Month: March 2026

Water is not just a resource; it is also the confluence of political and ecological realities. At CPR, this has been central to our interdisciplinary work on river basin management, interstate cooperation, the politics of infrastructure, federalism, and long-term water security. Our continued engagement with questions of India’s water policy spans decades, with stalwarts like Ramaswamy R. Iyer, B. G. Verghese and R. Rangachari informing the discourse in the past. Through the TREADS Initiative, we further this work by rethinking river water management and its systemic underpinnings for a more equitable water governance infrastructure. These concerns remain intricately connected to how we imagine our shared future.

This World Water Day, we are reminded of why our work remains crucial. Revisit some of the work by CPR’s faculty and researchers on India’s water ecologies, governance and security.

Find more of our work on water here.

Why Do Interstate Water Disputes Emerge and Recur?

This monograph uses the Krishna river dispute as a case study to argue that India’s interstate water conflicts stem from set of legal ambiguities, political antagonisms and physical asymmetries calling for interstate cooperation rather than purely legal solutions. Read here

 

 

Water and Federalism

The study identifies federal consensus-building about the Centre’s role and autonomous institutional architecture for data as the two foundational pillars and makes concrete recommendations to improve federal governance for long-term development and water security. Read here

 

 

The Right to Water, Law and Municipal Practice: Case Studies from India

Recognition of the right to water in Indian courts has had little impact on the ground. This paper explores the disjuncture between what happens in the court and the everyday reality of living with a less-than-perfect claim on city water services in India’s urban slums. Read here

 

 

 

The Evolution of the Right to Water in India

The paper reviews the articulation of the “right to water” in India to show that this articulation has largely been oblivious to the international human rights movement on water. Beyond the mainstream articulation of the “right to water”, the paper describes the specific articulation of the right by two marginalised groups, namely the Dalits and Adivasis. Read here

 

The Decentered Construction of Global Rights: Lessons from the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation

The global right to water is constructed out of the myriad struggles and claims of people experiencing the lack of something essential to a dignified existence, and who cannot obtain an adequate response from their immediate political and legal environment. Read here

 

 

Flows and Flaws: Diverting the Debate on Water with China

Can we frame the water debate with China in ways that can create institutional entry points for a whole set of missing issues that are currently invisible to the mainstream policy and research gaze? Read here

 

 

 

Conserving Freshwater Ecosystems in India: A Call to Action

This paper calls for an urgent and greater focus on implementing conservation actions for freshwater ecosystems in India and suggests a strategy to enhance focus on their conservation. Read here

 

 

Convenience over Control: Qualitative Insights from Water System Users in a Rural Setting in Gujarat, India.

This study suggests that piped water system designs should enable operational flexibility, tailored to community needs, so that water is available when needed. Read here

 

 

Disputes, (de)Politicization and Democracy: Interstate Water Disputes in India

The aleatory nature of politics reshapes the nature and extent of a dispute and contributes to its frequent recurrence. Discourses of policy and governance reforms usually do not account for this contingent nature of politics. Read here

 

 

Water Disputes and the Environment: Transboundary Dimensions

This chapter analyses India’s transboundary water relationships, arguing that despite its hydrohegemonic tendencies and preference for bilateralism; shared environmental risks in South Asia create an opportunity to build regional institutions, starting with disaster resilience as a foundation for cooperation. Read here

 

 

The Human Right to Water in Rural India – Promises and Challenges

India has made remarkable progress in rural drinking water access, rising from 18 percent coverage in 1974 to at least 72 percent today. While this reflects significant advancement in realising the human right to water, full and universal access remains an ongoing challenge. Read here

 

 

The Right to Water in Rural India and Drinking Water Policy Reforms

This chapter uncovers the role played by the state in providing significant resources,like water, to all in rural India. It further analyses the changes that have taken place and the gaps that have arisen in terms of aligning the policy framework with the human right to water. Read here

 

 

Whither India’s Federal Governance for Long-Term Water Security?

The discourse about federal governance is generally dominated by that of fiscal federalism. This chapter takes a closer look at the historical changes in budgetary allocations of the Centre and select states for water resources governance, and argues that federal water governance in India is weakly structured to pursue its development and sustainability goals. Read here

 

 

Shifting Scales from International to Subnational: A Comparative Analysis of India and Germany’s Federal Water Governance

This paper examines the River Basin Management trajectory of Germany vis-à-vis India through a comparative lens. It argues for acknowledging structural differences to enable meaningful knowledge exchanges and  collaborations at the sub-national scale. Read here

 

 

Unravelling Rural India’s enduring water indigence: framing the questions, issues, options and opportunities

The paper extensively reviews India’s centrally sponsored programme for improving drinking water supply coverage in rural settlements. Read here

 

 

India should take a leaf out of Singapore’s water harvesting to solve its crisis

How have India’s collaborative arrangements with Singapore fared? Read here

We condole the passing of Ambassador Eric Gonsalves, former Chairperson of CPR’s Governing Board from 2015 to 2019.

Joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1950, he was among the earliest recruits of Independent India. He played a pivotal role in driving India’s foreign diplomacy and institution-building at a time when the nation was navigating the Cold War and charting its own course.

During his illustrious career, he served as Ambassador to Japan, to Belgium, the European Economic Community and Luxembourg, as Minister (Political) at the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C., and as Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs, among other eminent positions.

He remained closely engaged with public institutions well after his formal diplomatic career, serving as Director of the India International Centre and President of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. His wisdom, integrity, and spirit of generosity left a lasting impression on all who had the privilege of working with him.

As Chairperson of CPR’s Governing Board, he played a vital role in upholding the finest traditions of democratic debate and free enquiry, nurturing CPR as one of the most respected institutions in the country for independent policy research and discussion.

The CPR community, its Governing Board, President, faculty and staff, pay tribute to the memory of an inspiring institutional leader who steered CPR with dignity, refinement and sagacity.

We extend our sincere condolences to his family and loved ones and join them in this time of grief.

International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on 8th March, has its origins in labour and resistance movements of the 20th century. Life in the 21st century continues to be riddled with structural violence and inequalities of income, entitlements, and care at homes and in workplaces. Urban economies are sustained by migrant workers residing in informal settlements without security of work, life, or shelter. Women migrants make up a large portion of domestic workers filtering in and out of urban households, underpaid and doubly marginalised for their gender identity. This Women’s Day, we are revisiting some of the work by CPR faculty and researchers exploring women’s labour and lifeworlds. Ecosystems of Engagement: Digital Platforms and Women’s Work in Sri Lanka and India In a world where evolving technology is constantly improving the efficiency of communication and production, the platform economy is reinventing the world of work. Claims that platforms create more employment are often countered by workers who see platform work as a ‘trade-off’. Read here. Where Do the Victims of Gender Based Violence Go: A Needs Analysis for Women’s Safety Schemes in India Despite several efforts, a survey in 2018 ranked India as the most dangerous country for women. The Government of India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has several schemes, policies, and legislations on women’s safety and empowerment. Read here. Testing the Waters: Young Women’s Work and Mobile Aspirations in India’s Small Cities This article finds that small cities act as regional action spaces for women from villages and small towns to capitalise on fleeting opportunities and push against patriarchal boundaries through mobilities. Read here. What Matters for Urban Women’s Work: A Deep Dive Into Falling Female Labour Force Participation India is one of the lowest globally in terms of female labour force participation (FLFP). This paper investigates the structural deficiencies behind this consistently low urban FLFP and finds that factors like the presence of female-friendly industries, provision of regular salaried jobs, and addressing patriarchal biases can make these measures truly transformative and not just palliative.  Read here. Infrastructure, Gender and Violence: Women and Slum Sanitation Inequalities in Delhi This project report examines the socioeconomic consequences of poor sanitation and how gender-based violence affects the everyday lives of women and girls using the notion of infrastructural violence in two long-established localities in Delhi: Mangolpuri and Kusumpur Pahari.  Read here. Gender and Urban Sanitation Inequalities in Everyday Lives Despite the use of the concept of ‘gender mainstreaming’ in water and sanitation projects since the mid-1990s, gender inequalities continue to exist. Gender has become a term that is widely used in project documents and organisational policy documents, but remains little theorised and ill-defined. Read here. ‘Here, We Are Addicted To Loitering’: Exploring Narratives of Work and Mobility Among Migrant Women in Delhi Drawing upon fieldwork among women workers living around two industrial estates in the city of Delhi, this chapter argues that the economic agency brought about by paid employment is situated within and shaped by the spatial mobility offered by the city, and the enabling nature of city spaces in relation to the rural. Read here. Housing, Spatial-Mobility and Paid Domestic Work in Millennial Delhi: Narratives of Women Domestic Workers This chapter constructs a gendered account of Delhi through an exploration of women domestic workers’ experience of spatial-mobility in relation to work and the inherent vulnerabilities of class and gender. Read here. [PODCAST] The Gig Sisters Episode 1: In the Mood for Food The stories of three women entrepreneurs in the food space and how they leveraged platforms to sustain themselves when everything else came to a standstill. Tune in. [PODCAST] The Gig Sisters Episode 2: Pedicures and Penalties CPR faculty speaks to three women beauty workers from India to understand how they coped with the effects of the pandemic. Tune in. CPR Insights | Do Capital Intensive Industries have Less Women Workers? Read here.