Panipanchayats for Whom: Investigating Preclusion of Dalit Women in Participatory Irrigation Institutions

Abstract

Enquiring into social exclusion in operationalization of global models of participatory development, this article makes an exclusive attempt to analyze Dalit women’s access to canal water and exclusion in Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM). Applying Agarwal’s model of participatory exclusions, qualitative and quantitative data of this research reveal that developmental interventions also largely prove to foster social oppression and latent social exclusion in the case of Dalit women as these interventions are not adequately designed to alleviate the deprivation of the marginalized communities on the pretext of institutional efficiency. Consequently, reproduction of caste–class–gender inequalities in user groups and hydraulic networks largely and severally marginalizing Dalit women at all levels of Panipanchayats to a greater extent, engender and perpetuate preclusion of Dalit women in PIM.