ZEF Public Lecture: Women, technology, and water: Creating new waterscapes with commercialization of drinking water

September 5, 2024 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h

We'd like to invite you to our upcoming Public Lecture!

Topic: Women, technology, and water: Creating new waterscapes with commercialization of drinking water

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Anindita Sarkar, ZEF Senior Researcher

How to join

The lecture will be held in hybrid mode (zoom and in-person at ZEF). 
You can join us in-person at ZEF, first floor, room 1.049, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn,
or online via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/j/64439976505?pwd=HLbadLqbb3chyxXDUh9ExJFfoxI5rd.1

Abstract

The present study is contextualized in the background of challenges of water scarce regions especially in the context of accessing affordable safe drinking water in the arid regions of western Rajasthan in India by the use of private water tankers carrying water to the interior villages providing door to door service of water delivery. With the analysis of primary data, the paper looks at how the adoption of new modes of water technologies and subsequent water commercialization has created new waterscapes. The findings note that drought and commercialization of water in a society characterized by hierarchies of caste, class and gender has selectively benefited the upper caste rich households who now buy water from the tankers. 

Though water tankers have reduced the drudgery of carrying water from far off places, the majority of the poor and low caste villagers remain dependent on common water sources. Some even walk longer distances to fetch water. Since water has changed its definition from being a common property resource to a marketed commodity, the traditional gendered roles of fetching and storing water are also changing. Though domestic water use remains largely a domain of woman’s role, men have started fetching and storing water as it entails cash transaction

Biography

Dr. Anindita Sarkar presently works as a senior researcher at the Centre for Development research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. She is a Professor at the Department of Geography at Miranda House, University of Delhi, where she has been teaching since 2005. She has completed several projects funded by government and international organizations and has numerous publications in refereed journals and as books. Her research is anchored at the intersection of development and environment and her work shows how technologies and policies of resource use and access shape spaces. Her published work focuses on how policies facilitate or impede water access through institutions influencing food security, water security and livelihood security of people. In various capacities, she has been associated with NCERT, ICSSR, IGNOU, World Bank, IWMI, and ACIAR. She has been conferred with the UGC Research Award (2016-18). She also received the Delhi University Excellence Awards for teachers for her outstanding contribution to research and academic activities in 2023.