Indian Journal of Gender Studies

This paper discusses women's role, resource access control and decision-making power in the context of rapid changes in rural livelihoods, local knowledge systems and NRM. Participatory research was carried out in collaboration with NGOs and community-based organisations in six distinct agro-ecological regions of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, with a focus on eco nomically and socially marginalised communities. The research revealed that state policies have resulted in dramatic changes from food to commercial crops. This has threatened food and fodder security, the biodiversity of crops, natural flora, local livestock and poultry breeds, and led to unsustainable extraction of ground water and high levels of indebtedness. Women have borne the brunt. Women who formerly played key decision-making roles have been marginalised, their knowledge and expertise made valueless. Traditionally also women have been denied access to certain kinds of knowledge that constrain their livelihoods. Participatory research has empow ered women to take the lead in movements to challenge mainstream paradigms of sustainable development.

The deep shift after the late 1970s in ways of thinking, seeing and acting led to the quest for small localised narratives, and participatory approaches committed to equity. This paper describes an attempt to integrate a participatory approach and gender concerns in problem anal ysis, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in a project to conserve and manage the Pichavaram mangrove forests in Tamil Nadu. It also deals with the process of enhancing the equitable socioeconomic impacts of the intervention in the coastal villages, sensitising the forest officials, and developing their skills and those of the village community to facilitate women's participation at all levels. In the gender-sensitive micro-plan prepared to address the concerns identified through participatory rural appraisal, both men and women shared responsibilities: meeting government officials, legitimising their tribal identity, constructing and running an elementary school, and restoring and managing the mangroves. This process has enhanced the women's self-confidence, their capacity to save, and their control over income and mobility.

This paper examines gender issues in natural resource management, based on the experience of mining in the Kumaon, Uttaranchal. The method of analysis followed attempts a breakdown of activity patterns and responsibilities by gender. This is used to identify who gains and who loses with different patterns of resource use. It is observed that women's protests against mining in this area make the point that the disruption of traditional livelihoods has weakened the ecosys tem. Some general observations on appropriate interventions for sustainable resource use and development are derived from this. It is argued that local communities as well as policy makers need much more information and education on the implications of ecosystem health for communities.

The paper is deeply concerned with the various alternatives for overcoming subordination of women's labour and its further vulnerability to environmental degradation. It explores the pos sibility of overcoming the inherent tension between the forces unleashed by the market economy and institutions governed by growing democratic consciousness. Thus, through detailed field documentation an alternative institution is suggested for reconciling the macro agenda of eco nomic growth, environmental regeneration and national food security with local food security and livelihood needs of the poor and marginalised, while addressing strategic gender needs. It attempts to reconcile the rigid social hierarchy with democratic polity, that is, empowering the disadvantaged sections of society through providing entitlement to productive tangible (re sources and stores) and intangible assets (control and access; and power and control over socio economic institutions that enhance their livelihood capabilities.

This paper is a case study discussing the high level of community participation in watershed management. This programme is being implemented by the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Manage ment Mission under the Madhya Pradesh government. The unique feature of this is that the vil lage watershed committee is constituted entirely of women. The case study involves the analysis of the dual process of involving women at all decision-making levels while being subject to the resistance by some sections of the feudal society. The implementation of the watershed pro gramme was done by the zilla panchayat of Sagar district. The approach was to create an aware ness and perception in women, which would empower them to play a positive role in their own development and that of society. The user groups and self-help groups were also closely associ ated with health and sanitation issues, thus directly contributing to the economic and ecological development of Guraiya village.

In Orissa a large number of villages have been protecting and managing state forests lands as a common resource through elaborate community arrangements. Rural communities involved in forest management have also been demanding secure rights over these forests. Vasundhara and Sanhati, an alliance of NGOs in Orissa, recently facilitated a broad-based consultation process with village people and NGOs on the issue of community rights over forests. This discussion brought forth the intricacies involved in operational details relating to community rights over forests, and how women's concerns and priorities tend to get marginalised in these debates. This paper tries to capture the discussion and debate on community rights over forests. It reflects on how women define their relationship with forests, how this is in contradiction with the 'rights regime' and the property-based view of forests from which it emanates, and how this could lead to conflicts over non-timber forest produce.

This paper, based on a study of three villages in Dumka district, Jharkhand, attempts to under line some of the linkages between transport provisioning, livelihoods and changes in the socioeconomic and environmental context of the transport components of the roles and responsibilities of women and men. Transport needs are largely local in nature-to the fields, forests and mar kets. Distance and time factors seem to play an important role both in determining livelihood choices and the gender division of labour within the household. The state provisioning, however, has primarily related to the construction of roads and setting up of bus routes catering to the major markets rather than local needs. The paper advocates a combination of non-transport interventions for providing basic services in the village itself, along with innovative transport and organisational interventions to ease the transport burdens on the local tribal population, particularly women.

The structures and practices of families are crucial in determining gender-differentiated patterns of access to land and other forms of property/productive resources. However, major redistributional or reform programmes such as that of land have failed to take this into account. This paper addresses, conceptually, women's and men's claims to land/property in terms of via more recent land reforms experience to discuss the importance to property reform of a gendered understanding of the family. Besides, it attempts to probe the direction of change in property-related practices, including inheritance, dowry and residence, in contemporary Kerala to understand the implications of the emerging practices for women's property rights.

Following public debate on the dissonance between tribal traditions of self-governance and modern formal institutions in December 1996, Parliament extended the Panchayat Act to the areas covered by Schedule V of the Constitution. In many parts of India this has facilitated tribal women's legal right to participate in NRM. This paper describes the particular situation in north-eastern India, which is a region of great biogeographic and strategic significance. In the north-east existing customary practices (backed by special Constitutional arrangements or the provisions of Schedule VI) continue to deny tribal women ownership and significant control over local resources. With particular reference to Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, the paper argues for a reappraisal by tribal women and men of the sharply gender-biased customary practices and constitutional provisions in order to draw out women's power and strengthen their capacity to shape local resource management.