Changing Gender Contours in the Management of Irrigated Agriculture: Reexamining the Patriarchal Cliche in Rural Sri Lanka

K Gulam Dasthagir; Upul Sanjeewa Wijepala

K Gulam Dasthagir Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India
Upul Sanjeewa Wijepala Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

Keywords: Gender Contours, Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM), Farmers Organization (FOs), Patriarchy, Irrigated Agriculture

Abstract

In the backdrop of the primacy accorded to gender mainstreaming in neo liberal institutions by tracing the changes in the gender roles in cultivation and irrigation management based on primary data as well as secondary sources of information, this article argue that the patriarchal character of traditional irrigation institutions that largely excluded women from the performance of certain on farm and off farm task has been significantly altered by the establishment of modern user organizations alone with the institutionalization oftechnological advancement coupled with male migration that engenderinclusion and greater participation of women in the management of irrigation agriculture in Sri Lanka.