Abstract: This paper offers an outlook on gender mainstreaming in water management in India by investigating the linkages between ‘gender’ and selected practices of drinking water management. Experience from several water projects have shown that gender is not mainstreamed effectively if restricted to practices that only try to make women visible or simply add a gender component in an intervention program. One of the successful community owned water project ‘Aapni Yojna in 350 villages of three districts of Rajasthan, India is taken up as a case for investigation to analyze the various dimensions of gender in the context of water. Prospects for effective gender mainstreaming in water management will be the turning point on how the principal agenda can address the change of gender relations and water as a human right so as to realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in developing countries.