Blue Sari Brigade: Women at the heart of India’s water system

On the dry plains of Bundelkhand state, one of India’s most water-stressed regions, a woman wakes up before sunrise. She did not go to the well. She went to a meeting. As a member of “Friends of Water” Jal Saheli, she is part of a network of some 1,530 women in 321 villages who have spent the past decade digging check dams, reviving ancient ponds, repairing hand pumps and convening groundwater councils. Most of them are illiterate. They are completely indispensable.On World Water Day, the United Nations has a clear message: at its core, the global water crisis is a gender crisis, and the solutions must come through women. The theme for the 2026 event is “Water and Gender: Where Water Flows, Equality Grows,” calling for a transformative, rights-based approach that gives women equal voice, leadership and opportunity in water decision-making. Across India, the shift has been taking place quietly and informally.

Jasahli Movement

When the thirteenth rains failed in Bundelkhand, Ms. Shirkunwar Rajput, leader of the Udghuvan (Lalitpur) Paani Panchayat, did not wait for the government to come. She gathered the women of the village and spoke a sentence that was eventually inscribed on the barrage: “In Bundelkhand, fetching water is exclusively the work of women or girls. Therefore, women have priority over water resources,” Mongabay quoted.Jal Saheli Movement was established in 2005 in Madhogarh, Jalaun, uttar pradeshstems from this belief. By 2024, around 1,530 Jal Sahelis were active in 321 villages in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The women, aged between 18 and 70 and wearing simple blue saris, built more than a hundred check dams, restored traditional ponds, installed new hand pumps and built soak pits to reduce runoff waste.The impact is both agricultural and domestic. Before the intervention of Jal Sahelis, farmers in some of these villages could only grow one season of wheat each year. Since then, guaranteed irrigation has allowed for annual harvests of two to three years. Groundwater recharge from the barrage has restored functioning wells to the community, where children used to share a water pump with 1,200 people.Weltungerhilfe worked with the NGO Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan to train these female volunteers in water resource planning, groundwater level monitoring and conservation techniques before sending them back to their villages as experts. The model has since attracted the attention of government departments in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with both states expressing interest in expanding it to 5,000 villages.

Governing the underground: Atal Bhujal Yojana

India’s aquifers are in crisis. As of 2020, the Central Groundwater Board classified 256 districts as water-scarce, and the country’s per capita water supply is expected to decline significantly by 2050. In this context, the Government of India launched the Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal) in 2020 – at a cost of Rs. The Rs 6,000-crore (USD 756 million) program, co-financed by the World Bank, targets the production of 8,562 grams of panchayat in seven water-stressed states: Gujarat, HaryanaKarnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.Ataljar is unique not only in its budget but also in its politics. The plan stipulates that at least 33% of the members of the Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) must be women. In fact, representation has gone further: women now hold an average of 44% of seats in the scheme’s gram panchayat. Crucially, 33% of women hold actual decision-making positions in WUAs – chairperson, vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer.According to the program’s own data, the results have been significant: demand-side water conservation activities covered an area of ​​670,802 hectares, saving an estimated 1.716 billion cubic meters of water through micro-irrigation, crop diversification and rainwater harvesting. Through the construction of 77,052 buildings, an additional 642 million cubic meters of groundwater was replenished. About 30 million people benefited at a cost per beneficiary of about Rs. 2,627.In Haryana, the program took on a distinctly feminine look through the figure of Jal Saheli. Jal Saheli are local resource persons, often women from self-help groups, who are trained to conduct water quality tests, communicate groundwater data to communities, and advocate for efficient irrigation practices. In Rajasthan’s Phalodi district, Jal Sahelis, led by UNICEF and the NGO Unnati, restored a centuries-old village pond, raising Rs 1 million. 1.5 million community funding and MGNREGA grant.

Bhubaneswar “Call Club”

India’s water revolution isn’t just happening in farmlands and check dams. In urban slums, this happens via smartphones as well.Between January 2023 and December 2024, the Center for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), with support from the Australian Government’s Women’s Water Fund, conducted a landmark urban WASH program in 215 informal settlements in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. At its core is a “caller’s club”: community members trained to record and report grievances about water, sanitation and hygiene on behalf of residents through the Janhit-Vaani Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).A total of 18,750 calls were made by community members during the two-year period. Women led the effort, fielding 10,419 calls and providing most of the feedback, with 5,610 calls specifically addressing water-related issues. Of the 8,517 water-related grievances recorded, 4,550 (53.4%) were formally resolved, benefiting 8,696 people. The situation is even better for health complaints: 4,783 of 6,767 reported issues (70.7%) were resolved, resulting in a resolution rate of 98.4% of health-related complaints.The Urban Local Bodies, Department of Public Health Engineering and Watco proactively responded to online complaints, worked with communities to resolve issues and educated residents on infrastructure maintenance. The project also funded climate-resilient infrastructure upgrades in 126 settlements: elevated toilets to protect against monsoon flooding, stormwater drains and solar-powered water filtration plants – all designed with input from the women who use the facilities.Laxmipriya Lenka, president of the Bhubaneswar Slum Development Association, is one of those pushing this feedback loop to work. Her leadership exemplifies what UN Women’s World Water Day 2026 campaign calls for: not just access to water, but agency over water.

Evidence of female leadership

The centrality of women in water governance is not only moral but also experiential. A landmark study on panchayats in India cited by UN Women found that the number of drinking water projects in local council areas led by women was 62% higher than in areas led by men. A study of 44 water projects in Asia and Africa cited by the World Resources Institute found that when women help shape water policies and institutions, communities use water more sustainably and equitably.However, structural barriers remain significant. Less than 50 countries around the world have laws or policies specifically mentioning women’s participation in water resources management. In India, women have been marginalized in the National Water Policies of 1987, 2002 and 2012 – policies largely drafted by men who traditionally did not bring water home. It is only through schemes like the Jal Jeevan Mission and Atal Bhujal Yojana, and grassroots pressure from movements like the Jal Sahelis, that this omission is starting to be corrected.

The economic case is equally compelling. In India alone, the productivity loss caused by women being tasked with fetching water is estimated to be equivalent to about 10 lakh rupees. 10 billion—or about $160 billion, or almost 4.7% of GDP. Every tap closer to home, every barrage that stores monsoon water in March, means women can regain their time: go to school, work, rest, lead.Highlighting this shift, Chandrakant Kumbhani, Chief Operating Officer, Community Development, Ambuja Foundation said: “Water resources development is one of the strongest drivers of women’s empowerment in rural India. But real transformation happens when women stop being beneficiaries and become decision-makers – involved in the planning, management and governance of village-level water systems. This engagement builds confidence, visibility and leadership, allowing them to influence not only water-related decisions, but wider community priorities. This role becomes even more important as climate stress intensifies. Women’s participation strengthens the way communities plan and manage water resources, making systems more resilient and sustainable. “

movement of stones

There is an inscription on the barrage of Bundelkhand. In local dialect carved into the concrete they wrote: “Women have first rights over water.” This is not poetry. This declaration suggests that the women who suffer most from scarcity are those who have won the power to govern abundance.Jal Sahelis leader Leela Khatun described the work to revive the village pond. “Ponds are a lifeline for villagers, especially during summer, drought and periods of scant rainfall. We took on the task of cleaning the ponds, using manual labor and excavators,” she proudly told UNICEF. “Some desilting work is being carried out under MGNREGA. We have held discussions with village chiefs and villagers to ensure sustainable water supply.“Across India, from the slums of Bhubaneswar to the gram panchayats of Rajasthan, from the overexploited aquifers of Haryana to the arid plateaus of Madhya Pradesh, women like Devati Sharma are engaging in the technical, political and physical labor of water governance. They hold meetings, file grievances, repair infrastructure and teach water knowledge to communities not yet reached by the formal sector.On this World Water Day, the United Nations has proposed a slogan: “Where water flows, equality grows.” In India, women who have worked the land for years already know this to be true. The question now is whether governments, donors and institutions around the world will incorporate it into their policies – as permanently as Jal Saheli etched it in stone.