Why do women who attempt changes in local land use patterns meet with so much hostility?
THAT rural Indian women are the worst victims of environmental
degradation is well-known. But what happens when women assert
themselves? This is the story of the four-year-long struggle of
the women of Muvasa village in the Panchmahals district of
Gujarat who made degraded common land arable. To my mind, it
illustrates the tensions women face when they attempt to change
land use patterns, and their own lives.
During the 1987-88 drought, some tribal women belonging
to impoverished families who had little or no land, were engaged
in daily wage work, planting fuel and fodder trees on local
wasteland. The work had been organised by the Social Action for
Rural and Tribal Inhabitants of India (SARTHI). The women had
long been wanting to do something like this because it obviously
meant that they wouldn't have to spend long hours searching for
fuel and fodder. But they did not have any land for the purpose.
SARTHI's field staff, Champaben and Vikrambhai, suggested
that the women form a group and cultivate a plantation on a patch
of degraded common land in the village. Since the women showed
tremendous enthusiasm, SARTHI offered to pay the costs for
preparing the land.
The women evolved some ground rules for their group. They
would do all the work entailed in preparing the land and planting
on it themselves. The group would be collectively responsible for
protecting the plantation and taking any decisions concerning it.
It was also decided that the produce from this patch of land
would be shared equally by all the members. Only women could
become members of the group.
A total of 29 women, all from the poorest families in
Muvasa, joined the group. The Muvasa panchayat gave them a "no
objection" certificate to plant on four ha of common land. It was
agreed that this permission would be renewed after 10 years, and
the panchayat would not claim any share of the produce.
But the men in the village were suspicious. There were
complaints that the women were wasting time on the meetings and
neglecting their housework. There were rumours that SARTHI would
abduct the women and steal their jewellery. Things came to such a
pass that SARTHI had to call a separate meeting of the men and
explain why the women's group had been formed.
Braving problems at home and in the village, the group
continued to build on their work. By February 1989, they
harvested their first grass crop through voluntary labour. All
the grass was piled up in the plantation till the women decided
how to distribute it amongst themselves. But three drunks from an
adjoining village put paid to their hard work by tossing a lit
cigarette stub onto the grass.
Initially despondent, the women then decided that the men
shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. Knowing that the women
had by now earned the respect of many in the village and enjoyed
a fair share of popular support, the three guilty men agreed to
pay Rs 1,400 as compensation for the damage they had caused. The
victory boosted the morale of the group, and inspired other
women's groups to launch similar initiatives.
But the problems didn't disappear. Throughout 1990, there
were regular thefts with people from neighbouring villages
letting their cattle into the patch at night for grazing. One of
them was finally caught by the women and given a stern warning.
With the trees growing taller, and the group becoming more
confident, it seemed that the worst was behind them. But on
February 1, 1992, six families from an adjoining village hacked
down about 4,000 trees from the plantation and carted them home.
The women have registered a case with the police and asked their
panchayat to support them in their battle for justice.
While negotiations between the women and the trespassers
continue, the crisis has raised important questions. The police
complaint has generated tension between the two villages.
Although many in Muvasa are sympathetic, some people feel that
the plantation is causing too many problems and that it is better
if it were allowed to die. One of the trespassers is related to
members of the group, and these women are being pressurised to
leave the group or at least refrain from actively supporting
action against the offenders. Individuals have even been
threatened and abused by the families of the trespassers. At one
stage, tension had mounted to the extent that there was fear of
violence and bloodshed. The panchayats in which the two villages
fall are also facing conflicting pressures from their respective
constituencies.
And all this over some biomass generated on four ha of
degraded land over four years by a women's group. Such is the
acute scarcity of biomass in the area that the group's plantation
stands out like an oasis in a desert.
A similar group was formed in the trespassers' village,
but the plantation there could not withstand the repeated
onslaughts on it. The option of rehabilitating larger areas of
common land is also limited as there is hardly any common land
available which has not been encroached upon.
So it seems that the women of Muvasa will have to learn
to live with the constant tension over access to diminishing land
resources in the areas. Their struggle will be all the more
difficult as they also have to establish their right to control
and manage common land resources.
Madhu Sarin is an urban planner-turned-social worker and a
consultant to voluntary groups on the involvement of women in
forestry and rural energy projects. She has also written numerous
books and articles on women and environment. She will contribute
regularly to this column.
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