Gender Contribution in Household Management of Water and its Impact on Residents of Dholak Basti (Slum) in Haldwani City of India

The paper explores water and gender sensitivity in one of the slum areas of Haldwani City, one of the fastest growing and least studied cities of Uttarakhand. The study is intended to contextualise the analysis of household water management and role of gender with respect to water management in the city. First, a city-wide ward wise analysis was conducted to identify wards with low socio-economic profile and high illiteracy based on Census of India, 2011 data and analysed spatially in Geographical Information System (GIS). The spatial analysis was followed by primary surveys in one of the identified wards and statistical data analysis. The results point out that lower social strata are not sufficiently covered by municipal water supply systems and women play a major role in household water management. Children are the worst affected by water-borne diseases in comparison to adults; this is in contrast to earlier studies where adult males were found more prone to water related diseases in comparison to females. Strategic interventions were worked out to find possible solutions related to health concerns and equitable water accessibility.