Subscribe
Bina Pani Sahoo, a 60-year-old resident of Koi village in Kankadahad gram panchayat of Odisha’s Dhenkanal district, intimately knows the forests in her panchayat. She, along with other rural women in the region have traditionally been dependent on the minor forest produce (MFP), such as mahua, amla, sal, kendu, char seeds, wild mushrooms, tubers and a variety of edible leaves and medicinal plants.
“For years, we villagers watched helplessly as outside traders carried away loads of forest produce to sell at a high profit. We got nothing from it except enough to sustain our lives,” reminisced Bina Pani.
She decided to change that and in 2017, along with some women farmers, set up and registered the Saurik FPO (farmer producer organisation) to trade in forest produce, seeds, and fertiliser. ‘Saurik’ stands for the bravery of people living in the Kankadahad region, which traditionally has been home to various warrior communities. The region is also known as Sauriko aanchal (home to Saurik people). Almost 57 per cent of population in Kankadahad block is Adivasi communities.
Bina Pani is the director of Saurik FPO. From the initial 100 members (farmers) from Koi village in 2017, the FPO now has 500 members covering six gram panchayats in Kankadahad block of Dhenkanal. The members collectively trade in their forest produce and bargain with traders, which has brought prosperity in the region. Till 15 years ago, these villages and their inhabitants lived under a shadow of fear due to Naxal insurgency.
“We have seen extreme poverty. We have spent decades living under a shadow of violence and fear. But things have changed now as village residents have organised themselves to protect their forests and earn better income,” Bina Pani told Down To Earth.
She is referring to a federation — Kankadahad Parivesh Surakhya Manch — which was set up in 2018 and is made up of over 130 gram sabhas (village institutions) in 21 gram panchayats of Kankadahad block. Bina Pani’s Koi village is also a member of this block-level federation, which has elected representatives from each of the member panchayats to ensure participatory governance and democratic decision making.
The Manch has empowered the village residents of Kankadahad to step up and take charge of their lives and livelihoods, explained Pratap Chandra Marandi, secretary of Kankadahad Parivesh Surakhya Manch. It has emerged as a strong voice of gram sabhas.
“It is a platform from which village residents can engage with government departments, address issues of forest fires, forest protection, community forest rights, and promotion of trade in mahua, kendu and sal leaves,” said Marandi. “We are also setting up an indigenous seed bank to promote climate resilient farming and save biodiversity,” he said.
“Our voices are heard when we jointly approach government agencies, line departments, and private traders as a collective,” Marandi added. He gave the example of a tragic accident that took place on March 17 this year when a 55-year-old Budhini Mahanta died in a forest fire at Gobari village in Kankadahad. She fell in an elephant trench and could not come out of it and was charred to death.
“Initially, the forest department wasn’t agreeing to give compensation to her family. The federation members visited the village and investigated the matter. We then wrote to the forest department asking it to compensate for the death of Budhini, which it did,” he said.
The Kankadahad Parivesh Surakhya Manch is providing opportunities to local women, who are emerging as entrepreneurs and change makers. It has a strong representation of rural and tribal women. Of the 105 elected members from 21 gram panchayats (five from each panchayat), 46 members are women.
According to Bina Pani, village residents who are a part of the federation sell their harvested forest produce to Saurik FPO, which aggregates, packages and sells it. “Upon our request, the sub-collector has set up a weekly haat at Koi village for sale of our produce. Every Thursday farmers, mostly women, from various villages come there to directly sell their produce without any middlemen,” she explained.
Direct sale of mahua, sal leaves, tubers, mushrooms, and wild berries has increased the earnings of village residents, especially of the tribal women.
“We make plates and bowls out of the sal leaves from our forest. We earn Rs 80 for 100 such plates and Rs 40 for 100 bowls when we sell to the FPO,” said Shanti Lata Dehuri, a Bhumij tribe woman from Kantol village in Kantol gram panchayat who is a member of the federation. When middlemen were involved, they only got Rs 30 for the 100 plates and Rs 20 for 100 bowls, she said.
According to Shanti Lata Dehuri, the FPO pays them Rs 40 per kilogram of mahua flowers while private traders pay them only Rs 10 for the same.
Under the aegis of Kankadahad Parivesh Surakhya Manch, the village residents are also selling kendu leaves directly to the government-owned Odisha Forest Development Corporation Ltd (OFDC), a government-owned corporation that collects and trades in kendu leaves in the state.
“The OFDC pays us Rs 2.40 for 20 kendu leaves. This is an assured income. Along with it, the OFDC also gives us bonus and life insurance,” said Sangeeta Behel of Kampulei village in Kankadahad block.
It is not just about livelihoods. The women through the federation are also raising their voice against social ills and patriarchy.
The federation has enabled women like Shanti Lata Dehuri to be heard. Along with other women, she is spearheading an anti-liquor movement under the Nasha Nivaran Mahasangh Kankadahad, an all-women organisation.
Many farmers in Kankadahad block use indigenous seeds to cultivate crops. On June 30 this year, the Manch, along with non-profit Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), organised a district-level Seed Mela in collaboration with farmers’ collectives and panchayats in Kankadahad to promote community-managed seed banks and agro-biodiversity conservation.
“As part of the Seed Mela, local farmers showcased indigenous and climate-resilient varieties of millets, pulses, and oilseeds. There were free seed exchanges among farming families to strengthen seed sovereignty. The Mela also promoted traditional seed storage practices, and provided training on natural farming practices,” said Bhaskar Chandra Natiya, the 75-year-old president of the Manch.
According to him, a seed bank will soon be set up in Kankadahad for which discussions are underway with the government agencies for allocation of space.
Women sarpanches are especially empowered by the activities and support of the federation. “I attended the Seed Mela and learnt about our crop biodiversity. I also brought some indigenous seeds from there with me and have planted them in my panchayat,” said Vajanti Raut, a young sarpanch of Maruabili panchayat in Kankadahad block, which covers 17 wards and nine villages.
To conserve biodiversity in tribal areas, Kankadahad Parivesh Surakhya Manch has launched an initiative on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to prepare village-level ecological registers with details of the flora and fauna of the forests. The aim of this project is also to capture the traditional practices of the tribal communities, use and management of different forest products for medicinal and livelihood purposes.
A Prakriti Guru (Jungle Master) in each village of the federation leads this initiative. “Village elders, a man and a woman, with sound traditional knowledge of biodiversity identify trees, tubers, plants and their benefits. This is the knowledge that has been passed on orally for generations. We want to now properly document it,” said Natiya.
“Out of 130 villages that are a part of the federation, we have Jungle Masters in 50 villages so far,” he added.
The block-level federation is also helping village residents and gram sabhas to file claims — individual and community forest rights (CFRs) — under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
“Due to the guidance and efforts of the federation, almost 98 per cent of individual forest rights filed in the Kankadahad block are granted,” said Natiya. Out of the total 130 villages in Kankadahad block, CFR claims of 46 villages have been received. The rest of the 82 claims are at sub-divisional level committee (SDLC) and district-level committee (DLC) for approval. The two remaining villages are yet to apply for CFR.
Initially when the Manch was set up in 2018, only six panchayats showed an interest in such a collective. “Each gram sabha sent five village residents to a panchayat level committee for brainstorming and collective action. But, by 2020, other panchayats also reached out to become a part of the Manch,” said Marandi.
To ensure fair representation and participation, the Manch has a well-structured format of functioning. “Each panchayat elects five members, thus the block-level federation has 105 elected members who see the overall functioning of the Manch,” explained Natiya.
All the 21 member panchayats are divided into four zones (zone 1, 2, 3, 4). Each of these four zones has its own five-member committee to ensure decentralised functioning. “These 20 members from four zones form the core committee of the Manch. At present, eight of these members are women,” said Natiya.
Once in three months, the elected members of the federation and various committees take stock of things. Accounts are checked and a report is submitted to the gram sabha of member villages.