ABSTRACT
In the semi-arid regions of India, water access is critical for agricultural productivity and rural wellbeing. Higher rainfall variability, changing cropping patterns and degradation of common water resources are increasingly changing the landscape of water access. However, accessing water for domestic and agricultural purposes is highly gendered and how it shapes men and women’s vulnerability is underexplored. Using data from Kolar, a water-scarce district in South India, this chapter analyses the implications of changing water availability, access and use, on gendered vulnerability at different scales. At household and intra-household levels, it shifts work burdens between men and women; at a settlement or community scale, it reduces reliance on common water resources, disincentivizing sustainable water use and necessitating reliance on borewells which are driving over-extraction of groundwater. At a larger, socio-ecological scale, the emergence of a private, informal water delivery sector undermines sustainability and tends to exclude women-headed households. Such shifts have implications for the vulnerability of men and women as well as their local capacities to adapt to current and future water scarcity.
