Gender perspectives in irrigation water resource management practices : a study of a village in Rajshahi District, Bangladesh | |
| Author | Karim, K. M. Rabiul |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.GD-05-02 |
| Subject(s) | Irrigation water--Bangladesh Sex role--Bangladesh |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. GD-05-02 |
| Abstract | This study was undertaken to investigate and explain how gender roles in irrigation water use and management at both intra-household and inter-household level have been shaped in the context of a triangular interaction between traditional gender norms, peoples socio-economic conditions, and irrigation development interventions in rural Bangladesh. It explains the influences of gender norms as well as socio-economic factors on typical gender specific roles in both irrigated agricultural production and irrigation decision-making processes in an agrarian village of Bangladesh. The field study was conducted between July and September of 2004 in Dharmahata, a village of northwestern Bangladesh, located at 18 km of the northwest of Rajshahi Divisional headquarters. A mixed (both qualitative and quantitative) approach was followed to pursue the research tasks. The primary data was collected through key informant interviews, household survey, unstructured interviews with household members, and focus group interviews with formal and informal irrigation water user group members. Key informants and WUGs were selected purposively while households were selected through simple random sampling procedure. By assuming 95% C.I. the estimated sample size was 196 out of 383 households in Dharmahata village. Questionnaire schedule was drawn up to conduct the household survey while interview checklists and FGD guidelines were followed to conduct unstructured interviews and focus group discussions respectively. Both descriptive and inferential statistics as well as thick description techniques were used to analyze the data. The study shows that landholding is the crucial asset that primarily shapes households livelihood types since farming is the backbone of all economic activities as groundwater irrigation development has intensified annual cropping pattern as well as irrigated agricultural production in Dharmahata village. However, it is also shown that although households landholding is rather important relating to mens status and livelihood types, it is seldom important relating to womens status whereas gender norms confine womens roles within the activities of their household vicinity only as Purdah norms do not allow them to join in extra-household affairs. Thus irrigation and field-based activities of agriculture are generally male domains in rural Bangladesh. Nonetheless, it is also revealed that a few rural poor women work on irrigated field as well as they carry out the task of irrigation, though women are not generally the part of irrigation decision making processes in both intra-household and inter-household level. The study argues that agricultural production and irrigation are dominated by men, especially by rich men, while gender norms constrain women from fully participation in both agricultural production and irrigation decision making processes. However, in agricultural production, poor women are able to transgress the gender norms and work on the field. Poor women are also being mobilized for canal cleaning as informal labor and are also maintained as non-members in all types of water user groups. The economic hardships as well as increasing labor demand of farming have made it progressively more difficult for the poorest households to maintain traditional gender norms. However, gender norms still thoroughly influences the relationships between men and women as rural women do not usually move into male space since they are pushed into these spaces by sheer necessity. It also still constrains women from their active involvement in intra-household decision-making processes as well as from their membership and participation in inter-household irrigation institutions. Thus poor womens such participation should not be automatically taken into imply the autonomy of women. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. GD-05-02 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Resurrecci6n, Bernadette P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kusakabe, Kyoko ;Shivakoti, Ganesh P.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship ;Norwegian Agency for International Development Cooperation Scholarship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |