Free-riders or victims : women's nonparticipation in irrigation management in Nepal's Chhattis Mauja irrigation scheme

Although irrigated farming at the head end of the Chhattis Mauja irrigation scheme in Nepal is increasingly, being done by women, female farmers do not formally participate in the scheme's organization. However, women's noninvolvement as formal members in meetings and the lack of female representation in the organization do not seem to negatively affect their access to irrigation services. On the contrary, women, succeed extremely well in getting their irrigation needs accommodated, in part because they are not formally participating in the scheme's management. This allows them to take more water than they are entitled to, as well as to contribute less labour to maintenance than they should without being punished. Because women are not recognized as members, the organization has difficulty enforcing its rules on women. At the same time, female farmers cunningly make use of the prevailing gender ideology, which pictures them as weak and in need of protection. Although this ideology does not reflect realities as perceived by women themselves, it strengthens them in their negotiations for more water and in their attempts to minimize their contributions to the scheme's maintenance.
Previous studies attribute the successful performance of the Chhattis Mauja irrigation scheme to the fact that all users are involved in its management. This study shows that in the head end of the system, the group of users is not identical to the group of managers: women are the main users, but only men participate in the Chhattis Mauja organization. Although overall scheme management performance does not unduly suffer from the lack of users' participation, the problems of free-riding and labour mobilization in the head end do create performance weaknesses. If feminization of agriculture continues to grow, these problems will become more widespread and threaten the sustainability of the whole irrigation scheme. (authors' abstract)