Sanjiv J. Phansalkar

Water, Equity and Development

This article attempts to synthesize the research presented at the Fifth Annual Partners Meet of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)– Tata Programme held in Anand, Gujarat, in March 2006. It specifically focuses on the prevalence and nature of inequities in water distribution. It shows that institutions in force create inequity in access to water in all the regions of the country; the landless and the dalits usually facing the brunt of the inequities.The inequities are more pronounced when water is considered as an input for economic activities such as agriculture. Geo-genic factors such as contamination of groundwater are compounded with inequities to severely impact the health and well-being of the poor and the weaker segments of the society. Finally, imbalance of social power allows industry to exploit water sources, producing inequities in use of water across sectors.

India's Water Future 2050 Potential Deviations from ‘Business-as-Usual’

The debate on Indias ambitious river-linking project is highly polarized. While the proponents insist that scores of highly qualified engineer-years have been invested in studying the feasibility of the links, the analysis is not available in the public domain. On the other hand, the opponents argue that the project is a conspiracy to hide the past inefficiencies of the irrigation bureaucracy; and yet, the alternatives proposed by them for Indias impending water challenge also seem far from concrete. This article critically examines the National Commission Integrated Water Resource Development (NCIWRD) report, which has repeatedly been cited as the basis for planning and justifying the project, and outlines a framework for research which will help in raising the level of this important national debate by helping to develop a refined, textured and nuanced understanding of ‘Indias water future 2050’.

Contours of Rural Livelihoods in India in the Coming Half-Century

The National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development has assessed that the primary need for water will rise for producing adequate food (assessed at some 420–480 million MT annually) for the estimated population of 1.58 billion by 2050.This article examines how the pattern of rural livelihoods will emerge in future. The article notes that there is a strong association of prosperity and occupational diversification with basin closure or water scarcity in the country. It is noted that even after the entire projected irrigation potential of 84 million ha is created, the farming sector will be unable to absorb the number of people in gainful engagement that are projected at current rates. While the farming sector will probably accommodate all rural residents, the problem of urban settlers will be intense. Livelihoods of the order of 375 million people (overall) will need to be found outside agriculture. These will need to be found in sectors such as construction, manufacturing and services. Whether it will actually happen is moot, but if it does, the emerging pattern of rural livelihoods will not be more water intensive than now.

Dalits’ Access to Water Patterns of Deprivation and Discrimination

Dalits or Scheduled Castes (SCs) of India still face multiple deprivation and discrimination with regard to access to natural resources.These disabilities are most pronounced with regard to access to water. In rural India, access to an imperative resource like water shows differential pattern across regions, where poverty, physical separation of hamlets, ideas of purity and pollution, poor access to government welfare programmes, discrimination in access to public water bodies and structures and so on play a critical role.The article focuses on probing current status of deprivation and discrimination of dalits’ access to water for domestic use across various states with the help of selected indicators, which can reveal this complex phenomenon. As the study covered different ecological zones, it also explores a relatively less studied domain—linkages of water scarcity and dalits’ discrimination and deprivation. The findings from the survey show variable expressions of these features in different regions and specific socio-cultural contexts, revealing sociological nature of water in rural India.

Poor and their Livestock Meeting the Challenge of Water Scarcity

Based on field work carried out in 13 locations across the country, this article aims to characterize the current situation regarding how the poor manage the water requirement for their livestock. It is found that each day on an average the poor require 13 litres of drinking water for animals and about 40 litres for washing and cleaning them. The poor households in western, central and southern parts of the country have a more difficult time managing water requirements of their livestock and in times of water scarcity these difficulties become very severe. They rely on water sources in the public domain and often use the sources created for human drinking end use. Markets for water for the poor appear to exist only in those pockets where livestock rearing has assumed commercial nature. Elsewhere, social norms such as the Jeevdaya tradition of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and reliance on water sources owned by the big farmers, are more the norm. Considering the importance of livestock to the household economy of the poor, greater public attention to this issue is called for.