The Changing Paradigm - Gender Dimensions of Watershed Management in Hosadurga Taluk, Chitradurga District, Karnataka, India

Poverty in rural area is overwhelming and disparity between rural and urban area is increasing. The watershed approach, therefore, needs to give way to inclusive development involving the primary stakeholders (women, landless labourers, marginal farmers etc. ). In the past, watershed activities were translated into benefits only for landed population and looked primarily at land based activities with minimal community participation (Vijayalakshmi and Vyasulu, 2002). In the new paradigm, the watershed programmes need to be designed with equity, gender sensitivity and stakeholder participation as a necessary ingredient for poverty alleviation. Based on our field study of three villages in Hosadurga Taluk, Chitradurga District, Karnataka, India, the paper enables us to see how members of different social classes and castes engage with one another in everyday context and this suggests that through this sometimes they may gain a more rounded appreciation of one others attitude. By emphasising the needs of viewing social capital as a resource, the community developed and reproduced new forms of capital. These actions led to increased social capital of shared values, beliefs, trust, feelings and perceptions of support and consequently participation.