the program implementation. While the SHGs of women were involved in savings and credit, the actual program related process of planning and implementing are exclusively located in the men dominated UGs and watershed committees. There is hardly any representation of women in the project facilitation and administrative structures at PIA or district or state levels. That sets the context of what is set out for WASSAN.  

Field Action to Policy

 The first attempt was made in the village Romapally where WASSAN is providing support services. Women SHGs in the village were initiated into becoming labour groups. Series of training programs were taken up. The women groups have taken up a contract to construct a masonry water harvesting structure from the watershed committee. When this was mooted the men ridiculed and ruled out all support. The women, though labourers, had never constructed a masonry structure! At this point a technical training program in construction management was taken up. A local mason was taken as a resource person.  The groups learnt to construct masonry structures and completed the checkdam. In this process they also kept their accounts transparent. The struggle caught on and there was resistance from men.

In a grama sabha, these women questioned the President of the watershed committee and demanded the accounts to be transparent, as they were being accountable! The ensuing furore resulted in the change of leadership in the watershed committee. Taking cue from these examples, the district administration headed by a woman, made labour self-help groups a norm in all the watershed programs in the district. This was later introduced into the state level policy.

The subsequent capacity building modules focussed on integrating SHGs into watershed program and are addressed to the facilitators. Several such programs were taken up. The division of SHGs and UGs on gender lines is still a hard nut to crack. Several programs have become centred around SHGs and their village level federations. The question of involving men in the program became a major problem.

In some other watersheds in Nalgonda district, the team was successful in getting 50 percent representation of women in the committee and also, the key position of its Chairperson. But still the key to planning lies in the user groups and getting a mixed group for the planning process is crucial; a difficult task in a large public program where facilitation structures are less intensive and are driven by targets. But, the results are encouraging.

 Intensive capacity building inputs to women groups and their leadership is giving good results. Once, after such a training a women group fought with and stopped a labour displacing earth moving machine from operating in their village; such instances are of common place. In other instances WASSAN insisted on the representation and participation of women in all the programs including technical programs like ‘livestock health workers’ training.

Several training programs on gender are also taken up targeting the facilitators. Efforts are now on to build a pool of resource persons for scaling up the gender training programs at the primary level.

Capacity Building inputs on Gender

A major constraint is the ability of the system/ actors to provide capacity building inputs on a large scale; to about 3000 villages, several government and non-government organisations, district and state level officials. WASSAN is making significant efforts in building a Pool Of Resource Persons specialising in gender within the districts. WASSAN would take the responsibility of building the capacities of this pool and also to link them to the training programs.

WASSAN is also conscious of maintaining its own team’s gender balance and orientation. In all the training programs, particularly in the Pool of Resource Persons, participation of women is insisted. 

Policy formulation

These experiences are built into the process of formulating the Process Guidelines. WASSAN anchored these consultations and formulated the guidelines, which were later issued by the government of Andhra Pradesh. 50% women representation, a key role in the committee reserved for women, SHGs as labour groups, priorities for women’s needs and outlining such processes in planning and implementation etc., are detailed in these process guidelines, which creates adequate policy space.

In a subsequent project formulation for Indo-German Watershed Development Program, an attempt is made to reserve 0.5 million rupees exclusively for women’s issues;  to be spent against an action plan specially addressing needs of women. In another bilateral project, A.P. Rural Livelihoods Project a productivity enhancement fund is created, which is entirely handled by the mature self-help groups. WASSAN played an important role in these policy formulations. Several communication material, modules etc were also developed on gender concerns that include a special wall magazine.

Gender Study

WASSAN has taken up a study to analyse the gender related processes in the implementation of watershed program. It analyses the issues of gender at four levels viz., at the state, district, Program implementing agency and the watershed levels. This study is focusing on the watershed processes in the field and their gender implications.

The study, also mandated by the government department is a strategic instrument in influencing policy and practice. The data ‘from within’ the program, it is hoped would set a larger reflective environment to motivate several proactive initiatives. The data and analysis would be used within the large number of training programs for different functionaries to reflect on their own situations. It would also generate resource material that feed into capacity building inputs and policy formulation.  The problem is an array of constraints at multiple levels and the challenge is to comprehend such complexity and strategically address them in their entirety and with a comprehensive, decentralised approach. 

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