Women, water and transport: making planners listen to women’s needs

What are the links between women’s access to water and to transport? How can transport services be reshaped to better meet women’s needs? In societies with deeply-rooted gender roles, how can women be helped to participate more actively in decision-making processes affecting water and transport?

Research undertaken by the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union  comprising 530 000 self-employed women in the informal sector in Gujarat, looks at the links between the availability of water and transport in an arid district of the Indian state.

In the 1980s the state’s water agency launched a programme designed to supply safe drinking water to 120 000 people in the drought-prone district of Banaskantha. Invited to implement the social development part of the scheme, SEWA soon realised that the programme was not going to deliver the promised quantities of water or ensure reliability of supply. SEWA thus started working with local women to revive existing sources.

In Banaskantha, women are responsible for collecting and distributing water for households and dairy herds. The most obvious effect of water and transport deprivation is on women’s time allocations. For poor women dependent on casual agricultural labour, lost time is often lost income. Inefficient means of distributing water force women to walk many kilometres to a water source, queuing for their turn and then carrying home 10-15 litres of water on their head. Some are forced to spend four to six hours a day on water collection.

The state’s transport corporation is authorised to provide reliable bus services in rural areas. Though most people can afford the fares, services are limited and many villagers have to walk considerable distances to reach main roads. Although the corporation has a procedure for considering requests for new schedules, few women are able to put their points of view across. Frequently applications are blocked by male village heads pressured by private transport operators keen to prevent improvements to public transport.

Women are thus forced to pay twice as much for unregulated, unpredictable and dangerous private transport. More frequent buses would let women access health services, attend meetings of women’s organisations and obtain supplies for economic activities.

The research notes:

• the capacity of local women to become engaged in technical, social and economic aspects of new village water projects
• the appalling plight of the poorest of the poor, forced by necessity to work seasonally in the local salt farming industry
• fears of harassment and loss of ‘honour’ often prevent young girls from using private transport
• head-loading causes chronic backache and foot pains and stunts the growth of undernourished girls
• in a sanctuary for wild asses the beasts are provided with sufficient water, but the nearby inhabitants are not.

SEWA has practical suggestions to improve women’s lives. These highlight the capacity of women to work together to:

• demonstrate to policy planners that meeting the transport needs of women would improve food security, empower women to lead more productive lives and improve the health status of women and children
• harvest and store communally greater quantities of rainwater
• improve tracks to allow the transport of water by bullock or camel carts
• advocate for bus schedules that fit their daily labour and household needs.

Source(s):
‘Women, water and transportation: mapping the interplay’, in Balancing the load: women, gender and transport, Priyanthi Fernando and Gina Porter (eds), Zed Books, by Poorni Bid, Reema Nanavaty and Neeta Patel, 2002 Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 1 July 2003

Further Information:
Poorni Bid, Reema Nanavaty and Neeta Patel
Self Employed Women’s Association
Opp. Victoria Garden
Bhadra
Ahmedabad 380 001
India

Tel: +91 79 550 6444
Fax: +91 79 550 6446
Contact the contributor: mail@sewa.org

Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)

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