Impact of Alimineti Madhava Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme on Gender in Nalgonda District of Telangana, India

Access to water is a major concern and challenge for many rural households, whether for drinking and domestic use, irrigation, or livestock use. Women face various challenges and unequal opportunities when it comes to accessing and utilising irrigation technologies. The climatic factors like rainfall, temperature and groundwater influence the availability of water which is crucial factor in agricultural production. The present study analyses the impact of irrigation on gender. 700 households, 350 each from beneficiary and non-beneficiary households of Alimineti Madhava Reddy lift irrigation project in Telangana were selected using random sampling technique and data was collected specifically from women using pre-tested structured schedule. The results from the study revealed that the overall GILIT score of 41 represents that scheme approach to gender equity is good. It is also found that among beneficiaries percentage of decisions taken by women in the household in all the decisions such as production, marketing, social and economic decisions are higher compared to non-beneficiaries which can be accounted to the improvement of literacy rate of women, thereby empowering them which can be accounted to the raise in household income levels due to the additional productivity achieved by the intervention of lift irrigation project. Adequate consultations in future projects targeting a proactive approach towards men and women equally and trainings for women in managing inputs like water, livestock must be exclusively designed on production, value addition, health and money management aspects to impact of the project on socio economic development.