Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

256 SEEMA KULKARNI
Like the resource, equity too cannot be a static concept and will vary
in time and space. What is considered optimum use today may not be so
tomorrow. It is for this reason that equitable rights are to be considered
provisional rights subject to later study and negotiation, rather than fixed
rights that are likely to perpetuate monopolies.
Need for Associated Rights
Greater control over water will be meaningful only if it is accompanied
by a greater control over rights to land, greater voice in farm decisions, or
greater control over the produce. The legal possibility of drawing water is
meaningless without the associated technology to subtract water from a
source and convey it to irrigated fields. Thus, it is also the means to operate
and maintain the technology and convert it into livelihood outcomes that
are important if rights are to be transformed into livelihood opportunities.
Right to water, therefore, will have to include the right to infrastructure,
skills and knowledge base so as to use the infrastructure and entitlements
for positive livelihood gains.
EQUITY IN VOICE: NEED FOR EXPANDING
THE DEFINITION OF WUAS
In the present irrigation context, the WUA is considered the unit for
decision-making. This is a formally registered body that manages the
irrigation system. Typically, it comprises landholders and owners in
the designated command or beneficiary areas of a particular canal. Such
a limited membership of a resource that is so communal in nature eliminates
the possibility of involving women from the beneficiary families, as
well as women and men from the non-beneficiary households.
There are two issues involved here. The first is related to the lack of
legal space for women to participate in the decision-making process, and
the second is related to the cultural barrier that formal organisations
present to women. So, unless legal space is created for women and other
water-deprived people by expanding the scope of WUAs, these sections
will never become part of the planning and decision-making processes that
are envisaged through the WUAs. Importantly, it raises questions about