Navigating Gender in Development of Water and Sanitation in Urban Areas

Methodology This assessment is a rapid assessment based on available secondary data in government documents, and other published literature. The second basis of this assessment is of participatory learning exercise including interviews of a sample of women living in the slums in each of the four cities. For this purpose five slums were selected in each of the cities based on a geographical dispersal of their location in the city and in each slum 20 women were interviewed on a semi-structured interview schedule. Focus Group Discussions were conducted, one for male community members and one for female community members, in each of the slums. Thus in each city 100 interviews and 10 focus group discussions were organized primarily to get their responses on various issues and to get their voices on their needs, problems, challenges and hopes and required support in future. Their voices have also been captured in photos and in a video film. Extensive preparations were made to make the methodology participatory. Along with semi-structured interviews, transect walk, social mapping and focus group discussions were organized to involve the community. As a preparatory step, the teams of field workers were carefully selected from those who have been associated earlier with interviewing women about their participation and leadership roles in local government and accessing resources for livelihoods and with participatory training of women for leadership and skill development. Each team for a city consisted of two female and two male workers. All of them were postgraduates in social sciences including some of them in social work. They participated in an intensive training about approach, issues, and methodology of this rapid assessment and did a fieldtesting of the questionnaire before going to the concerned city.

The fieldwork was carried out between 14th and 24th August 2005. With computer analysis and putting the report together, along with the fieldwork and secondary data collection and analysis, this rapid gender assessment was completed in a period of four weeks.

In carrying out this gender assessment Mahila Chetna Manch (WomenÂ’s Awareness Forum) has used its own insights of working with gender issues and with women particularly those from the poverty households. We have reviewed available information (e.g. statistics, Government documents), the relevant legal, policy and institutional framework and their gender implications.

Our household surveys and interviews of women in the slums have helped to draw up gender disaggregated socio economic profiles and to identify the WSS practices, constraints, and needs of this disadvantaged group.

The data collected has been done for drawing a socio economic profile of the cities and of a sample of women respondents in slums in the four cities and complemented by the secondary data available for the whole urban areas of these cities and in some cases for the urban areas of the concerned districts where data disaggregated for each urban centre in the district is not available. A Project Preparatory Technical Assistance (PPTA) in 2002 was conducted by GHK, (STUP and IPE study for ADB) for an Integrated Urban Development Project being supported by ADB in six cities of MP including these four cities. This included a household survey of 1600 households in each of these cities besides using available secondary data. Some of the household profile data based on this survey has been used here to supplement the secondary data and the newly conducted participatory exercise in the slums in these four cities. Data has also been collected on water use and knowledge, attitudes and practices – availability, quantity, quality of WSS Services, costs, water sources, water collection and storage, water transport, use of domestic water, dry season management, community 8