Women Leaders: Leading Innovations for Change in the Water Sector at World Water Week 2023

by Mansee Bal Bhargava^[1], Vishal Narain^[2]

Context

This article reports the main deliberations from a session on Women leaders: leading innovations for change in the water sector organized at the World Water Week 2023.

The limited presence of women professionals in the water sector in South Asia has received increased scholarly attention in recent years (Kulkarni 2009, Liebrand 2014, 2023, Narain and Goodrich, 2023). A number of reasons have been ascribed to this, including the perceived masculine nature of the sector (Zwarteveen 2011, Liebrand 2014, 2023); organizational and infrastructure constraints; gender-based discrimination at the work place and sexual undertones and harassment (Kulkarni 2009). An important study on the status of women water professionals in South Asia drew attention to the very limited presence of women in the water bureaucracies, especially in technical positions at higher levels (SaciWATERs 2009). Several years after the conduct of this study, recent decades have seen several efforts that seek to reverse this trend; this includes conscious efforts to change the nature of water resources education with a focus on inter-disciplinarity and studies of gender and social inclusion (Narain and Goodrich 2023; Narain 2023); deliberate efforts to bring in more female students at the Masters level (Mondel et al. 2022) and capacity-building and training programmes to build in a gender perspective among water professionals, whose engineering orientation and education does not necessarily equip them to take a perspective on gender and social inclusion in their work (Narain, Forthcoming).

It is well known that women and girls continue to face the brunt of water distress in developing countries like India. From bearing the responsibility of collecting water for household and sanitation to maintaining hygiene for self and family, women have been doing it for ages; this is typically in response to the gender-based division of labor at the household level. However, the cumulative proportion of women in distress far from matches the share of women in water decisions. In the mainstream profession, the presence and participation of women in water remains meagerly acknowledged and appreciated despite there being several women from science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and allied fields in the water sector in addition to those present at the grassroot level, who are making an immense impact in addressing water challenges and finding solutions.

Global statistics shows that only one in five professionals in the water sector is a woman (World Bank 2019). India performs lower than the world average despite the fact that there are several women professionals undertaking exemplary work in the allied fields of water, such as natural resource management; WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene); and the introduction and implementation of (new) water technologies. Women have been playing an active role in the sector in various capacities as scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, grassroot practitioners or activists. However, this contribution needs to be made more visible. This is for three reasons: first, to influence and shape the discourse on gender mainstreaming in the sector; second, to identify challenges that still need addressing in this regard; and third, highlighting the contribution of women to the water sector has a demonstration effect in that it can succeed in bringing in more women into the mainstream of decision-making.

When we look at the composition of water professionals from a perspective of leadership and decision-making roles, however, we find that the percentage is particularly meager and concerning. Very few women are at the forefront of the water institutions despite their hard work in the background. Their contributions go unnoticed and their involvement in crucial policy and program decisions and actions is undermined. Still further, when initiatives are taken to facilitate women leadership in the water sector, often the approach is of highlighting the rural and vulnerable communities. This focus on rural and poor women tends to reinforce the conception of women as the weaker sex, that need external (often donor funded!) support for “empowerment”. This continued portrayal of women as weak and marginalized tends to homogenize them, blinding us to the vast differences that may exist among women along different axes of social differentiation, such as caste, class or ethnicity, necessitating a perspective of intersectionality (Crenshaw 2017, Neto and Camkinn 2022).

It is crucial that the efforts of women professionals are acknowledged and appreciated in the water sector; this can play a crucial role in influencing the discourse on gender mainstreaming in the sector; besides, the portrayal of women in crucial roles of leadership, influence and decision-making can also have a snowballing effect in inspiring more women to take on such roles, challenging the patriarchal nature of societal institutions.

With this backdrop, a Water Resources Council was formed in the Women Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (abbreviated as WICCI-WRC) in January 2020 to influence and increase the representation of women in the water sector. It is aimed at influencing water inclusivity in all sectors – the government, business, industry, and community. The objective is also to further influence youth and women to engage in the water endeavors and thereby increase the presence and participation of women (see Box 1).

Box 1: The Water Resources Council

The WICCI-WRC aspires to be a think tank built out of a citizen collective. It is now 3 years old and comprises more than 80 council members including more than 10 national council members and about an equal number of youth council members. Currently, WICCI-WRC is led by Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava (Founder Director of WforW Foundation) as National President (since March 2022). The agenda set for building the WICCI-WRC platform is, ‘Partnership towards Leadership’. The idea is that for women to rise to leadership and decision-making positions, partnerships are crucial as they enhance the presence and participation of women in the sector, besides shaping the social, political and cultural influence over water matters.

Several activities are underway through the council, such as Monday Munching with Women for Water (an online conversation series to learn about the journey of women professionals; regional workshops; conference panels; seminars; walk & talk series (where a water body is explored to understand its ecological, social and cultural significance); training; and capacity building.

Session at World Water Week 2023

The WICCI-WRC had been in communication with the SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute) Water Governance Facility (WGF) team to seek support and guidance over building a platform for knowledge and technical guidance to women water professionals in India. As part of the communication, WICCI-WRC organized an online panel at the World Water Week 2023 which was supported by the UNDP-SIWI WGF and mentored by Panchali Saikia and Lotten Hubbendick. The panel discussion titled Women Leaders: leading innovations for change in the Water sector, drew inspiration from the strong presence and participation of the women in the water sector. This article highlights the key points of deliberation in the panel with a view to bringing focus on the contributions of women water professionals and identifying key challenges in action research, training and capacity-building around addressing gender issues in the water sector.

The Gold Standard^[3] panel comprised 12 members including Mansee Bal Bhargava and Lotten Hubbendink as moderators and Dr Sabita Madhavi Singh, an official from the Government of India Ministry of Water Resources, as concluding keynote speaker. The panel was organized across 3 sections. Section 1, focusing on ‘Women Leadership in Science & Technology’, was moderated by Dr Fawzia Tarannum (Climate Reality India and WforW Foundation). The speakers were Dr Suresh Rohilla, (Programme Lead at IWA, International Water Association), Dr Girija Bharat (Managing Director at Mu Gamma Consultants), and Dr Nivedita Sahu (Principal Scientist at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology). Section 2, on ‘Women Leadership in Social Innovation, Policy Advocacy, Stakeholder Participation’ was moderated by Dr Swayamprabha Das. The speakers were Dr Vishal Narain (Professor at Management Development Institute Gurgaon), Ms Sonia Gupta (Professor at Woxsen University, Telangana), and Dr Suphiya Khan (Deputy Director at Sriram Institute for Industrial Research, Gurgaon). Section 3 was moderated by our Youth Panelist, Shivam Singh, and included Questions and Answers with the participants.

Women Leadership in Science & Technology

This session drew attention to the fact that a large number of women leaders are taking initiatives at the grassroots level to bring about transformational change. Yet, National Science and Technology academies have merely 12% of women members (United Nations^[4]). The science-policy interface crucial in promoting inclusive and resilient water and sanitation management urgently requires women onboard. However, there are questions that need addressing such as, who are the women that are working extensively in the science-policy domain in the water and wastewater sector; what challenges hinder the representation of women in leadership roles in the STEM fields in the sector; and, in what ways can the science-policy interface ensure greater inclusion of women's perspective and expertise in decision-making processes related to water management and technology?

It was argued by the panelists that science-informed policies need to be tested over time, robust, transparent and inclusive. The science-policy linkage can be strengthened by incorporating implementability, multi-stakeholder participation, inclusivity, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, effective communication, wide publication, rigorous implementation with impact assessments, and scaling up successful models that include women’s perspectives. Gender mainstreaming at all levels of policymaking, emphasizing gendered dimensions in data collection and research, promoting gender-responsive research, increasing women scientists' and women leaders' engagement in development, and enhancing the capacity of policymakers, women scientists, and women stakeholders, in general, is crucial. When developing water management policies and strategies, it is vital that specific gender issues of water users consider multiple uses of water (beyond domestic use) and socioeconomic and geographical diversity.

Citizen science initiatives can enhance women's leadership in science and technology within the water and wastewater sector by providing inclusive platforms for participation and collaboration. This can be facilitated by promoting equitable access to opportunities, information, and skills (for women). The efforts at the involvement of citizens in scientific research to increase scientific knowledge are being widely adopted for data collection and reporting of complex issues. Citizen science empowers women to share their knowledge, viewpoints, and ideas. It gives women the tools they need to take on leadership roles and dismantle conventional gender stereotypes by incorporating them in the data gathering, analysis, and decision-making processes. This fosters a diverse and holistic approach to addressing challenges in the sector and has the potential to encourage women to pursue careers in science and technology.

Organizations and institutions must support women's career advancement in STEM fields, specifically in relation to water science and technology leadership, and the panel drew attention to the large number of mentorship and networking programs to empower women in science and technology in India. Several programs by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) provide support, guidance, and opportunities for women to advance in traditionally male-dominated fields. They include GATI (Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions); KIRAN (Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing); and the Women Scientist Schemes and fellowships for women researchers. Besides these, there are initiatives being taken towards this goal by the NITI Aayog and other key educational institutions such as the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management), ISB (Indian School of Business), IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and others. Peer-to-peer learning exchanges and peer group discussions facilitate the basic demystification of jargon that hinders women's empowerment in programs like these. Several initiatives have also been undertaken by the United Nations to establish these types of networks and mentorship programs. International projects place a strong emphasis on Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI), thus contributing to gender mainstreaming in the water sector.

The panelists noted that though women leaders in STEAM in the water sector are few and far between, there are successful examples of individuals who have made a significant impact at the grass-roots level. This includes, for example, most of the WICCI-WRC senior council members and advisors; to name a few, Medha Patkar for her long standing fight for water rights against the Narmada Dam; Aruna Das, Nafisa Barot and Gazala Paul for rural empowerment of women through water harvesting; Dr Vandana Shiva for the seed revolution; Sunita Narain for knowledge production to make water everybody’s business; Dr Veena Sahajwalla for micro recycling e-waste; Dr Noor Afshan Khan for assessment of anthropogenic water pollutants; Dr. Remya Neelancherry for Advanced oxidation process for water and wastewater treatment; Dr Priti Amritkar for air quality to water testing and analysis entrepreneurship; Dr Indumathi M Nambi for low cost, low energy treatment systems for pesticides, pharma, pulp and paper, petroleum, textile, and tannery products; and many more.

Such women possess critical thinking and creative talents that enable them to rise in order to exercise leadership. Their leadership provides motivation for women and youth who wish to contribute to make a difference. Their innovative contributions have deeply impacted society. They are seen as role models; however, their contribution requires more outreach and visibility to be known more across the allied fields of water. WICCI-WRC is trying to reach out to these women first to understand their work, then acknowledge and appreciate, and then document and disseminate to increase the visibility.

Women leadership in social innovation, policy advocacy and stakeholder participation

Women’s voices are seldom heard in the policy spaces and in decision-making arenas; yet we have excellent examples of women leading multi-stakeholder partnerships for water security towards the conservation and sustainable use of water in all aspects. It is important to get first-hand information from experts who have worked closely with the stakeholders and have influenced policies in various spheres.

One example of this was highlighted by one of the panelists who had made a strong contribution at the grass-roots level through concerted efforts at guiding communities for rain water harvesting. Catching rainwater where water availability is poor and using it for all purposes after some rudimentary treatment is possible at community (or individual) level such as through improvised first flush systems. Demonstration of this to the communities empowers them to do it. Also, for example, a circular model of integrated wetlands sustainability in Kolkata involves a resource-recovery ecosystem. Wastewater discharged from part of the city into the wetland is treated within a series of ponds. With time and passing through plant species the wastewater cleans progressively and supports aquaculture. This process leads and contributes to inexpensive water treatment, employment, income generation, food security for poorest communities and makes for a community that is financially and socially supporting each other. Emulating this for community willingness and participation in other locations has a good possibility for upscaling.

A case was made for strong ethnographic research on water to understand the social and gender relations in which water governance is embedded. Water academics and researchers need to get their hands dirty by engaging directly with communities in the field to understand how water is governed, accessed and distributed; there is a need to immerse in the context to understand what is happening on the ground. This requires an ethnographic approach that seeks to unravel the social and power structures within which water governance is embedded. One of the panelists spoke about how partnerships with several institutes in South Asia, Europe and Africa, have facilitated trans-disciplinary research that seeks to bring about transformative change in how water is accessed and managed; there is an urgent need to bring communities into direct interface with water providers by providing a platform for dialogue and improving transparency in access to water related information through participatory action planning projects. Curriculum development and training and capacity-building of governments, researchers, water professionals, and students are also integral to developing perspectives on issues of gender and social inclusion in water. In addition, providing knowledge support to NGOs to strengthen their interface with communities and support policy advocacy rooted in their grass-roots activities are other ways of building academia-NGO partnerships in the water sector that can facilitate a transformation to a more gendered water sector.

What are the challenges in this regard and how are they averted and addressed? A number of challenges were identified in the panel discussion, including social customs and misconceptions that limit women's participation in water-related initiatives. Budgetary limits pose challenges in carrying out comprehensive initiatives. Some examples of working women averting and addressing such challenges were illustrated by the panelists. The first of these is resistance from the community itself; many times, water professionals may envision the win-win situation of the proposed solution based on the past experience and exhibit results to the target community; it still takes a lot of time and repeated counseling sessions to finally get the willingness and participation (of the community) in rolling any initiative. In most cases, interestingly, it is the women who comprehend the system faster and are open to experiment. The second set of challenges comes from local authorities who supply fresh water from centralized systems and take away waste and stormwater for decentralized treatment. This was challenged through a passive awareness drive to educate the communities about the necessity of women's participation in water management. Women were prepared with the skills needed to contribute meaningfully through training and workshops showing this model so that communities can offset requirements from decentralized systems and make a slow transition to water security. The gender balance regulations and budget allocations were pushed to encourage women's participation in water management.

One of the panelists was a male gender researcher who spoke about the challenges that men face in doing research on gender relations in water. Being a man, doing research on gender, in itself gives a sense of marginalization of sorts. For example, it is difficult to interview women in the field, let alone take their pictures. Fieldwork that tries to unravel social and power relations itself is messy, and it takes a long time for the complete picture to emerge. In particular, Action Research has a long gestation period, so to be patient is crucial. This is particularly important while seeking to unravel social and gender relations. One has to join the dots like putting together the pieces of a jig saw puzzle. What is important here is that more men are to be encouraged to take up gender (and specific women) studies to facilitate and accelerate the process of inclusivity in the water sector.

Gender is often poorly or mis-understood in our society, as having to do with women rather than the differences between men and women. Further, there is a tendency to think about women as if they were a monolith, a homogenous whole, rather than look at gender from the lens of intersectionality of age, caste, class and ethnicity (Crenshaw 2017; Neto and Camkinn 2022). This means that in thinking about more women in positions of leadership and policy advocacy, we also need to ask which women? Is it women mainly from the socially elite class or are we succeeding in getting women from a diverse background into leadership positions, and making their work more visible. Even when we reserve seats for women in local structures for decision-making, for instance in water user associations, women are often found in a proxy situation and represented by their spouse or sibling to let the men take decisions on their behalf (Narain and Goodrich 2023). Therefore, it is not just reserving seats for women in leadership roles, but looking at how both men and women can contribute to tasks of water provisioning, distribution, and management that is perhaps the more important issue to address.

Training and capacity building on gender is difficult because patriarchal attitudes are deeply socially embedded. This is explicitly evident during training and capacity building programs on gender and social inclusion. For example, male participants get into a paradigmatic difference and often argue on patriarchy as nature’s law which should not be tampered with. In such situations, gender experts have to question the misconception of gender being a natural order and argue instead that it is a social construct which needs to be challenged.

The Government’s role and initiatives

As noted earlier in this article, women were and are still today the primary provider of water resources in households around the world; in spite of this, they are rarely involved in making decisions about the management of water resources. The challenges that women face with regard to water use, collection and management are further exacerbated by the consequences of climate change. After over seven decades of Independence of the country, India’s water and women matters are a work in progress in achieving gender equality in water and sanitation. Here are some examples of government schemes and initiatives in that direction.

The ‘Women Water Champions’ of the Government of India is one such initiative, launched in 2021 by the National Water Mission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India (supported by the UNDP-SIWI Water Governance Facility (WGF) under its GoAL Waters programme) to underscore the critical role of women in water conservation and management and promote women leadership in water governance. Through this initiative 41 women contributing at the grassroots level were felicitated for their remarkable contributions to water conservation efforts. Many of these women attended several training sessions on themes of crop water budgeting, groundwater monitoring, and water management. They started relating to the water crisis in their village. All these activities engage in taking their vision of ‘Save nature, save commons, save water, save life, save time and treasure women’. Most of them started campaigning for better water governance, while also pushing for involvement of more women in ensuring the same.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for workers and extension workers is aimed to make well-suited rural women to lead water management programmes. At least 43% of elected representatives in local bodies such as panchayats are women. Women’s participation in MGNREGS is high and stands at almost 55%. A study conducted on water supply projects in Gujarat in 2000 showed that when women were included in technical and decision-making capacities, there was a marked improvement in the impact of the projects (Sijbesma, et.al., 2009). Women have also shown an eagerness to adopt new technologies, explore sustainable farming methods and spread awareness among their families, making them excellent potential water champions.

The Jal Jeevan Mission launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India is another welcome step in this direction, which aims to provide every rural household with a functional water tap with special emphasis on inclusivity. The mission mandates that at least one-third of the Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) members should be women. The mission drives women’s participation by focusing on their priorities in decisions concerning new water supply schemes. A case study of Darrang district shows how the women in Assam are setting an example with their active participation in the implementation of the mission. One of the many concerns that Darrang faces is the scarcity of clean drinking water in the rural areas since the water quality is plagued with issues such as Arsenic contamination. This makes the water largely unfit for drinking directly. Adding to the woes is the perennial flood. The Jal Jeevan Mission engaged in 60 villages spread across 9 Gram (village) Panchayats showed remarkable results. 7 of the 9 Panchayats are led by female presidents. As a part of its programme, Dhulikona Foundation holds regular meetings in each of the Gram Panchayats offices with the gaon (village) burhas (members), representatives of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and other community members. It is very encouraging to witness the Gram Panchayat presidents, primarily the women taking the lead and displaying great enthusiasm towards implementing the mission in their respective Panchayats. They are equally desirous and motivated to bring about a change. The women presidents’ active role also inspires the female ward members to take the lead in the meetings held in their wards. Due to this presence, an increased participation of women in the decision-making meeting is observed. These efforts by the Gram Panchayat presidents and ward members have helped tremendously in making the rural population aware of the objectives and essential tasks surrounding water governance. It is not an exaggeration to admit that the success of this mission primarily lies in the hands of the women.

Discussion and way forward

The principle 3 of the Dublin Statement establishes that, “women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water”. Promoting gender inclusion is both just and practical. Women's participation in decision-making improves outcomes and adds to sustainable long-term water management. Therefore, positive policies need to be adopted to address the specific needs of women with regard to water in addition to empowering them to participate by acknowledging and appreciating their efforts, “at all levels in water resources programmes, including decision-making and implementation”. Should we hope to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the water problems and finding solutions, change in the gender composition in the water leadership is crucial. Women are required at the forefront of the water sector as crucial ‘agents of change’.

Even after decades of several efforts towards women inclusivity and leadership in the water sector, a lot remains to be done. A positive sign is that the efforts are moving in the desired direction. The WICCI-WRC aimed at, ‘Partnership towards Leadership’ is all out to contribute to the ongoing efforts globally, nationally, and locally. To achieve the goal, the agenda set is of acknowledging and appreciating the efforts of the women professionals besides building an enabling platform of sisterhood to give hope and trust in order to take long strides in the water matters and leadership. We are set to create more women role models by documenting the works of the women water professionals and disseminating them to the allied fields of water, to the government, business, and social organizations besides to the larger section of the society. Since we believe that each professional woman acknowledged and appreciated besides documented and disseminated will have a multiplier effect to benefit more women. Therefore, we are also set to curate more mentoring environments for young/emerging women water professionals to ensure that the future leadership gaps are addressed faster than the present.

There remain critical challenges in moving forward. First, the understanding of gender needs to be more broad-based, especially among policy-makers and practitioners, where the tendency is still to think in terms of women, especially, poor, marginalized women, supposedly in need of empowerment and capacity-building. The obscures the vast differences of age, class, ethnicity, caste and marital status that may exist among women. Taking a gender relations perspective, rather than focusing on women, is necessary in policy and practice (Narain 2014). Further, a lens of inter-sectionality should inform approaches to engendering the water sector. Ethnographic, participatory and trans-disciplinary research with strong partnerships across academia, NGOs and government are needed to unravel social and power structures in which water governance is embedded, and to transform those. This requires challenging the dominant positivist paradigm that informs water research in the country. While recent efforts at reorienting water resources education curricula from engineering-oriented programmes to more inter-disciplinary programmes with a focus on gender and social inclusion imply that the future breed of water professionals will take a lens of gender and social inclusion in their approach to the water sector, the sustainability of such programmes needs special attention, especially when the curricula reform is driven by donor support. It also requires sustained commitments within academia to train a breed of water professionals sensitive to issues of gender and social inclusion in the water sector. Finally, taking a lens of inter-sectionality requires that efforts are made to make visible the contributions of women water professionals and warriors from a cross-section of society, and not just from the socially elite classes. This will have a demonstration effect of bringing in more women into the water sector, but also challenging the narrative of women being the “weaker sex” in constant need of empowerment and capacity building.

--xx--

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the UNDP- SIWI Water Governance Facility team with special mention of Panchali Saikia and Lotten Hubendick for guiding WICCI-WRC and supporting the panel participation. We would also like to thank the WforW Foundation (www.wforw.in) team, Anubhuti Shekhar and Harshita Sehgal, for all the background coordination for the online session. We thank Lotten Hubendick for the inaugural speech and Dr Sabita Madhavi Singh, an official from the Government of India Ministry of Water Resources, for the concluding speech. We thank all the Panelists of the session, as named in the article, for bringing in insightful thoughts, cases & ideas and as contributors to this article.

References

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 2013. Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. In The public nature of private violence, 93-118. Routledge.

Liebrand, Janwillem. 2014. Masculinities among irrigation engineers and water professionals in Nepal. Wageningen University and Research.

Liebrand, Janwillem. 2023. Why so few expert women in the water sector? Masculinity, race, sex, and policy narratives of technology, gender and development in Nepal. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 5, 1-15.

Mies, Maria and Shiva, Vandana. 1993. Ecofeminism. Zed Books.

Liebrand, Janwillem, and Udhas, Pranita Bhushan. 2017. Becoming an engineer or a lady engineer: Exploring professional performance and masculinity in Nepal’s Department of Irrigation. Engineering Studies, Published online 09 July 2017.

Narain, Vishal, and Goodrich, Chanda Gurung. 2024. Glass half empty or half full? Gender in integrated water resource management in South Asia. World Water Policy, 10(1), 122-132.

Narain, V. 2014. Shifting the focus from women to gender relations: assessing the impacts of water supply interventions in the Morni-Shiwalik Hills of North-West India. Mountain Research and Development. 34(3): 208-213.

Narain, V. (2023). Seeing Water Differently. In Amitabh Kundu and Arash Fazli (eds). Reimagining Prosperity: Social and Economic Development in Post-COVID India (pp. 223-235). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

Neto, S., & Camkin, J. (2022). A water bridge over a troubled world: The need for an intersectional approach. World Water Policy, 8(1), 6-8.

Sijbesma, Christine, Verhagen, Joep, Nanavaty, Reema & James, A.. (2009). Impacts of domestic water supply on gender and income: Results from a participatory study in a drought-prone region in Gujarat, India. Water Policy. 11. 10.2166/wp.2009.011.

World Bank. 2019. Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32319

Zwarteveen M. 2011. Questioning Masculinities in Water. Economic and Political Weekly, April 30, 2011, Vol. XVVI (18): 40-48

1. Entrepreneur | Researcher | Educator | Speaker| Mentor. National President, Water Resources Council of Women Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (WICCI-WRC). Founder Director, WforW Foundation. www.wforw.in and www.mansee.in↑

2. Professor, Management Development Institute Gurgaon ↑

3. A gold standard panel is described as one with the following characteristics

   - more than 40% women participation in the panel.

   - 1 speaker under the age of 35.

   - the format and design of the session actively encourage audience participation ↑

4. https://tinyurl.com/msdyn374 ↑