Intersectional Barriers in Rural Water Governance: Gender, Educational Inequality, and Technocratic Exclusion in Grassroots Groundwater Management

Participatory groundwater governance is premised on the assumption that community-based institutions facilitate equitable resource management and sustainable aquifer stewardship. However, formal participation does not necessarily translate into substantive decision-making authority, particularly for socially and educationally marginalized groups. This study examines gendered participation and potential epistemic exclusion in the implementation of the Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal) in Kachchh District, Gujarat, India. Drawing on administrative training records covering 2,206 capacity-building events and 49,551 participant attendances across 196 Gram Panchayats between 2021–2022 and 2024–2025, the study investigates variations in female participation across administrative locations and training modules. The analysis is informed by common-pool resource theory, feminist political ecology, intersectionality, and Agarwal’s framework of participatory exclusions. Reported findings indicate that female participants accounted for 25.11% of total recorded attendances, below the programme’s 33% institutional gender benchmark. Participation varied considerably across talukas, ranging from 18.71% in Anjar to 32.71% in Bhachau. Thematic disaggregation further indicates that female participation was relatively high in foundational sensitization and water-budgeting sessions but lower in technical and asset-intensive modules, including smart agriculture and domestic water efficiency. Field observations from 18 training sessions also suggest that physical attendance did not consistently translate into opportunities to operate monitoring equipment or engage directly with technical information. The findings identify a potential gap between institutional inclusion and substantive participation. The study argues that gender-responsive groundwater governance requires accessible pedagogical methods, meaningful technical responsibilities for women, context-sensitive training arrangements, and monitoring indicators that assess agency rather than attendance alone. These findings offer practical insights for strengthening inclusive and sustainable community-based resource governance.