Solution Exchange -Gender QUERY: Strategies to Empower Tribal Women – Experiences; Advice.
Praveer Peter JHARKHAND India
From: Malika Basu <se-...@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
Date: Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:39 AM
Subject: [se-gen] CONSOLIDATED REPLY: Strategies to Empower Tribal
Women-Experiences; Advice
To: Gender Community <se-...@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
See Hindi Version of the Query
See Hindi Version of the Summary of Responses
This Consolidated Reply can be viewed at
http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/cr/cr-se-gen-26050901.pdf
(PDF Size: 300 KB)
Gender
_____________________________
Gender Community
Solution Exchange for the Gender Community
Consolidated Reply
Query: Strategies to Empower Tribal Women - Experiences; Advice
Compiled by Malika Basu, Resource Person and Shweta Tyagi, Research
Assistant with editorial inputs from Sarah Figge
Issue Date: 26 May 2009
From Praveer Peter, Gender, Livelihoods and Resources Forum (GLRF),
Ranchi, Jharkhand
Posted 19 January 2009
The Gender, Livelihoods and Resources Forum (GLRF) is an informal,
non-governmental and independent (non-registered) forum based in
Jharkhand. It focuses on generating dialogue, learnings and networking
on gender equity issues amongst the tribal communities of India. The
GLRF has been steering a consultative process to initiate dialogues
and mechanisms for ‘countering patriarchy’ - now emerging as an
evident phenomenon, in the tribal communities of eastern India. This
process of consultation has involved members from community-based
groups, tribal groups and women groups in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh,
Orissa and West Bengal.
It is only recently that patriarchy and its impact on tribal women
has been recognized, studied and defined. To throw more light on the
issue (and the need to ‘counter patriarchy’), please find attached one
of our papers (view the link at
http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/resource/res_in
fo_14010901.pdf, Size: 43.63 KB and some related discussions are also
available at http://groups.google.com/group/GLRF-Tribal) GLRF is
witnessing a process of realization amongst tribal women to enhance
their capacity and leadership.
While efforts are being made for the marginalized tribal community as
a whole (by helping them obtain new livelihood skills and undertake
social analysis of their problems), very few interventions amongst
these are designed to focus particularly on empowering the tribal
women.
Given this background, we would very much appreciate if members could
share their experiences/insights and help us to answer the following:
How to design civil society initiatives on gender issues - amongst
tribal communities, without disturbing the community's right to
independent decision-making?
What are the ways we can design cross-learning strategies between the
women's movement in general and tribal women's movement, which gives
strength to each other, without violating each other's space?
What steps are necessary to empower tribal women towards analysis,
realization and assertion of their rights as a 'woman' and 'citizen'?
Your inputs and experiences will help us to strengthen and improve
our strategies/interventions. GLRF is also hoping that the current
query may lead to collaborative efforts amongst Gender Community
members working with tribal communities, particularly tribal women.
Responses were received, with thanks,
1. Aparimita Pramanik, Mudra Institute of Communications Research
(MICORE), Ahmedabad
2. Rachna Sarkar, Irrigation Department, Lucknow
3. Vidhya Das, Agragamee, Kashipur, Orissa (Response 1; Response 2)
4. Ashok Paikaray, PRATHAM, Orissa
5. Toms K. Thomas, Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF), Kerala
6. Praveer Peter, Gender, Livelihoods and Resources Forum (GLRF), Ranchi
7. Smita Premchander, Sampark, Bangalore
8. Usha P. E., Attappadi Hills Area Development Society (AHADS), Kerala
9. Smita Mishra Panda, Human Development Foundation, Bhubaneswar
10. Sarala Gopalan, All India Women's Funds Association, New Delhi
11. Shashi Singh, Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs of India (CWEI), New Delhi
12. Arokia Dass, Tamil Nadu Tribal Development Society, Tiruvannamalai
13. Nirmala Gupta, UN World Food Program, Dehradun
14. Devika Biswas, SANCALP, Jharkhand
15. Sonali Patnaik, Arupa Mission Research Foundation, Bhubaneswar
16. J. D. Louis, Tribal Humanity Development Activity (THUDA), Ranchi
17. Anna Soren, Saheli Adhyayan Kendra, Jharkhand
18. Ruchi Pant, Governance Unit, United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), New Delhi
19. Chandrakant Puri, SNDT Women's University, Mumbai*
Responses were received, with thanks, from the Tribal Empowerment Network (TEN)
20. Ravi Shankar, All Women Action Society (AWAM) India, Ahmedabad
21. Radhika Shah, Tribal Empowerment Network (TEN), Ahmedabad
22. S. K. Nanda, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar
23. Shailja Kishore, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), Ahmedabad
24. Raj Kumar Khosla, Planning Commission, New Delhi
*Offline Contribution
Further contributions are welcome!
Summary of Responses
Comparative Experiences
Related Resources
Responses in Full
Additional Material
Summary of Responses
Indigenous and tribal people represent about five per cent of the
world’s population, but over 15% of the world’s poor. Responding
enthusiastically to the query, ‘strategies to empower tribal women’,
members shared experiences and suggestions for empowering women from
tribal communities, while at the same time respecting their unique
culture, language and customs.
While addressing issues related to tribal women specifically,
respondents stressed the necessity of understanding the nature of
‘tribal communities.’ For instance, although tribal communities as a
whole tend to be more equitable, there are patriarchal norms that
prevent women from taking part in all aspects of public life,
especially contesting for political office. In addition, like other
women, tribal women too carry the triple burden of productive,
reproductive and household work.
The lives and livelihoods of tribal communities’ are largely
intertwined with forest, water and land resources. Rapid
industrialization leading to deforestation and displacement has
accentuated the marginalization of tribal communities in general and
tribal women in particular. It has distorted the traditional
forest-based livelihood systems where women were actively involved and
has given rise to ‘private property’ system, which excludes women.
Practices like dowry, denying property rights to women have also
started in the tribal communities.
Respondents pointed out that tribal women would not become active
participants in governance and decision-making processes until they
have opportunities for education and greater exposure. Empowering
tribal women necessitates endowing them with capacities to analyze,
realize and assert their rights - as “Women” and “Citizens”. This
involves building their self-confidence and empowering them at
socio-economic and political levels.
Members applauded the various policies, programmes and initiatives by
both Central and State governments along with NGOs aimed at uplifting
tribal communities. They specially noted Article 275 (1) of the
Constitution of India, the Draft National Policy on Tribal
Development, the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) and the Ten Point Programme for
the Development of Tribal Areas introduced by the Chief Minister of
Gujarat. The Fifth and Sixth Schedule in the Constitution of India
also provide for regulatory protection and preservation of tribal
culture, traditional rights and knowledge.
Members noted that various NGOs and agencies working with tribal
communities have undertaken programmes specifically in the areas of
income generation, local governance and education. Recognizing the
role of tribal women in natural resource management, NGOs in Gujarat,
Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh are working with tribal groups on
sustainable community-based approaches for livelihood enhancement.
Members also cited two cases where NGOs helped establish market
linkages between rural and urban areas increasing the income of
non-tribal farmers in Uttarakhand and Bihar. They suggested using a
similar approach in tribal areas.
In Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh a UNDP supported
project working with elected women representatives (EWRs) helped form
women’s network to not only increase their visibility but also to
help them monitor government programmes such as the mid-day meal
scheme and public distribution system. Similarly, in Orissa an
organization worked with women’s groups to increase their
participation in Gram Sabha meetings; another organization has
encouraged tribal girls to attend school and yet another NGO is
helping villages to generate electricity through renewable energy
resources, enabling children to spend more hours on study. Members
also appreciated initiatives such as Tribal Women as Change Agents
(TWCA) to empower tribal women through training and ICT based skill
enhancement programmes for addressing their educational, health and
livelihood needs.
In addition, respondents highlighted the role of tribal women who have
been able to garner support from exogenous civil society interventions
and played a proactive role in development efforts. They mentioned two
instances where tribal women inspired collective action: In Jharkhand,
a tribal community is working together to demand a train stoppage at
the village railway station and in Orissa, women in tribal villages
worked together to close local liquor stalls.
Members put forth a number of suggestions as ways forward for
empowering the tribal women. These include:
· Organize tribal women so that they can agitate collectively
for their basic rights, which will also give them an opportunity for
meeting, sharing and building solidarity
· Encourage tribal girls to go in for higher education by
providing facilities such as scholarships and hostels. Education is a
powerful tool to create awareness and to understand, analyze the
society and the exploitative forces behind. (Further, one can also
become aware of one’s rights and government development initiatives to
make better use of them)
· Involve tribal women in local governance, especially EWRs.
Also, encourage women to speak up and participate in village meetings
like the Gram Sabhas, wherein mostly their men folk and/or the
community leaders are present
· Encourage women to participate in decision making processes,
particularly on Forest Management Committees
· Identify women from within their communities and train them
to become peer educators
· Bring EWRs and local (tribal) women together for trainings
to break down any socio-economic, cultural barriers
· Include men in trainings to create an enabling environment
for tribal women to function effectively. It is important to ensure
that the community acknowledges the contribution of women in various
programmes – Natural Resource Management (NRM), income generation etc.
This would also call for engaging with men in different programmes.
· Document the contributions and various roles tribal women
have and do play in tribal history, culture and literature
· Organize capacity building and training initiatives on
women’s rights and the rights of a citizen at a micro level in local
dialects, using varied mediums such as participatory street plays,
folk dance, videos and culturally appropriate pictures and messages.
· Establish within academic institutes “tribal women’s
centers” where tribal women can pursue higher studies to enable them
to later take up leadership roles
· Develop a system of gender-segregated data on various
indices of development at the district and sub district level; it
would help in identifying and providing economic and other need based
assistance
· Ensure that the laws and policies related to the welfare of
tribal communities are properly implemented
Keeping in view the marginalized and difficult situations, language
barriers, limited accessibility, low uptake and retention levels,
respondents underscored that only patient, participative,
collaborative (i.e. partnerships between government , NGOs and
communities) and prolonged interventions will bring about the
necessary changes in the lives of tribal women. They cautioned that
any efforts to empower tribal women must involve tribal women in the
process of planning, formulating and implementing interventions.
Lastly, discussants felt there is ample scope for the women’s movement
and the tribal women’s movement to learn from each other. Any strategy
for cross-learning, discussants noted, needs to take into
consideration the emancipation processes (e.g. greater control over
one’s lives, equal opportunity and access to resources) and also the
transformative processes ( e.g. right to choose, freedom from
oppression, altering social values) of both the movements. Unlike the
women’s movement, the tribal women’s movement is still to reach a
stage whereupon they can collectively voice their issues. They need
their own organizations and a strong collective voice to take up
issues of livelihoods and socio-economic exploitation faced by the
tribal community as a whole (and tribal women in particular). Members
felt that avenues need to be created between the two movements to
bridge any gap and ensure all women are truly empowered.
Comparative Experiences
Orissa
From Vidhya Das, Agragamee, Orissa
Tribal Women Participate in the Gram Sabhas and other Public Forums
Agragamee has been working with tribal communities in various
districts of the state. They organized training programmes for women
where they were encouraged to speak up and participate in village
meetings. Gradually women started attending and making their presence
felt in larger forums like the Gram Sabhas. Also women started asking
questions related to community development, rights and equality at
such forums. Read more
Power of Women’s Voices Closes Unwanted Shops, Kashipur District
In Mandibisi village, the NGO Agragamee has been successful in helping
women speak up for their rights. The women united against the liquor
bhattis (small distillers) by passing a resolution to close liquor
shops. Coming to know of the automatic renewal of the license for the
liquor shops, these women again passed a resolution urging the closure
of the shops. The District Collector has assured them that the shops
will be closed by the end of March 2009. Read more
Promoting Education amongst the Tribal Girls/Women, Bonai
Sub-Division, Sundargarh District (from Ashok Paikray, PRATHAM,
Orissa)
PRATHAM is promoting education amongst tribal communities jointly with
a few other NGOs. Through this initiative, girls and women received
schooling and training. PRATHAM also encouraged mothers to bring their
children for regular schooling, which helped spread awareness amongst
the community members on the importance of education and motivated
many to plan for a better future. Read more
Lighting Villages by Renewable Resources, Koraput District,
Semiliguda Block (from Sonali Patnaik, Arupa Mission Research
Foundation, Bhubaneswar)
Arupa Mission Research Foundation is working with tribal communities
and has helped electrify two villages using renewable energy sources.
This has helped reduce the drudgery of women, given scope to children
to study and improved livelihood options. Read more
Gujarat
Ensuring Economic Empowerment to Tribal Women (from Ravi Shankar,
AWAM, Ahmedabad)
AWAM works with tribal communities and under a project they
implemented independently, as well as a similar one with UTTHAN, tried
to improve the status of women through economic empowerment. Under the
project, women were given more access to common assets, including
management of assets and financial transactions. Read more
Exclusion to Empowerment for women of Siddi community (from Shailja
Kishore, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, Ahmedabad)
The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme - India (AKRSP(I)) working with
the Siddi community have mobilized the Siddi women to form Mahila
Vikas Mandals (MVMs) or Women Development Groups. Its other activities
like popularizing non-conventional energy uses, land development
activities, providing agricultural knowledge and inputs and
participatory forestry management has improved the socio-economic
status of the Siddi community, particularly the Siddi women. Read more
Tamil Nadu
Earning their Livelihoods Independently, Jawwadhu Hills (from Arokia
Dass, Tamil Nadu Tribal Development Society, Tiruvannamalai)
Tamil Nadu Tribal Development Society is actively engaging with women
from community-based organizations and encouraging them to get a lease
from the government and exercise their right to collect minor forest
products (MFP). This initiative has enabled women to earn their
livelihoods by selling MFPs and created awareness amongst the tribal
women regarding their rights. Read more
Jharkhand
Tribal Woman inspires Collective Action, Gangaghat (from J D Louis,
Tribal Humanity Development Activity (THUDA), Jharkhand)
A Tribal woman with support from THUDA sent a letter to the concerned
office requesting a morning train to stop in the village to make
transportation more convenient for villagers traveling to town
everyday, especially for schoolchildren and working people. The letter
was not answered, so the community carried out a silent protest at the
railway station, which even led the authorities to agree to stop one
train. Read more
Bihar
Inputs for the Tribal MFP Product, Patna (from Sarala Gopalan, All
India Women’s Funds Association, New Delhi)
A vegetable collection centre was established that have helped link
vegetable producers in nearby villages to vegetable vendors in the
city. This has enabled growers to earn reasonable prices. Currently
the centre are handling 57 locally grown vegetables. Based on the
success of first centre, organizers plan to set up collection centres
in other areas as well currently in the area.
Uttarakhand
Chain of Vegetable Producers Benefits the Villagers, Uttarakashi
(from Nirmala Gupta, UN World Food Program, Dehradun)
An initiative by an NGO has led to the formation of SHGs linking
vegetable producers in villages with bigger outlets in Delhi. This
initiative has been quite successful, resulting in an increase in the
income of villagers and a reduction in the post-harvest losses.
Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh
Breaking Barriers by Creating Women’s Networks, Garchiroli District,
Angul, Jodhpur and Rajnandgaon (from Ruchi Pant, Governance Unit,
UNDP, New Delhi)
A Government of India and UNDP supported project, called “Building
Capacities of Elected Women Representatives and Other Functionaries in
the Panchayati Raj Institutions” targeted women from tribal belts. One
strategy was the creation and strengthening of women’s networks. The
focus was on group discussions, role-playing and using song and dance
as learning aids. The positive outcome was the amount of participation
of women and the manner in which they asserted their rights. Read more
Related Resources
Recommended Organizations and Programmes
Agragamee, Bhubaneswar (from Aparimita Pramanik, Mudra Institute of
Communications Research (MICORE), Ahmedabad and Vidhya Das)
ND-8, V.I.P Area, Nayapalli, IRC Village, Bhubaneswar 751015, Orissa;
Tel: 91-674-2551123; Fax: 91-674-2551130; in...@agragamee.org;
http://www.agragamee.org/sectionwomen_sgroups.htm
Promotes tribal development in Orissa using integrated approaches to
help tribal communities mobilize for self-sustaining development
initiatives, including special projects for women
Tribal Humanity Development Activity (THUDA), Ranchi (from J D Louis)
Jorar, Namkom, Ranchi 834010, Jharkhand; Tel: 91-651-2260152;
jdt...@rediffmail.com
It has been working on issues facing tribal communities, especially
tribal women and encouraging them to participate and attend Gram
Sabhas meetings
Saheli Adhyayan Kendra, Jharkhand (from Anna Soren)
Shiv Mandir Lane, Pokharia, Sahebganj 816109, Jharkhand; Tel:
91-6436–224227; damin...@sancharnet.in, damin...@gmail.com
Has been instrumental in the formation of the “Gender, Livelihoods and
Resources Forum,” which is working on gender equity issues concerning
tribal women’s land and livelihood rights
Tribal Resource and Research Centre (TRRC), Gujarat Institute of
Development Research, Ahmedabad (from Radhika Shah, Tribal Empowerment
Network (TEN), Ahmedabad)
Gota, Ahmedabad 380060, Gujarat; Tel: 91-2717-242366/242367/8; Fax:
02717-242365; gi...@gidr.ac.in; http://www.trrc-ten.org/
Conducts research on tribal issues (including those specifically
related to women) and promotes cross-learning among different social
sector practitioners
From Aparimita Pramanik, Mudra Institute of Communications Research
(MICORE), Ahmedabad
Kala Raksha Trust, Kutch
Parkar Vas, Sumrasar Sheikh, Ta Bhuj, Kutch 370001, Gujarat; Tel:
91-2808-277237/8; Fax: 91-2832-255500/0410; in...@kala-raksha.org;
http://www.kala-raksha.org/trust.htm
Working to empower tribal communities in Gujarat by providing
vocational training like tailoring, stitching, painting using tribal
art forms, this is helping to empower tribal women
Tribal Women as the Change Agent (TWCA), India
c/o Digital Empowerment Foundation, House No. # 44, 3rd Floor, Kalu
Sarai, beside Narayana IIT Academy, New Delhi 110016; Tel:
91-11-26532786/87; Fax: 11-26532787; defi...@gmail.com;
http://www.tribalwomanindia.org/
Identifies select groups of women from tribal communities in India and
undertakes development interventions in areas of health, education and
livelihood generation using ICT tools.
From Ravi Shankar, AWAM, Ahmedabad
Utthan, Ahmedabad
36, Chitrakut Twins, B/h Management Enclave, Nehru Park, Vastrapur,
Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat; Tel: 91-79-26751023/ 26732926;
utthan.a...@gmail.com; http://utthangujarat.org/
Has been working for the marginalized communities in India especially
tribals to initiate Sustainable gender sensitive processes of
empowerment
All Women Action Society (AWAM), Malaysia
85, Jalan 21/1, Sea Park, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia;
Tel: 91-3-7877 4221; Fax: 03-7874 3312; aw...@awam.org.my;
http://www.awam.org.my/ (as of 25.5.09 website under construction)
Has worked on biodiversity and women’s livelihood issues and also with
the tribal communities especially women to help empower them
PRATHAM, Cuttack (from Ashok Paikaray)
Surya Vihar, Link Road, Cuttack 753012, Orissa; Tel: 91-671-2322183/
9437066133; pratha...@gmail.com;
http://www.prathamorissa.org/Ourprogram.htm
It aims to ensure education to every child, focus areas are
facilitating education amongst tribal Communities, especially for
girls
Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), Ahmedabad (from Shailja Kishore)
2nd floor, Choice Building, Swastik Char Rasta, Ahmedabad 380051,
Gujarat; Tel: 91-79-6427729/0864; akr...@icenet.net;
http://www.akdn.org/india_rural.asp
Working with tribal women on sustainable community-based approaches
for their livelihood enhancement, especially the Siddi tribes
Attappady Hills Area Development Society (AHADS), Kerela (from Usha P.E)
Agali, Palakkad 678581, Kerala; Tel: 91-4924-254202/516/517/518/289;
Fax: 91-4924-254202; ah...@sancharnet.in;
http://www.ahads.org/sub_ahads_howitworks.html
Eco-restoration project that has brought about considerable ecological
and socio-economic changes, has closely worked with the tribal
communities in Attappady
Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs of India (CWEI), New Delhi (from
Shashi Singh)
1204 Rohit House, 3 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110001; Tel:
91-11-20547255; Fax: 91-11-2335 6030; cwei...@reddiffmail.com;
http://www.cwei.org/
Working for the economic empowerment of women (especially tribals) in
India, currently conducting impact study of tribal development schemes
in 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh
Tamil Nadu Tribal Development Society, Tamil Nadu (from Arokia Dass)
Church Road, Avur S.O., Tiruvannamalai District 606755 Tamil Nadu;
Tel: 91-4175-227072; tntds...@rediffmail.com
Have been actively working with the tribal communities especially the
tribal women encouraging them to actively participate in the
community-based organizations
From Sonali Patnaik, Arupa Mission Research Foundation, Bhubaneswar
Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme (OTELP), Bhubaneswar
TDCCOL Building, 2nd Fl, Rupali Square, Bhoi Nagar, Bhubaneswar 751022
Orissa; sup...@otelp.org;
http://www.otelp.org/LivelihoodEnhancement_ProductionEnhancement_RuralServices.htm
It focuses on empowering the tribals (including women) and enabling
them to enhance their food security, increase their incomes and
improve their overall quality of life
Orissa Forestry Sector Development Project (OFSDP), Bhubaneswar
SFTRI Campus, Seminar Block, AT/PO Ghatikia, Bhubaneswar 751003
Orissa; Tel: 91-674-2384084, 2384016; Fax: 91-674 2384085;
web...@osfdp.org; http://www.ofsdp.org/community_tribal.htm
Actively working with tribal communities by rendering support to
enhance their livelihoods opportunities’
Arupa Mission Research Foundation (AMRF), Bhubaneswar
N6/23, IRC Village, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar 751015 Orissa; Tel:
91-674-2431481; http://www.arupamission.org/livelihood_Project.HTM;
Contact: Sonali Patnaik
Has been working on projects for tribal women in various parts of
Orissa encouraging their collaborative participation in all areas of
development
Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Programme, Bhubaneswar
c/o Project Support Unit (PSU), Watershed Mission Complex, Siripur,
Bhubaneswar 751003 Orissa; Tel: 91-674 2397308/9; Fax: 91-674-2397988;
gen...@worlp.com; http://www.worlp.com/links.aspx#IG
It has worked on a numerous projects with the tribal communities to
enhance the livelihoods of tribal women
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi (from Ruchi Pant)
55 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110003; Tel: 91-11-46532333; Fax:
91-11-24627612; webad...@undp.org;
http://www.undp.org.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=78
Supports Government of India to strengthen systems, institutions and
mechanisms enabling local elected representatives, officials and
communities to perform their functions effectively
Recommended Networks and Communities
Tribal Empowerment Network, Ahmedabad (from Radhika Shah, Tribal
Empowerment Network (TEN), Ahmedabad)
http://trrc-ten.org/tribal-empowerment-network.php; Contact: Radhika
Shah, Moderator; radhik...@trrc-ten.org
Online knowledge-sharing initiative, connecting people with similar
concerns and interests on tribal issues; the objective of the Network
is to facilitate the empowerment of tribal communities
Recommended Documentation
Chief Minister’s Ten Point Programme for Tribal Development (from
Radhika Shah, Tribal Empowerment Network (TEN), Ahmedabad)
Note; Tribal Resource and Research Centre (TRRC), Gujarat Institute of
Development Research, Tribal Development Department, Government of
Gujarat; Gujarat
Available at http://trrc-ten.org/chief-minister-ten-point.php
Describes a programme designed to enable the tribal regions to
leapfrog into mainstream development by bridging the gap between ITDP
blocks and other parts of Gujarat
The National Tribal Policy (from Aparimita Pramanik, Mudra Institute
of Communications Research (MICORE), Ahmedabad)
Policy; Ministry of Tribal Affairs; 2006
Available at http://tribal.nic.in/finalContent.pdf (PDF; Size: 4,056 KB)
Addresses the issue of enhancing the human development indicators
among Scheduled Tribes, especially from a gender perspective
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) (from S. K. Nanda,
Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar)
Act; Government of India; 2005
Available at http://rural.nic.in/rajaswa.pdf (PDF; Size: 52 MB)
Guarantees employment and assures source of income to the marginalized
section including the women from tribal communities
From Exclusion to Empowerment (from Shailja Kishore, Aga Khan Rural
Support Programme (India), Ahmedabad)
Book; Aga Khan Development Network
Available at Aga Khan Foundation, Sarojini House, 6, Bhagwan Dass
Road, New Delhi 110001; akfi...@akdn.org
Highlights experiences of working with the Siddi tribes, especially
tribal women on sustainable community based approaches to enhance
their livelihood options and overall empowerment
From Raj Kumar Khosla, Planning Commission, New Delhi
Annual Report 2000-01 Chapter 4: Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP)
Plan; Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India
Available at: http://tribal.nic.in/chapter4.html
TSP strategy seeks to ensure adequate flow of funds from all Central
Ministries/Departments for the development of tribal communities,
including women
Article 275 (1) of the Constitution of India
Article; Ministry of Tribal Affairs; Government of India; New Delhi; 2000-2001
Available at http://tribal.nic.in/stategrant/GIA-underArticle275.html
Guarantees yearly grants from the Consolidated Fund of India for
promoting the welfare of Scheduled Tribes, including women
From Malika Basu, Resource Person
Women Empowerment And Family Management In Tribal Region
Book; by Udai Prakash Sinha and Rekha Sinha; Concept Publishing Company; 2007
Available at Concept Publishing Company, Building No. 4788-90, Street
No. 23, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New
Delhi-110002;publi...@conceptpub.com
Makes an in-depth study of the role of tribal women in family
management, managing energy and food problems in the household with
special reference to the Santhals
Empowerment of Tribal Women: Wavli
Book; by P.C. Sikligar; Mangal Deep Publications; 2006
Available at Vedams eBooks (P) Ltd.,Vardhaman Charve Plaza IV,Building
# 9, K.P Block, Pitampura, New Delhi 110 034;ved...@vedamsbooks.com
Investigates traditional Wavli system in socio-economic development of
tribal families; also, role of institutions like BAIF in promoting
income generating activities for tribal women
Development of Tribal Women: Problems and Potential
Book; by Chitrasen Pasayat; Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd; 2005
Available at Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd, 4374/4b, Ansari Road,
Daryaganj, New Delhi - 110 002; anmolpub...@vsnl.com,
in...@anmolpublications.com
Covers problems of tribal women’s education, empowerment,
participation in regeneration of forests, rehabilitation due to
displacement, child labour and economic empowerment
Status and Empowerment of Tribal Women in Tripura
Book; by Krishna Nath Bhowmik; Eastern Book Corporation; 2005
Available at Eastern Book Corporation, 1687, Multani Mohalla, Rani
Bagh, Delhi – 110034; east...@vsnl.com
Analyzes social, economic, marital and economic status of Tribal
women of Tripura; attempts to answer the multifarions facts and the
obstacles that come in the way of their empowerment.
Related Consolidated Replies
Right-Based Approach to Tribal Women's Sustainable Development,
Poulomy Chakraborty, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO), Rome (Experiences). Gender Community, Solution Exchange
India. Issued 27 November 2006
Available at http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/cr/cr-se-gen-27110601.pdf
(PDF, Size: 133 KB)
Experiences and success stories of land ownership, economic
empowerment and sustainable development of tribal women in India
Responses in Full
Aparimita Pramanik, Mudra Institute of Communications Research
(MICORE), Ahmedabad
Indigenous and tribal people represent about five per cent of the
world’s population, but over 15% of the world’s poor. There is a
strong emphasis by women tribal leaders (and other stakeholders) to
empower tribal women with ‘decision-making’ and elevate their ‘social
status’. The plight of tribal women is more precarious than their male
counterparts as they often encounter additional barriers related to
gender.
Tribal or non-tribal, women play an indispensable role in key
community based organizations like Self Help Group, Grain Bank and
Mother Teacher Association etc. But they often lack status, mobility,
language skills and literacy –factors which combine to undermine their
confidence and exclude them from processes of decision-making.
Further, women carry the ‘triple burden’ - that of productivity,
reproductively and domestic labour.
The National Policy on Tribal Development (Draft) 2006 addresses the
issue of developing this marginalized section of the population in "an
integrated and holistic manner." The prime aim is to "uplift the
tribals who have been facing acute poverty, alienation from land and
lack of livelihood opportunities." The policy addresses issues of
enhancement of human development indicators among Scheduled Tribes
(STs) - to bring them at par with the general population, improvement
of infrastructure in tribal areas, tribal control over the natural
resource base, displacement and resettlement, and the equitable
distribution of wealth and opportunities among tribals.
The policy also provides for regulatory protection, socio-economic
and political empowerment, increased livelihood opportunities,
improved governance and administration, preservation of tribal
cultural and traditional rights and knowledge (protection of tribal
traditional knowledge under intellectual property rights).
Rapid industrialization led displacement and compensation in the
tribal areas of eastern India especially Orissa, has given rise to
patriarchy and brought an imbalance in the gender equal tribal
community. Private property based livelihood system has resulted in
marginalization of women in tribal areas (and this being the case,
empowering tribal women like women in the mainstream is of urgent
need).
The major obstacle to empower the tribal women is the lack of literacy
and education amongst them (which is essential to build capacity).
Another obstacle is the physical exclusion of the tribals from the
‘main land’; hence, any spill over effect of the ongoing women
movement (or integrating the tribals with the mainstream movement) is
not likely to happen easily. Despite all the bottlenecks, there is a
ray of hope otherwise; Orissa could not have produced some eminent
tribal women like Tulasi Munda of Keonjhar and Sumani Jhodia of
Kashipur. This has been made possible with exogenous civil society
interventions.
My experience with tribal women of Orissa speaks that empowerment
among tribal women is possible, if followings conditions prevails:
· Government should take utmost care not to distort the
livelihood systems of the tribals. If it is being done so, then it
should provide an alternative system of livelihood wherein there is an
equal share of both the male and female member in the concerned
household.
· Government agencies have to establish institutions in the
tribal regions that involve imparting training and education to the
tribal women. Besides, the agencies need to be well tuned and act
together with the individuals and/or civil society organizations,
engaged with tribal communities (e.g. promoting livelihoods). There
should be an environment, where partnerships are seen to evolve and
this will have a positive impact on tribal women participation.
· Tulasi Munda’s rise to prominence with the support of
activists like Malati Choudhary and Sumani Jhodia’s with the help of
Agragamee, is an indication that like minded activists and
organizations having people - centric intervention and skills have to
come in large numbers to these tribal regions and educate the women,
which is the most essential element of Women Empowerment. The broader
goal lies in organizing tribal women in an organized manner so that
when situation calls for, they are empowered enough to agitate for
their basic rights.
· Some tools in the process of empowering tribal women could
be achieved by using the following strategies adopted by NGOs in
different parts for our country.
· Providing education or organizing sensitization programmes
(through street plays, dramas) in their local language.
· Encouraging girls for higher education in tribal regions by
providing scholarships, free hostel facility and creating an
encouraging environment for their over all personality growth.
· Enabling them to realize their basic rights in terms of
health care, education, livelihood issues by organizing special camps,
informal personal visits by the trainer; at times, also citing live
examples (through story telling format) where they can identify the
problem areas and can act accordingly.
· Ensuring participatory approach in decision-making processes
by involving tribal women in local governance.
(http://www.agragamee.org/sectionwomen_sgroups.htm)
· Providing vocational training like tailoring, stitching,
painting using tribal art form (Refer: http://www.kala-raksha.org/)
· Identifying (and encouraging) one of the tribal women from
the community and trained her as peer educator
· Encouraging male participation and sensitization towards
gender issues which facilitates achieving the desired goal of
empowering tribal women
· Engaging tribal women in development interventions in areas
of health, education and livelihood generation using ICT tools like
the Tribal Women as Change Agents (TWCA) (operating in selected groups
of tribal women in select locations in India;
refer:http://www.tribalwomanindia.org/)
Rachna Sarkar, Irrigation Department, Lucknow
My association with tribal women is not prominent but I have been
closely associated with development of ‘rural women’ (including tribal
women) in various projects. Based on my experiences, with regards to
the tribal women's empowerment, I have a few suggestions to offer.
These are stated here:
· We all know that the largest section of rural and tribal
women work in the unorganized sector. The first priority therefore is
to organize them. For this, the self help groups of women is one of
the best options as it has also been found very effective in
organizing and sensitizing women on various issues and empowering them
socially and economically. It may be added that the collaboration of
Panchayats, NGOs with these Self Help Groups at the grassroots level
could become very effective for implementation of any grassroots level
initiative. (Depending on the strength of the stakeholders at the
grassroots level, different models of collaboration can be worked out
for effective implementation, to transform the situation at the ground
level).
· The tribal economy has been traditionally ‘forest-centered’,
where women spent huge time in collecting firewood and equally
important role in gathering forest produce. Their participation in
decision making in Forest Management Committees thus becomes
essential.
· Transition from 'high birth rate and high death rate' to
'high birth rate and low death rate' and 'declining sex ratio among
children while increasing sex ratio among the aged' are some of the
demographic trends which should be taken care of through various
health and women development initiatives.
· The task of stabilization of population is not simply a
question of birth control or contraceptives. It is intrinsically
connected with the larger issues of alleviation of poverty,
empowerment of women, changing mind set of men, women and community,
and of creating opportunities and an enabling environment of all round
development of women, children and adolescents. There is a tendency to
marginalize these 'strategic' issues in the belief that 'practical'
needs are in some sense more immediate, urgent and easier to manage.
Unless these practical needs of women are conceived within a long run
and 'strategic' framework, there is a danger of losing sight of the
essential inter connections between the two.
· Moreover, while proceeding for action the districts and
blocks should be graded according to the level of achievements in the
social sectors. Thereafter, block specific action plans should be
framed for achieving the National socio-economic goals within the
given time frame.
· Instead of uniform allocation of resources to blocks as is
currently the practice in almost all the programmes, a more flexible
and need- based approach should be undertaken. The segment of
population and areas, which have lagged behind in national development
efforts, should be positively discriminated, so that they can be
helped as quickly as possible to reach the minimum desired levels of
standards and goals. But care should also be taken to ensure that
those blocks which have shown results do not feel discriminated
against.
· In order that district or block specific plans and projects
can be prepared, implemented and monitored it is necessary to develop
a system of gender-segregated data on various indices of development
at the district and sub district level at regular intervals. The
absence of such data, constraints the preparation of sound Women
Development Plans at the field level.
Ravi Shankar, All Women Action Society (AWAM) India, Ahmedabad
Your concerns are indeed shared by many who are into rural/tribal
development activities. While addressing gender and livelihood issues,
we tend to overstep the community's right to independent decision
making. Many over-enthused development planners (and sincere workers)
at times impose their own set of thinking regarding ‘mainstreaming’.
In one of the programs on biodiversity and women's livelihood issues
supported by GEF in Gujarat's tribal areas, we tried to address some
of the questions you have raised through your query. I am here sharing
my learnings for the benefit of all.
1. How to design civil society initiatives on gender issues amongst
tribal communities, without disturbing the community's right to
independent decision-making?
· The best approach that we tried and succeeded is to call for
a joint meeting of the entire community that includes virtually every
segment within the community.
· Understand cultural ethos and gender equations.
· Present your agenda in front of the group and try to explore
possible outcomes.
· Develop a plan jointly (here we must be careful to practise
considerable restraint in delivering our opinions).
In our projects we tried to integrate the project objectives with
that of the community (where we also tried to give support to women's
leadership). This works well. I could comment more if you could share
specific issues in your case.
2. What are the ways we can design cross-learning strategies between
the women's movement in general and tribal women's movement, which
gives strength to each other, without violating each others' space?
Here again, I would emphasise on 'participatory learning
methodologies' that could give enough space for tribal women movement
to learn from women's movement in general. In my experience, tribal
women are quite mature and practical. In fact, women's movement in
general could have a lot to learn from the role of women in tribal
culture. There is a chance of the promoting NGO to insist on
mainstream gender values (upon tribal women). This is likely to happen
more if the staff is engaged in ‘a project-based activity’ (as they
could carry considerable bias towards mainstream gender movement).
3. What steps are necessary to empower tribal women towards analysis,
realisation and assertion of their rights as a 'woman' and 'citizen'?
The most critical thing is economic empowerment followed by social
empowerment. Without economic empowerment the social change would not
be sustainable. In Gujarat, we tried to empower tribal women by
ensuring more access to common assets, its management and financial
transactions. This needs considerable allocation for asset creation,
capacity building and initial working capital to run the economic
activity.
There is also need to allocate budgets for 'negotiation process' with
men where we equally educate them on strategies and processes. This
ensures their support and cooperation. This is a process that takes
minimum 3-5 years and there is no shortcut. We worked on such project
with UTTHAN in Gujarat (which I personally rate as a great learning
experience).
Vidhya Das, Agragamee, Kashipur, Orissa (response 1)
You have raised a crucial issue, which needs attention. The issue is
however complex. Tribal women are doubly oppressed – not only by the
patriarchal traditions and values within their own communities but
also by being members of one of the most disadvantaged and deprived
sections of our society.
When we at Agragamee began working with tribal communities in Orissa
and started to look at the issues and problems of tribal women in
particular, we realized we needed to adopt a two-pronged strategy.
This included one, addressing the women-specific issues (through
training and capacity building to adhere to women-specific needs) and
second, encouraging women to take up collectively - issues of
livelihoods and also of socio-economic exploitation faced by the
community as a whole. In our training programmes, we tried to
encourage women to speak up and participate in village meetings.
Gradually women started attending and making their presence felt in
larger forums like the Gram Sabhas, wherein they started asking
questions related to community development, rights and equality – to
those present (mostly their men folk and/or the community leaders).
What is interesting to note here is that in these larger forums women
were talking of taking ‘collective action’ to address issues that
affected their community as a whole. These included demand for minimum
wages, demand for right to forest produce, campaign for land and
livelihoods, voice against indiscriminate licensing of liquor
breweries. Persistent and sustained effort on many of these fronts
over the years has really empowered women, who have also started to
take the lead in Gram Sabha decisions, and demand accountability of
their representatives. In addition, women are collectively showing the
way in reclaiming wastelands for income generation, and encouraging
the community as a whole to take up better and more equitable land use
within the village.
The battle is not over yet! But the point I wish to make by citing
the above examples of collective action is that when women from
deprived sections like the tribal communities are empowered to address
‘common overarching issues’ of their community, then they are also
empowered to deal with patriarchy within their family and community.
In our experience and view, initially it is essential to ‘empower’
women to address issues affecting their community as a whole, rather
than taking up first the issues of patriarchy and gender
discrimination within the family and the community. The latter is
divisive, and undermines what little strength the community has as a
whole, to fight exploitative forces.
Ashok Paikaray, PRATHAM, Orissa
On the issue of strategies to empower tribal women, we have some
successful initiatives to share. One of them with which I have been
closely involved is facilitating 'education amongst the tribal
communities', through our organization PRATHAM, in Bonai Sub-division
of Sundargarh in Orissa. This initiative was taken by Pratham Orissa
jointly with Mahavir Yubak Sangh and Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan, Sundargarh
with financial support from the Eastern Zone Mining Association. The
tribal girls/women were trained by PRATHAM and were encouraged to
bring their children to school for regular schooling. (During the
trainings, they were also encouraged to inculcate banking habits).
These initiatives by PRATHAM were possible also because of the
encouragement and guidance received from Mr. MadhuSudan Padhi, IAS,
the then Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Sambalpur (presently working
as Special Administrator and Secretary, Higher Education, Government
of Orissa).
In Bonai sub-division, our presence is in around 210 villages where
we are encouraging women to educate their children, especially girl
children, and send them to schools. In the schools, these children are
particularly taken care of until they go to higher classes. In other
words, they are ‘mainstreamed’ in the school (since they are given
special attention). This, we find, has raised their - community
members as well as the children going to school, general awareness. It
is also motivating them to think of a better future for themselves.
What I also want to add is that in our initiatives to bring tribal
children to school, we have received considerable support from
corporate houses like the Eastern Zone Mining association and Rourkela
Steel Plant. For me, this initiative is a success story also because
it is an effort of ‘public-private partnership’. This is an indication
that ‘collaborative efforts’ can make small initiatives turn into a
big success. We can share detailed report of our initiatives if
members are interested. You can also write to me
(ak_pa...@yahoo.com) for further details.
Toms K. Thomas, Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF), Kerala
To me, the cry for rights and empowerment of women is just a dramatic
exercise in many contexts! I apologies for my being too critical on
the issue of empowering tribal communities. What I feel from my
experience (working with tribal communities for over 10 years) is,
there are many things and practices to learn by the so called
‘empowered’ (especially the urban empowered elites) themselves. For
instance, the community relationship, social cohesion and openness are
some of the things which the ‘empowered’ should learn from the (poor)
tribal communities.
Further, bringing transformation in social relations in traditional
communities is not an over night thing; rather, it is a long process
and if any organization decides to work for the development of Tribes,
I wish to alert them that they should be prepared to spend a life time
with them (out side the limits of ‘just a project’).
The definition of civil society too, I find, is subjective. Do we
mean that the tribal women are not a part of the Civil Society? My
fear is that when we highlight/talk of civil society intervention in
tribal movements, it should not end up in putting western ideas and
the urban thoughts on the tribals. It would only destroy their
‘solidarity and inbuilt mechanisms’ of the communities.
Even while talking of empowering tribal women, we must know that many
of them are already empowered. In my experience, I find that the
tribal women - they care for one another, they help others, there is
less disparity and discrimination amongst them, they are often content
with what they have, they are also sincere and honest - what else
could we call as empowerment? Tribes to me have more characteristics
of ‘real empowerment’ compared to most of the empowered urban elite!
Yes, I do agree that their (tribal communities) life needs to be
improved but if they are content with their lifestyle why should we
disturb them? A strong conviction for change is very important which
is beyond just the issue of empowerment. I would call it or view the
conviction as freedom - freedom in all sense: economic, social,
cultural, etc, with out compromising the culture of solidarity (which
is most important).
Sorry for being radical towards the idea of empowering tribal
communities/women. Hope some of you may agree with this.
Radhika Shah, Tribal Empowerment Network (TEN), Ahmedabad
The Government of Gujarat is currently implementing the 'Chief
Minister's Ten Point Programme for the Development of Tribal Areas'
launched in 2007. The Programme focuses on bridging the gap between
ITDP blocks and other parts of Gujarat. The Ten Point Programme will
allocate a package of Rs.15000 crores over the next five years - the
largest in the state's history of tribal development – so as to
permanently remove persistent poverty along with social and civil
infrastructure development in ITDP areas. Further information about
the Programme is available on
http://trrc-ten.org/chief-minister-ten-point.php
Gender Framework for the Ten Point Programme
While on the surface, it may seem that tribal women enjoy greater
freedom compared to other rural women; this does not mean that tribal
women are more empowered. This is borne out by the lack of medical
attention during childbirth and consequentially higher maternal
mortality and higher malnourishment rates in the tribal districts. The
government, as part of the Ten Point Programme, has developed a gender
framework to ensure that women are equal partners and accrue benefits
from the different initiatives. Emphasis has been given to drudgery
reduction, access to credit, housing and capacity building while
developing the framework.
The state has initiated measures such as arranging LPG connections
through the existing Fair Price Shops; actively involving women in
major livelihood development projects; providing tap water connections
up to the kitchen level and extending the Chiranjeevi Scheme to cover
all pregnant ST women.
Drudgery reduction: Tribal women spend considerable amount of time
and energy behind menial tasks such as collecting water and fuel wood.
The Programme includes the provision of easy access to safe drinking
water for all tribal households and also aims at providing a water
point for the cattle so that the women are spared the burden of
carrying water for the animals. In addition, the Programme provides
LPG connections for cooking to all tribal households, thus negating
the need for women to collect fuel wood.
Access to credit: Effectively, 50% of all project credit will be
given to women, whether or not they own assets. They will be made
partners in micro enterprises and will be provided credit even if they
themselves do not own land or other assets.
Housing: All houses sanctioned under the Programme will have the woman
as the joint owner.
Capacity building: Women will comprise 50% of the trainees for the
skill upgrading and capacity building initiatives under the Programme.
Within school education programmes too, girls will comprise 50% of the
enrolled students.
S K. Nanda, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar
Thanks for understanding the focus and strategies in place of the
Government of Gujarat and getting them across to all.
I remember having pushed vigorously for the scheme on LPG
connectivity for women in the belt for reduction of man-hours spent on
wood collection when I was Secretary of Food Department. But the moot
questions for tribals are livelihood and income generation. Here,
NREGA can be a great relief if the same is planned, informed and
people identified much in advance so that they are assured and sure of
the income in months ahead. There is no assuring system in place for
doing this round of work since the locals are not participative and
those participative are not committed to this task. This is an area of
advocacy and focus. The inertia and nexus, whatever is seen, has to be
broken (like the chain of poverty if the rays of freshness have to
reach the meadows of homes and not houses alone, where they live and
breathe today).
Next, is the emphasis on grass collection and growing in JFM areas,
degraded areas and forest tracts; cattle and dairy as an activity for
promotion; and multi cropping and short gestation crops with a
commercial tag. If this goes through (assuming the normal convergence
of infrastructure through water, irrigation, check dams and reasonable
power stability which are the great thrust areas of governance today
in Gujarat) the tribals do not need to depend on anything external for
sustenance.
I am of the opinion that there is also potential in the raising of
farm forest wood for industrial and packing needs as an economic
activity. Further, there is potential bamboo cultivation or any
commercial varieties like Nilgiri or Poplar, the way it is done in
Haryana. These can make a visible change in income and capacity and
this is what we must get kick-started for giving them a window for
more liquidity, more freedom, more savings and more options to grow.
Skill building, education and vocation avenues are also important
options but they are more long term and slow moving and so all these
need to be a part of the package and simply creating reduction targets
in IMR, MMR or drudgery can not help them to walk out of the mess (or
any vicious chain). These are important but they can not bring the
desired transformation singly and so we need to have a multi pronged
package with all these elements at all levels of participation and by
all agencies with equal steam from NGOs to government etc.
This is what I thought of writing for more fruitful methodologies.
Shailja Kishore, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), Ahmedabad
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) has been working with tribal
women on sustainable community based approaches for their livelihood
enhancement. It has especially worked with tribes like Siddis in
Junagadh district; Kotwalias, Kathodias, Vasavas, Choudharys & Gamits
in Narmada, Surat & Bharuch districts of Gujarat and Bhil, Bhilala &
Korko tribes in Khandwa, Khargon and Burhanpur districts of Madhya
Pradesh.
Our experiences with Siddis are available in the book “From Exclusion
to Empowerment”, published by Aga Khan Development Network. An article
regarding their experience was recently published in LEISA and is
available at
http://india.leisa.info/index.php?url=article-details.tpl&p[_id]=220042
Praveer Peter, Gender, Livelihoods and Resources Forum (GLRF), Ranchi
Thank you all for your responses. I really appreciate what members
have been sharing as strategies one can look into and/or initiate and
also some of their concerns, like the ones raised by Vidhya Das and
Toms K Thomas in their respective responses. It is indeed crucial to
pinpoint and debate the essence of ‘mainstreaming’! Also, who actually
decides, formulates and implements - is a crucial question when
discussing issues of exclusion/inclusion; equally relevant is to
prioritize, when it comes to (tribal) community rights vis-à-vis
individual (tribal women) rights.
My query is soon going to close. I was hoping that within our
discussion, whether we could also touch upon the role of women's
movement (leaders) in building / supporting the issues of tribal women
and gender equity initiatives within tribal community.
Also, I would really like if our friends/ tribal activists from the
North-East states and/or those engaged in the central belts could
share their views.
Smita Premchander, Sampark, Bangalore
It is good that you ask the question about tribal women separately.
Their situation is so different from that of those in non-tribal
communities. Tribal societies tend to be inherently more equitable and
yet, as you point out, women therein remain dispossessed of property.
I refer here to question 1: design of initiatives that will empower
women within the community (and will enable them to deal with external
parties as well). I would like to share some personal experiences from
the Bastar region, now Chhattisgarh. In Bastar, I found that tribal
women needed ‘social protection and livelihoods support’ (which
ensures amongst other things, basic food security). The infant and
maternal mortality rates in this region were/are very high, with very
low penetration of health and education services. The school and
Anganwadis in the villages did not function, and the PDS system was
equally fraught with corruption.
Women needed to make these work so that their food security situation
improved at least a little, and children could have access to minimal
education. To realize this, women needed to be aware, organized, and
have a collective voice (strong enough) to make demands on the
government/official system – not only to make it transparent but also
make them function properly. In other words, what women need is -
(tribal) women's own organizations to create a collective voice (for
their benefit).
Second, I used to see tribal women bring minor forest products (MNP)
to nearest market (often at quite a distance) every week. In the
rainy season, I witnessed women walking 2 to 3 hours each way,
balancing a basket of MFPs on the head, a child balanced on one hip,
and holding a large cane umbrella with another hand.
To me, walking like this on slippery roads and riverside was quite a
feat! When they would reach the market, they wanted to sell fast, then
buy their weekly ration (oil, salt, potato, onions, etc.), and return
home at the earliest since many had more children at home, whom they
had left behind in the care of the men. The traders in the market who
bought the MFPs seemed to know their (tribal women) urgency to get
back. What they would do is to quickly empty the basket on their
weighing scale, then empty the scale on a heap of something else
(usually fruits) so that the woman barely got a chance to see how many
kilos she brought.
Then the trader would thrust five rupees in her hand; if she doggedly
stood there refusing the deal, then he would thrust few more rupees
and finally she would accept and leave (to make her purchases). In
such a recurrent scenario, I felt, women needed to first get over the
language barrier to be able to negotiate with the trader/s. They also
needed the confidence to be able to do so.
While their self-help groups may teach them to save small amounts of
money, they also need to come together for initiatives such as
collecting their MFPs, transporting them together, make good deals on
prices (and not lose out on any transaction). In all this, women’s
literacy is the key. My concern is NGOs who have started SHGs (amongst
tribals) have not yet made such interventions.
Usha P.E., Attappadi Hills Area Development Society (AHADS), Kerala
As some have already pointed out that, it is remarkable how easily we
talk about tribes as if they are not part of civil society! Similarly
usage of the terminologies – ‘mainstream’, ‘marginalized’ - indeed who
decides who is marginalized, what is mainstream? To me, these are
equally relevant questions.
One thing I would like to mention here is that it is important to
understand the notion of autonomy (very important in the context of
empowerment). In my experience, in the field of tribal women
empowerment a programme, getting sensitized first towards their
culture and language is needed. Many a times, we tend to treat them as
undeveloped (as if synonymous with uncultured). Tribal communities
have their own culture, language and customs. Many will be surprised
to see/know that they (tribals) have better gender concerns than the
dominant society! Though, at the same time, it can not be overlooked
that within their communities as well they have started practices like
dowry, denying property right to women.
In my view, with the help of the community itself (through
participatory learning programmes) we have to map out the ‘gender
status’. In addition, we have to make them aware of their situation
vis-à-vis situation of the ‘others’. The point is, whichever
methodology is adopted to strategize, it must try and include as much
as possible from their (tribal people) own culture. Documentation of
their experiences in utilizing the systems/programmes
developed/initiated for them is needed and which must add to
information for further actions.
Smita Mishra Panda, Human Development Foundation, Bhubaneswar
I agree to some extent what Vidhya has to say about empowerment of
tribal women in Orissa. However, based on my experiences of working in
Gujarat and some parts of Rajasthan among tribal women, I would say
what we need is to distinguish between collective and individual
empowerment. Why I say this is - as a ‘collective’, women are very
empowered and maybe even better equipped to counter patriarchy at the
community level.
But the most crucial aspect is - what happens at the household level
- the private domain? Are there any changes in gender relations? These
women are forever planning strategies to counter adverse forces at the
household level that prevent them from interacting with the public
domain. So invariably, (while the burden on women multiplies) nothing
much changes in the private domain.
I am aware that change does not happen overnight. It requires
continuous engagement with the tribal women (to empower them), using
different strategies.
As a first step, it is important to address women-specific needs and
appropriately design strategies and programmes. It is also important
to ensure that the community acknowledges the contribution of women in
various programmes - NRM, income generation etc. At some stage, it is
extremely important to engage with men, depending on the context, in
different programmes.
There is no blue print available! Practitioners are in a better
position to decide when/how to do this. We need to learn from them.
Raj Kumar Khosla, Planning Commission, New Delhi
With regards to the three questions raised in the query on "Strategies
to Empowerment Tribal Women", I would like to focus on the third one.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, has taken
special initiative to address the issues related to gender
perspective. Under the jurisdiction of this Ministry, a number of
schemes have been running to empower the tribal women through
education, support for economic activities, etc. Among them, the
important ones are those under Article 275 (1) and Tribal Sub-Plan
(TSP). Under these schemes, the Government has supported the State
Government as well as Non-Government Organisations for socio-economic
development of tribal women in specific.
Therefore, I would like to further suggest that for more information
regarding the above area, the website of Ministry of Tribal Affairs
can be used (http://www.tribal.nic.in/index1.html).
Sarala Gopalan, All India Women's Funds Association, New Delhi
The discussion is very interesting. I would like to highlight an
initiative I learnt about recently in Patna, Bihar, which can be used
as a model.
Mr. Kausalendra, an MBA from Ahmedabad has started a vegetable
collection Centre at Patna linking the vegetable producers in the
villages on the one side and vegetable vendors in Patna on the other,
and has succeeded in giving reasonable prices to the growers, by
shortening the link to the market.
The latest India Today has an article about this. Mr. Kausalendra
said his two colleagues have also joined him recently and they are
planning to expand this initiative to more areas. They are currently
handling 57 vegetables grown in the area. This model could be tried
for the Tribal MFP products to get them better bargains and protect
them from exploitation.
Vidhya Das, Agragamee, Orissa (response 2)
In continuation of what I wrote about empowerment of women, I would
like to emphasize that when we work with women from marginalized
(Dalit and tribal) communities, we really need to first look at the
‘power-relationships’ that affect their overall wellbeing, and then
help them address gender relations within the community and the
family. In my previous response, I had mentioned that women have been
able to organize the entire community around livelihood issues, issues
of non-payment of minimum wags, and bring about policy changes that
helped the entire tribal community in Orissa have better income from
minor forest produce from their forests.
These women whom I referred to are from Mandibisi (Kashipur District,
Orissa), who really led the struggle on Minor Forest Produce; now,
they are once again up in arms against the Liquor ‘Bhattis’
(stalls/shops) that has been creating havoc in the villages of
Mandibisi. This is an example of the ‘power of women's voices’ when
they get organized.
In most tribal areas, and in fact in most rural areas, women rarely
attend the Gram Sabhas. But in Mandibisi, women dominate the Gram
Sabha meetings. On 26 January 2008, they made sure that a unanimous
resolution was passed to close all liquor shops. This resolution was
sent to the district administration, with requests to take appropriate
steps. The administration did little. However, in November 2008, the
Collector issued a letter stating that if the administration was not
informed of the Gram Sabha’s decision regarding the liquor stalls
within 30 days of issuing of the notice, the Bhatti license would be
automatically renewed (when they expire in March 2009).
This letter was suppressed by the Panchayat Secretary for 20 days and
given to Nandu Majhi, the Sarpanch less than a week before the
deadline. The members of Mandibisi Mahila Mandal told Nandu Majhi not
to despair and oganised a Gram Sabha within two days. There were more
than 200 women present led by Lakai Dei, president of Mandibisi Mahila
Mandal and Shukri Majhi, a committee member of the Mandal. They made a
strong appeal to everybody present against the liquor shops. Several
small time 'Netas' tried to subvert the meeting but Shukri Majhi's
powerful speech, brought out a collective response from the rest of
the women.
Once again, a unanimous resolution was passed to close the liquor
shops. The next day, the Sarpanch and the Mahila Mandal members went
to the District Collector and handed him a copy of the resolution, and
demanded that they be given a receipt for it. They have been assured
that the liquor stalls will be closed by the end of March.
Shashi Singh, Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs of India (CWEI), New Delhi
It may be of interest to know that the Consortium of Women
Entrepreneurs of India - CWEI, is conducting an impact study of tribal
development schemes in 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh. Issues and
strategies will strongly emerge out of the impact assessment. We would
be happy to share the findings with you and other Gender Community
members.
Presently, I am sharing some of the preliminary findings based on the
initial surveys. In January 2009, a committee was formed by the State
Coordinator of CWEI in Madhya Pradesh to carry out the Impact
Assessment. An orientation camp was also organized under the
leadership of the state coordinator and district coordinators at
Indore to explain the various schemes undertaken by the state
Government of Madhya Pradesh. Thereafter, the objectives and
deliverables of the assignment were given to CWEI field staff in MP.
Our assessment has started in all seven districts/locations of Indore
division namely – Dhar, Barwani, Kukshi, Alirajpur, Jhabua, Khargoan &
Khandwa. We have received good support from the Head of Tribal
Department, Indore division.
What we experience as our preliminary findings is that trainings were
missing in all the schemes. In our view, the impact of the
schemes/programmes would be much greater if the need assessment was
carried out and trainings imparted (with specific skills wherever
needed).
For assessment purposes, the Project In charge has categorized groups
into different samitiis which include Dairy, Pashu samiti, krishi
samiti etc. All these samitis during the survey explained the work
done under various schemes in their area. Those who benefited were
asked to explain the benefits they received in detail. Much of Impact
was found in diary activity and by and large it was assessed that the
members had improved their standard of living.
Arokia Dass, Tamil Nadu Tribal Development Society, Tiruvannamalai
I would like to briefly answer your questions as follows.
1. How to design civil society initiatives on gender issues - amongst
tribal communities, without disturbing the community’s right to
independent decision making?
There are some important rights ensured to indigenous people
worldwide. These are right to land and resources, self-rule, cultural
identity and intellectual property right. I would say that the tribal
people were alienated from their Right to traditional land from the
time of British rule (continuing till date). Establishment of reserve
forests, evictions and denial of land entitlement etc. further
worsened the situation.
Since in the modern society, the land ownership has gone to ‘male
member/s’, this has gradually led women to lose their land right. A
few tribal women though have land from their fathers but only when
there is no male legal heir! However, what tribal women still have is,
access to resources like the Minor Forest Produce (MFP). As per the
existing laws, MFP can be collected without destructing the forests.
Tribal women in large numbers collect MFP like honey, herbs, seeds,
fruits etc.
In Jawwadhu Hills, where our Tamil Nadu Tribal Development Society is
involved we organize the women in community based organizations and
encourage them to get lease from the government and exercise their
right to collect the minor forest products. So, the women are free to
collect such products and process them or sell them to earn their
livelihoods. Earlier such collections were made by outsiders who were
not tribes. This economic and resource right has created consciousness
amongst the tribal women and they are moving forward.
(I also feel such initiatives which enable the tribal women to
actively participate in dialogues/consultations on their rights -
ensured to Indigenous people in UN declarations, will lead to further
learning and sharing within tribal communities).
2. What are the ways we can design cross learning strategies between
the women’s movement in general and tribal women’s movement, which
gives strength to each other with out violating each others space?
Women’s movement in general is aimed at greater freedom and rights to
women, at par with men. It also has leadership of some educated women;
it aims for political rights as well. The movement voices itself
whenever there are oppressions on women.
On the contrary, the tribal women are still to reach a stage
whereupon they can collectively tell and voice their issues. The
tribal women movements therefore has greater role to play in order to
sustain themselves. Generally, the tribal women have shyness and feel
inferior to others as they primarily lack literacy. There is a gap
which needs to be filled; avenues need to be created so that broadly
the two movements can go along with each other, learning from each
other.
3. What steps are necessary to empower tribal women towards analysis,
realization and assertion of their rights as a 'woman' and 'citizen'?
Firstly, it is important to take steps to promote literacy amongst
tribal women. Education is a powerful tool to create awareness and
also to understand, analyze the society and the exploitative forces
behind. Further, they can become aware of their rights and government
development initiatives to make better use of them.
Secondly, organization of tribal women is important to give them the
opportunity of meeting together, sharing and find solidarity. The
tribal women can be organized in community based organizations/self
help groups and such organizations could enable them towards
realization of their educational rights, health and reproductive
rights and many others. I strongly feel that real empowerment emerges
from/through education and organization.
Nirmala Gupta, UN World Food Program, Dehradun
Following the initiative cited by Dr. Sarala Gopalan in her response
earlier, I would like to add that there is a similar project in
Uttaranchal implemented by a NGO.
They have formed SHGs in Uttarkashi and have linked the vegetable
producers in the villages with the bigger outlets (such as mother
dairy) in Delhi. By doing this they have succeeded in increasing the
income of the villagers and at the same time reduce post harvest loss
and of course avoiding the middlemen.
Devika Biswas, SANCALP, Jharkhand
I would like to respond to your query as follows:-
· When we yet want to empower tribal communities,
particularly the women, then we must do two things within the
community: a) give them (the women) as much expose as possible to the
‘good practices’ of empowerment - such as equality practiced and
supported by law and customs in other communities which are prosperous
due to such practices; b) Ensure education for them and also giving
them legal support so that they can decide their own way to lead a
contemporary life. These two ways are slow processes. I also feel that
we should raise issues related to empowerment to these communities so
that they do introspection of their customs and practices themselves,
for any change.
· The answer to your second question is again - provide
‘opportunities of expose’ to other tribal communities who are quite
advance and empowered. Let some able tribal women of Jharkhand
undertake studies of such communities and put before them before or
share with other communities, which can then demand suitable changes,
if needed, in existing practices.
· Thirdly, the tribal women of Jharkhand should be encouraged
to get higher education; only then can they demand or challenge any
bad practices of their communities, which debar them to practice
‘equality of human statuses’ as their culture.
Hope this would lead to further debate on the issues of gender
equity and equality.
Sonali Patnaik, Arupa Mission Research Foundation (AMRF), Bhubaneswar
(abstract of response)
Interestingly, the subject of empowering tribal communities, enhancing
cross learning and decision making without disturbing the fabric of
the tribal communities and encroaching on each other’s space comes at
time when the Government, Non Government and Donor and funding
agencies talk of inclusion and exclusion of the marginalized in our
country. As most of AMRF’s projects cover parts of tribal Orissa, we
would like to share our experiences with you and hope they would be
helpful.
I have discussed each of the questions in the query and shared our
experiences with regard to the same in the following order. I hope
that others from Orissa and other places would add on to it and make
it richer:
· Tribal Orissa: A brief background
· The need for gender equity in tribal communities of Orissa
· Designing civil society initiatives on gender issues
· Designing cross learning Strategies between the women’s
movement in general and the tribal women’s movement without violating
each other’s space.
· Steps to empower tribal women towards analysis, realization
and assertion of their rights as “Women” and as “Citizens”
· Conclusion
Empowerment of tribal women would necessitate endowing them with
capacities to analyze, realize and assert their rights as “Women” and
“Citizens” by creating a conducive and enabling environ for them. This
would mean empowerment of the women at a spiritual/ self (confidence)
level, at political, social and economic levels. It would be prudent
to say that this may be possible through two main approaches: capacity
building and economic independence (livelihoods) which would give them
the confidence to assert their rights and participate in all
decision-making processes.
But firstly, it would be important for tribal women to
· Understand what their rights are as “women and as “citizens”.
· Create the need in women to be empowered
· Provide the necessary environ for asserting their rights
From our experience, we feel no method can be greater than the
participatory method, wherein one brings about change through
interactive, collaborative participation of the tribal women in all
processes of development. Finally, it is felt that such interventions
for empowerment may be a step forward in addressing the issues of
patriarchy in the long run. Often in projects and programmes it is
expected that wonders will happen in a short duration.
However, keeping in view the marginalized and difficult situations,
the language barriers and low uptake and retention levels in which
tribal women or the tribal community as a whole exists and the limited
accessibility to them and by them, patient, participative,
collaborative and prolonged interventions are necessary to bring about
change.
(See full response)
J. D. Louis, Tribal Humanity Development Activity (THUDA), Ranchi
(abstract of response)
1) Without compromising the tribal communities’ right to
decision-making, NGOs can take up various gender related issues for
discussion within these communities. Further, efforts can be made to
a) raise awareness amongst the tribal communities through training; b)
put pressure on the government to implement (through proper planning)
the existing laws related to the welfare of the tribal communities; c)
Forums like GLRF can get better organized and do advocacy with the
government.
2) To empower tribal women a) one need to work hand in hand with their
men not only within the households but also outside their homes. Every
work, which entails taking decisions, must allow scope for mutual
discussions between men and women; b) Gram Sabha Meetings: In
Jharkhand it has been witnessed that only male members attend the Gram
Sabha and take decisions (having their own perspectives).
Even if there is 30% reservation in the panchayats it has not made
much difference amongst the tribal communities. What is needed is to
encourage women to come and attend the Gram Sabhas regularly. THUDA
has been working towards this and as a result, in one of the villages
(Bundu) where it works women have been attending the Gram Sabhas
regularly.
A Case of Collective Action: Ms. Alfa Tikri is an educated woman from
Gangaghat, Angara block, Ranchi district. She came in contact with
THUDA and started organizing the women in her area. Gangaghat is a
railway station, surrounded by eight villages. At Gangaghat, couple of
trains halt during the day. People from the villages if they need to
go to the town, they have the following options: to walk the 20 km or
use their own conveyance, if any, or rely on the trains that stop
here. With support from THUDA, Ms. Tikri sent a request letter to DRM
Hatia to consider the stopping of a morning train passing through
Gangaghat for two minutes.
This would help the schoolchildren and people traveling daily for
work in the morning. Nothing happened following this request. On May 1
2006, 300-400 men and women carried out a silent protest at the
Gangaghat railway station, which even led the authorities to agreeing
to stop one train. No action was however taken. But the women have
continued with their demand. Also being a collective lot now they are
able to do lot of other activities.
3) As to the steps necessary to empower tribal women towards
analysis, realization and assertion of their rights as a 'woman' and
'citizen', these can include a) raise awareness; b) to empower tribal
women’s organization; c) assign special roles to women in the ongoing
development works; d) give attention to tribal women (especially the
widows, unmarried) and enable them to exercise their rights within the
patriarchal system e) ensure that laws (and rights) are implemented
even at the grassroots level.
(See full response in Hindi at
http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/resource/res_info_13020901.pdf,
PDF; Size: 34 KB)
Anna Soren, Saheli Adhyayan Kendra, Jharkhand (abstract of response)
Forest, Water and Land related Issues
Tribal communities’ lives and livelihoods are largely intertwined with
forest, water and land resources. Control must therefore be exercised
to ensure that neither of these resources are disrupted or destroyed.
The point on ‘lack of ownership’ needs to be highlighted. Land rights
for the tribal (particularly those marginalized and landless)
communities will have a positive impact on their livelihoods.
Suggestion is that the various schemes of the government can also
ensure women’s groups the right to acquire ‘land on lease’ and
undertake community farming.
Other than recognizing tribal women’s role in forestry, land and small
businesses (which enhances their social status), there is a need to
create opportunities which can enable them, say for instance, collect
and sell Minor Forest Products (MFP) through (their own) cooperatives.
Special focus on Forestry Rights
As already mentioned, there is the need to recognize the tribal
women’s dependence on forest and its products. They play significant
role in collection, processing and selling MFP – making it a major
source of their livelihoods.
Documentation of Tribal History and Culture
An area, which needs much input is the documentation of the
contributions of tribal women to tribal history, literature; also
highlighting their roles in tribal culture. A suggestion is to think
in terms of setting up an academic institute/university with a tribal
women’s centre where tribal women can pursue academics. This will also
enable (and encourage) the women to take up leadership roles.
Tribal women need opportunities for both, education and exposure.
Economic Assistance and Opportunities
Areas marked ‘Scheduled’ under the constitution need to strictly
follow the laws and guidelines to preserve and strengthen the tribal
culture, their lives and livelihoods.
Besides, government (includes local self-governance institutions)
should try and provide for economic and other assistance. Assistance
could be need based and also identified through documentation on the
basis of a gender disaggregated data. (Special attention needs to be
given to widows, through community ownership of land or pension
schemes).
Tribal women will not be able to become active members in governance
and decision-making system till they have the opportunities and the
deserved status in society.
(See full response in Hindi at
http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/resource/res_info_13020902.pdf,
PDF:Size: 48 KB)
Ruchi Pant, Governance Unit, United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), New Delhi (abstract of response)
In response to your query, I am sharing experiences from a Government
of India and UNDP supported project on ‘Building Capacities of Elected
Women Representatives and Other Functionaries in the Panchayati Raj
Institutions’. The learning from this project are pertinent as
firstly, patriarchal control marginalizes participation of women in
all walks of public life especially when contesting for political
space and secondly, these problems get intensified when the women hail
from marginalized communities.
Of the 10 states where the project was implemented, the target group
in four states was women from tribal belts in Maharashtra (Garchiroli
district), Orissa (Angul), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Chhattisgarh
(Rajnandgaon).
Two main strategies were adopted by the implementing partners in the project:
Bring elected women representatives (EWRs) and women from community
together for trainings to break down barriers of different nature.
Include men (family members, functionaries and counterparts) in the
trainings to create an enabling environment for these women to
function effectively.
One of the strategies that were found to be very useful in all the
project sites was the creation and strengthening of networks of women
which are not restricted merely to EWRs. Women’s groups, mahila
mandals, women self-help groups were also included in the trainings
and became part of the networks at the village, block and district
levels.
In order to create a gender sensitive environment at the Gram
Panchayat and other levels, men representatives and other men
functionaries and relatives were also included in the trainings.
Methods and learning aids
Different methods and learning aids were used in the implementation of
the project.
For trainings, in most of the project sites, the partners have
avoided using lecture methods; rather the focus has been on group
discussions, role-plays and use of song and dance as learning aids.
Women who were initially hesitant in singing in public eventually
started composing their own songs.
Working with media
Media coverage portraying women as weak, proxies and puppets in the
hands of men needed to be changed. Hence, partners have worked with
media in the project areas to sensitize media towards their role in
changing attitudes at the village levels.
Impacts
The project has seen a lot of positive outcomes. Just to mention a few:
· Increase in women’s participation (almost 75%) in public
events including gram sabha meetings in project areas. Exclusive
mahila sabhas in Maharashtra and UP were found to be very useful.
· Influencing panchayat functioning by asserting their rights
– in Maharashtra, 10% village budget is meant for women matters. The
elected women representatives in the project areas have been able to
utilize these funds in the most useful manner.
· Increase in numbers of women contesting elections (women are
found to be contesting elections in the project areas under
non-reserved category also).
· Improved monitoring of gram panchayat functioning and some
of the government programmes and schemes such as the mid-day meal
scheme and public distribution systems. Women are also raising voice
against illegal felling of trees in reserve forest areas.
Once the documentation of the project is ready, we will upload it on
the UNDP as well as the website of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
Please visit our website in early March.
(See full response)
Chandrakant Puri, SNDT Women's University, Mumbai*
How to design civil society initiatives on gender issues - amongst
tribal communities, without disturbing the community's right to
independent decision-making?
If we believe in tribal communities have right to independent
decision-making then the question itself need not be consider. We 'the
outsiders' cannot decide and impose our ideas of so-called
'patriarchy' on them. This concept itself is a mainstream one. I have
seen many tribal communities having better understanding of such
issues. In fact, we the outsiders need to study certain aspects from
them.
What are the ways we can design cross-learning strategies between the
women's movement in general and tribal women's movement, which gives
strength to each other, without violating each other's space?
If we consider the women's suffering as one, then many lessons can be
learned from the mainstream women's movements. The strategies have to
be more realistic and with 'purpose' for achieving something. Let the
violence against women be the first focus, witchcraft, sexual
exploitation and so on.
What steps are necessary to empower tribal women towards analysis,
realization and assertion of their rights as a 'woman' and 'citizen'?
I would request all the volunteers and activists to go and stay with
tribal communities, understand their ethos, aspirations, their view of
life and the strategies will come from people.
I strongly feel that any issue related to tribal women must be
understood from various perspectives - sociological, anthropological,
and cultural, etc. Any single viewpoint may not give us results. Let
us bridge the gap between them & us. Active community engagement will
resolve such dilemmas.
*Offline Contribution
Additional Material
Sonali Patnaik, Arupa Mission Research Foundation (AMRF), Bhubaneswar
(full response)
A registered Non Government Organization, Arupa Mission Research
Foundation specializes in Environment and Climate Change, Women and
Child Development, Health Interventions, rural and tribal development,
Livelihoods consultancy services, Organizational Development and Human
Resource Management Strategies for NGOs and companies and training,
Communication, Documentation and IEC, Skill and capacity building
measures, Knowledge Management and ICTs, Disaster management, post
disaster reconstruction, surveys and studies.
Arupa Mission Research Foundation has worked with the following
partners: OSDMA, OREDA, GTZ, ORHDC, HUDCO, OCTMP (DoWR-World Bank),
Livestock Development Group (University of Reading, UK), Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy (New Delhi), NR International (UK), NR
Management Consultants (New Delhi), Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods
Programme, Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme, Orissa
Forestry Sector Development Project, OCAC, Oriyan Shipping Company,
TCube Solutions, Radisson Hotels.
The organization was registered under the TRUST Act and has an FCRA.
At present the organisation’s project area includes- Orissa and parts
of Chattisgarh. The organization has also taken up consultancy
assignments relating to Livelihoods, Child Development and Disaster
Risk Reduction, Natural Resource Management in Jodhpur (Rajasthan),
Darbhanga Bihar for Discipleship Centre (Tear Fund and DFID
sponsored). AMRF has also been identified as a good valid NGO by World
Bank. The Voluntary organization database also includes the name of
AMRF. The organization was established on 21 September 1998.
Interestingly, the subject of empowering tribal communities, enhancing
cross learning and decision making without disturbing the fabric of
the tribal communities and encroaching on each other’s space comes at
time when the Government, Non Government and Donor and funding
agencies talk of inclusion and exclusion of the marginalized in our
country. As most of AMRF’s projects cover parts of tribal Orissa, we
would like to share our experiences with you and hope they would be
helpful.
The three queries put up by the Gender, Livelihoods and Resources
Forum (GLRF) includes:
1. How to design civil society initiatives on gender issues - amongst
tribal communities, without disturbing the community's right to
independent decision-making?
2. What are the ways we can design cross-learning strategies between
the women's movement in general and tribal women's movement, which
gives strength to each other, without violating each other's space?
3. What steps are necessary to empower tribal women towards analysis,
realization and assertion of their rights as a 'woman' and 'citizen'?
On behalf of Arupa Mission Research Foundation, I would like to
discuss each of these queries and share our experience with regard to
the same in the following order and hope that others from Orissa and
other places would add on to it and make it richer:
a) Tribal Orissa: A brief background
b) The need for gender equity in tribal communities of Orissa
c) Designing civil society initiatives on gender issues
d) Designing cross learning Strategies between the women’s movement in
general and the tribal women’s movement without violating each other’s
space.
e) Steps to empower tribal women towards analysis, realization and
assertion of their rights as “Women” and as “Citizens”
f) Conclusion
a) Tribal Orissa: A brief background
1) Article 366 (25) of the Indian constitution defines the scheduled
tribes as “ such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups
within such communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be
Scheduled tribes for the purpose of this constitution.” Further, the
existence of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical
isolation, backwardness and limited interaction with the larger
community has been taken into consideration as a criterion for
identifying a tribal community.
Additionally, the Primitive Tribal Groups have been identified in 15
states/union territories by the Government of India on the basis of
their pre agricultural levels of technology, extremely low levels of
literacy and their small, stagnant or diminishing population. Keeping
the above in view it would be interesting to note that situated on the
eastern coast of the country, the state of Orissa is home to 62
Scheduled Tribes that have been categorized based on the
constitutional provisions of article 342. Among the 62 tribes 13 have
been identified as Primitive Tribal Groups.
The Scheduled Tribe constitutes 22.1% (8.15 million as per the 2001
census) of the states population. Although there is a presence of the
Scheduled Tribe population in all the 30 districts of the state,
54.41% of the tribal population lives in those areas that have been
declared as Scheduled Areas. The literacy rate stands at 37.4% (2001)
and the Work Participation Rate is 49%.Approximately 47% are
agricultural labourers among the workers. There are 4.1 million
operational land holdings in Orissa of which 42.22% belong to the
Scheduled Tribes. About 70% of the ST children are malnourished and
50% suffer from some form of displacement or the other.
Location wise, the tribal community is mostly found dwelling near
forest pockets and are dependent on the forest and natural resources
for their livelihoods. The physiographic features of the state such as
the hill and mountain ranges, dense forests, rivers, high rainfall etc
often make physical approach to the tribal communities limited thus,
limiting their access to services, knowledge and contact with the
outside world.
However, to address the needs of the tribal people, scheduled areas
have special administrative privileges under the fifth schedule of the
Indian Constitution. In Orissa 13 districts have been declared as
scheduled districts. Out of these, 7 have been declared as full
scheduled districts and 6 as partial scheduled districts. Again, as
per the provisions of the Article 46 of the constitution, welfare
measures are being implemented for the Scheduled Tribe through various
schemes and approaches. Among the various schemes for the welfare of
the tribal communities, the scheduled and partially scheduled areas
are being covered by the state through a Tribal Sub Plan (T.S.P.)
approach, wherein blocks of the concerned districts have been declared
as T.S.P blocks.
Under the T.S.P. Special Development Agencies such as the Integrated
Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) have been put in place for carrying
out tribal welfare. There are 21 ITDAs operating in TSP areas. For the
Primitive Tribal Groups, 17 micro projects are ongoing. For those
tribal pockets that are cut off or highly isolated a Modified Area
Development Approach (MADA) and cluster has been adopted. There are 46
MADA pockets and 14 clusters in the state for carrying out tribal
welfare.
b) The need for gender equity in tribal communities of Orissa
If gender equity is giving both sexes equal opportunities in the
utilisation of personal capabilities to realize full human rights,
recognizing differences and accommodating them in such a way that
equal status may be brought about, then, in context of tribal
communities of Orissa gender equity would need to be understood in
terms of the socio-cultural factors that govern tribal society and how
the inequity can be addressed.
As reflected earlier in the background note, the Scheduled Tribe
Community till date dwell in poor socio-economic conditions, have low
literacy and nutrition levels, still follow primitive agricultural
techniques, live in small pockets in difficult areas that have limited
access to information and knowledge as well as services. In addition
to this the tribal community is always in a debt trap, wherein they
pay high interest rates or mortgage their land and gold for meeting
their daily food and health needs. Further, following a seasonal
livelihoods pattern, greater dependence on the forest and natural
resources, provides them with approximately 3-6 months of food
security.
The remaining part of the year, they remain hungry or migrate to
neighboring districts or out of the state to work as daily wage
laborers. To those who do not migrate, the local money lender is the
only solution. These factors make the tribals extremely vulnerable and
because of their location in distant cut off areas, social factors
they remain marginalized and far off from the mainstream. This
includes political, social and economical marginalization.
Although we have 62 tribes in the state, a commonality amongst them
is the role of women. The women go to the forest to collect non-timber
forest produce based on the season. Sort the produce and sell it to
local traders, bear children, cook and feed the family whilst the men
normally while away their hours having local liquor. It is only during
the agricultural season that men would assist in preparing the field
and transplantation/ sowing. Even in agricultural activities, the
women’s role is greater. She assists in soil preparation, sowing,
weeding, harvesting, de-husking and packaging. Where shifting
cultivation is practiced, the women have to climb hills and harvest
the produce as seen among the Kutia kondhs Kandhmal and other tribes
of Orissa.
Another area of inequity is with regards to marriages which have a
negative impact on the health status of women and the tribal
population as a whole. Amongst most of the tribes of Orissa (barring
the Santals), the age at marriage for women is very low (right after
puberty). As a result, teenage pregnancy complications, infant
mortality rate, maternal mortality rate are high (as noticed among the
Chakutia Bhunjia of Nuapada district and other primitive tribes). On
the other hand among the Bonda’s of Malkangiri district, older women
marry younger boys with the belief that when they are old they would
be looked after by their youthful husbands.
Unfortunately, just the opposite happens. The older women end up
working hard to feed their young husbands (boys). The boys tend to
develop a very lax attitude towards life and spend their time hunting,
fishing and drinking. And because they haven’t yet reached puberty,
the women have to wait long for becoming pregnant. When the boys are
in the prime of their youth and reproductive age, the Bonda women are
edging towards their non-reproductive stage.
On the other hand, among the Dongria Kondhs of Rayagada district the
dormitory system is followed and boys and girls choose their own
partners. Interestingly, some of these tribes practice the system of
bride price, which means that if a man gets married to a girl, he pays
a price for taking away an earning/ contributing member from the
girl’s household. The bride price could be monetary or non-monetary
(some rice, a goat etc.)
As far as education is concerned tribal girls rarely go to school as
they need to assist their mothers with child rearing, agriculture,
forest produce collection and cooking etc. In case they do, the
dropout rates are high. Wherever the mid day meal scheme is
applicable, caste based feelings sometimes affect their access to the
meals. For example, a tribal would prefer not to consume food cooked
by any other caste. Often one meal of a girl child is shared by a
number of siblings. An interesting read is the article written by Dr.
Swami Arupananda ( Chairman, Arupa Mission Research Foundation), “
Tribal Children and Education in Orissa” Chapter 13 of Orissa Vision
2020…Towards Building a new and Modern Orissa
(http://www.yesweb.org/docs/orissa2020.pdf)
Food intake pattern also shows inequity. Gender inequity is noticed
because as usual the woman and the girl child consume food last. Most
of the tribal women and children are anemic. Further, the existence of
the sickle cell trait makes the tribals doubly vulnerable. In addition
to this tribes like the Chakutia Bhunjia and the Bonda and others
consume food cooked by their own kin. Therefore, institutional
deliveries are limited as they cannot go to a health facility for
treatment, deliveries etc as they cannot cook food over there. They
refuse to consume food cooked by others.
Inequity is also noticed with regards to access to services,
participation in schemes, politics, education etc. because of their
geographical location, poor transportation and communication means,
access to education, knowledge and information (IEC and BBC which are
not very culture friendly).
The Lodha community of Mayurbhanj district has become infamous for
their notorious habit of stealing. People traveling though routes
inhabited by them fear theft. But what are stolen from them are mostly
vegetables, grains and pulses. However, because of this habit they
have been stigmatized. For any theft that occurs they are questioned
even if they are innocent. A lot of wrong doers take advantage of
this. In spite of being supported by the Government schemes they are
marginalized and not accepted by society.
Keeping the notes above in mind:
· There is a need to further explore gender equity within the
tribes as well as between the tribes and non tribes
· There is a need to develop gender equity related strategies
for both men and women as women are more active than men among the
tribes of Orissa and men require equal empowerment and because tribal
men may be in a situation where they face inequity.
· There is a need for gender mainstreaming in all fields be
it education, livelihoods, knowledge, services, politics etc.
c) Designing civil society initiatives on gender issues for Orissa
Designing the civil society initiative in a participatory mode will
enhance the acceptance of the programme and make each person
understand the importance and the needs of the other as well as reduce
vulnerability. Participatory micro planning is of utmost important as
these tribes are different from each other and their local specific
issues needed to be addressed rather than a generalized plan that may
or may not cater to their needs. With these initiatives it is expected
that there will be change which would prepare the individuals to
further learning and development.
Thus from the preplanning stage one would be introducing the desire
to understand the need for gender equity, issues and problems, the
planning stage would bring about understanding of equitable solutions
and strategies at different levels: policy, structure, system,
Monitoring and Evaluation, learning, transparency and accountability,
knowledge etc., the implementation stage would integrate all these
factors into reality, the post implementation stage would bring about
a deeper knowledge of the gender changes and future needs.
Drawing from Arupa Mission Research Foundation’s experience of working
with the tribal community of Semiliguda block, Koraput district with
regard to making 2 villages electrified through renewable energy to
reduce the drudgery of women, give scope to children to study and
improve livelihoods and the note above on the need for gender equity
it is felt that designing of civil society initiatives would need to
take into account:
· Factors influencing gender inequity within tribes and among
the tribes and non tribes and specific strategies to address these
issues
· Most importantly, the suggested strategies should have
clearly defined pre planning, planning, implementation and post
implementation stages.
· In each of these stages the emphasis should be on gender
mainstreaming and empowerment
· The pre planning stage should include identification of the
target groups (the tribal community, their boys, girls, men, women),
community mobilization and project awareness strategy for each of
these groups in a culture friendly way. The pre planning stage should
also include participatory rural appraisal techniques for identifying
the gender issues and solutions to the same as perceived by the tribal
people
· During the planning stage, participatory micro plans should
be developed based on the PRA findings, roles and responsibilities
should be delineated equally between both sexes whether it is for
health, education or livelihoods. A training need analysis should also
be done to identify areas for capacity building. The final micro plan
as prepared in a participatory mode should again be shared with the
tribal community. The micro plan 4 should also include transparency
and accountability measures, participatory monitoring, evaluation and
learning initiatives, BCC/ IEC needs and measures for future
sustainability. Efforts should be made for all activities to have a
contributory nature wherein the community as well as the facilitating/
donor agency contributes something to foster the feeling of ownership.
The contribution maybe monetary or non-monetary.
· Once approved, the micro plan should be implemented within
the time frame and along with capacity building measures and taking
into account participatory approvals by concerned authorities such as
the PRIs and Government.
· Post implementation a visioning workshop should be
organized for both sexes in connection with the project that has been
implemented. The gender issues and any changes should be reassessed,
refresher trainings should be organized.
· Finally by reducing the gender gaps in the design of
programmes gender issues at large may be resolved and holistic
development may be possible. Countries That Reduce Gender Gaps Have
Less Corruption and Faster Growth - says a New World Bank Study
(http://www.comminit.com/en/node/1869/36).
d) Designing cross learning Strategies between the women’s movement
in general and the tribal women’s movement without violating each
other’s space.
Arupa Mission Research Foundation has been into ICTs, documentation
and communication activities in Orissa for quite some time now. Having
taken up documentation assignments for programmes like the Western
Orissa Rural Livelihoods Programme and the Orissa Tribal Empowerment
and Livelihoods Programme, and disaster management and livelihoods
activities in the coastal belt we would like to highlight some of our
findings:
· Common problems with regards to communication and learning
among both tribal and non tribal groups include the lack of awareness
with regards to the need for information and knowledge and means of
access, limited information and knowledge on management and operations
of livelihoods and other programmes, inability to manage and
appropriately utilize information and knowledge and inadequate
representation and participation of women in decision making
processes.
· However, the women in western and southern Orissa are much
more open to learning and cross learning in comparison to the
educated/ non-educated women of the coastal and either well off belts.
For example, Women of Ganjam district are always made to cover their
heads, are not allowed to work outside the house and have other
traditional restrictions. However, tribal women although shy
initially, do not hesitate to come forward and sit and listen to
community mobilisers and others or experiment with work as they are
always used to working and are bread winners for the family.
· At the same time, economically the women from the coastal
belt and other well off areas would do better on livelihoods
activities because of the scope available for marketing of products
and the higher education levels. However, the capacity to learn and
market is limited among the tribal women as they are mostly
illiterate. Learning is a time consuming process for them and requires
a lot of patience from the side of the implementers and facilitators.
Looking at it from a caste perspective, Scheduled Caste women learn
faster than tribal women because of their levels of education, living
in close proximity with the mainstream population and exposure.
· Learning material is generally never pilot tested and made
culturally suitable to tribal communities which dress and speak
differently. Therefore, communities that speak Oriya have better
access to IEC and BCC material and have a better understanding of the
messages. Often this limits uptake of knowledge and understanding
among tribal women.
· Exposures (visits/common meetings) given to tribal women
through different programmes such as the Western Orissa Rural
Livelihoods Programme and the Orissa Tribal Empowerment and
Livelihoods Programme have broadened the vision of the tribal women
and made them carry on with the livelihoods initiatives. However these
are within project pockets and do not cover the entire tribal women of
the state.
From the experience stated above we feel that:
While designing a long term cross learning Strategies between the
women’s movement in general and the tribal women’s movement without
violating each other’s space one would need to take into consideration
both separated as well as collaborated spaces for both categories of
women. Emancipation processes of either of the groups of women would
need to be identified and so also the transformative processes. The
Emancipation processes may include processes practices involving
greater control over lives, equal value to roles, and experiences of
both men and women, equal opportunity and access to resources, removal
of exploitative relationships so that the feelings of right to choose,
freedom from oppression and altering social values may be fostered.
On the other hand, the transformative processes may include linking
up of women’s issues to wider social causes, the social interaction
between men and women and their roles, social issues etc which would
lead to a more just and humane relationship or connection between
women without encroaching on each others space. Apart from these
experiences that would bring about economic empowerment, experience of
livelihoods, savings and credits, skills etc.
A state level gender cell that would look into the gender aspects of
different programmes being run by the Government as well as Non
Government organisations is the need of the hour. A database
maintained by them would greatly help in having focused communication
and knowledge sharing as well as learning among women.
A communication, documentation and learning strategy would need to be
put in place which would look into building platforms or knowledge
networks where women from both tribal and non tribal communities can
come and share their experiences, visit each other’s areas and
identify best practices which might benefit either of them. Such
networks or platforms could be formed at the block, district and state
level that would draw women from different programmes and women in
general on to a common platform. At a later stage inter state
knowledge and learning networks may be set up for discussions and
identification of best practices and their replication or up scaling.
The women from the coastal belt should be exposed to the good
practices of tribal women, their hard working nature, and capacity to
manage home and work through these knowledge networks.
Learning material would need to be made culture friendly whether it
is a visual medium or a non visual medium. A pre dissemination
assessment of the existing learning should be made mandatory. This
should be compared with post dissemination uptake of knowledge or
information to ensure that messages have got through. The learning
management system should be so designed taking into consideration the
target group, socio-cultural background, needs and methods that would
enhance learning keeping their literacy and uptake levels in view. The
system should be able to produce or bring into view the right content,
ensure participation and keep interest levels high, and assess
performance and uptake. They should be interactive and as visual as
possible, be it a picture, a folk show, a video or an exposure visit.
Access to information may be made possible through village knowledge
centers where all possible information, schemes etc may be collated
and a community person given the charge of running it. The
responsibility of the person in charge would be to disseminate the
information, assist in filling up forms etc and taking up the
responsibility of submitting forms and applications on behalf of the
women. As a result they would not only have access to information and
knowledge but so also apply for schemes/ projects collectively. The
entire process should be service based.
e) Steps to empower tribal women towards analysis, realization and
assertion of their rights as “Women” and as “Citizens”
Empowerment of tribal women would necessitate endowing them with
capacities to analyse, realize and assert their rights as “Women” and
“Citizens” by creating a conducive and enabling environ for them. This
would mean empowerment of the women at a spiritual/ self (confidence)
level, at political, social and economic levels. It would be prudent
to say that this may be possible through two main approaches: capacity
building and economic independence (livelihoods) which would give them
the confidence to assert their rights and participate in all decision
making processes.
But firstly, it would be important for tribal women to
· Understand what their rights are as “women and as “citizens”.
· Create the need in women to be empowered
· Provide the necessary environ for asserting their rights
As discussed in the previous section, tribal women in Orissa have
limited access to information and knowledge and also have limited
knowledge on how to utilize the knowledge that already exists or have
gained to best of their abilities for themselves and knowledge and
information that is generally disseminated is not culture friendly
leading to poor uptake. Keeping this in view the following measures
for empowerment are suggested by us:
Capacity Building and Training initiatives on women’s rights and the
rights of a citizen organized at a micro level in local dialects,
using varied mediums such as participatory street plays, folk dance,
videos and culturally appropriate pictures and messages. In Koraput
district of Orissa, participative street plays have been a very good
medium of passing on health (RCH) and other messages to both men and
women. Men and women, girls and boys are made to understand the
subject and prepare a street play (which includes dialogues, dance and
songs) together which they enact before their own community.
Testing of existing perception of women’s / citizens rights prior to
capacity building and training initiatives and uptake after the same
has been done to note the impact and change
· Capacity building and training of rights of women as women
and as citizens for men to inculcate behavioural changes on how they
perceive and assign roles to women and their rights, and bring about
attitudinal changes so that the environ for women is conducive for
empowerment. Further this should also include a package for making
PRIs at the state, district, block and Panchayat levels aware of the
rights of women and women as citizens.
· Assist women to map out issues and problems, their root
causes through PRA activities, link them to their rights as women and
citizens, and plan micro plan accordingly. This would be a realization
exercise for them. A time taking one but worth pursuing and requiring
a lot of patience by the facilitators. For example, in Orissa women
need to be aware of the Orissa Areas Transfer of Immovable Property
(by Scheduled Tribes) regulation 1956. Most of the tribals have been
living in their current place of stay for centuries although they may
not have entitlements to their name. Because of food and livelihoods
insecurity land is mortgaged and taken away by middlemen who ensure
that interest rates are high and that the tribal men and women do not
get out of the debt trap.
Subsequently, the tribals in most places work as daily wage labourers
(agricultural) on their own land. However, the Orissa Areas Transfer
of Immovable Property (by Scheduled Tribes) regulation 1956 provides
safeguards with regard to immovable property. Further the knowledge of
the Orissa Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy 2006 (Amendment
dated 2007) says that socio cultural norms of tribal people,
preferential allotment of land, resettlement in a compact area close
to their natural 7
habitat, 25% higher resettlement and rehabilitation benefits in
monitory terms will be given to tribal communities can help women in
asserting their rights for the same in the wake of displacements due
to either development related projects such as dams, canals etc or
setting up of industries.
Other areas where awareness would be required would be with regards
to domestic violence and child abuse as well as where and how they can
get legal aid and assistance. Tribal women in industrial areas or
areas of heavy trade and mines are exposed to pollution as well as
STDs and HIV/AIDS (as in Keonjhar district of Orissa where the impact
is visible on the Juang tribe). Awareness of the impact of such
elements, need for protection, their rights for safety, and legal help
could be of immense help to the women and their future generations.
· Exposure visits to areas where women are empowered and are
asserting their rights
· Livelihoods and food security measures can bring about
immense confidence and economic independence among tribal women. A
number of programmes and projects are targeted at tribal women to
enhance their livelihoods. To name a few- The Orissa Tribal
Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme, Western Orissa Rural
Livelihoods Programme, Orissa Forestry Sector Development Programme,
Word Food Programme- Forest Department, the Orissa Community Tank
Management Project, TRIPTI etc.
These programmes/ projects are all at different stages of
implementation. They have sporadically in some cases and specifically
in others improved the livelihoods of tribal women through micro
credit activities and skill development. Food security is being looked
into via collective marketing strategies and grain banks. However, a
negligent area in their interventions has been the impact of the
initiatives on the utilization of the incomes by the women for their
own well being and that of their families as desired and perceived by
them.
For example, in Muribahal block of Bolangir district, a tribal man
named Akuru migrated to Andhra Pradesh for six months every year along
with his family (including 3 daughters). He stopped migrating and took
up shared cropping and agricultural practices when supported by a
Government programme. Both Akuru and his wife began to earn locally.
Akuru would keep his money as well as his wife’s earnings. The man
decided not to continue the education of their daughters and to get
them married as soon as possible (3 daughters aged 12-16 years),
although the woman wanted her daughters to continue their education.
On the other hand, there are incidences where the women once empowered
with means of earning, decision making and participative planning,
have developed their villages and ushered in positive changes. A good
example would be that of a village called Bondakatra in Koraput
district. Inhabited by the lower Bonda community, access to this
village earlier was by wading through a stream. The village was in
terrible hygienic condition, there were no education facilities for
children, and the women grew millet, turmeric and ginger. The men when
not drinking and whiling away their hours, would take interest in
agriculture occasionally. With the support of a donor agency and
facilitation of an NGO, the women were organized into SHGs and were
trained on mushroom cultivation and its sale. There was a lot of
opposition from the men.
However, with the help of the NGO they continued with their mushroom
cultivation and savings and credit activities. Soon they were invited
as resource persons to nearby villages for a service fee. The mushroom
sale picked up. They used the profits to build a large room of brick
and cement for cultivating mushrooms in large scale. They tied up with
Department for Primary Education and started a school for their
children. Witnessing their progress, the men of the village requested
the NGO for support to form a group and start an income generating
activities. Since the programme was only had support component for
women, the men had to organize themselves into groups without support.
They began their own micro credit activities and picked up mushroom
cultivation. Now they are in the trade too. The men and women now
jointly take decisions for the development of their village.
· Ensuring the inclusion of tribal women in all planning and
micro planning processes and assigning important roles to them along
with posts to carry out the responsibilities is important.
· Creating an enabling environ for women so that they can be
empowered is as important as imparting livelihoods skills. As
discussed in earlier sections, tribal economy is mostly seasonal and
highly dependent on availability of Non Wood Forest Produce. Further,
the role of women in collection of forest produce as well as
agriculture is greater than that of men and time consuming. To add to
it there is the home and hearth to look after. Levels of drudgery and
stress are high. Women marry early, but look older than their age and
weaker because of these socio-economic stresses and lack of adequate
nutrition. An enabling environment for tribal women can be created by:
a) Creating policies or amending policies that would enhance the
inclusion and participation of tribal women and provide safeguards for
them
b) Inclusion and participation of tribal women in project planning and
implementation with specific rules for engagement and participative
contribution to foster ownership
c) Capacity building, participation and liaison scope with PRIs and
others, awareness of governance mechanisms in tribal areas and acts
such as the PESA
d) Creating and environ with reduced or no drudgery. A good example
for this would be Arupa Mission Research Foundation’s renewable energy
project in Semiliguda block of Koraput district. Two villages situated
where an electricity grid would not be possible for the next 50 years
have been lighted up through renewable energy.
The women in this village were highly stressed because they had to
carry out all their activities- agricultural, forest produce
collection, cooking and feeding, collecting firewood and water in day
light itself. With electricity in their homes through renewable
energy, their lives have changed. They have been able to space out
their work, spend the evenings in community meetings, ensure that
their children read/ study, manage their homes better and on enquiry
say that they are less stressed. Most importantly, they have begun to
take interest in their evening meals. This has given time to think of
alternate livelihood sources and to carry out small activities during
the evening which would have otherwise been spent in darkness.
· Tribal institution strengthening is another important
intervention which empowers women to assert their rights as
individuals as well as a group. It is often seen in tribal areas that
SHGs have been formed by the ICDS workers to achieve targets. Their
activities have been limited to occasional savings and credits and
irregular meetings, maintenance of few or no records. It is also a
known fact that wherever collective and participative strategies have
been introduced in SHGs, wherever capacity building and skill
development has been introduced the women have been empowered to earn
a living, make profits and have a say.
Institutionalizing tribal women’s Self Help Groups through appropriate
training and capacity building programmes that should include
awareness generation, group norms, book and record maintenance, skill
development, basics of programme management, leadership, conflict
management, negotiation skills, training on improved agriculture and
up gradation of non timber forest produce, management of finance for
getting out of the debt traps and dependence on money lenders,
building on traditional knowledge and skills, developing community
infrastructure, developing linkages between institutions within
villages, within Panchayat, blocks and districts, better input and
output market linkages, confidence building platforms.
f) Conclusion
For tribal women to assert their rights, they need to realize what
their rights are and to realize their rights they need to understand
what their rights are as women as well as citizens. From our
experience, we feel no method can be greater than the participatory
method, wherein one brings about change through interactive,
collaborative participation of the tribal women in all processes of
development.
Finally, it is felt that such interventions for empowerment may be a
step forward in addressing the issues of patriarchy in the long run.
Often in projects and programmes it is expected that wonders will
happen in a short duration. However, keeping in view the marginalized
and difficult situations, the language barriers and low uptake and
retention levels in which tribal women or the tribal community as a
whole exists and the limited accessibility to them and by them,
patient, participative, collaborative and prolonged interventions are
necessary to bring about change.
Ruchi Pant, Governance Unit, United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), New Delhi (full response)
In response to your query, I was keen to share experiences from a
Government of India and UNDP supported project on Building Capacities
of Elected Women Representatives and Other Functionaries in the
Panchayati Raj Institutions. This project has recently got over and we
are getting the final documentation readied on best practices and
strategies for building capacities of women in 10 project states.
Once the document is ready we will upload it on the UNDP as well as
the website of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The learning from this
project are pertinent as firstly, patriarchal control marginalises
participation of women in all walks of public life especially when
contesting for political space and secondly, these problems get
intensified when the women hail from marginalised communities.
Of the 10 states where the project was implemented, the target group
in four states was women from tribal belts in Maharashtra (Garchiroli
district), Orissa (Angul), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Chhattisgarh
(Rajnandgaon).
The principle objectives of the Project were:
· Empowering women to enable them to work effectively at the
Gram Panchayat level and brining gender issues into the mainstream
· To bring about legal and administrative literacy among the
elected women members and SHG members
· Build confidence of women representatives for participating
in the decision making processes in the village and other levels
· Strengthen the Gram Sabhas by increasing women’s active
participation in it
· To inculcate an understanding about gender equality and
create an enabling environment so that women can function freely in
the village community as well as in the administrative machinery.
· Make efforts so that maximum women come forward to contest
the elections. \Impart necessary skills for making use of the acquired
information.
Two main strategies have been adopted by the implementing partners in
the project:
· To bring elected women representatives (EWRs) and women
from community together for trainings to break down barriers of
different nature.
· To include men (family members, functionaries and
counterparts) in the trainings to create an enabling environment for
these women to function effectively.
One of the strategies that were found to be very useful in all the
project sites was the creation and strengthening of networks of women,
which are not restricted merely to EWRs. Women’s groups, mahila
mandals, women self-help groups were also included in the trainings
and became part of the networks at the village, block and district
levels.
In order to create a gender sensitive environment at the Gram
Panchayat and other levels, men representatives and other men
functionaries and relatives were also included in the trainings.
Methods and learning aids
Different methods and learning aids were used in the implementation of
the project. In the initial phases of the project, events such as
panchayat rath yatras and village meetings were planned to stir
curiosity in Panchayati raj systems and the programme. Before the
panchayat elections in different states, Pre-Election Voters Awareness
Campaigns were launched with the help of resource people, songs, films
and posters all in local languages.
Another strategy to make newly elected women representatives feel
positive and accept their new roles was to honour them through
‘Felicitation functions’ at the block levels. Newly elected men were
also felicitated with the purpose of seeking their cooperation.
Government functionaries such as the gram sevaks, officers from the
Panchayat Samitis and other line agency officials, block development
officers were also specially invited to these functions.
The project focussed on capacity building programmes, creating the
right kind of resource material, making it easily accessible through
Panchayat Resource Centres, holding network programmes to bring all
women together for confidence building and their effective
functioning.
One of the observations during trainings were that elected women who
also happened to be a part of the SHG movement were present in greater
numbers at trainings. This also shows that economic empowerment is
closely linked with political empowerment.
For trainings, in most of the project sites, the partners have
avoided using lecture methods, rather the focus has been on group
discussions, role plays and use of song and dance as learning aids.
Women who were initially hesitant in singing in public eventually
started composing their own songs.
Working with media
Media coverage portraying women as weak, proxies and puppets in the
hands of men needed to be changed. Hence, partners have worked with
media in the project areas to sensitise media towards their role in
changing attitudes at the village levels.
Exposure visits, information fairs and creative games have helped.
Impacts
The project has seen a lot of positive outcomes. The details will be
shared through the document which will be on our website in a few
weeks time. Just to mention a few:
· Increase in women’s participation (almost 75%) in public
events including gram sabha meetings in project areas. Exclusive
mahila sabhas in Maharashtra and UP were found to be very useful.
· Influencing panchayat functioning by asserting their rights
– in Maharashtra, 10% village budget is meant for women matters. The
elected women representatives in the project areas have been able to
utilise these funds in the most useful manner.
· Increase in numbers of women contesting elections- women are
found to be contesting elections in the project areas under
non-reserved category also.
· Improved monitoring of gram panchayat functioning and some
of the government programmes and schemes such as the mid-day meal
scheme and public distribution systems. Women are also raising voice
against illegal felling of trees in reserve forest areas.
For case studies, I would encourage you to visit our website in early March.
Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!
If you have further information to share on this topic, please send it
to Solution Exchange for the Gender Community in India at
se-...@solutionexchange-un.net.in with the subject heading “Re:
[se-gen] Query: Strategies to Empower Tribal Women - Experiences;
Advice. Additional Reply.”
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