on - M S Swaminathan Research...

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1. Shell crafts for livelihood(CCD)

2. Alternate temple offerings(ATREE)

3. Making brooms from hill grass(AGRAGAMEE)

4. Training in horticulture(CSGCA)

5. Women s tailoring company(GSGSK)

1 Woman friendly coconut climbing device(SEWA Kerala)

Six Case Studieson

Gender and Social Inclusion for. Sustainable Livelihoods

Editor: Mina Swaminathan

M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

Food and Agriculture Organisation

Citation: Swaminathan, Mina (ed) 2007 Six Case Studies on Gender andSocial Inclusion for Sustainable Livelihoods. M.S. Swaminathan ResearchFoundation and Food and Agriculture Organisation Regional Officefor Asia and the Pacific.

NMSSRF

M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

3rd Cross Street, Institutional AreaTaramani, Chennai - 600 113, INDIATel: +91-44-22541229,22541698Fax: +91-44-2254 [email protected]

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Food and Agriculture Organisation

FAO Regional Office for Asia and the PacificMaliwan Mansion, Phra Atit RoadBangkok 10200, ThailandTelephone: (+662) 6974000Fax: (+662) 6974445Email: [email protected]

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Preface

The mandate of the M.S.Swaminathan Foundation (MSSRF)has from the beginningemphasized social inclusion, expressed in terms of being "pro-poor, pro-woman andpro-nature", and this concern has been the guiding principle underlying all itsprogrammes, especially in relation to livelihoods. The Foundation is also committed tothe belief that science and technology, which are powerful drivers of the economy, canbe harnessed to the cause of inclusive development.

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Yet the history of the last sixty years shows that development in India has, as awhole, been uneven, and not socially neutral, as illustrated by current indicators ofdevelopment. Today, with a growth rate reaching 10%,unprecedented in India's history,and paralleled by no other developing country, glaring gaps are revealed by humandevelopment indicators. For example, while India is positioned as a leader in the globalscientific community, 46 percent of Indian children under five are malnourished, andthese children also form the majority of the world's undernourished children. Similarly,levels of anaemia among women, infant mortality and maternal mortality, illiteracy,school drop-outs, children who have not completed elementary education, child labour,and several markers of gender equity, remain disturbingly high, and contribute to India'sposition as 126among 177countries of the world in the UN Human Development Reportfor 2006. At the same time, India produces many of the world's scientific andtechnological workers, and is a leader in several scientific fields, such as IT and satellitecommunications .. Clearly, social exclusion is still operating across the country.

To address these concerns, and to consider how S&Tcould be better harnessed towardssustainable livelihoods and inclusive goals, MSSRFheld a Consultation in July 2007,with the support of the Department of Science and Technology and FAO-RAP atBangkok, on the theme of "Technology Development and Delivery Models forSustainable livelihoods", involving a wide spectrum of participants. The aim was toexplore current systems of technology dissemination to the resource-poor, studyemerging models and delivery systems and analyse the key elements that make for asuccessful strategy, including use of ICT, in diverse sectors. The participants in thisconsultation included leading organizations in technology development, NGOs whohave developed successful models reaching out to the resource-poor, financialinstitutions, PRIs(Panchayati Rajinstitutions or elected local bodies) KVKs(KrishiVigyanKendras or District Agricultural Science Centres) private educational institutions,Universities and other stakeholders. The proceedings of this Consultation are beingpublished separately.

To focus on issues of inclusion, it was at first decided to devote one session specificallyto this topic. But it soon became clear that this would be inadequate for in-depth analysisand discussion which could lead to an understanding of the constraints and possibleapproaches to overcome them. It was felt essential to provide more time for a deeper

exploration of the theme of inclusion. Soa preliminary one-day brainstorming was held,with the support of FAO, at the end of June 2007, on the theme of "Strategies forGender and Social Inclusion with regard to Technology and Sustainable Lvelihoods"with a smaller group of non-governmental organisations, who had worked intensivelywith different categories of excluded groups in different sectors and with differentapproaches, and who would be able to share their successful strategies for socialinclusion. Eight presentations were made at this meeting and discussed by a largerpeer group, and a consolidated paper summarizing and commenting on their experienceswas presented at the main Consultation in July.

-::;Ju(j .•

Six of the participants in the brmtorming were able to write up the papers in greaterdepth, and these are presented here along with a comparative overview. It is hoped thatthis publication would contribute to an understanding of the perspectives, approaches,strategies, and methods used by these pioneers to achieve their goals, and to learn fromtheir successes and failures. Above all, the case studies will cast light on the policyimplications of an approach that genuinely strives towards an inclusive agenda forsustainable livelihoods. Only such policy changes can lead to "development for all".

On behalf of the Foundation, I would like express our deep gratitude, not only to theDepartment of Science and Technology, Government of India, and the Food andAgriculture Oganisation's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific at Bangkok for thefinancial support which made these two meetings possible, but also for the warm personalinterest in both the planning and the outcomes shown by Dr.T. Ramaswami, Secretary,DST, and Dr. Revathi Balakrishnan, formerly Sr. Scientific Officer, Gender andBiodiversity, FAO-RAP Bangkok. I would also like to express my deep appreciation toeach of the six authors, who took time out from their busy schedules to write up theirexperiences and document the achievements of their organizations in the form of theseinsightful and thought-provoking case studies. Last, but not least, I would like to thankmy colleagues, Dr.Sudha Nair, Director,J.RD. Tata EcotechnologyCentre, and MS.MinaSwaminathan, Adviser-Education, Communication arid Gender, for ably organisingthe two meetings, and to the latter, for putting together and editing this volume.

November, 2007

Achyut K. GokhaleExecutive Director

M.S.Swaminathan Research FoundationChennai

Table of ContentsPreface 3

Tribal Development and Conservation in a Wild Life SanctuarySiddappa Setty and Sushmita MandaI 7

Community Biodiversity Enterprises' for Women's EmpowermentN. Muthu Velayudham, John Britto, M P BaIa, Bhuvaneswari Kannan and .........•••..••.•18

Enterprise, Technology and Gender EquitySudha Som 24

Using Technology for Women's Empowermentp.s. Geethaku tty 31

Chasing a Mirage: AGRAGAMEE's Efforts for Tribal InclusionVidhya Das 42

Participatory Planning at the Panchayat LevelNalini Nayak, Philip Mathew and Seeta Dasan 52

Insights from the Case Studies- an OverviewMina Swaminathan 62

Profiles .....•.............................................................................................................................•.•••.....70

Tribal Development and Conservation in aWild Life SanctuarySiddappa Setty and Sushmita Mandai

For the last decade or more, the Ashoka Trust forResearch in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)has been engaged, along with its research activities,in an effort at promoting sustainable livelihoods ofa tribal community, the SoUgas. The objective wasto do sowithin the constraints imposed by awildlifesanctuary, which has however, also been thetraditional home of the Soligas for a long time, andthe strategy developed was to combine the insightsand methods of scientific research with thetraditional knowledge of the tribals.

Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT)Wildlife SanctuaryThe sanctuary (BRn is oriented in a north-southdirection covering an area of 540 sq. km in thesoutheast comer of Chamarajanagar district ofKarnataka (Fig. 1). The western range has anundulating terrain, a network of valleys, slow west-flowing streams, and a number of hills, with anaverage elevation of about 1350m. The eastern hillshave an average elevation of about 1650m, forminga high ridge. The sanctuary is divided into threeadministrative ranges: Yelandur, Chamarajanagaraand Kollegal.BRThas a large diversity ofvegetationtypes such as scrub, dry and moist deciduousforests, evergreen forests, shola' and high-altitudegrasslands, supporting a rich variety of fauna. Theforests form an important wildlife corridor betweenthe Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, linkingthe largest populations of Asian elephant and tigerin southern India, with a total of 38 marnma1, 278bird, 22 reptile and 116 butterfly species. Apreliminary survey of ants in BRT recorded 48

species, constituting about 8%of the total ant speciesin India. A recent survey of tigers' by DNA analysisof scat samples revealed 17 tigers, but the numberis likely to be higher and the official figure is 28.The avifauna include seven endemic and severalendangered species such as the yellow-throatedbulbul (Pycnonotus xantholaemus), Nilgiri woodpigeon (Columba elphinstonii) and the rufous-belliedeagle (Hieraatus kienererii). BRT derives its name'Biligiri' either from the white rock face of the majorhill crowned with the temple ofLord Rangaswamy,or from the white mist and silver clouds coveringthe hills for most of the year.

The Malai Madeshwara Hills Reserve Forest islocated at the eastern border of the state ofKarnataka (Fig -1), covering an area of 435 sq. km.The forest type comprises scrub, dry deciduous,moist deciduous and evergreen, with varyingaltitudes up to a high of 1514above sea level. Thereis a unique shola forest at Ponnachi. Some of theimportant mammals reported here are elephant,gaur, sambar, barking deer, spotted deer, leopardand tiger. The Soligas and Lingayats who inhabitthe area practise settled agriculture and supplementtheir income through minor forest produce. MMHills reserve forest is named after the local deityMadappa. This temple was established in the 14'"Century. MMHillstemple (deuasthanam) and isunderthe patronage of the Government of Kamataka.

The Soliga TribeThe Soligas, a hunter-gatherer/tribe, are theindigenous people of this area, who havetraditionally resided in the forested regions of

l.Shola is a type of high-altitude (between 1900-2200m) stunted evergreen forest found in southern India. Shola forests are usuallyseparated from one another by undulating grassland.'. Dr. C. S. Raju (2005) Deputy Conservator of Forests, Karnata1aJ(personal communiCiition)

Six Ca,e Stud ie,

,-.

Aditl.rrutudr stIn tdrmg tb~Wnt~mGltau In SDMIIr India

Fig - 1. Locator map of BRT and MM Hills

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Yelandur, Chamarajanagar and Kollegal, includingthe sanctuary area and the adjacent reserve forestregion. The people here are known to have co-existed with the forest and its wildlife for centuries.The Soligas are known for their rich traditionalknowledge and cultural life linked with theirnatural surroundings. Until the middle of the lastcentury, the Soligas practised shifting agriculture,which was banned when the area was declared awildlife sanctuary in 1976.They are now settled insmall villages, called podus, which may consist ofup to 120 households. Many households practise:;ettled agriculture on the lands around the podus.BRThas a total of 54 settlements, 2,304householdsand a population of 12,500;while in MMHills areathere are approximately 3,200 households with atribal population of around 20,000.

Though the Soligas practise agriculture, with thestaple food crop being ragi or finger millet (EleusineR

coracana), land holdings are small and they dependon non-timber forest produce (NTFP) forsubsistence. As a result of their dependence on andlinks with the forest, their traditional ecologicalknowledge is extensive and diverse.

The main crops are ragi and maize, and agricultureis entirely rain-fed. Land fertility has been reducedowing to topsoil erosion and deficient rainfall. Theyalso traditionally made bamboo baskets and mostof their cash income was derived from bamboobasket weaving. Indiscriminate industrial extractionof bamboo, mainly by pulp industries in the last sixdecades, has depleted most of the bambooresources. To safeguard the remaining resources, theForest Department put a ban on bamboo felling in1972and the Soligas lost their customary rights overthese resources, thus leading to further economicmarginalisation. Soliga dependence on NTFP forhousehold income is extensive across BRT,

Gender and Social Inclusion for Sustainable Livelihoods

In ATREE'sexperiences in technology developmentand delivery for sustainable livelihoods, the firststrategy was the use of participatory resourcemonitoring (PRMhenceforth) towards sustainable

The Beginnings of the ProgrammeIn 1995, in collaboration with the VGKK', ATREEinitiated activities in BRTto set up an enterprise to_increase Soliga income from the NTFP harvest. Theprimary objective was to enhance the returns fromNTFPsby generating additional income through on-site processing and direct marketing, so that theprofits are reaped by the Soli gas rather thansiphoned off by middlemen. It was expected thatthis would give the community a stake inconservation. Towards achieving this, a multi-pronged strategy was adopted that, on the onehand, set up an enterprise for honey and amlaprocessing, and on the other, aimed to enhance thecapacities of NTFP collectors to engage. insustainable harvest practices_ To manage theenterprise, the Biligiri soligara Kim AranyaUthpadana Samskarana Sangha, a cooperativebody, was established in 1997.

contributing over 60percent of total cash income in .the interior villages and about 30 percent in thefringe villages (Hegde et al 1996). Currentlyhouseholds in MM Hills derive nearly 16 percentof their total cash income from NTFPs.

to control the fires, and enough vegetation that doesnot let the fire spread but just about bums thegrasses and dried leaves, thus paving the way fornew vegetation to sprout with the first showers. Thiscontrolled fire prevented the growth ofhemiparasties, weeds and ticks, but does not kill

Soligas' Traditional Ecological small seedlings, and provides fresh fodder forKnowledge wildlife.

In attempts to understand and document Soligas' ", The Forest Department has been controlling firestraditional knowledge, much information has been after the area was declared as a wildlife sanctuary.gathered that would not only lead to recognition of The complete eradication of fire has led to increasedtheir knowledge but also strengthen advocacy for biomass in the form of weeds, and now 75 percenttheir collaboration in management of the BRT of the forest is covered with Lantana in the drySanctuary. Soligas can name as many as 107species deciduous forest of BRTwildlife sanctuary. As aof trees, 11of grasses and creepers, 13types of fibers, result, the availability of fodder for wild animals55 species of birds, 15 of snakes, 97 of insects, and has decreased; amla trees are dying due to41 of other animal species (Kalpavriksh 2007).The hemiparasites, negatively affecting Soligaforest classification scheme of the Soligas divides livelihoods. Most dangerous of all, the hugetheir surroundings into kanu kadu (evergreen and accumulation of biomass has led to canopy fires,Shola forest), mala kadu (dry deciduous forest where which can kill both animals and adult trees, threatenanimals and Soligas live), nadu kadu (scrub, open forest regeneration and affect the overall health ofthorn forests) and bole (high altitude grass lands). the forest ecosystem.Water sources are also included in theirclassification of forests. The Soligashave an intricatelink with forests and forest resources. The forest isa place for them to live and celebrate their festivals,providing them with honey, fruits, tubers and rootsto eat, as well as medicine. They have their ownmedicinal system, and traditional healers effectivelytreat common ailments, set fractured bones andeven manage mental health problems. The Soligasuse more than 300herbs for treatment.

Conflict in ViewsSoligas have their own views on forest fires. soligasfeel that today biodiversity in the site has declined,with weeds taking over the forest, thus negativelyimpacting on natural regeneration, whilehemiparasites on amla (gooseberry) trees haveincreased, leading to decreased fruit productivity.When asked about the possible reasons for suchchanges, they say that earlier (before the declarationof the sanctuary) they used tomanage the forest withcontrolled fire. By this, they are referring to the useof litter fires/wet fires in the month of Decemberand January when there is still enough moisture left

3 VGKK: VivekalUlnda Girijan Knlyan Kendra, a non-government organization based in BRT,was founded in 1981 by Dr. H.Sudarshan for the upliftment of the Soligas in lhe region. VGKK has a long history of involvement in enhancing the health,education, and livelihaods of the Soligas.

9

Six Case Studies

harvest of amla which is one of the key NTFPsSoligas collect from the forest.

Participatory Resource MonitoringA series of meetings was organized in the podus tomake people aware of the importance of sustainableharvest practices and the need for resourcemonitoring, and identifying traditional knowledgeof fruit production, extraction, and regeneration ..The aim was to devise a format for recordingobservations, and to discuss follow-up procedures.Ultimately, understanding the Soliga knowledgesystem and collectively devising recording formatsfor observations to be made became trueparticipatory methods. But such participatorypractices were arrived at after initial years of a top-down approach to pedagogy, where communitymeetings were geared towards emphasizing certainconservation measures such as leaving a proportionof fruits on the tree, removing herniparasites whichcan kill the trees and reduce fruit production, andnot lopping large branches to obtain the fruits, asthis can affect fruit production in the followingyears. These meetings at the same time elicitedsuccinct accounts of observations that harvestershad made over the years. For example, theharvesters cited increased fluctuations in amlaproductivity over the years and the reasonsattributed for this phenomenon were herniparasiteproliferation on the trees, in addition to low rainfall.They also pointed out that controlled, less-intense,ground fires reduced hemiparasite infestation, anddid not affect fruit productivity, while maintainingthat canopy fires do affect fruit productivity.

On to Participatory EstimatiomParticipatory estimation of fruit production was alsoundertaken. Initially this was done by amethod thatinvolved line transects of randomly selected sampleplots by ATREE scientists, combined with visualestimation of fruit production by communityharvesters. Over a one-year period, the communitymembers suggested that the same could be donewhen they went to the forest to collect other NTFPsand fuel wood, rather than undertake separatetransects for the same. Yearly resource productivitymaps were drawn up based on visual estimates byindividuals, who came to a consensus on the same.Suchmaps were prepared at the podu level, and each

10

.of these single maps was integrated to arrive at acombined map of the .entire forest range. Theseresource survey maps proved to be particularlyuseful as they enabled identification of areas wherefruit production was high. Moreover, they enabledthe processing unit to estimate, ahead of time, theamount of fruit that would be available forpurchase, processing, and marketing in any givenyear. This information in turn allowed them to finda good trader towhom to sell the product. The mapsalso allowed harvesters to identify areas fromwhichthey should avoid harvestin& if they felt that thoseareas had been repeatedly over-harvested in thepaGt. The second method involved a visualestimation of extraction rates at the forest level. Thesame harvesters who prepared amla fruitproductivity estimation maps for their respectivesites and years, also visually estimated the quantityof fruits extracted. Extraction levels were thenmarked on those same maps.

Branching OutProcessing and value addition activities have beenundertaken for most of the NTFPs like amla, honey,soapnut and soapberry. TheSoliga community, withVGKK supervision, ismanaging the processing unit.All the work including management and marketingis being undertaken by the Soliga communitymembers, but the ownership is still with VGKK.Processed products are being sold locally and alsoto agencies in Bangalore and Mysore cities. Theincome from this activity is shared with thecommunity as an incentive to conserve NTFP in theforest through monitoring and mapping.

In addition, awareness campaigns have beenorganized by ATREE and VGKK through dramasand folk art by the Soliga children and elders, inorder to highlight conservation and natural resource.management issues. Workshops were carried outto share the outcome of the PRM program with thecommunity, training manuals prepared on PRMforuse by the community enterprise unit, and capacitybuilding activities continued (Setty, 2002).Community reactions to such efforts were alsoassessed through yearly meetings with communitymembers after the harvest season.

While working on resource monitoring it wasrealized that LAMPS', was the sole agent to whom

collectors sold the NTFP. The LAMPSmanagementcommittee has seven directors from the Soligacommunity with its President from the ForestDepartment and Secretary from the CooperativeDepartment. All the decision-making meetings weredominated by the President and Secretary and notmuch importance was given to the other directors.It was found that the prices at which collectors soldthe products to LAMPS were decided, not by thecommunity members, .but by the nominatedmembers of the Forest Department and CooperativeDept. Second, profit was not being distributed tothe harvesters on a regular basis. Thus began a seriesof meetings with community members at thehabitation level; to disseminate information, createawareness about their rights, question the basis offixing prices, and partake in the profits that LAMPSgot. LAMPS was restructured to improvemanagement and ensure that harvesters got a fairprice for their NTFPs. Capacity building trainings


were conducted for the directors, and as a result,changes have been brought about in three LAMPS.

Comparison of Results of PRM toScientific EstimatesTo assess the effectiveness of the PRM visualmonitoring of fruit production levels, anindependent, systematic estimate of fruit productionwas established. For this, ten transects of 1000 mlong and 10mwide eachwere established randomlyin the same seven forest areas in which the visualestimates were made by the harvesters. Seven Soligayouth who had formal basic education participatedin this exercise.Thenumber ofamla trees within eachtransect was recorded, and the number of fruits oneach tree counted. Thismonitoring took place beforefruit dispersal and before any harvesting by theSoligas. These values were used to extrapolate thetotal amount of fruit available for the entire area of11,000hectares. One hundred fruits from each forest

• Transect estimationoVisual estimation

250

"iii 200c~c 1500=u:s'tJ 100ec.~:s•• 50LI.

01998-99 1999-00 2000-01

Year

2001-02 2002-03

Fig - 2. Estimation of annual fruit production of amla based on visual estimations. by harvesters versus scientific estimates .

• LAMPS stands for Large-scale Anivasi MulH Purpose Society. These are state-sponsored institutions aimed to WDrk towardhelping mOOls in marketing NTFP products for sustainable economic well-being.

11

Six Case Studies

were also selected. randomly and weighed to getthe average weight of the fruit and to estimate theharvest in tons for the entire forest range.Productivity estimation done by harvesters wascompared with the productivity estimation done byscientists (Fig-2).

The visual estimates of amla fruit production madeby the harvesters were very similar to thoseobtained using the scientific transect methods (Settyet al 2007). These results suggest that the visualmethods are a good measure of actual fruitproduction and that this aspect of monitoring bythe community is very effective, as well as morerapid and cheaper than information obtained bystandard scientific methods. Fruit production foramla ranged from 35 to more than 200tons per yearfor the 11,000ha area, with fruit production levelsin 2001being more than three times greater than in1998.Both sets of data illustrated the great variationin fruit production over time, and the importanceof annual monitoring to predict in advance theamount of fruit available in any given year.

Institutionalizing MonitoringEffectiveparticipatory monitoring systems involvethe active participation and leadership of localharvesters at all stages and in all aspects of themonitoring program, including monitoring design,data collection and interpretation, as well asformulation and implementation of adaptiveresponses. One of the biggest challenges in PRM isensuring this kind and nature of participation. Inthis case, there were different levels of enthusiasmand participation in different aspects of theparticipatory monitoring effort, with participationhighest in those aspects ofmonitoring that providedthe most immediate benefits to harvesters.

For example, estimates of annual fruit productionrates are crucial for allowing harvesters to allocatethe time for harvesting and to anticipate the pay-off. There was thus almost universal interest in thisaspect of monitoring. In particular, nearly onehundred percent of participants welcomed theresource mapping exercise, which allowed for theidentification of areas where fruit production washigh, and for the processing unit to estimate theamount of fruit that would be available formarketing. Similarly, there are obvious direct

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benefits to harvesters who use better harvestingtechniques. Therefore there was good participationin reducing the cutting of main branches anddecreasing hemiparasite loads on trees.

In contrast, changes in extraction rates can impactfuture productivity and harvest levels. Thus therewas limited interest by harvesters in estimatingextraction rates. Similarly, monitoring regenerationis a time-consuming activity, the benefits of whichare likely to be seen only in the distant future.Consequently there was little interest in monitoringregeneration without compensation for time andeffort. Indeed 75 percent of Soligas showed littleenthusiasm for participating in the monitoring ofregeneration during the evaluation in 1999. Theyexpected economic compensation for transportationand food from the enterprise unit, to assessregeneration. This compensation was then agreedto by the enterprise unit.

Tenure IssuesIn the case of the Soligas in BRTwildllie sanctuary,the low interest in estimating extraction rates andregeneration levels is a direct consequence of theiruncertain tenure over their NTFP resources. Thereis little impetus for any harvesters to assess or reducecurrent harvest levels so as to ensure future yields,unless they have tenure over those resources, andtherefore know that their current sacrifices willresult in future pay-offs. In BRT,the resources areowned by the state, which grants rights to collectNTFPs on an annual basis. There are neitherpenalties for excessiveharvesting, nor incentives forjudicious use of resources. Only genuine user groupswith tenure over resources can be in a positi~ toprovide incentives and make monitoring trulyparticipatory.

Once the participatory monitoring protocolsdescribed above were developed and modified,they were transferred, in consultation with theSoliga community, to LAMPS enterprise units in2003, which then started to cover the costs ofmonitoring by using a portion of the revenues fromtheir NTFP sales. In theory, this kind of set up canbe economically self-sufficient and allow for long-term monitoring for sustainability. However, inreality, without greater tenure over resources, it isquestionable whether these groups can sustain

participatory monitoring. In addition, in 2005 thestate (following a Supreme Court order banning theextr.action of NTFP in Sanctuaries and NationalParks) banned the collection of NTFP in the BRTWildlife Sanctuary, placing everything fromharvesting and monitoring to processing andmarketing on hold. Collection ofNTFPwas bannedin all wildlife sanctuaries in India and there was noexception for BRT.

Efforts over the past ten years illustrate some PRMtechniques that have proved to be highly effectiveand accurate, and which can be easily adapted toother contexts. The work has also demonstrated thechallenges involved in ensuring interest inmonitoring rates of extraction and regeneration,both of which are important elements in anymonitoring program. But developing thesetechniques will only be possible where harvestershave tenure over their resources.

Besides extensive work done on formalizing andinstitutionalizing PRM among Soligas in BRT,workhas also been carried out in diversifying the basketof livelihood options, optimizing on currentpractices through better technological inputs to thecommunities. Most of such work has been carriedout on a pilot basis to test the efficacy of the effortsbefore scaling them up in the future.

Agricultural Technologies to IncreaseYieldsMost of the agricultural practices followed by Soligafarmers in BRTHills are organic and adopted fromthe shifting agriculture that they practised beforethe area was declared a sanctuary. Before that,Soligas used to do hunting, collection of NTFPs andgrew crops only for subsistence, with shiftingcultivation techniques. Currently Soliga farmers inthe BRT own or lease 1-4 acres of land perhousehold, on land allotted by the ForestDepartment for settled agriculture, and to grow fruittrees. Only a limited number have pallas (recordsof rights) for their land and they grow a diversityof crops such as finger millet, maize, red gram,mustard, amaranthus, field beans and othervegetables, along with wild trees. Agriculture isadapted to the subsistence needs of the farmfamilies. Yields are low due to low soil fertility andsoil erosion on sloping farmlands, while the


practices are more suited to shifting cultivation.Farmers also have towork under the constant threatof wildlife damage to crops.

Soliga farmers are mostly women, since womenspend the bulk of their time on agricultural work,and very little on NTFP, while the opposite is truefor men. Agricultural tasks are however sharedbetween men and wom.~; women are responsiblefor ,land preparation without animals (hoeing),sowing, planting, thinning, weeding, guarding thecrops in.the day time, harvesting, and seed storageand preservation. Men's activities are more seasonalin nature, focusing on ploughing with bullocks,bunding, sowing, and guarding the crops from wildlife during the night. Above all, women are thecustodians of seed, with special knowledge andskills, which have been documented. Also, they arethe crucial decision-makers, not only about what tosow, but also about how to grow, and about eachstage of the agricultural cycle,and men respect theirknowledge. However, ATREE learnt about thesegender roles only over a period of time. At first,mistakes were made, like focusing on the men andso working with the wrong gender! These wererectified by experience. Some time was wasted inthe early stages, but gradually, with increasingunderstanding and mutual learning, thisprogramme also became more participatory.

Simple 'organic' technologies are being introducedto farm families to increase yields, diversify thefarms, and conserve soil and water, in order toimprove the well-being of the people and strengthenthe prospect of sustainable use of forest and landresources. The underlying assumption is thatdiversification of livelihoods will decrease directdependence on forests through collection of NTFP.All interventions aim to strengthen on-farmcapacities, improve sustainable traditionaltechnologies, and build on-farm capacity to improvecomposting systems.

The ProcessIntroducing these technologies was based on astrategy of using on-farm trials for low-riskinterventions, leaving high-risk interventions tofield station trials. Low-risk interventions includethe use ofcontour line sowing rather than broadcastsowing, improved access to traditional varieties of

13

Six Case Studies

seeds, and compostingpractices. The relatively high-risk interVentions are to incorporate locally graftedhigh-yielding amla and related fruit trees, selectinghigh-yielding local crop varieties, and crop rotation'.

In the first year, line sowing, composting and seedconservation activities were introduced in capacitybuilding meetings at the village. Mostly menattended these, since evenings are a busy time forwomen, when they do the main cooking. The menreadily agreed to take up all these activities, but itwas found that they were not properlyimplemented. Through follow up meetings, themajor role of women in decision-making wasunderstood. For example, women were against linesowing because they thought, first, that productionwould be reduced by leaving space between theseedlings and rows; and second, that thinning andmaintaining space between the seedlings was notnecessary, since close planting would minimize thegrowth of weeds. Working with the wrong genderled to one season being lost, but the newunderstanding meant that the new strategies weretried out from the second year onwards.

Arresting the loss of soil was felt to be the necessaryfirst step in increasing yields, and line sowing across

the slope with appropriate contour drainage wastried out as the solution. ATREEworked with a fewSeliga farmers with a range of acreage and slopes.Half their land was used for the experiment, whilethey cultivated the other half using traditionalbroadcast sowing. On-farm trials using rowcropping showed 30 percent better yields tobroadcast sowing in 21 farms (Bawa, K. S, Joseph,G and S.Setty. 2007).(Fig.3)However, the variationin yields using either method was high from fieldto field, ranging from 100-1250kg/acre, indicatinga high degree of variation in soil productivity, andsuggesting that there is potential to improve yieldsconsiderably by improving practices and buildingsoils. Since introducing line sowing, more than 40farmers (out of around 100), have adopted thissystem. However, some farmers reverted back tobroadcast sowing for various reasons.

Current agriculture practices are low in input andsubsequently low in output, so building on-farmcapacity, especially to improve organic compostingis essential. In future, experiments withcomplementary methods to diffuse farmer-friendlytechnologies to achieve both increasing livelihoodand ecological sustainability will continue. Thereis much to be done in the agricultural sphere, and

~C.-

fa

900800700600500400300200100o

Average Yield per Acre

• Ragi grain• Ragi foddero Maize grainEElMaim fodder• Fieldbean

Demonstration Conventional

Fig - 3. Results of crop assessment

5 Soligas have been amazed to see the new grafted varieties and some have started growing these on their own land.

14

working with a farmer-led model will ensure thatthe entire livelihood-strategy of the farmers, aswell as the entire system-from input, credit, storage,subsistence/ cash needs, value addition, andmarketing, is addressed.

Seed Conservation and Tree GrowingTowards conserving agro-biodiversity, efforts werealso undertaken to establish seed banks in thesettlements, not only to conserve seed varieties andstrengthen diversity and quality, but also to makeaccessdecentralized. Systems were put in place withone centralized seed bank at ATREE, and sixdecentralized banks at the community level, so thatcommunity members could easily access seeds. Inthe process; the seed varieties Soligas have beencultivating, the traditional practices of seedconservation and the roles ofwomen in agriculturehave also been documented. In seed conservationactivities, fifty-seven varieties of beans, twenty-onevarieties of ragi (finger millet), five varieties of jola(com), three varieties of edda (amaranthus) fourvarieties of thogari (red gram), five varieties ofsasuvae (mustard), three varieties of navanae (foxmillet) and six varieties ofpumpkins were included.Including agricultural crops and vegetables, 151v..neties of seeds are being collected and preserved.The seeds are being stored using traditionalpreservation techniques. Awareness about the valueof indigenous seed varieties is created by variousmeans, especially through seed festivals.

In the early years of engagement with the Soligas,fuel wood trees were introduced in farmlands toaugment their fuel wood needs, only to realize thatthe community members were not keen on such anintervention. They had hardly an acre of forest-leased land per family, and preferred fruit plantsand high-value NTFPs to augment their cashincomes. Farmers were justifiably unwilling toreduce the open farm area needed for their ragi.Thus, from experience and interactions withfarmers, arose the plan to introduce graftedseedlings, both to reduce the time to maturity andthe canopy structure. Grafting as a technology wasintroduced through training in BAIF,and graftingof amla using rootstock and scions from BRTcontinues. During the current year, 7,200seedlingsof fruit-yielding species have been raised inATREE's centralized nursery to distribute for


planting along the bunds and in degraded lands.Specieswere selected based on farmers' preferences.

Over time, to sustain the new practices, thecapacities of community members, both men andwomen, in sowing techniques and varied methodsof composting and raising seedlings have beenstrengthened. Capacity building on organicfarming, sowing, nursery raising and compostinghas been carried out and 30-40 percent of theparticipants have been women. Now both men andwomen do verrnicomposting, green composting,and nursery raising. Plans are afoot to developmanuals for such activities,aimed at explaining suchtechniques in simple language with plenty ofillustrations, since literacy levels are low.

Alternative Temple OfferingsThe alternative temple offerings project is beingimplemented in two temple areas, MalaiMahadeswara Hills (MM Hills) and BiligiriRangaswamyTemple WildlifeSanctuary (BRT).Theproject was initiated to create awareness aboututilizing local/traditional crops for food and asprasad items, to build the capacity of women toprepare these items, and to generate supplementaryincome through the sale of these items in the templearea and beyond.

Fifty-six women's Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in 20hamlets ofM.M.Hills and twelve in BRT,have beenformed, as part of ongoing interventions in the areato address conservation and livelihood issues, andthis project was initiated and sustained through .some of them. Groups located close to the templeprecincts in both the areas were engaged forpreparing the prasad kits. The kit consists of a 50 /100 ml bottle of locally harvested honey, laddusmade of amaranthus and Bengal gram/ fingermillet, and seedlings of sacred tree species,packaged in cloth/ paper bags. The women wereencouraged to use local resources and theirtraditional knowledge to decide on the prasad kit.Nearly fiftymeetings were conducted to strengthenthe participation of the Soligas in the project. Astudy was undertaken to assess their incomes andsocio-economic status, to serve as a baseline to studythe impact of the project in terms of incomegeneration.

15

Six Case Studies

Decentralized nurseries for raising seedlings ofnative sacred species such as Terminalia bel/erica,Michelia chizmpaca, Phyl/anthus emblica and Ocimumsanctum have been set up. Honey, locally harvestedby the Soligas, was a part of the kit. Paper and clothbags replaced plastic bags for packaging. Currently,SHGs haw started selling the products around thetemple complex, as well as supplying to shops. Theyalso put up sales counters during the annualfestivals near the temples, and on special occasionslike folk festivals. Possibilities to sell traditionalfoods outside the forest area in nearby cities,(Mysore and Bangalore) and encouraging localschools to distribute amaranthus laddus to schoolchildren as part of the mid-day meal scheme arebeing explored.

Lantana: from Weed to ResourceOver several years, lantana (lantana camera) hasemerged as one of the worst invasive species in theforest, displacing indigenous species and takingover acres of vegetation and forest land. ATREEbegan to explore the possibilities ofutilizing lantana,which was so abundantly available in the landscape.Soon it was found that some communities inAnantpur and Chitoor districts of Andhra Pradeshused lantana to make baskets. Later, it was alsodiscovered that the Himalayan EnvironmentalStudies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO)was using lantana to make utility :products. Over aperiod of time, with inputs from ~everal quarters,lantana became a resource for making products likebaskets, trays and furniture. Two French interns atATREEwere effective in transferring technology tothe Soliga artisans like, for example, boiling thelantana stems to make them softer and easier to bendand shape into products. This simple technology(which the Soligas are still using) has contributedsignificantly to product quality and design, and iswell adapted to the needs, resource availability andskills of the community.

I

With training provided and a constant search forbetter innovations in technology, more than 150families are now utilizing lantana, which hascontributed to a significant increase in employmentdays, by almost 50-60 percent. People engaged inthis activity have benefited in terms of increasedaverage monthly income to the tune of four timeswhat they used to get earlier.

16

ConclusionWorking on issues of conservation withmarginalized communities such as the Soligaswithin a Protected Area (PA) regime like the one inBRT sanctuary, throws up its own share ofchallenges. The efforts at PRM, and at transferringappropriate technologies, have all had theirsuccesses and difficulties. Along the way, there hasbeen much learning, leading to changes in strategiesand mid-course corrections. It became clear that akeener look at policy, and advocacy for a people-friendly policy, were needed, if these efforts wereto be fruitful.

The ban on collection and processing of NfFP insanctuaries and National Parks is a case in point.The work of years of participatory resourcemonitoring was stopped in one stroke, and hasgreatly disincentivised efforts that the Soligas hadengaged themselves in during the last ten years. Butsuch an effort can also be used to prove, based onresults of the monitoring, that collection of NfFPlike amla does not affect regeneration of the species,and that harvest levels in the case of BRTare wellwithin sustainable limits. This provides a solid basisto argue for communities' collaboration inmanaging Parks, besides giving them the rights toharvest, NTFPs. Further, security of tenure overresources is critical and would incentiviseconservation; without such security, such effortscannot be sustained. ATREEis working with otherlike-minded institutions (VGKK, Kalpavriksh) todraw up a co-management plan based on bothscientific and traditional knowledge.

The enactment of the Forest Rights Act; besidesundoing historical injustice by giving tribals rightsto forest land, opens up opportunities to strengthencommunity efforts at conservation, and providesspace for collaborative management, especiallywithin aPA regime. ATREEis following up on thesedevelopments and intends to facilitate the processesof co-management in BRTsanctuary.

Institutionalizing efforts is yet another key issue thathas to be based on principles of democracy andequity. No technology delivery system can succeedwithout being embedded in sustainable institutions.Having realized this in the course of work, ATREEis engaged in exploring institu'tions that can best

deal with making the reach wider and moresustainable and replicable over time. Institutionslike LAMPS, and the Forest Department, are limitedby their mandate, and more holistic, broad-basedinstitutions are needed to take ahead the mandateof conservation and ensuring secure livelihoods forthe tribal communities. There is, however, a majorrole to be played by specialized institutions like the


Forest Department and LAMPS, which need to bestrengthened in order to provide platforms to enlistthe participation of the tribals and the bureaucracyon an equal footing. Traditional Soliga institutions,(the Kula system) for instance have also beendocumented, and they too need to be strengthenedto adapt to changing times and be relevant totoday's conditions.

ReferencesBawa, K. S,Joseph, G and S. Setty. 2007.Poverty, biodiversity and institutions in forest-agriculture ecotones inthe Western Ghats and Eastern Himalaya ranges of India. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 121(2007)287-295.

Hegde, R., Suryaprakash, S. Achoth, L.and Bawa, K.S.1996.Extraction of Non-Timber Forest Products in theForests of BRHills: l.Contribution to Rural Income. Economic Botany, 50:243-250.

Kalpavriksh, June 2007. Forest fires and the ban on ntfp collectfun in Biligiri Rangaswamy temple sanctuary,Kamataka. Report of a field investigation and recommendations for action.

Setty Siddappa, R. 2002. Sustainable harvest of non-timber forest products, Kannada manual. Ashoka Trustfor Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, India.

Setty Siddappa, R, Kamal Bawa, Tamara Ticktin and C. Madegowda, 2007. Results and evaluation of aparticipatory monitoring system for non-timber forest products: the case of amla (Phyllanthus spp.) fruit harvestby Soligas in South India Submitted to Journal of Ecology and Society.

17

Community Biodiversity Enterprises forWomen's Empowerment

N. lv[uthu Velayudham, John Britto, M P Bala, Bhllvaneswari Kannan and

In the year 1989, the Covenant Centre forDevelopment was started and registered in 1993,to assist street children to earn a decent livelihood,instead of being beaten up by the police for crime.Soon it was realized that there was a need to reducemigration of rural children and families to cities forjobs. CCO (Covenant Centre for Development) thenstarted promoting rural income generationprograms for poverty alleviation, to help youth getlocal employment, and avoid moving to cities todwell in slums. For industries were scarce in thisbackward dry plains region in the centre of the State,and no jobs were available in the dry season andsummer, once farming was over after the monsoon.

The process began with incubation of over 620women's self help groups (SHGs) that workedinitially as saving and credit groups termed kalasam(meaning "pot" in Tamil), after the local deity. Theirsavings were rotated amongst members to meetconsumption or emergency needs or finance a smallbusiness such as livestock purchase, a tailoringmachine, or setting up a petty shop. Over the pastten years, CCO has helped these SHGs to save aboutRs. 0.6 million and get loans of Rs. 40 million, andthey have repaid to the tune of 95 percent. Thewomen have also started various group incomegeneration activities in the field ofherbal medicines,energy and food, which will be summarized below,with comments on their impact on gender relationsin the region.

Burden on Rural WomenLackof farming activity during winter and summer(December to July) compels men in the Ramnadplains (Sivgangai, Madurai, Virudunagar, Dindiguland Theni districts) to migrate to cities for labor andpetty jobs. For irrigation is poor, covering hardly

18

five percent of the farms, in an area with a semi-arid climate. Workers get paid better - about Rs.100/- as construction labor or porters, and there isno caste discrimination, which is prevalent invillages. Hence, women or families also sometimesmigrate to cities. Thus, seventy percent of thepopulation is urban resident and thirty percentrural, almost the opposite of the respective figuresfor India as a whole.

Only women, children, and old people stay back invillages. They are bogged down by the problems oflow income, hunger and water scarcity. Hence,thirty percent of families go to bed hungry or ofteneat only twice a day. Malnutrition is common,affecting over fifty percent of the children andanemia affects over thirty percent of the women.

The SHG movement has empowered womeneconomically, but has also added a new workburden, such as attending group meetings, recordkeeping and the organized occupational activitiesof the group. Though women do seventy percent ofthe farm work, they earn little. About forty percentof the village population consists of landlesslaborers, who get hardly Rs.30/ - per day as wages,which is half the prescribed Minimum Wage. Thisleaves nearly one-third of the families below thepoverty line (BPL)-with no assets, poor savings,poor education and vulnerable to disaster. Droughtsare common every 3-4years, and then entire familiesmay have to shift to the city.

Community EnterpriseCCO organized women self help groups into'"clusters of 5-6 neighboring groups from every 2-3villages. About 8-10 such clusters Le. about 50-60SHGs associate in larger groups, termed federation(Milhakalasam in Tamil). The federation first accessed

bank loans for business purposes, and provided thesecurity for repayment. It thus encouraged manyactivities - individual, family and group. Most ofthese are based on local resources and traditionalskills (LRTS).These are easy to promote and easyto market as people know them, and there is alreadyan existing demand. Later, CCD helped thefederation to get" appropriate technology", in orderto get high value, quality conscious (i.e."niche")market access" The following formula is found towork today: LRTS+ Appropriate Technology =Market Access.

Traditional markets have changed; rural marketsare not remunerative, while urban markets demandquality standards not achievable by rural producersusing traditional methods and norms alone. Suchvalue addition also benefits the community byearning a higher price for the processed materialthan the raw commodity. For instance, herbalpowder, even of Tulsi leaves, a cure against cough,fetches Rs. 50/- pr kg, while the leaves alone fetchonly Rs. 9/-, and the powdering cost is not even Rs.2-3/- per kg, with packing another half rupee. ThelSI mark for quality assures a higher return.

To maintain high quality through regularmonitoring and to deal with the urban markets, thecommunity groups find professional managersuseful, as the latter are trained in English, can booktransport, phone the buyer agency and verifyrecords. Hence, CCD formed business developmentservice (BDS)tearns amongst its staff to assist CBOs(Community Based Organisations) in variousCommunity Based Enterprises (CBE). Now theformula is : CBO + BDS + Market Access =Community Enterprise

Community Herbal EnterpriseThe majority of the women, mostly Datit, used tocollect and sell medicinal plants, including neemseeds, growing on fallow lands during the summer.Most of the women are landless labourers andcollect from private farms, on which they haveworked as labour during the agricultural season,and also from barren/waste lands belonging to thePanchayat. This was their only income sourceduring the dryseason, and they were often cheatedby the traders on weight, price, or quality. Tradersnever disclosed the end use and price, and thewomen were unorganized, operating individually.


Traders often advanced money to them in anemergency and charged high interest rates orbought their herbal collection at low prices whenthey were in distress, keeping them, in a debt trap.

CCDbegan by organizing the women gatherers intoSHGs and encouraged them to take up collectivemarketing. This prevented a few individuals selling .at lower than the negotiated price, so the buyershad to pay a higher price to the whole group. CCDalso ensured direct supply to industry at higherprice, due to the contacts provided by theFoundation for Revitalization of Local HealthTraditions, (FRLHT),an NGO from Bangalore.

CCD set up the supply chain, from quality collectionto industrial dispatch. The chain is comprised ofrented village storehouses, local transport to buildup a central warehouse, interstate transport to thebuyer industry, cash recovery and advance paymentto groups. CCD also provided weighing balancesand moisture meters to each group and trained theSHGs in "good collection practices" (GCP) Set ofProtocols (SOP).

The marketing firm was registered as "GramMoolige Company Limited (GMCL), and thegatherer federation as Moolige Sekarippu matrumSegapudiar Sangalipu Kutam (MSMSSK,meaningherbal colleCtorand cultivator groups' association).Today it ensures better income to 1,300 womenregularly. The sales increased from 30 to 600 tonsin 7 years and the turnover from Rs.13 to 80 lakh.Of this, ninety percent is from fifteen plant speciescollected from the wild, as cultivation is not foundviable, and the wild options are cheap. Break-evenwas achieved in three years and the profit is fivepercent. Technology inputs here included micro-processing guidance and pharmacological research,besides safety tests and production processes.

About ten percent of the turnover coI]Sistsof ready-to-use, OTC (Over the Counter) medicines. Theseare eight in number and used to cure primaryhealthcare complaints such as cough, fever, whitedischarge and joint pain. These remedies werecollected and documented from local healers ashorne remedies, and standardized in the FRLHTlaboratory. This helped also to get permission forcommercial production from the Tarnilnadu Govt.Department of Medicine.

19

Six Case Studies

In 2003, a processing centre with a modernpharmaceutical laboratory was set up with grantsfrom the Sir Dorabaji Tata Trust and the FordFoundation. The OTCmedicines are now being soldthrough the SHG federations, who get up to thirtyfive percent commission. Their sales are graduallyincreasing, though allopathic medicines are cheap,as herbal medicines have few side effects, and leadto slow but long-term cure of the disease.

Good Food and Fiber Company-AHARAMThere is a widespread belief among rural peoplethat their health is declining and diseases are rising,largely because of unhealthy, adulterated foods,mainly oil and pulses, that are supplied by thegrocery shops. Hence, CCD encouraged SHGs tobuy pulses, spices and oilseeds directly fromfarmers, micro-process them and sell to SHGmembers and neighbors. This saved SHGmembersfive percent of their expenses and improved thequality of the food they ate. The program, namedAHARAM (meaning "food" in Tamil) has beenselling good quality low-eost food to 1,000 poorfamilies around Madurai since 2004, worth Rs.30lakh annually. The customers are provided freecredit for two months, as local shopkeepers providea similar facility but supply 'poor quality,adulterated groceries at high prices. About thirtypercent of the raw materials are procured from thefarmers, (pulses, millets, spices and oil) andprocessed and marketed by the SHGs, benefitingabout 100 farmers and 100 women workers. Thestrategy is based on the traditional belief-Unavemarundaam (meaning "food is medicine" in Tamil).

To promote agro-biodiversity conservation, CCDstarted farmers' field schools (FFS)teaching organicfarming methods to about 1,500 farmers in theRamnad plains. The farmers are also organized intogroups and a federation. As market access isnecessary for conservation, CCD registered theAHARAMTraditional Crop Producer Co.Ltd., withfive federations holding Rs.llakh worth shares andsending their nominees to the Board of Directors.AHARAM company has supplied in bulk to

'.. industrial buyers- mango fruit to Parle Agro Co.. '~>':-.;..•

which uses it to manufacture the famous "Fruti"juice. BirlaRetail Co. has asked AHARAM to supply

20 .

tamarind pulp cakes, with no seed or fiber, in"brick" form. AHARAM's turnover during 2006was Rs.4million, with a profit of three percent, ofwhich twenty five percent was from bulk sales.

Technology inputs here are local, traditional ethnicrecipes, and organic farming techniques, practisedby the earlier generation by default, as chemicalinputs were not available then. Ethnic recipes arealso collected and taught to SHGs t!J.~nsurefamilynutrition and health.

Clean, Green Energy CompanyRural women spend a lot of time and energy infuelwood collection, which is getting both scarceand costly. The resulting kitchen smoke causeshealth hazards such as eye irritation, asthma andother respiratory diseases, while carbon emissionscontribute to global warming. Topromote clean andsafe energy solutions in rural areas, CCD startedAdharam Energy Private Limited (AEPL) in 2005to partner with British Petroleum. AEPL has sold15,000 smokeless stoves in Tamil Nadu andMaharashtra in 2006-07, in partnership with anNGO, Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP)working incentral Maharashtra. Selling stoves and biomasspellets prepared from farm waste has provided asustainable income source to about 100rural womenagents. This saves the customer women thedrudgery of fuel wood collection, and the absenceof smoke that causes indoor pollution andrespiratory diseases has also reduced householdcarbon emissions by 70 percent. Interviews withsome users showed that they saved 1-2hours timedaily for fuel collection, and had reducedcomplaints of asthma and eye irritation. A largescale impact study is planned.

British Petroleum initially asked CCD to take upLPGdistribution, but rural markets were unsuitablefor it, so CCD 'offered the "co-creation" model,proposed by The Next Practices (TNP) consultancyfirm that guided the CCD-BPcollaboration. Notingthe extent of fuelwood usage in villages, BP thenobtained the smokeless stove patent from the IndianInstitute of Science (lISC)Bangalore. BP improvedit and set up a fuel pellet making unit at Madurai.The fuel pellets are made up of agri-waste and costRs.3/- daily per home. The steel stove costs Rs.620/- and the sales commission is 5 percent or Rs. 30/-.

CCD has trained 60 women members of SHGs instove maintenance and sales, in partnership withSSP and named them lyoti (meaning "flame" inTamil). The lyotis have already sold 15,000stovesin the pilot phase, and the target for the year 2007is11akh stoves, when break-even will be reached andprofits will be earned thereafter. The technologyinputs are the smokeless stove patented by IndianInstitute' l:jf SCience, but commercialized by theBritish Petroleum.

Coastal EnterprisesCCD promoted a community-ownedcoir companyenterprise at Kanyakumari in 2005 to rehabilitate500coir workers affected by the Tsunami. Another500artisans (workers in shell crafts and palm fiber)have also been federated and helped with funds,training, tools and market access. Similarly, twofederations consisting of 1,500 farmers and afederation of 1000 fisherwomen in Nagpattinamhave also benefited. Another 500 women fromRameswaram sell shells to the Kanykumarifederation. They have also helped in mangroveforest conservation and plantation, besides sanddune conservation. Responsible fishing methods arealso taught. Vivekanand Industrial Training Collegeat Rameswaram has trained youth in boat enginerepairing for a decent career. Technology inputswere provided by the Central Marine FisheriesResearch Institute (CMFRl) of the Central Govt. forfish culture, and Upasana Design Studio for shell


and palm crafts. The Coir Board, Govt. of Indiaprovided free training courses (Table 1).

CCD is now training fifteen NGOs in eight otherIndian states to benefit 10,000coastal fisher people(www.ccd.org.in/cell)and 10,000dryland farmers.AHARAM provides fair price market access fortheir produce such as mango, tamarind, maize, sothat the farmers save ten-fifteen percent of theirearnings earlier spent on transport andcommissions. Thisventure is expanding to ten statesin 2008-09with support from the Tata Trust.

Constraints and StrategiesThe greatest problem facing the enterprises is ofworking capital needed to procure raw materialsat peak season, when the price is lowest. Later, theprice increases and the profit margin is reduced. Butsince the profit margin is any way only three-fivepercent, and the business grosses thirty -fiftypercent each year, the profit does not generateenough margin to make the extra procurement eachyear. For GMCL,CCD availed part of it from otherproject funds and returned it after the sales recovery.FRLHT also contributed some of it. However, forother enterprises it is a severe gap, difficult toovercome. AHARAM started with communityfunds and CCDmoney rotation from other projects,with no special funds. AEPL does not have a bulkpurchase problem but the coastal business faces itoften. Hence, revolving funds to the tune of fiftypercent of the business capital are being drawn uponfrom grants, which cannot be a long-term solution.

Table 1-Community enlerprises established by CCO

Activity Enlerprise Formal Turnover Capital BeneficiaryRs.Lakhl RS.Lakh numbersyear

Herbal GMCLMSMSSK Pvl Co. Ltd., 80 40 1,300producersmedicine TruslGood food AHARAM Producer 40 10 1,700producersretail .. CompanyClean energy .. AOHARAM Pvt. Ltd. 100 10 15,000buyers

100agentsCoir crafts Bhagwatiamman Trust 30 5 500producersOther crafts Nanjilnatham Society 10 2 SOD producers

Microfinance Kalasam Rural Section 25 100 60 15,000Finance IT Co.

21

Six Case Studies

Another problem is in meeting the high qualitystandards of niche markets. For instance, the color,texture, and shape preferences of urban buyersdiffer from that of rural customers which has shapedthe craft of the producers. Hence, special designtrainings have been provided to artisans by experts.A third problem is the brand loyalty of even ruralcustomers. They often hesitate to buy oil producedby their own kith and kin, but flatly continue to abuy a reputed branded product. Constantunderlining is necessary among SHC membersabout the health and community employmentbenefits of local products, so that more and morepeople buy them and help others.

To ensure that project activities do not end after thefunded project is over, all the five interventions havebeen registered as companies, to maintain thepressure of accountability and profitability.

Institutional StructureThe community enterprise represents a multi-institution collaboration, as indicated in Fig.l

The CBO consisting of women's self help groupsworks at both the producer and consumer Le."Prosumer"'ends. The enterprise represents thebusiness institution. management advice isprovided by CCD, while community membersimplement activities accordingly. Later, theybecome self-sufficient, after adequate experienceand enough contacts are gathered. Technologytraining is provided by expert Research andDevelopment agencies, such as FRLHT or Coir

Board or Upasana Design Studio for herbs, coir orthe crafts respectively. The donor provides thecapital, including bank loans in some cases, whichis returnable, unlike a grant.

InsightsCommunity enterprises cannot be completely self-sufficient, but continue to need help in businessmanagement, including buyers' con~act, qualitymaintenance and accounting. Wheti'the businessgrows, these BDSexpenses can be supported fromthe business turnover itself and the guiding NCOneed not pay for it. Hence, the NCO can depute 4-5of its skilled staff permanently to run the CBO, inconsultation with and with the consent of thecommunity. Logistic costs-supply chainmanagement and BDS expenses are about tenpercent, comparable to eight-nine percentworldwide, considered standard. However, theseare lower than the Indian average of fifteen percent.

Women's Empowerment.The most obvious impact of the communityenterprises is the economic enabling of the women.As the women earn Rs. 30-40/- daily, or about Rs.1,000/ - p.m., the family can rise above the povertyline, however measured. Hence, even if the mencannot bring or send money to villages, the womencan run the home, with no need to be becomeindebted. Economic emanCipation has left no spacefor hunger, as the families can buy and store foodnow, unlike the daily purchases which they neededearlier. This is most evident in coastal areas

Donor

Technology

R&Dagency

SHG Federation

Management

CCD

Fig. 1: Community enterprise as rnulti-stakeholder collaboration

'Toffler, Alvin. 1980. The Third Wave. William Morrows & Co. New York.

22

AHARAM retailing has reduced food adulteration,and chemical residue-laden food, which hasimproved family health, and reduced diseases, andthe woman has to spend less time and money oncuring such aliments. The kitchen herbal gardensraised in over 10,000 homes also lead to betterhealth, as the same herbs are used in home remedies.

Women are more vocal today and decide not onlyfamily m~tt~~, but also participate actively in the


social sphere. Huge confidence building is a majoroutcome of this enterprise-based empowerment.CCD is committed to replicating these successesacross nine states with fifteen partners.

ReferencesToffler, Alvin (1980) The Third Wawe WilliamMorrows and Co. New York. Gram MooligeCompany Limited (GMCL,www.villageherbs.com.

www.uicn.org/congress/ documents / outputs /biodiversity-loss / community-driven-karki. pdf)

Adhararn Energy Pvt. Ltd. (AEPL) company to promote clean energy technology viz. smokeless stove, inpartnership with British Petroleum (www.ccd.org.in/adhararn, www.leadindia.org/Leaflet.pdf),

AHARAM company, Good Food and Fiber company, to promote healthy, nutritious, organic and ethnicdiet(www.changemakers.net/joumal/300508/ displayfec.cfm?ID=76, www.ccd.org.in/aharam)

Coastal Ecosystem (conservation) and Livelihood (enterprise) network across east and west coasts of India(www.samanvaya.com/relief-work/update10.htm, www.ccd.org.in/cell).

FRlHf www.frlht.org.in

AEPL www.ccd.org.in/adhararn

lISC www.iisc.org.in

SSP www.sspindia.org

CMFRl www.cmfri.org.in

CCD www.ccd.org.in/cell

23

Enterprise, Technology and Gender Eq:uity.~~I~

Sudha Soni

Gandhi Srnarak Grama Seva Kendram (GSGSK)hasbeen involved in grassroots level activities since itsinception in 1958, in various sectors like health,education, women's empowerment, and leprosyeradication. It was in 1996 that GSGSKdecided toenter into SHG - related activities. Why?

Why Self Help Groups?First, the socio-economic and political conditionsthat evolved over the early 1990sand from then on,caused much upheaval in the employment sector.People found it difficult to get work, especially inthe traditional sectors like coir and agriculture .This,and the rise in the cost of living, forced people tomanage their day-to-day life through credit andloans from money lenders. The lack of financialsupport from banks to individuals drove them to.money lenders, charging very high rates of interest.About eighty percent of the population is alreadyin the debt trap in the State. Though no studies havebeen conducted so far, enough empirical evidenceexists about this aspect as a result of theorganization's close association with ruralcommunities in the area since 1958.

This experience with the community helped GSGSKrealize the need for an alternative system that wouldfree people in the region from the debt trap. Later,it was found from the application forms that themajority of loan applications were to clear debts andto recover pawned items. Almost 90peccent of themcited mounting debts as their reason for wantingloans, even at rates of interest varying from 36percent to as high as 100or 120percent.

The second reason is GSGSK's deep commitmentto Gandhiji's ideals of equal status for women. Inkeeping with this ideology, the organizationbeli"'les that it is not possible to achieve true

24

progress if one half of the population, meaningwomen, is not mainstreamed. A country cannot besaid to have progressed if fifty percent of its socialcapital is silent and dormant, excluded frommainstream activities, and for whom very oftenhome is the final frontier. GSGSKbelieved womenpower needed to be awakened for any real progressto take place, for it is only when woman awakensthat the society, and consequently the nation,awakens. But-she was unorganized. Homemakersdo not have unions. In an era when even tortoisecatchers have unions, hom~makers, or housewives,as they are traditionally called, have no forum toshare their thoughts, problems and opportunities.The SHGs of GSGSKwere formed as a response tothis social dilemma - to help women realize theirfull potential and avoid economic exploitation .

New Avenues for CreditThe phenomenon of charging high interest rates isknown as "blade"in local parlance, and the SHGsofGSGSKwere formed as an answer to this. Tomeetthe demand for finance, it was decided to developmicromodels of banks giving rise to Veedurnutlathuoru Bank or "a bank at your door step" concept. TheSHGs formed for this purpose were small groupsof twenty women who would practise thrift, opentheir own bank accounts, keep accounts, meet oncein a week, and circulate loans among themselves ata nominal interest rate. The income thus generatedwas in tum pumped back into the funds of theparticular SHG. The 'banks' thus formed becametheir rescuer to help them come out of their debttrap. The money that used to go to money lenderscould now be siphoned back to their homes.

Soon the weekly and bi-weekly meetings of theSHGs became a platform for the women to share

their woes and views, talk about opportunities andexplore possibilities. Various orientation sessionswere held by GSGSK to help women realize theirpotential. For example, they thought that the workthat they generally do at home, like managingpoultry, tending to their cows, or taking care ofcultivation, was just part of their 'housewifely' duty.They were made aware such the work was alsotr~de-relaied, and that they too were proudcontributors to the family economy in their ownway. This instilled a new confidence in them to takeup activities which they knew and convert them intoenterprises.

The number of SHG groups went on increasing asmore and more women realized its value. Realizingthe potential of SHGs, the men followed suit, andexclusive men's groups, called the Yuva SwasrayaSangham (YSS)were formed. They'were initiallycalled youth SHGs because they were formedprimarily to address the unemployment issue, butlater, men of all ages joined.

Developing an Organizational DesignThe Community Based Organisation (CBO)promoted by GSGSKhas a three-tier structure - theSHGs at the primary level, the SHGs federatedthrough LocalDevelopment Committees, LDCsand


MSS at the next level, and the LDCs federatedthrough Village Development Committees (VDCs)and the MSS/VSS at the apex level (Figl). TheseCBOs are primarily involved in microfinance, theorganization having been built primarily aroundindividuals interested in thrift and credit.

This structure ensured that the men's SHG groupscalled Yuva Swasraya Sangham (YSS) and thewomen's groups called the Swasraya SahayaSangham(SHG) were maintained as separatestreams in the progressive movement upwards.Further, the design ensured that the voice ofwomenwas heard loud and clear, unhindered by any maledominant factors. Each level in the three tiers wasso designed that it gave opportunity to its membersnot only to express themselves without any fear oftheir views and suggestions being turned down, butalso encouraged them to emerge as leaders, movingprogressively to the Sub Center level, where, in theExecutive Committee as well as in the GeneralCouncil, the number of women elected memberswas equal to that of men.

The Sub-eenter is a subsidiary institution of GSGSKformed for the purpose of integrating, monitoringand effectively managing the various programmesGSGSK.Thirteen sub centers have been established

.

Gandhi Smarak Grama SevaKendrami

SUB CENTER(General Council, Exec. Council, Member Secretary)

50% women in each section

Urban Development CenterVillage Development Center

UDC/VOCI

Local Development CenterLDC

tSwasraya Sahaya Sangham

SHG

Apex Federation

CLUSTER FEDERATION

Grassroots

Village SwayarnsahayaSangham/Urban SwasrayaSangham - VSS/ USS

TMekhala Swasraya

Sarnithyi

Yuvajana SwasrayaSarnithy - YSS

Fig. 1:Gandhi Smarak Grama Seva Kendram

25

Six Case Studies

across the District. The administrative system of theSub Center consists of a General Council, anExecutive Council and office bearers'.

The SHG movement among women has been adriving force in building confidence among themand impelling women to participate in elections atthe Panchayat and Municipality level and win themtoo. There are now 1745SHGs out of a total of 3470groups (both men's and women's groups) formedbyGSGSK.

The Federation as an Evolved UnitIn this structure, the Cluster Federations and theApex Federations are units of the CBO which areindependent in their functioning, with their ownelected committees to administer them. Thecommittees at the respective levels ensure thatproper repayments are made, community levelactivities undertaken, and issues and problemsaddressed. Just as families progress socially throughthe SHGs, the SHGs through their Federations findentry into the larger domain of a developed society.The Federations can achieve collectively all that anSHGcould not have achieved independently. SHGshelp in the sustainable development of anindividual, while the Federations ensure thesustainable and self-reliant development of theSHGs. The SHGs renew, develop and make betterthe life of an individual, while the Federationsensure the development, democratization andbetterment of the activities of the SHGs. While theSHGs through their 'bank at your door step' conceptdevelop a new line of leaders and a newdevelopment culture, at the regional and thePanchayat level the Federations develop a new lineof janakeeya or local level leadership with has aparticipatory and developmental perspective.

The SHGs become the initiators of development atthe people's level, the Federations strengthen thisdevelopment process and take it forward. Theupward progression is such that the ClusterFederation meetings produce reports for the nexthigher level, that is, the Apex Federation. Thisprogressive movement upward results in capacitybuilding of individuals and groups to take on

responsibilities, hold offices, solve issues andproblems, and in the long run become participantsin the progress of society and finally the nation. ACoordinator and the area organizer of GSGSKparticipate in the meetings as members of theExecutive Council.

As in any organizational set up, conflictsexist in theseCBOs also. The SHG/YSS are formed of 20 peoplecoming from different backgrounds and conflicts arebound to exist, and do exist. But the structuralframework enables and ensures that solutions arefound in an effectivemanner. A convener and jointconvener have been elected democratically foroverseeing decisions related to the functioning of theSHG/YSS. Decisions are taken and conflicts areresolved on a majority vote basis.

Joint Liability Groups or TradeConsortia and ClustersIn order to support livelihoods, GSGSKhas createdparallel structures called consortia, which havemembers drawn from various SHGs who areinvolved in the same kind of economic activity. Thiswould mean an individual can be member of aparticular SHG for her/is thrift and saving activity,while s/he can be a member of a consortium for herlivelihood. These consortia are further federated asclusters.GSGSKhas promoted consortia in a numberof economic activities. The organization administersthese CBOs, including both streams, through sub-centers operated by GSGSKstaff. (Fig.2)

Evolving out of the SHGs are the trade-relatedgroups, each called a Consortium. Consortia areevolved from among the SHGs, when people withsimilar trade interests come together with thecommon purpose of starting a microenterprise. Forexample, if among the different SHGs in a region,there are people who are interested in fishmarketing, then such people ( e.g. two from onegroup, five from another, one from yet another, andso on) come together and form a Consortium on fish-related enterprise. The minimum size of eachconsortium is ten members. A number of suchconsortia are federated to form a Cluster. In thismanner GSGSKhas developed Clusters in paddy,

l The General Council consists of office bearers of the Apex Federation, three members suggested by the Milnaging Committee ofGSGSK, and representatives of volunteers and animators. Nominated from this council aTe the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson andTreJ1.Surer.The Member Secretary is nominated by the GSGSK and is a full time worker. The Executive Council consists of afloemember managing group of Chairperson, Vice Chairperson (both are Chairpersons of the Apex Body). TreJ1.Surer,Member Secretaryand two conveners (represented by conveners of the Apex body)

26

[wT;11 '~soapi i

Gender and ~.odalInclusion for Sustainable Livelihoods

:,roNSORTIUM I'FR~i!JIi

Fig.2:Evolutionof trade related grapstextile and tailoring, fish marketing and processing,coir and kora grass and egg production..~. v

The particular manner in which the structure hasbeen developed, first of the various thrift and creditgroups, followed by the evolution of the trade-related clusters is in line wiJh the stated objectiveof the organization to develop empowered groupsof both women and men in a gender sensitivemanner, and finally take it forward to create unitsof economic activity. Looking at the organizationat a holistic level, it functions in two ways - on theone hand the Federations started as community-based units for the empowerment of women, andfor mainstreaming gender in the developmental andother aspects of society, and on the other, thefederated structures developed to promote trade-related enterprises. The emphasis is socialempowerment in the former and economicempowerment in the latter.

The trade-related clusters and microenterprisesarising out of them are based on the concept of equalopportunity, equal responsibility and equitabledistribution of returns. Joint liability enables thegroup members to access capital. The joint liabilitygroups or the trade-related consortia are structurallylinked to the SHGs. This dual membership ensuresfinancial discipline, since each individual is

monitored by two independent groups and this inturn augurs well for the success and sustainabilityofboth the enterprise and the consortium. The jointliability groups are entrepreneurship-oriented andpropel the development of the individual beyondhis/her experiences in the SHG. Microenterprisesdevelop out of the joint liability groups and a groupenters into an economic activity beneficial to all.

The relationship ofGGSKwith the consortia is morelike a guide and partner, assisting the enterprise infinding markets, financial planning and budgeting,and human resource management, the handholdingprocess continuing till the enterprise shifts into profitmode. The funds released by the banks to themicroenterprise are based on the linkage developedby GSGSK,whereas in microfinance the funds areoften released through GSGK. In the case of fundsreleased for microfinance, the groups assess theneeds of the members while practising thrift, whichis the first stage in the group (SHG/YSS) formation.Based on various criteria developed to assesscommitment and financial discipline, theapplications forwarded to GSGSK for loans areassessed. VariOllSstages of assessment are done atvarious levels of the GSGK machinery before theapplication is forwarded to the bank for release offunds to GSGSK for further disbursement to the

27

Six Case Studies

group. GSGSK plays a key role in sanctioning,disbursing and monitoring ofloans given to groups,and has slowly empowered the groups in thismanner. However, in the case of trade-relatedgroups, the members have already been part of agroup (SHG/YSS) and hence are aware of themechanism of sanction and disbursement of loansand the procedures involved. Besides, GSGSKhasalready assessed them very thoroughly. Hence theamount required for a particular trade relatedcluster is directly given by the bank to the clusterand not through GSGK. These methods andstructures have resulted in developing innovativepartnerships for capacity building, and social andeconomic development

VASTRAWith this background, the story of one enterprise,VASTRA,an apparel unit, will be described in moredetail, to illustrate both the problems and challengeson the one hand, and the way the constraints andbarriers were tackled, on the other. VASTRAGarments Cluster Pvt. Ltd, Alappuzha, is an apparelcompany ofwomen tailors with a total membershipof 217women in seventeen clusters. The consortiaevolved from the SHGs formed into a primary CBO,a step forward towards social empowerment. Theshare capital of the company is Rs.1lakh and it hasreceived a loan of Rs.6.50 lakh from the State Bankof Travancore. The products launched by thecompany include salwar kameez, churidar, nighties,underskirts and kids' wear. The products are beingmarketed through two retail outlets and by networkmarketing. The total production of finished goodsamounted to Rs.6.73 lakh during 2005-06.There isalso a showroom attached to the production center,located in a prime locality in the town.

The apparel industry was a predominantly male-dominated sector till recently. The entry of womentailors has been a catalyst in the establishment ofwomen -based enterprises in this sector. Thisexclusive women-based consortium was madepossible because of the methodology that wasadopted to develop structures to ensure the same.The efforts put in to create separate streamsrepresenting men and women in CBOdevelopment,as mentioned earlier, has resulted in creatingconfidence among women to venture intoentrepreneurship, as in the case of VASTRA.Some key points about the current status of thesmall-scale apparel and tailoring enterprises are:

28

• This sector ranks among the most rapidlydeclining occupations because of increases inimports, offshore assembly, productivitygains from automation, and new fabrics thatdo not need much processing.

• The earnings of most workers are low.• Though predominantly male-dominated tillrecently, many women were involved whohad learned tailoring and were working fromhome without much gain ...

Problems and ChallengesRaw Material - Acquiring raw material at a fairprice is difficult, especially for women, as theirefficacy in bargaining is very limited when it comesto mass production. VASTRAhas been solving thisproblem in the case of uniform stitching, throughorders received from the government sector.

Capital- The fact that the women did not own anyproperty (in the majority of cases) was a factor thatwent against them while applying for loans directly.GSSGKwas supportive in providing a linkage withthe bank to start the venture, though atfirst the bankfinance by itself was not sufficient.

Management capacity - Almost all the womencame from interior rural backgrounds, had livedmostly home-bound lives and none had anyprevious experience in'I'unning an ente9Jrise ..~Technological know how - All of them weretraditional tailors and did not have much experiencein modern technological interventions like the 'Juki'machine, or intricate embroidery or designingmachines. Another problem was .the lack ofadequate designing machines. No doubt, one canuse one's own brains to create fantastic designs, butin that C<isethere will be no appropriate machine toshowcase the designs. Most of the machines inVASTRAare simple sewing machines compared towhat is available to their more experiencedcounterparts in the town and around.

Market - The apparel industry is highlycompetitive and it is an uphill task for anynewcomer to find his/her feet in this maze. It isnecessary to have updated information on marketsand market trends. The tailors' group did not havemuch idea about current market trends.

MIS - Even in an industry like the apparel andtailoring industry, it is essential to have informationat different levels for different levels ofmanagement

decision-making, which can be described asstrategic, tactical and operational. The women whojoined in this venture were not knowledgeableabout all MIS system, and. neither was computertechnology used for advancing their goals.

Social - Most of the women are from the ruralsector, and the prevailing customs of the region arenot in favour ofwomen working late .Hence puttingup stalls f<:>re1Ubitionsand working late to meet adeadline was difficult for them. This in turn affectedthe income level of women for whom income isbased on piece-rate work. The other option was totake work home, which is what is being done now.But this results in the woman investing a large partof her time and money on travel, besides the burdenof attending to her domestic chores as and whenneeded, as she is available at home.

Domestic demands - The demands the familyplaces on a working woman are more applicable towomen who take work home. Most times, she athome, but many a time business requires her tosupply materials on time, putting great pressure onthe woman tailor. Most husbands expect woman todo all the domestic chores irrespective of whethershe has to complete her work sitting through thenight or not. All this implies extra hard work andcommitment to obligations. A very high proportionof men, particularly in Kerala, do not participate inhousehold chores. The burden of housework ishence carried mostly by the female textile workersin these households. Sharing of housework amongmarried couples is not very common.

Finding the AnswersBut VASTRAwas able to overcome many of theseconstraints and barriers.

Raw Material - The women formed themselvesinto groups and entrusted responsibilities to eachto share the running of the enterprise. For rawmaterials, wholesale markets were contacted andwomen went to places as far as Bangalore andCoimbatore to purchase textiles at low prices.

Capital - In addition to the funds provided by thebank, the members managed capital by eachcontributing Rs.500/ -forming a share capital ofRs.l,OB,SOO.They also obtained an additional loanofRs.B.5lakhSfrom the bank, which they have beenrepaying regularly at Rs.6,OOO/ month.


Management - Following the formation of thecompany as a private limited one, a ManagingDirector was nominated to manage the day-to-dayaffairs, take care of the finances, and explore marketopportunities. She was paid from company funds,and was assisted by others on a voluntary basis. Themembers of VASTRA were given managementtraining, which included how to manage the day-to-day affairs of the company, accounts andmarketing, by GSGSK. In order to streamline thework pattern, a Common Facility Center was alsoset up, with fifteen sewing machines, facility forpackaging, an embroidery machine and storagespace to hold bulk quantities of raw materials aswell as finished goods. For women who find itconvenient to work from home, bulk raw materialsare collected from the Common Facility Centre andthe required designs and patterns explained tothem. The women take the work home and returnthe finished work within the time stipulated.

Market - As it is a community venture, VASTRAreceived a lot of goodwill and support from themarket. They have been able to execute a DistrictAdministration order to the tune of Rs.B/-lakhs inthe last one and a half years. Their 'distinctlyfeminine touch' has gone down well with theirfemale clients and helped improve their marketposition, since many women customers feeluncomfortable with male tailors taking theirmeasurements, and clients find it easier to discusstheir design with a woman tailor than with a man.Women tailors take precise measurements,sometimes in separate trial rooms, and are thus ableto make better-fitting clothes. As the women tailorsare also, in a sense, users of similar garments,whether a blouse or a salwar kameez, theyunderstand easily, when a woman client explainswhat she tants 'a loose stitch there and a tighter onethere'. Women find it easier to discuss whether aparticular style will be awkward or look too.'provocative' which is not so easily done with mentailors. Women clients from higher, middle andlower middle class families are now going to thecenters themselves to place orders.

Technology - Identification of technology needswas undertaken and machineries ranging fromsewing, laundry and support services segmentswere put in place. The 'Juki' machine was purchased.and training given to women on its use. However,this machine, intended for large scale training, is

29

Six Case Studies

not being fully utilized. One reason is that it has tobe used in the workshed, being too heavy to becarried home and back by the women, while manyprefer to work at home for other reasons alreadymentioned, or are reluctant or unable to master thetechnology. There is also a fear of loss of earningsfor women working in the cutting sections. Sincethe consortium has 217members, they do not go asfar as to risk the loss of earnings for some members."The ideological problem women face in gainingfull accessto science and technology isperhaps morecomplex than we have heretofore acknowledged"(Wright, 1987:p. 17)

MIS - This is an area the group is still very weakon. They have not been able to realize the fullpotential of this technology so far in a modembusiness like the apparel industry.

Social - For women who cannot come to theCommon Facility Center, a convenient option wasworked out. They were allowed to carry the workhome and complete it, as stipulated in the designs,which were explained to them in detail. There isstill a long way to go before the question ofwomen'sdouble burden is satisfactorily solved by increasedawareness, a gender-sensitive society and changedattitudes of men.

Support Services -The following governmentinstitutions have provided support throughconsultation and advice.

• District Industries Centre

• Small Industries Service Institute,

• Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion

The nature of support services have beensatisfactory so far, probably because GSGSK hasbeen associated with all these institutions for a longtime. This proximity has enabled trouble-freeservices to the clusters, including training on variousaspects like management and marketing, andinviting the VASTRA members for exposure andexchange programmes, through which they couldeducate themselves on various options andopportunities available in this sector.

GSGSKhas been able to help in creating linkageswith banks, thus providing access to one of themajor hurdles in any business-finance. In addition,it has also provided further funds through lendingfrom the organization itself to prop up the group attimes of crisis. Training and capacity building aretwo other important inputs by GSGSK, whichcontinues to be on the board as an ex-officiomember, ensuring support to the organization intimes of need. This handholding will continue tillthe organization is poised to take off on its own.

Though the take-off has been a great one for thisfledgling organization, it has still not been able to. address some of the most important areas ofbusiness quite so strongly as it ought to, especiallytechnology and MIS. These are two areas that, ifaddressed properly, can take VASTRA far ahead.Also, child care facilities need to be developed nearthe common facility center so as to enable andencourage women to work form there, which wouldenable them to use new technology and increasetheir production. Women have come a long way,but there is still a long road to be traveled.

Insights• Equitable and inclusive growth is the key topromoting economic and social development.

• Policies should be seriously revisited to makethem more women-eentric

• Banks should become more rural women-friendly.

• Women's constrained mobility limits accessand such constraints are reflected in genderinequities in task load, health and incomeoutcomes.

• Machinery for women should be designed sothat end users find it easy to use.

Given motivation and supports on the financial andtechnological front, it is possible to awaken thewomen force to take part in the economic progressof the nation. "The most important part of it ishaving my destiny in my own hands". Serena said"1 have authority to make whatever Changes arenecessary in order to succeed"

ReferencesWright, Barbara Drygulski (1987), Introduction, in Barbara Drygulski Wright (ed.), Women. Work andTechnology: Transformations, University of Michigan

30

Using Technology for Women'sEmpowerment

....• rr;

p.s. Geethakuttv

Development needs to be human-centered, whichimplies identification of the human and socialcontexts in which the tools of development are tobe delivered and promoted among the ultimateusers. The nation has learnt enough from the failureof the much worshipped approach based on the'trickle down' theory; we have learned that thebenefits of development will not simply be carrieddown to the poor by the rich, to the powerless bythe powerful, and to the excluded by the included.If development is to reach the excluded and theunreached, they must also be counted, theirpriorities noted and their needs and constraintsrecognized. To be not vulnerable to poverty and topossess livelihoods which are not threatened, oneshould be capable, possess assets, and getopportunities. Do the rural poor, particularly ruralpoor women, have these securities?

Micro-finance and Micro-credit as ToolsIt would not be wrong if one were to describe thecontelIlporary scene in rural development as oneof micro-credit and micro-enterprise, as they aretoday considered and promoted, as the supermanthras for empowering the poor, especiallywomen. Many of the agencies engaged in thepromotion of SHGs, both Governments and non-governmental groups, often give the impression thatthe SHG movement has successfully turned poorrural women into flourishing entrepreneurs. But theground realities are different. Those at the grassrootsknow how much women still lack awareness,competitive knowledge of technology, and the skillrequired for any profitable productive work orenterprise; how much they lack productiveresources of land and inputs like seed, electricityand water; how much they are handicappedwithout low-interest credit; how much they struggle

without markets and marketing support for theirproduce; how much they lack managerial capacityto run their enterprises effectively and how littlebenefit they gain from their hard labour. Ininitiating, running and sustaining productive micro-enterprises, the women SHGs and women's groupsin rurallndia require the institutional support ofR&D institutions, extension agencies, banks, localcommunity organizations marketing co-operatives,rural infrastructure facilitiesand local governments.Women, of course, need technologies as well aswell-coordinated support services from localinstitutions and agencies of development. Buttechnology alone isnot enough. This paper tries firstto throw light on the problems and issues faced byrural women micro-entrepreneurs, and next toillustrate a model of institutional support evolvedand put into action by the Centre for Studies onGender Concerns in Agriculture(CSGCA)of KeralaAgricultural University (KAU), to promote thesustainability of livelihoods among women.

A Women-Only SchemeThe information and observations used in this paperare drawn from a previous study by the author offarm women engaged in farm-based micro-enterprises as part of a Central Govt.-supportedprogramme. This evaluation study (Geethakutty,2006)was conducted among 180participants of the30 groups formed by the Central Sector Scheme onWomen in Agriculture Programme(CSSWIA)inPalakkad district of Kerala, during 2004-2005.TheCSSWIAProgramme is a Central Govt. sponSoredprogramme implemented in 30 selectedPanchayaths of the District of Palakkad from 1995onwards. ln each of the selected Panchayaths, onegroup each of 25 farm women was mobilised towork in SHG mode, and provided with support in

31

Six Case Studies

the form of technology training, technologydemonstrations, farm implements, exhibitions,study tours and farm literature. There were totally750 women participants.

Many positive outcomes of the programme suchas increases in their level of social contact, timeutilization pattern, and self-confidence wererevealed by the evaluation. (Tables 1 and 2) Table 1reveals that the CSSWIA Programme was perceivedas useful by the participants and they rated theimpact of the programme on creation of positive

attitudes towards farming, self confidence, socialawareness, knowledge and skill in farming, socialparticipation, leadership ability and income as majorpositive outcomes. From Table 2 it can be observedthat about 40 percent of the respondents were ableto derive monthly income through the programmeactivities in a range of Rs.250 to Rs.500. Table 3indicates their self-rating of the impact of theprogramme-there have been changes in their generalawareness, leadership ability, social-participation,decision-making power, and freedom for mobility,due to their participation in the programme.

Table 1: Soci<r.economic and behavioural changes among the participants (n=180)

SINo Particulars Increased (2) Decreased(I) No change(0)

f % f % f %1. Positive attitude towards farming 177 97 0 0 3 22. Self confidence 177 97 0 0 3 23. Knowledge in farming/ and 177 97 0 0 3 2

related enterprises4. Social awareness 176 97 -I 0.5 3 25. Know ledge & skill in farming 171 94 0 0 9 56. Social participation 166 91 0 0 14 87. Leadership Ability 155 85 0 0 25 148. Income level (personal) 149 82 0 0 31 179. Sharing of problems 138 76 8 4 34 1910. Social status and position 134 74 0 0 36 2011. Family income 132 72 0 0 48 2612. Savings 131 72 1 0.5 48 2613. Decision making involvement 122 67 18 10 40 2214. Better education for children 122 67 12 7 46 2515. Position in the family 121 67 1 0.5 58 3216. Employment opportunities 120 66 0 0 60 3317. Family solidarity 120 66 4 2 56 3018. Food production 110 60 7 4 63 3519. Living standard of family 106 58 0 0 74 4120. Leisure time 73 40 63 35 44 2421. Entertainment 93 51 17 9 70 3822. Work Burden 91 50 12 7 77 4223. Food availability In general 90 50 6 4 84 4624. Women in particular 85 47 6 4 89 4925. Wastage of money 17 9 69 38 94 5126. Wastage of time 14 8 75 41 91 5027. Food purchasal 42 23 62 34 76 4128. Domestic violence 35 19 28 15 117 6429. Health status 36 20 8 4 136 7430. Indebtness 4 2 24 13 152 84

32


Table 2: Additional individual income derived per month by participants after participation

(n=180)

Category Frequency PercentageNo income 24 13<100 16 9100-150 10 6150-200 19 - 11200-250 20 11250-300 15 8300-500 41 23Above 500 35 19

Table 3. Extent of empowerment gained through CSWIA activities, as perceived by participants(n=180)

SI. Particulars Greatly Some Not at Total RankNo. (2) what (1) all (0) score

f % f % f % F %1. Your general awareness about society and 84 46 96 53 0 0 264 1

life is increased2. Your social participation is increased 85 47 93 51 2 1 263 23. Your leadership ability is increased 79 43 100 55 1 0.5 258 34. Your decision making ability is increased 79 43 99 54 2 1 257 45. Your freedom for mobility is increased 70 38 101 56 9 5 241 56. Your decision making freedom is improved 73 40 93 51 14 8 239 67. Your freedom as a family member is 62 34 111 61 7 4 235 7

increased .

8. Your freedom of expression is increased 63 35 95 52 22 12 221 8.59. Your self identity as an individual is 59 32 103 57 18 10 221 8.5

increased10. Your economic freedom is increased 57 31 102 56 21 12 216 1011. Your status as a family member is 54 30 102 56 24 13 210 11

increased12. Your responsibility as head of the 46 25 90 50 44 24 182 12

family is increased13. Your economic position is increased 31 17 76 41 73 40 138 1314 Your ownership of family assets is 17 9 34 19 29 71 68 14

increased15 Your health is increased 21 12 37 20 22 67 79 15

1,-

ConstraintsBut if one takes an in-depth look into theirenterprise-related activities and the relatedconstraints in Tables 4&5 respectively, the truepiCture of the entrepreneurial levels developed orexisting in the groups emerges. A glance at Table 4will indicate that most of the activities taken up bythe groups could not really be termed enterprises.First of all, not many group enterprises wereevolved in the group even after 11 years of group

functioning. Among those group activities taken upby the group, most were of a seasonal nature-banana cultivation, vegetable cultivation and so on.It was also observed that no suitable technology /enterprise combination for sustainability of year-round income had been identified. A look into themarketing channels and means of marketing reliedon by the members indicates the extent of lack ofentrepreneUrship among the participants and the

33

Six Case Studies

Table 4:Activities undertaken by participants at group and individual levels(n=180)

51. Type of activities Group level (n=30) Individual levelNo. (n=l80)

f % f %I Non farm activities1. Soap, detergents and liquid blue making 9 30 8 42. Candle making 2 7 3 23. Textile shop 0 0 1 0.54. Stationery shop 2 7 1 0.55. Agarbathi making 0 0 1 0.56. Tailoring 0 0 1 0.57. Handicraft making 0 0 2 18. Umbrella making 0 0 2 1II Farm activities1. Azolla cultivation . 2 7 11 62. Mushroom cultivation 4 13 2 'I3. Fruit and vegetable processing 2 7 2 14. Vermicomposting 4 13 13 75. Vegetable cultivation 10 33 22 126. Banana cultivation 3 10 9 57. Bush jasmine cultivation 5 17 19 118. Medicinal plants cultivation 2 7 4 29. Coleus cultivation 1 3 0 010. Fodder cultivation 0 0 2 111. Turmeric cultivation 1 3 0 012. Ginger cultivation 0 0 3 213. Vegetable seed production 0 0 1 114. Nursery management 0 0 1 115. Tapioca cultivation 0 0 3 216. Safed musli cultivation 0 0 1 0.517. Beekeeping 0 0 2 118. . Dairy farming 0 0 8 419. Poultry farming 0 0 3 220. Fish farming 1 3 1 0.521. Goat farming 1 3 0 022. Rabbitery 0 0 1 0.523. Sericulture 0 0 1 0.524. Food processing kondatloms,pappads 9 30 13 7

lack of institutional support on the part of thedevelopment agencies to promote entrepreneurshipamong the women's groups (Table ,5).The majorityof participants were utilizing the products for homeuse, indicating lack of marketability of the produce,and of market orientation among the participants.With respect to those items which were sold, onlytwo initiatives with their own selling units werereported. No collective activity of selling wasreported. The majority is relying individually ondoor-to-door selling.

34

An analysis of their constraints further indicates thereal issues involved in the lack of sustainability ofenterprises (Table 6). The first seven items areenough to highlight the constraints toentrepreneurship in group activities-lack ofmarketfor the product, lack of marketing arrangements,lack of profit, price fluctuations, lack of businessmanagement skills, lack of technological skill andlack of guidance for running the enterprise. It isevident from the data that entrepreneurialcompetencies and support are lacking even in a well


Table 5:Marketing channels utilised by participants (n=180)

51.No. Particulars Frequency Percentage1. Opening own shops 4 22. Selling through other shops 79 433. Door to door selling 23 134. Neighbouring houses 65 365. Display in office vicinities/ Kudumbasree/ schools 4 26. Participating in exhibitions 2 1- 7. Selling through local market 36 ;...•~ 208. Household use 148 '- - 81

Table 6:Major constraints faced by participants(n=180)

51. Constraints Most Imporlant(2) Less Total RankNo. imporlant(3) imporlant(l) score

f % f % f %1. Lack of market for 141 78 25 14 14 8 910 1

the products2. Lack of marketing 129 71 36 20 15 8 861 2

arrangements3. Lack of profit 86 47 81 45 13 7 691 34. Price fluctuations 48 26 111 61 21 12 531 45. Lack of technological training 43 24 54 30 83 46 449 66. Lack of business 50 28 82 45 48 26 512 5

management training7. Scarcity of raw materials 32 18 58 32 90 50 398 138. High cost of raw 'materials 36 20 54 30 90 50 414 129. Lack of guidance for running 36 20 84 46 60 33 444 7

the enterprise10. Lack of co-operation 20 11 51 28 109 60 331 16

among members11 .. Lack of time 37 20 54 28 89 49 419 812 Family problems and 36 20 57 31 87 48 417 9-.. . responsibilities13 Increased work load 37 20 51 28 92 50 416. 1014 Poor health 21 12 31 17 128 70 316 1715 Lack of awareness 18 10 28 15 134 74 298 1816 Lack of land ownership 24 13 53 29 104 57 390 .1517 Lack of capital 28 15 75 41 77 42 395 1418 Lack of credit facilities . 32 18 75 41 73 40 415 11

co-ordinated women"s SHG developmentprogramme. The constraints faced by women intaking up the enterprises can be highlighted fromthe standpoint of exclusion~ women lack access totechnological skill, managerial skill, capital, creditat low interest, land and other productive resources(like water, seed, fertilizers, electricity, subsidy andinsurance,) the access to which in tum depends onownership of the land or other assets, markets andmarketing arrangements.

Tables 7& 8 show how these women are constrainedwithout ownership of and access to land, a verycrucial resource for agriculture-based developmentinterventions. About 5 percent of the womenparticipants lacked any type of land access fro,?-their family. Coming to ownership, only about 29percent of the participants had ownership of landand the majority of their families owned marginal-sized farm land only. For group activities offarming-vegetable, floriculture, fodder growing

35

Six Case Studies

Table 7.Family farm size of participants

Category ,. Frequency PercentaseNil 9 . 5<1 acres

i. upto 10cents 13 7ii. 10.1- 25 centsiii. 25.1- 50 cents 20 11iv. 50.1-100 cents 40 22

Between 1-2acres 48 27Between 2-3 acres 22 12> 3 acres. 28 16

Table 8.Land ownership pattern among families of participants(n=180)

Category Frequency PercentageMale 115 64Female 26 14Joint 27 15Nil 9 . 5

they were utilizing land available with anyone ofthe group members. Some of the groups had alsotried to lease in land on a group basis to take uprice farming and vegetable farming; but in suchcases the continued availability of the land on leasefrom the owner had emerged as a serious constraintfor legal reasons. Thus less than 30 percent of thewomen, though called "farm women" were in factin a position to take up land-based activities.

These are some of the hard facts facing not only thesewomen, but millions of rural poor women like them,who are being described in glowing terms as newlyconverted micro -entrepreneurs emerging fromvarious SHG groups. Of course, the good intentionsand the group mobilization built up by the variousagencies must be appreciated. But micro-credit. opportunity alone is not enough; the hope kindledamong these poor women has to be backed up withtechnological skills, resources, managerial skills,handholding support, and the services needed forinitiating and running productive enterprises withsustainability.

A Model for EmpowermentIt is here that a platform for networking of thestakeholders involved in the promotion of ruralwomen in rural development should evolve, withthe involvement of agencies and institutions meant

36

for the promotion of rural development (Fig.!). Asindicated in the figure, women-friendlytechnologies of agricultural universities andresearch institutes should reach the target groups,and their related field problems should also be fedback for timely solutions and modifications.Extension agencies and industrial promotionagencies also should be updated with modem/newtechnologies and these should result in interactiveexchange of information between the target groupsand development agencies. Local marketing andinfrastructure agencies and farmers' / communityorganisations have to play an important role inproviding the space and opportunity for sustainingthe entrepreneurial efforts of the women. NABARD,and other banks in the locality must be majorpartners in the network to provide the requiredcapital or credit and create financial support forwomen at low interest rates, with modified gender-sensitive loan sanction procedures. Most importantare the participatory and collaborative initiativesof these agencies for the promotion of infrastructureto ensure marketing opportunities andsustainability of women's group efforts in anylocality, through women-inclusive approaches.

Making the Model WorkAworking model of empowerment of rural womenthrough technology by such networking, that is


/Institutions -----

Local Governments

1Extensior.Agencies

I ~ 1Industrial

anners' • Promotiol•• ••trganisations ...

I 1/ Co-opemtives

Banks and I /BankingAgencies

~ Women'sEmpowerment MarketingAgencies! • Agencies

<IIOpn':lrtrnpnt

Fig. 1:A Model for Empowennent

being practised under the leadership of the CseCA,KAU in this context in the local Panchayaths inThrissur District, Kerala, is illustrated here as apotential model of institutionalised intervention.(Geethakutty,P .5.2007)

Promotion of women-friendly farm technologiesamong women SHGs and groups-was undertakenby the CSGCA of KAU from 2004 onwards, withthe support of the Department of Biotechnology,Govt. of India. Intensive technology training for thewomen, along with training in businessmanagement, and handholding sessions withbanking, marketing and input agencies,were specialfeatures of the capacity building. Sustainable modelsof women-run farm enterprises were supported asfield demonstration units for the promotion oftechnologies in the rural areas. Monthly agro-clinicson various technologies among the practising and

1, -

potential entrepreneurs were conducted in the fieldon the basis of field problems. Fortnightly follow-up calls are still being carried out to check the post-training activities among the trainees and follow-up workshops and training on related topics/valueaddition are also being conducted. Further,guidance for assessing credit, market, and groupfunction are being imparted. Local agencies ofBanks, Panchayath, Agricultural Department,Khadi and Village Industries Commision,NABARDand NGOs are partners in this promotionof technologies among the women. About 45 unitsofwomen's groups are continuing their enterprises(floriculture, tissue culture, hardening of plants,poultry, flower value addition, vermin-composting,honey bee rearing, quail rearing, rabbit rearing, goatrearing and leaf plate making).These women arealso being supported with counseling for taking up

37

ISix Case Studies

Table 9: Bush jasmine cultivation. (n=25)

51. Aspects Categories Frequency (n) Percentage ('Yo)NoI. Area under bush jasmine Less than 0.01 acre 16 64

cultivation(acres)0.01-0.05 acre 8 32Above 0.05 1 4

2. Number of plants Less than 100 4 16101-500 20 80

more than 501 1 43. Flower bud yield per day Less than 100 5 20

101-250 9 36251-500 7 28Above 500 4 16

4. Monthly income No income 3 12Low « Rs. 100) 6 . 24

High(Above Rs.250 ) 5 205. Average time spent on bush Low « 1 hour) 7 28

jasmine cultivation per dayMedium ILl-2.5 hrs) 14 56High (above 2.5 hrs) 4 16

6. Planting material is Samiti 10 40obtained from

Pnvate nursery 5 2Ul'-r1SruImavan 6 L4

Own 4 167. Sale of planting material Low«100) 5 20

(monthly)Medium (101-200) 3 12High (above 200) 1 4

.. No sale 16 648. Monthly income from the Low( <Rs.500) 7 28

sale of planting materialMediumIRs.501-1000) 2 8High (above Rs.1000) 0 0

No income 16 649. Marketing done through sarniti Yes 4 16

No 21 8410. Garland making practised Yes 5 20

No 20 80II. Decoration works Yes 1 4

No 24 96

As part of this network mobilization, one of thewomen-run flower grower associationsiinPerinjanarn Panchayath, Thrissur can be taken as ademonstration unit of group-based marketing

seeds and land), and frequent interaction betweenthe target groups and scientists are also heldperiodically by CSGCA. The local NABARD officeand local Panchayaths are also actively engaged inthis participatory approach.

suitable technology packages for year-roundenterprises and production.(Tables 9,10,11,12.)

,1' ,

Sixlymoregroups of women are in the initial stageof. taking up enterprises. Ground work for acollaborative and joint collection centre for flowers,a rurallulat (for display and market), mobilisationof agencies for ensuring credit at low interest andwithout the usual formal difficulties, are beingpromoted. Mobilisation of the DevelopmentDepartments to ensure quality inputs (seedlings/

The Outcomes~1 L ... ~..

38 ,.


Table 10:Orchid cultivation (n=19)

51. Aspects Category Frequency (n ) Percentage(%)No.1. Area under orchid cultivation 0.01-Q.02cent 7 571. 0.021-0.03 10 531. 0.03-0.05 2 10.22. Number of plants >100&100 10 531. 101-200 3 161. 201-300 3 161. 301-500 2 10.21. 501-1000 1 5.23. Flower yield per week (Number) 11-20 4 211. 21-30 2 10.21. 31-50 2 10.21. 50-75 1 5.21. 75-100 1 5.24. Monthly income(Rs) 50-250 4 21.051. 250-500 10 53 .

1. 500-1000 5 26.315. Average time spent on orchid 1 5 26.31

cultivation per day 1-2 6 31.571. 2-3 8 42.106. Marketing channel Samithi 9 47.36

Private ! 10 53

Table 11 :Anthurium cultivation (n=31)

51. Aspects Category Frequency (n) Percentage(%)No.1 Area under orchid cultivation 0.01-Q.02cent 18 58.06

0.021-Q.03 5 16.120.03-0.05 . 5 16.120.051-0.10 3 9.67

2. Number of plants >100&100 16 21.61101-200 8 25.8201-300 6 19.35301-500 3 9.67.

3. Flower yield per week (no) 1-10 10 32.2511-20 5 16.1221-30 6 19.3531-50 5 16.1250-75 1 3.2275-100 1 3.22

4. Monthly income(Rs) 50-250 10 32.25250-500 10 32.25500-1000 11 35.48

5. Average time spent on orchid 1 13 41.93cultivation per day 1-2 12 38.70

2-3 6 19.356. Marketing channel Samithi 19 61.29

Private 12 38.7

39

Six Case Studies

Table 12:Mushroom cultivation, Goat rearing, Quail rearing N=75

51. Aspects Category Frequency (n ) Percentage(%)No.1 Mushroom cultivation Yes 0 0

No 75 100..2 Goat rearing Yes 2 2.67

No 73 97.333 Quail rearing Yes 0 0

No - 75 1004. Saree designing Yes 0 0

No '0 IOU5 Vegetable cultivation Yes 1 1.33

No 74 98.66

The Role of S & T

• Does S&T count and recognise women asclients ?

• Do technologies cater to the needs andconstraints of women users?

In conclusion, it would be desirable to repeatedlyask the following questions in the context of theinclusion of rural women in technologydevelopment and delivery:

Intensive skills training in technology andenterprise management to women's groups,with hands-on training in viable technologiesfor farm enterprises (like vegetable farming,poultry, rabbitry, dairying, food andvegetable processing, mushroom production,vermicompost, tissue culture, nurserymanagement, bio-control agents production)and EDP training;

Hand-holding support to foster liaisonbetween women entrepreneurs and supportservices (like credit, market, and inputs)

Agro-clinic and counseling support on fieldproblems and group management

ShowcasiI).g of role model units of women-run enterprises to motivate other women

Consortium of stakeholders for women'sempowerment.

•

•

•

•

• Technology incubation/ demonstration unitat R&D Campus

• Sales promotion for the products of women'sgroups through rural collection centres.

•

arrangements, where risk and transaction costs ofmarketing to the members can be reduced. In tJ:isunit, there are about 140 women members whowork as activity groups and grow bush jasmine intheir household premises. This group has a flowercollectioncenter where all the members bring flowerbuds of jasmine, orchids, and anthurium everymorning, and record their daily producecontribution. The pooled collection of flowers is soldas flower buds or as value-added products likegarlands or flower arrangements. The members getthe price of their produce on.a monthly basis.CSGCA has selected this unit as a showcase of asuccessful model. This association helps themembers to access technology and input at cheaprates, to reduce transportation costs and to avoidcheating by middlemen/ traders. Such meaningfulefforts of the stakeholder institutions can be evolvedand promoted in any locality

A Illajor question arising from this study is: whowill bell the cat? in other words, who should takethe lead in developing this platform and providesustainability to the micro-enterprises of rural.women? There is no single answer and no Uniformpattern that can be pinpointed. Such innovativemodels can be highlighted as signposts to actionspcssible and needed on the part of the agentsinvolved, governmental, NGO and private. Amultiplicity of development efforts and multipleactors are needed for local adapted networking.

LearningsThe special features of this approach to women'sempowerment may be identified as :

40

• If there are technologies for women, are theyavailable to women?

• If the technologies reach women, do theybenefit women?

Further, technologies by themselves cannot providesustainable enterprises to rural women. We mustremember to:

• Engender the farmer, institutions/organisations like co-operatives, watershedassociations, and marketing co- operatives

• Engender extension services like training,technology services, and counseling

• Engender farmer support services like credit,information, and insurance


• Engender access and control of productiveresources like land, inputs, electricity, andwater

• Train research personnel to be gender-responsive, and to take up research andextension on problems and needs of women

• Train and promote extension agencies to begender-responsive and to support womenwith appropriate technologies andengendered extension services

• Mould future cadres of agriculturaldevelopment services to be gender-sensitive,through integration of a gender perspectivein the undergraduate curriculum ofagricultural colleges and universities.

ReferencesGeethakutty, P.S. (2006)Evaluation Report of Central Sector Scheme on Women in Agriculture, Palakknd District,Kerala (2003-04 and 2004-05).Centre for Studies on Gender Concerns in Agriculture, Kerala AgriculturalUniversity, Thrissur, Kerala.

Geethakutty P.S.(2007)CSGCA-DBT Final Report on women empowerment- networking through science andtechnology in Kerala; Centre for Studies on Gender Concerns in Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University,Thrissur, Kerala

41

I,

Chasing a Mirage: AGRAGAMEE's Effortsfor Tribal Inclusion

Vidhva Das _ .~

When AGRAGAMEE began work in the early19805' with tribal communities in Orissa, incredibleexamples of bondage and exploitation were found,and a community with an almost completely-shattered self-image. It was this that impelled theorganisation to take the first steps on the long andstill-unfinished journey towards tribal inclusion inlndia's mainstream.

Paradigm and PerspectivesThe paradigm and perspectives that AGRAGAMEEstarted with are simple, and have been stated manytimes over the years: that all human beings are bornequal, and should have equal opportunities tosurvive, grow and develop. In a nut shell, they canbe spelt out as :

• Social justice

• Self-reliance

• People's democracy

• Environmental justice, and

• Equality, liberty and fraternity.

The last has been AGRAGAMEE's motto. It soundssimple, until one begins to address the complex webof injustice and exploitation that has led people,especially the tribal people of this country, to thepoint of their destruction.

The ContextTribal regions in Orissa are underdeveloped andneglected, and tribal communities, as also others,such as Scheduled Castes and Backward Castes, livein a perpetual state of insecurity of several kinds,including food, tenure, employment and income,

perhaps reflecting the state of all tribal regions andcommunities in tltis country. AGRAGAMEE'sworkin the tribal regions has served the crucial purposeof bringing to centre stage several problems anddeprivations of the tribal communities, who formnearly a fourth of the population of the State.Development of the tribal regions in Orissa is notan impossible task, as there is both potential and.scope. Tribal people, and the poor in general, haveimmense resources and resilience withinthemselves, which have enabled them to surviveunder some of the most difficult and tryingcircumstances; they also have a rich knowledgesystem born out of centuries of experience, whichhas helped nurture a diverse and rich ecosystem.

Present day development priorities.however, havevery consciously turned away from the needs andconcerns of local communities, and prioritisedprivate and foreign investment for industrial andinfrastructure development.ln an agricultural StatelikeOrissa, with an abundance of natural resources,such an approach, combined with lack of concernfor environmental checks and balances, has alreadybecome a recipe for disaster. Yet, the state hidesbehind the excuse that earlier efforts have notresulted in any tangible development of the tribalregions so far, and that this is now the onlyalternative. The rhetoric of development and foreigninvestment is now backed by a Resettlement andRehabilitation Policy notified by the Governmentof Orissa, which promises to recognise the voice ofthe people. On the ground, tltis takes the form ofplacing armed police forces wherever such voicestry to make themselves heard! Violence against andrepression of tribal people is epitomised not just by

1 Work began in 1981 under the banner of the Social Work and Research Centre( Orissa) and AGRAGAMEE was formallyregistered in April 1987.

42

the Kalinganagar incident (January, 2006)but by thewhole pattern of responses by the administrationin different districts to the situation of localcommunities as they struggle at the margins ofsurvival. Thus, even as distress migration of peoplein the Kalahandi, Bolangir, and undivided Koraput(KBK)districts increases and the numbers go up intolakhs in anyone season, the Government is tooapathetic to put in place an effectiveprogrammes ofemployment generation. Even as sponge iron plantsin Keonjhar pollute water sources, the governmentarrests women protesting against such defilement;progressive legislations like the PESA (PanchayatExtension to the Scheduled Areas Act) are misusedby District Collectors to organise mock Gram Sabhaswhich sanctify destructive mining and industrial .activities; as people protest, women, men, and evenchildren are arrested and put behind bars in districtslike Rayagada and Kalahandi, to make way for theSterlite and Utkal Alumina International Ltd.

Opportunities and ThreatsThe policy is to open up Orissa for invesbnent inmines, industries and commercial agriculture andforestry. Special Economic Zones are beingproposed and promoted, but in so doing, not onlyare the livelihoods of local communities affectedadversely, but entire eco-systerns are destroyed,with major and complex river systems affected.Several groups have demonstrated the falsepremises on which environmental clearances havebeen given to corporates, and the shoddy methodsadopted by the latter .Yetthe Government continuestopromote corporate sector interests despite protestsand resistance almost all over the state. The questionis: why, ifcorporatisationis the way to develop, don'tpeople want it ? The reason is perhaps that peopledo not want the impoverishment and marginalisationthat follow the establishment of an industrial ormining unit in an area. The stories of badlyimplemented rehabilitation schemeshave become thesad history of the tribal and rural people almost allover the country.

In such a context, even progressive legislations likethe NREGAwill solve little, unless the Governmentseeks to implement it by building on the resourcesof the local communities, and the rich naturalresources of the state. At the time of writing,( mid2007) implementation of the NREGA is far from


what it should be. Seven months into the scheme,few villages communities have received the jobcard. There is little understanding even amongst theSarpanches and the Secretaries of Panchayats of therules that govern the Act. The people know evenless, and the voluntary nature of the Act, which isits primary strength, allowing the people to register,empowering them to demand and avail ofemployment, and providing cards to each familyso that they know how much they are entitled to, iscompletely lost. The Act is treated like all otherconstitutional provisions: just so many more leavesadded to an irrelevant and obsolete document.

Today, tribal Orissa epitomises acute poverty andhunger, displacement and distress migration, socio-economic and political exclusion, livelihood lossand food insecurity, declining quality of life andpoor natural resource management. Nearly a fourthof Orissa's people, over 7 million in number, aretribal, and Orissa has the most number of'Scheduled Tribes', 62 in all. Yet, the percentage oftribal population here shows steady decadaldecline, and Districts with mainly tribalpopulations, like Koraput, Keonjhar andMayurbhanj, have the highest rates of decline. The'KBK' areas in particular are among the poorest inthe world, presenting a complex picture of under-development, resource degradation, socio-economicexploitation, a weak political role for tribals, andpoor infrastructure.

Regional disparities within Orissa too are wide,between eastern coastal districts and southwesttribal regions, with coastal districts controlling thestate's economic and political pulse as well ascommanding a major share of resources.Invesbnents in western and southern regions havebeen infrastructural and industrial,. which havedone little for human development there. This hasresulted in the inland regions of the State remaininglargely underdeveloped, with some of the worsthuman development indicators.

The Impact of 'Development'In the tribal regions, 'development' itself has, in fact,been the worst enemy. The unique self-supportiverelationship between the ecosystem and the socio-economic traditions of its people that sustained lifehere for centuries has been usurped by ma"rket~led

43

Six Case Studies

development, commercial excess and state apathy,with liberalisation, globalisation and privatisationfollowing, so that the really poor find it hard to gainfrom either welfare or development.

Natural Resource Management in tribal regions isinextricably and ecologically linked to humansecurities of all types. Even now, traditional villagegovernance systems have great operational strength.But over time, much of the tribal polity an9 socialfabric has been eroded, control over land, forest andwater usurped, and tribal self-reliance and self-esteem broken. Extractive use, leading to large-scaledestruction, was absent earlier. But now, access tonatural resources and control over their use andmanagement is being taken away from those whovalued the resources most. In Orissa's context, thesewould be tribals in general - and women inparticular.

The vulnerability of women in tribal society isextreme, yet ironically, like in many peasanteconomies, they also play the most vital roles. Fullof drudgery, theirs is a life of incessant physical toil,taking a toll on their health. Despite their relativelygreater freedom, they have very little role in village/Panchayat decision-making, or representation ingovernment programmes. It is true that somedemographic indicators like sex ratio show apositive trend in the tribal regions. But this is farfrom indicative of the actual status of women, as alook at other indicators like literacy rates, healthstatus, and IMRwill show. Increasingly, migrationis resorted to by the men. Women suffer the most insuch cases, as the men often return with cashsavings, which are barely enough to service thedebts incurred in their absence.

Globalisation and marginalisation are two sides ofthe same coin for the nature-dependent tribalpeople. Market-led globalisation andindustrialisation take the form of anti-poor statepolicies that, without being called so, impact tribalsdirectly and adversely, marginalising them in everysense - taking away their lands and livelihoods,rights and roots, voice and dignity. Notifications toevict those staying in forestland after 1980 are anexample, as most .tribals have no record of landpossession before 1980. To promote commercialcultivation, large patches of tribal land areencroached upon, restricting the entry of local44

communities and directly threatening livelihoods.Ironically. those who depend most on land, waterand forest have the least say on their use,preservation or management.

Planned Social InterventionTo address the several issues of underdevelopmentin the tribal pockets, AGRAGAMEE began with aseries of discussions and dialogues with thecommunity, aiming to increase mutualunderstanding and knowledge, based on a radicalvision of human development and social change,which led to the formation of local organisations toensure justice and self-reliance. AGRAGAMEE'sexperience of direct intervention in eight districts-Rayagada, Koraput, Nawarangpur, Malkangiri,Kalahandi, Nuapara, Phulbani arid Mayurbhanj -and indirectly through partner-NGOs in others, hasplayed a significant role in mainstrearning the issuesof inequality and exclusion. This has also influencedpolicy and state response, and helped tribalcornmunities to advocate for their basic rights.

The StrategyCapacity-building and advocacy efforts in tribalOrissa have had significant positive impact, led towide socialmobilization for poverty alleviation andactually brought about change over time. (Fig1)Thesuccesses of the women's federations, CBOs(community-based organisations) and SHGs(selfhelp groups) with whom AGRAGAMEE hasworked, are an indirect result of these efforts.Capacity building has been taken up at differentlevels, with village leaders, representatives ofvillage level organisations, elected representativesat the village level, as also with specific interestgroups like farmers, watershed users, teachers, andwage-labourers. Over the years, these efforts, whichhave always been dialogical in nature, have helpedbuild a strong bond with the community, andstrengthened actions in the field.

Models of Community ParticipationBuildingmodels ofcommunity participation for theprotection and conservation of natural resources,with the focus on livelihood and regeneration, hasbeen an important objective. AGRAGAMEE'sefforts have helped significantly to createsustainable avenues for socio-economicemancipation. Even more significant has been the

impact of capacity building with representatives ofvillage level organisations. Members of MahilaMandals and youth clubs have been equipped withtools of analysis, informed about the differentgovernment programmes and schemes, and howthey work. This has had long term impact in helpingpeople assert for better delivery of services,pressuring both elected representatives andgovernment functionaries for properimplementation, and demanding to know theirentitlements. For example, in 60villages in KashipurBlock,people were able to check misappropriationby private dealers, and select their own dealer forthe Public Distribution shops. In another majorincident in 1994, people carne to know that theywere being paid at the old rate of Rs.ll/ - per day,when the Minimum Wage rate had been raised toRs.25 per day. Their organised demands, backedby AGRAGAMEE's support, helped them realiseRs.30 lakhs of wage payment in arrears, under themulti"Cfore Orissa Tribal Development Project.

Some of the most outstanding outcomes have beenin the efforts with farmers, which have strengthened


watershed and NRM programmes significantly. Asthe majority of the communities AGRAGAMEE hasworked with are farmers, improved production hasresulted from enabling farmers to use bettertechniques for composting, soil fertilityimprovement, pest management and crop rotation.Farmers could increase their yield by 20- 50percent,while also adding permanent crops such as fruittrees in the available spaces.

Community Grain Banks'Community traditions of saving surplus wereencouraged and have been institutiona1ised throughgrain banks, in which AGRAGAMEE provided anincentive through a matching contribution andhelping people use indigenous technologies suchas bamboo mats to store grain. Women's groupshave taken this up seriously, and in several villages,this simple local technology is being used for acommunity grain bank, from which families whoare in need borrow. The interest rates are initiallyhigh, equalling the amounts charged by the moneylender. However, as surplus builds up, interest ratesare lowered. Specially vulnerable groups are taken

Strategies for Inclusion

Natural Resources .••• ~Utilisation + Management

Fig.1 Strategies for Inclusion

Human+EcologicalSecurity

45

I

Six Case Studies

care of by waiving interest completely, and byoverlooking previous outstanding amounts. Thisvillage-based social security system is being appliedin several villages, and has been specially beneficialto landless families and old people, apart fromhelping the community tide over periods of drought.

Working with Pro-people PoliciesA major effort in this direction was in helping tribalcommunities l1se the provisions of PESA. Theactivities included workshops, Panchayat levelcampaigns, State level and national levelconsultations, as also publication of a range ofbooklets an the provisions under PESA. Theprogramme had a large scale impact, asrepresentatives became more conscious of theirpowers, and people in the villages also demandedmore participatory processes. Participation in theGram.Sabhas improved dramatically, and womenwere able to raise their voices, and demandaccountability of their representatives.AGRAGAMEE has helped to put in place a pro-people water policy with state-wide support fromdifferent groups, including academics, civil societyorganisations as well as large numbers of people inthe villages and tribal areas. Public hearings on waterrights have helped to underline people's problems,specially those that women face in getting cleandrinking water, even six decades after independence.

NREGAWith its years of experience in tribal areas,AGRAGAMEE has perceived the recently passedNREG Act as a crucial entitlement that can help inthe struggle for freedom from hunger constantlywaged by the poor. Awareness campaigns, IECmaterials, appeals and petitions, as also workshopsat the district and State level have been used tocreate awareness. As a result, the issue of job cardshas increased, as well as applications for jobs, anddemand for appropriate payment. However, theinability of the state to ensure the implementationof the programme in an efficient and just mannerhas been troubling, and has been brought to thenotice of the state through several letters andpetitions, as well as by other independent groups ..

Natural Resource ManagementConcerted effort has .uso been made to strengthenand improve tribal systems of natural resource use

46

and management, through programmes ofwatershed development and NRM trainings aimedat improving production, tree cover, and checkingerosion and run off. In more than 50 villages,indiscriminate felling of trees has been checked, andmore intensive cultivation has checked soil losscaused by shifting slash-and-burn cultivation. Theimprovement of income options throughprogrammes such as orchard development hasenabled village communities, specially MahilaMandaIs, to develop alternate soucres of income,improving both food security and collectivebargaining power. In the village of Mankadmundi,for example, interventions for watersheddevelopment have helped the village improve treecover on the upland slopes and enabled a fourfoldincrease in income through vegetable cultivation.This more intensive pattern of cultivation hashelped the communities bring shifting cultivationareas under permanent tree cover, with the doublebenefit of checking erosion and environmentaldegradation, while improving availability oflivelihood essentials including timber, firewood,and minor forest produce.

Several technologies introduced in natural resourcemanagement processes, including establishingcontour bunds, intermixing crops, techniques ofwaste recycling, and alley cropping to enrich thesoil and provide household needs, have first beentaken up by one community or the other, and thenadopted by neighbouring villages.

Women's FederationsEncouraged by women's positive response, specificprogrammes with tribal women's groups weretaken up. Initially, it was difficult to planinterventions, as women are amongst the mostdisempowered, with few resources, or eveneducation or other skills which can be developedand promoted. Savings and capacity buildingprogrammes helped to reach out to women and startdialoguing on possible areas of work. Women wereintensely engaged in livelihood efforts, but alwaysbore the brunt of exploitation in various ways.Several major issues emerged through the dialogue.The first and strongest point was the havoc causedby alcoholism. Women rose as one to address theissue of alcoholism, and soon it became a State-widemovement. In the early part of 1992, the Chief

Minister heeded the cry from the tribal regions, andbanned alcohol in the tribal regions.

Ensuring Minimum WagesA major problem related to wage payment. Here,both women and men mobilised, and took up theissue. Sumani Jhodia spoke out strongly about thelack of transparency in village works and a newgovernment policy to implement these programmesthrough village committees, and not through privatecontractors, was initiated. In several instances,women became the village committee leaders, andensured that the village works were carried outproperly. Problems were many - engineers playedwith the estimate, and often, payment was withheldfor months on end; some village committee leaderseven had to mortgage their land or other propertyto pay the labourers who could not wait so long,living as they did from hand to mouth.

However, the policy, and people's demand, helpedseveral villages assert forMinimum Wage payment,ensure proper implementation, and develop goodvillage infrastructure. The efforts also brought aboutsome transparency in government programmes,enabling better control by beneficiaries.

Primary EducationOne of the most critical areas of intervention hasbeen in primary education, where AGRAGAMEEteok up a series of interventions, including runningprimary schools, teachers' training, networking withgrassroots civil society groups, and production ofinnovative training materials to improve teacheroutput, with support from the Ministry of HumanResource Development, and other agencies.

The intervention, termed "alternative and non-formal education", helped tribal children accessmainstream education, by providing facilitieswherenone existed. More than 500 children in differenttribal regions were able to join government schoolsin higher classes as a result of this effort. In addition,development of an additional syllabus, wherechildren were taught to analyse the economics ofwage work, and of indebtedness, helped themcritically understand their own situation. This hasenabled children to grow up as informed and awareadults, who now take the leadership in many of theissues taken up by the village community.


Positive ResultsThese and many other efforts over the years - onrights, livelihoods, governance and food security-have only strengthened our conviction that,provided minimal support and opportunities, tribalcommunities can come out of the downward spiralofhunger-illiteracy-ignorance-poverty, and take upa process of reconstruction that would not justenhance their quality of life, but also bring aboutenvironmental regeneration' at several levels. Theinherent strength of the "eco-system people" liketribal communities, is their closeness to andsymbiosis with their natural resource base. Womenhave a special relationship, as it is they who keepthe food- gathering traditions alive. Having seenthe positive results, both women and men have nowtaken up policy struggles with a will to strengthenand broaden the impact.

The LearningsAll this helped in the understanding of the dynamicsof exploitation, and to realise that the web ofexploitation that began with the money lender andthe liquor brewer at the village level extended toministers and national politicians and eventuallyto the multi-national corporations and the multi-lateral and international financial organisations. Itwas clear that the intrinsic relationship between thetribal people and the environment was crucial to .conservation. The value of tribal traditions andknowledge systems was underlined.

Struggling to us; the positive laws, enemies andfriends became visible, as did the limitations of thelegal system. The limitations of civil society groups,who seemed to begin in earnest when there was anissue of violation, but withdrew at the crucial timeof taking an absolute stand, and left the tribalcommunities in the lurch, also became apparent.Unfortunately, the norm in the tribal regions wasviolation ofbasic human rights. Tribal communitieshave little experience of justice, as they have livedwith injustice all their lives. But history shows thatthings had been different; perhaps the response ofthe tribal communities today is due to the years ofviolent repression, continued in the present timesby more subtle, but just as emphatic ways.

Another discovery was that the rules and laws inpractice in the tribal region were quite different from

47

Six Case Studies

the laws and principles laid down in the constitutionof the country, but were much more strictlyfollowed. One example which continues to this dayis "the law of the PC" (percentage). For any workstaken up in the tribal regions, in fact, over most ofrural India, (since the reach of this unwritten law ismuch wider than the tribal regions,) a certainpercentage has to be kept aside for the differentfunctionaries involved, including the politicalrepresentatives, right up to the concerned Minister!

The qualities, abilities and disadvantages of tribalwomen who were widely excluded from decisionmaking processes, as also from much of the benefitsof development and welfare programmes,beginning with primary education, also came to theforefront. Women form the backbone of the tribalcommunities, providing the physical labour thathelps not only the community, but also the parasiticnon-tribal classes and castes that subsist on thelabour of the tribal communities. Women wereusually silent, subdued, and overshadowed by men,who tended to be relatively much more vocal, andloudly suppress women who spoke inmeetings andvillage gatherings. However, later it was found thatwomen had much more strength to take forwardorganised struggles and sustain them. They werealso much more fearless in voicing dissent, and havedemonstrated the ability to confront the system atdifferent levels, from. the village mahajan, to theDistrict Collector and the Panchayat Secretary, whowould try to shut them up with a display ofbureaucratic authority. As the natural protectors ofthe eco-system, they had a much greaterunderstanding and conviction about the issuesinvolved in struggles for land and livelihoods.

Women's Struggle for JusticeThe struggle of the tribal women followed a naturaland logical course, taking off from AGRAGAMEE'sefforts to help them become self-reliant andempowered. The first step was encouraging womento have collective savings. This went beyond theSHG models, seeking to include women fromdifferent villages and Panchayats, and women ofdifferent communities. Primarily, it broughttogether women of the tribal and SC communities,itself an achievement, as these two communitieshave always viewed themselves antagonistically,and have been used by the upper castes to serve

48

their own interests. In different districts, such asKandhmals, Nawrangpur, Kalahandi, and ofcourse, Rayagada, where AGRAGAMEE is based,women came together for collective savings, soonbroadening out to other struggles. Discussions andsharing led women to realise that with theircollective efforts, they could counter suchexploitation as underpayment, non-payment ofMinimum Wages, non-delivery in programmessuch as the ICDS, and non-attendance of teachers.

In time, women also realised that now they had arelatively large corpus which was not being used.They did not have the confidence to enter into thriftand credit activities amongst themselves, as withtheir high levels of economic insecurity, they didnot really consider themselves creditworthy. Thedialogue on this issue led women to realise the hugeexploitation that they were facing in the realm ofminor forest produce. And thus began a historicstruggle for rights over non-timber forest produce(NTFP) by tribal producer communities.

The Challenge of Rights to ResourcesThe struggle began in the picturesque and remotePanchayat of Mandibisi. This region, rich in forestproduce, was the seat of maximum exploitation. Aswomen came together, they saw their organisation,the Mandibisi Mahila MandaI, as helping them finda way out of the perpetual poverty enforced by thenexus between the business class of 'Kumties' andthe moneylending Brahmins. The initial stages ofthe struggle brought them instant success, as theymet the Chief Minister, who was sympathetic totheir issues. However, this did not mean much, asthe Forest Department was loth to give up itscontrols over even such items as seeds from theforest, and refused to submit to the commitmentsmade by the Chief Minister, who had sent out acircular about the discussion, listing out theagreements. In time, the Chief Minister alsochanged, and things went from bad to worse. Sothe women, encouraged by the struggle, stocked uphill brooms grass, an item found in abundance inthe area, and than asked simply for permission tosell it in the open market.

This was denied to them time and again, till theyfinally decided that at least they might bind it intobrooms and then see what they couId do. The

training they received for this increased the visibilityof their efforts, and also posed a new threat to theTDCC (Tribal Development CooperativeCorporation) and the Forest Department, who camewith their forces, and their vehicles, beat up the men,forced women to lift the road block, and seized thestock of brooms so painstakingly collected andbound into brooms by the women. AGRAGAMEE,like everyone else who knew about the case, wasaghast. At the national level, sympatheticbureaucrats took it up, and the media showcasedthe unfair dealing with the tribal women, as at thesame time the State Government was allowinglicenses for a multi-crore steel plant.

Facing Unfair PracticesOn the ground, however, the women of MandibisiMahila MandaI were harassed no end. They werebooked in police cases, and their own FIR againstthe officers taking their brooms away was bookedwith much difficulty. They had to go to Rayagada,Jaipur, and Kashipur several times for the hearings.And the NTFP policy remained the same. But themedia highlighting of the issues and the tribalwomen's struggle did make the Government sit up,and give a partial lease to Ama Sangathan forpurchase, processing and sale of hill brooms in theKashipur forest division. However, this was a hugechallenge, as several permits had to be obtained,even for moving stock across Panchayat borders,as also for moving stock out of the District, and tomarkets out of the State. Each permit was timeconsuming, and involved several trips to the Blockand District headquarters. In addition, royalty wasalso being charged, and each year, women werepaying Rs.30,000 to Rs.40,000/- as royalty to theForest Department. AGRAGAMEE provided theback-up, negotiating through the intricate rules anddemands of the forest laws. Traders saw the qualityof brooms, and placed orders for stock. Yet, thefinancial burden on the women's group as well ason AGRAGAMEE,which had taken this up withoutfunded programmes, was high, as dealing withForest Department demands, as well as developingskills for processing, were going on at the same time.But the tight rope balance continued.

At the same time, several other civil society groupstook up the issues, as it affected people in their ownDistricts. The Utkal Forest Produce, a business


group which had the lease for 30NTFPwas stronglyquestioned for having a State-wide monopoly, andnot benefiting the tribal communities in the least.The Government was also questioned, as the UtkalForest Produce had not paid royalties to the tune ofseveral crores. Towards the end of the '90s, all leaseswere cancelled. By this time, however, AmaSangathan was being charged a royalty of Rs.1.5lakh for its collection of 4 tonnes of brooms, asagainst a royalty Rs.35/ - for a tonne of baUYitebeingcharged to Utkal Alumina International Limitedand others prospecting for alumina in the Block!

This high level of royalty was subsequentlywithdrawn, as several appeals led to questions andpressure from higher levels. In 2000,with the needto conform to PESA and mounting criticism fromcivil society groups and media, the Government ofOrissa changed its NTFP policy, allowing a smallvictory to the tribal women of Mandibisi andKashipur, even as the cases against them continued.In due course, the cases were also dropped. Thewomen's groups were now on to a different levelof struggle- with markets, profits, and sales. But,their spirit of struggle remained alive; only now,they were up against much larger forces.

The Struggle IntensifiesThe struggle ofMandibisi Mahila Mandal and AmaSangathan for rights toNTFP only foretold the muchlarger challenges ahead to their life and land. Evenas the tribal women scored a victory for the leavesand grass of their fQrests, survey teams onassignments hOJIlprivate and multi-nationalcorpo~ations wete ~oming into the area, studyingthe geo-hydrological features, the micro-climateconditions, and the flora and fauna in differentPanchayats. People gradually learnt that they wereabout to face a second wave of displacement. (Thefirst was from the Upper Indravti Hydro-electricproject in 1985,less than 50kms from their villagesas the crow flies).Women and men alike began toquestion this process, writing petitions and appealsto the Government.

.Thesewere not well received and a period of violentrepression began. In several instances, the men werebought off. However, in the villages, the womentook up the issue, and stopped survey teams andcompany vehicles from entering the area. Women

49

Six Case Studies

were also m the forefront of rallies, demonstrationsand protests. Their convictions helped men also tocome forward and strengthen the movement. Thisstruggle for land and lives of the people of Kashipurhas gone Qn for 15 years now. The people have seennew forms'''of repression and violence that aGovernment which they elected to power canunleash on them. The state has chosen to ignore thisassestion by the people their rights and hasunquestioningly aligned with corporate interests,providing police protection to the mining teams,and implicating the more prominent tribal men infalse cases, making arrests and taking otherrepressive measures, but the resistance continues,-with the leadership of both men and women.

Women's Role and ParticipationTraditionally, the tribal women in Koraput andRayagada districts are quiet and barelyconspicuous, except in large groups at work sites,providing most of the labour for any work,agricultural or construction, that is taken up in theregion. Ever faithful to the call of their innumerableduties and responsibilities for the survival of thefamily and maintenance of the village and itssurroundings, they have accepted the culture ofsilence imposed on them for centuries. Theirs is atradition of work and labour, which, with all itsrepressive implications, has given them a certainplace and value in their community. For example,a man has to pay a definite price to get a wife inKandha society. Even then, this marriage is notbinding. If it does not work out, the woman is justas free as the man to marry again. But there herrights end. Having paid bride price, the husbandclaims complete ownership over his wife, and shehas no rights, not even to her children. If hermarriage breaks up, she must leave her childrenbehind. The tribal woman can claim no right to anyproperty ; all she has is her ability to slog day inand day out. Her community has a good worker inher, and does not bother with any benefits likeformal education, so much so that by and large tribalwomen are largely unfamiliar even with themainstream Oriya language, putting an invisiblebarrier between them and the outside world.

Politically too, these women have been almostcompletely sidelined. The few who have cOIJ1eforward to represent their community in thePanchayati Raj institutions as a result of the one-

50

third reservation policy, usually become tools of theexisting political system and are hardly able torepresent women's needs or priorities. Outsidemterventions have been primarily through themenfolk, and that too, through the one or twopercent of the menfolk who represent the traditionalleadership of the community. So programmes ofdevelopment have catered to the priorities andperceptions of only this small group rather than tocritical survival needs as perceived by the women.On the other hand, some interventions have evenvictimised women and forced them into illicitrelationships. The lives of tribal women have beenmuch disrupted, whenever developmentalinterventions have been taken up in these regions.

Silent they may be, dumb they are not. The tribalwomen of Koraput and Kalahandi are not unawareof the injustices done to them and their children forgenerations together, and have finally decided tobreak out of their passivity and assert their rights.Since 1998, the women, backed by the men inKucheipadar and the neighboring villages, haveresisted the interventions of the mining companiesto set up a bauxite mining and processing unit, andrefused to give up their land, livelihoods and homes.

Mahatma Gandhi saw the tremendous strength ofwomen in social movements and drew them intothe freedom struggle. Amongst tribal and Dalitgroups, women have proved time and again theirimportance in struggles for human rights andsurvival. The examples are there within Orissa itself;in the struggle against the missile test-range inBaliapal, women were in the forefront, providingthe local leadership , and leading the march ; in theanti-BALCO movement, women came out into thestreets and blockaded roads, to be arrested. Now,once again, in Kuchiepadar and in other Panchayatsof Rayagada and Kalahandi, women have steppedforward to take up the struggle for their survivaland their rights, their demands echoing those of thewomen of Baliapal and BALCO for justice.

A Resistance MovementBut then, the state listened to the voices of thewomen, of the people. Today things have changed,with a state which puts profits before people, andin its eagerness to liberalise and attract the foreigninvestor unleashes violence on its own people.

On 16th December 2000, police entered the villagecif Maikanch, and beat up tribal women. Hearing


been drawn by the lure of jobs and money, and arebeing cultivated by the companies, but the womenare unanimous in their refusal to give in to thesepressures of a market-driven cash economy.

Till now, the administration had retaliated onlyagainst the men leading the movement, making themout to be criminals and anti-social elements. Nowhowever, the battle lines are clear:Theadministrationis retaliating against the people-women, men andchildren- who are struggling for their survival, notindulging in criminal activities.Women and children,along with the men, have been grievously injured,and imprisoned on false charges. Who then isindulging in criminal attacks- the administration,or Makari Majhi, a grandmother of three, booked incriminal cases she does not even understand ?

The efforts of AGRAGAMEE to ensure inclusion ofthe tribal people, particularly women, indevelopment processes have strengthened the voiceof the people, and highlighted not only the severalcontradictions, but also violations of thefundamental rights of people in the tribal regions.It has helped women fight for justice on issues ofsurvival and human rights, more fundamental tothem than issues of gender discrimination. It hasunderlined the strength in rural and tribal women,

"and the resources the country is losing by itscontinued apathy to primary and secondaryeducation, with a discriminatory attitude towardsgirls. It has also helped tribal communities accesstechnology to add value to theiI products, and toincrease their self-image and confidence, as theyprovide employment, handle machines, and sell ontheir own terms to a larger urban market. But evenas the tribal communities have raised their voices,have insisted on inclusion, the ugly face of agovernment democratically elected for, by and ofthe people, has also been exposed. Whatever gainstribal communities might have made in the eightiesand nineties, culminating in the passing of PESA in

But the people have not been cowed down by these 1996, these are being brutally nullified by a statecounter-moves of the state, and have sustained their impatient with poverty, impatient with the verymovement with courage and conviction, involving people who have helped preserve her naturalboth men and women. In fact, the women have been resources over the centuries. Such attitudes spell amuch more articulate in apprehending the changes recipe for large-scale disasters, for when we do awaythat would be forced on them by the mines and the with the "eco-system people" we also do away withfactories, and have refused to accept the monetary the ecological knowledge systems that helpedcarrot hung before them. A few men have indeed sustain and~tiurture life and nature on this planet.

ro ro ro

Conclusion

"There is no doubt that the action of the police inassaulting two tribal wom~n had the effect ofmagnifying the tension. Even at that stage, whenthe people were retreating, there was no apparentdanger .... Many of the witnesses have stated thatwhile retreating, some of them were walking backat a normal pace, which would go to show that therehad not been any violent action from the side of thevillagers initially. The statements made by severaltribal people that there was indiscriminate _firing,--=:~.-which resulted in the death of three persons,andthree cows, and injuries to several other personsappears more probable".

However, the Government has pald little attentionto the findings of the Judicial Commission, apartfrom presuming that the Commission's statement,"We cannot afford to remain backward merely forthe sake of so-called environmental protection" is ago-ahead for resuming violent repression of thetribal community in order to promote miningactivities. After the report was tabled, the UtkalAlumina was given all kinds of support from theOrissa Government and a loyal press. A hugemeeting in the Panchayat headquarters ofTikiri wasorganised, with a "hired" public and then, a GramSabha was also manufactured in three villages withthe presence of 500 armed policemen, and theDistrict Collector accompanied by seven BlockDevelopment Officers, and eight Tahsildars. Thiswas followed by further repression through a lathicharge, in which arms and legs were broken.

their cries, men rushed in to the rescue. The policefired into the crowd, and killed three people. Thisfact has received much publicity, but what is muchless known is that the repression continued evenafter the report of the Justice PK Mishra's JudicialCommission of Inquiry. The report clearly blamedthe police for the deaths in Maikanch .

51

Participatory Planning at thePanchayat Level

Nalini Nayak, Philip Mathew and Seeta Dasan

The Self Employed Women's Association (Kerala)a trade union of women from the unorganizedsector, was involved in a programme with theVilappil Grama Panchayat to develop norms forsustainable settlements(2005-2007), with thetechnical support of the environmental NGO,THANAL, in the first year.

The Background1

Kerala is one of the States in the country where bothpolitical and economic decentralisation has beenseriously undertaken. and there is a livelyinvolvement of women in public life in the ruralareas. In this process, Panchayats have beengrappling with local issues, and looking forinnovative ways to meet local people's needs.Making decentralized governance a reality is agradual process, and in order to facilitate thisprocess, the Kerala Planning Board elicited theinvolvement of people and voluntary organisations.Although there was much euphoria in the first planphase (1994-1999),this dwindled with the changeof government. But people's expectations remainhigh, and sustaining decentralization and itsdemocratic base is a long and challenging task.

On the other hand, the "Kerala model" ofdevelopment, post-Independence, is also highlyacclaimed. The State has achieved a high level ofsocial development at relatively low cost. The usualindicators of women's development like lowmaternal mortality, low child mortality, literacy andhigh level of education are also very impressive.But this has not led to high levels of women's workparticipation or even greater levels of women'sparticipation at the various levels of decision-

making. Moreover, the incidence of violence againstwomen is relatively high, and women's freedom ofmobility highly restricted, all indicating that Keralais still very much a patriarchal state.

Having said this, Kerala, in many respects, has beenpart of the global economy for long. Being a denselypopulated State, it has concentrated more on cashthan food crops. This makes it highly dependenton food imported from neighbouring States. It isalso an acknowledged fact that such foods, mainlyvegetables and bananas, are not only grown withhigh levels of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, butare also preserved with other chemicals for greatershelf life. One of the causes for high incidence ofdisease and morbidity is ascribed to suchcontaminated food.' A large part ofKerala's incomealso comes from foreign remittances - "a moneyorder economy" as it is called. With no localindustry, unemployment among those who cannotmigrate for work is also high.

SEWA's PerspectiveThe majority of the members of SEWA (Kerala)today are women who have lost work in theirtradItional occupations like agriculture, fishvending or basket making. The main reason for thishas been the loss of access to natural resources onwhich they depended for a livelihood, as a result ofother developments in the State. They now findwork in the urban service sector as wage workers.The transition from self-employment to poorly paidwage work is not only demeaning, but also fragile,as there are no security nets and work cannot beguaranteed. Such workers, of whom the majorityare women, are totally dependent on cash incomes.

'N.Manju Health Status of Women in Kerala: Beyond Indicators and S. Sivasankaran The B,oadening Waistline of Ketalites: theDiet Link, in Kerala, 50 years and Beyond, Ed. c.c.Kartha, Gantha Books Trivandrum, 2007

52

From self-employed they become wage workers ina sector where their rights as women and workersneed to be safeguarded, and this is the main thrustof SEWA.With the rise in prices of basic necessities,their cash incomes lead them nowhere. They growincreasingly impoverished and indebted, with norecourse to education or health services forthemselves and for their children.

As Kerala moved into decentralized planning in themid-1990s, and transferred both political andeconomic power to the Panchayats, SEWA thoughtit an opportune time to assist in the decentralizationprocess, in order to emphasize how localgovernments could assist women to safeguard theirland and get economic benefit out of it, so that theyare not dependent on wage work. The focus wouldbe to help the Panchayat understand the meaningof sustainability, and develop norms to secure thelivelihood of the poorer groups in the Panchayat.SEWA was aware that the Panchayat is part of alarger macro- canvas and hence working onsustainability issues would have limited scope, butit would at least create a foundation of information,based on which people could make demands forbudget allocations and the creation of norms.

SEWA believes that a framework of sustainabledevelopment is also basically a feminist perspectiveof development. Sustainability relates tomaintaining the balance between humans andnature, acknowledging the inter-connectedness andinter-relationships between the natural and humansystems. Mutual interdependence is a livingprocess /living system which has to be sustained. Afeminist perspective on development also puts lifeand livelihood center stage, and believes in themutual interdependence of labour between maleand female. Sustaining and nurturing life cannot becommodified. The centralized, controlled,monetised and very compartmentalized system onwhich modern development focuses results both inviolence on women/humans, and on nature and thenatural cycles.Such development is patriarchal, andis the antithesis of sustainability.

Panchayats are faced with daily problems of peoplewho need to eke out a living. Though several


technological alternatives are available, these arenot at their disposal for various reasons. SEWAwaskeen to make this knowledge available to localpeople and took this opportunity at a time whenthe SDC-eapDeck' provided funds to strengthenlocal governance in mid - 2004.

The Social InterventionThe Panchayat that was chosen for the interventionis 15 km away from the Trivandrum city centre,where SEWA also has its rural centre. The totalpopulation of the Panchayat in 2001was 34,079witha literacy level of 82.14percent, but a female literacylevel of only 77 percent. Being so close to the city,but still with 40percent of its population dependenton agricultural or related labour, SEWA thought itimportant that the Panchayat prevent the citygrowing over it in a pervasive manner anddispossessing its people of its resources. This couldbe achieved only through the active participationof people who understand their role in localgovernment and know about norms that can befollowed and alternative strategies for sustainablelivelihoods. The entire programme was called"Towards norms for sustainable settlements", buthere only the relevant aspects are being shared.

This was indeed a planned social intervention, as itwas also time bound. It worked during the first 18months in 4 wards of the Panchayat, and movedinto the whole Panchayat in the next 12 months.Although there are several aspects to thisintervention - the foremost being the empowermentof the local governance system, what is shared hereis how women got involved in the various aspectsof understanding sustainability and creatinglivelihoods, and finally got the Panchayat to devoteRs.500,000towards women's strategic needs.

The First Phase: ExploratoryThe first 14months was an exploratory phase, andthe objectives were

• to build a team of knowledgeable and skilledlocal individuals locally

• to develop an awareness on the concept ofsustainability

2 Swiss Development Corporation-G2pacity Deuelopment for Decentralisation in Kerala an autonomous fund created by the Kera/aGovernment

53

Six Case Studies

• to collect data both on physical and humanresources and

• to start creating some viable livelihoodmOdels.

The efforts of the first 14 months work led to aparticipatory study of gender issues in thePanchayat, which then fed into an elaborate processof developing a Women's Policy in the Panchayatin which the elected women representatives (EWRs)took the lead. The work can be seen in the fourfollowing stages.

1. Creating the team: Two grassroots workerswere selected by the Panchayat wardmembers, two from each ward, making atearn of eight. All turned out to be women,although the criteria given by SEWA was forone man and one woman.3

2. A series of input sessions and a goodsimulation game was organized, so that thisteam could evolve its own criteria for asustainable settlement. They articulatedsustainability as follows: To create the baseforafuture generation that would behealthy and livea responsible and meaningfullije.

3. Data collection: physical and humanresources

4. Creating viable livelihood models:

The Mapping ExerciseThe team' then got involved in a physical resourcemapping process. For this, they were joined by alarger group of volunteers that the ward membersselected from the 5HGs created by them. Amongthem were also a few boys. For this exercise, again,there was a training about how physical resourcescan be mapped and how to identify the differentkinds of land use. This was a tedious but extremelyrewarding process because the entire group beganto understand the nature of the material base of theirwards. They got to know the physical features of

every inch of their wards intimately. This was alsoa chance to relate to people in the wards, explainwhat they were doing, spread awareness aboutissues of sustainability, and invite interested peopleto wider discussions. 50 the awareness spread.

The group had realized that a large part of theirforests had been cleared, that cash crops weredominant, for which chemical fertilizers were used,and that paddy fields were increasingly being filledup, meaning the water holding capacity of the areawas being reduced. They also realised that rockswere being blasted for granite and that largequarries were being created, which could also bethe reason for creation of clefts in the rock, causingground water to run off,besides causing respiratorydiseases among those who worked in and livedaround them. Traditional water ponds were eithernot maintained or were being reclaimed. There wasstill a great dependence on well water, but theymapped the area to understand where and whenthe wells dried up. The entire carbon and watercycles were understood in the context of their ownarea. This was the knowledge base on which furtherinterventions were built.

The next step was a long process of what we called"human resource mapping". The same large teamof women again undertook this. The objective wasto get an understanding of the human profile of thefour wards, the education, skills and workexperience of the inhabitants. This material was veryrevealing'

To begin with, the areas identified for action were:livelihood revival through regeneration ofwells andconservation ofwater sources, regeneration of localvarieties ofmangoes, local cultivation of vegetablesand more organic farming. Regeneration of wellsbegan and organic farming was introduced.

These four wards happened to be also the mostdrought prone in the Panchayat. Hence the first

, Unemployment is among those who hove least education, the largest number of whom are women. Men, even if minimallyeducated go for manual work, and the men of this area are in high demand because of their manual skills for which they earn frumRs. 170/- to Rs. 200/- a day. Our programme offered w pay Ihe uolunleers Rs. 2,500/- as this was nol a full time work. This is alsoone of the reasons why men did not come forward .

•.This group of fi£ld workers received a mOnthly remuneration. CapDeck also provided funds for the team leaders who were part ofSEWA and for the coordination of the programme. Input sessions and exposure programmes for bolh Panchayat ward Members andlocal people were also financially supported .

•. See appendix 1

.54

demand of the people was for piped water. Thediscussion on water then commenced with technicalinputs from a person who had done a great deal interms of water regeneration, Several possibilities toregenerate wells came up along with actualdemonstrations. Although this happened towardsthe end of the monsoons, the results wereimmediately felt. This had a effect as others alsotried to do the same, to some extent.

Sustainabile LivelihoodsEncouraging the agricultural labourers to move intoorganic farming was the next step. Here again it wasmainly the women who came forward. It was thewomen who were anxious about their childrengetting ill by eating food treated with pesticide. Itwas also the women who were keen to be able toearn a little extra money if it was possible, as therewas not much other gainful work for them locally.

Again, there were several input sessions in whichboth men and women took part, and in a few weeksthere were several households with their ownkitchen gardens, making their own organicpesticides and sharing seeds, with women takingthe lead. A few were even able to cultivate surplusfor the market, encouraged by the fact thatTHANAL also organized an organic bazaar in thecity, where farmers could bring their produce.THANAL organized a collection system and so thefarmers could give in anything that they thoughtwas surplus to their own needs, not only thevegetables they grew, but anything else from theirgardens like drumstick leaves, wild berries andfruits, flowers, banana stems, and eggs of countryfowls. This was also an attempt to provide citydwellers with traditional food ingredients. At oneof the sharing sessions among this group onewoman, said after a year, "This year my childrenhaven't fallen sick, I haven't had to take them to thedoctor. Moreover I have been able to make at least Rs.1000a month just out of my 15 cents of land. I do not need togo anyivhere else to work".

Towards the end of the year, just as a group exercise,the team of volunteers did some intensive work ondeveloping norms for a sustainable settlement.What they did and later shared with a group ofexperts from the city was acclaimed. The wardmembers (two men and two women) were also veryappreciative of these women, and although some


of them did feel threatened by the fact that a teamof local women was now so knowledgeable, theyacclaimed the work in public. At the end of the year,the team presented their findings to the Panchayat(a new Panchayat had been elected by then and oneof the volunteers, a woman, had also been elected),and did a social audit of their programme. Thisencouraged the President and the other memberswho suggested that this programme be pursued inall the nineteen wards of the Panchayat. However,SEWA suggested that before doing that, thePanchayat should agree to do a detailed genderstatus study in which SEWA would also help andthis too was accepted.

Interim PeriodDoing a gender status study is mandatory in everyPanchayat in Kerala, but at this time very fewPanchayats had done serious documentation. Whenthe Panchayat President accepted this suggestion,it then moved through the officialprocess of gettingthe approval of the Panchayat committee. Again allthe ward members were requested to provideparticipants who could be trained as investigators.A group of around 40 women, mostly the leadersof the ward SHGs came to SEWA for a training.Although all these women belonged to theKutumbashree groups, and despite the fact that twoterms of Panchayati Raj were already completed,and the radical component of a 10 percent budgetallocation for the women's component plan hadbeen integrated, none of these women had had anyexposure to issues of gender. Hence this study wasused not only to collectdata, but also to raise generalawareness on gender issues and the functioning ofpatriarchy in the ongoing process of development.The volunteers who had initially been trained wereable to act as local resource persons, being able torelate ongoing issues to the reality of the Panchayat.

The study itself was a detailed and time-consumingbut educative process. It was decided to have asample size of 300 women respondents and 100male respondents (the latter would be interviewedseparately by three male field workers). Besides,this, there were focused group discussions, and alsodiscussions with specific groups like adolescents,aged women and women who had stood for electionat some time in the past twelve years. The studywas a revelation for all the investigators, and as the

55

Six Case Studies

data was analysed, there were important findingsfor the Panchayat as well. But the findings also hadthen to be ratified by the Panchayat, and this wasanother process that was utilized as a means ofempowering the newly elected womenrepresentatives (EWRs).'

Second Phase: Expansion to the WholePanchayatThe programme then moved into a new phasecovering the entire Panchayat. There was now awell-equipped local team to carry the work forward.The main aims of this phase were:

• to get the ward members involved in aninteractive process with the local people, sothat the project planning of the Panchayatwould be more people and need oriented (40percent of the state funds are directly handedover to the Panchayats for local developmentand they have to decide on its use).

• to strengthen the role of the E;WRsand helpthem become active decision makers in thePanchayat, and facilitate their work throughthe development of a women's policy

• to pursue the bio-models towardssustainability in developing working andmanagerial skills among women

• .to create some institutional mechanisms bywhich the participatory governance processtowards sustainability would continue

The focus here is on the latter three issues and justthose aspects relevant to this case study.

The Technology DimensionIn developing the livelihood bio-mo~els, the aimwas also to see that women develop both anunderstanding of sustainable livelihoods and theskills to sustain them. A livelihood bio-model, inour understanding, is one which meets ahousehold's basic needs from amix ofhuman labourand bie-mass.

The first year had concentrated on organic farmingand women had learnt about organic manures,pesticides, and the need and methods to preserveand multiply seeds. Two important income-

generating possibilities already existed in thevillage, but in which women had very little part.The first was the coconut economy - all controlledby men, from the climbing of the trees, to the shellingof the nuts and the making of coconut oil; and theother was animal husbandry. There is a growingtrend for people to cut down their coconut palmsbecause they do not find labour to cut the nuts.Although women do the major work of caring forcows, the cows are milked by men, and in this caseby migrant labour, who also have to be paid Rs 250-300amonth. As a result, there is a high dependencyon milk from Tamil Nadu to meet requirements inSouthern KeraIa.

So we thought women should learn to climb thecoconut trees and then be organized to producecoconut oil, and that they could also be trained tomilk cows so that the cow population wouldincrease. Both these things were laughed at in thePanchayat, but once the trainings were announced,women signed up to participate. The moresuccessful was the milking of cows, for althoughonly 16women came forward for the first training,another 35 soon followed. Quite a few womendecided to buy a cow, once they knew that theycould milk it themselves. For the coconut palmclimbing there were not that many candidates, alsobecause the contraption that assists the climbers washeavy". Two women perfected the skills and cannow easily earn ~s. 100/- a day in their ownsurroundings. SEWA is now trying to improve thequality of the contraption to make it lighter, so thatwomen can easily transport it themselves and therewould be more takers.

To complete the first round, inputs were given onthe use of energy for cooking and lighting. The logicof high dependence on electricity coming from bigdams and its negative impact on local populationswas discussed. The dependence on firewood, whichis becoming more expensive, was also discussed,in relation to societies that create waste and thendump it in some one else's backyard. Hence therewas exposure to the transformation of waste intowealth - recycled paper and biogas. Thoughdomestic models had been installed with a subsidy,the '";:ostswere still high'. SEWA then developed,

.5 see appendix 26. This device has been developed by the Agro-Industries Corporation, Trivandrum.

56

drawing from other experiments in Kerala, a smallermodel with only kitchen waste and this caught on.Together with this, hay boxes and smokeless choolaswere also popularized as a means of conservingenergy.

SEWA then organized a managerial skill trainingfor the local women's SHGs. Among them werewomen who had undertaken the production ofcoconut oil but were only providing the labourcomponent. There were also women who wereproducing soap in the same way. For the next phaseSEWA has now offered to assist the Panchayat inorganizing a marketing outlet for these groups inan integrated manner, and help them be totallymanaged by the women. SEWA has also organizeda paper unit for the transformation of waste paperand tailoring waste into hand-made paper. This unitis presently run by an unit of members of SEWAbut located in the Panchayat, so that people can seefor themselves how waste can be transformed intousable products. This has been accompanied by ananti-plastics drive and a programme in the localschools for consciousness-raising and the startingof nature clubs in the schools.

Now that several of these devices are in use andunits in operation, SEWA will monitor and studywhat real impact has been made on energyconservation and household incomes.

Feedback from StakeholdersThe programme ended with a social audit, with theobjective of encouraging transparency in localgovernance. Besides the programme team giving adetailed account of the progress of the work andexpenditure, some of the participating womenshared their experiences with the representativesof the Panchayat. Some of the poorer women hadsuccessfullymade use of all the components, thereby.making their household itself a .sustainable unit-with amere 10cents of land and an irregular incomefrom their husbands, who are daily wage workers.Their fuel expenses had reduced by 70percent. Onewho had installed a larger biogas plant said she nolanger needed cooking gas or firewood, and cookingwas both easy and clean. In fact, she had more gasthan she needed. Even those who were too poor toinstal anything but the smokeless choola and the, Developed by Kluuli and Vii/age Industries Commission


hay box, said that their fuel expenses and cookingtime had been reduced.

All these technologies also contribute to thediminishing of green house gases, leading to largersustainability of the planet. But it cannot be saidthat this reduces women's labour as a whole. Caringfor a cow is time consuming, and unless the husbandand children also help, it becomes an added burdenfor the woman. Biogas systems also are livingsystems which need attention, but thl'!Yare a sourceof great confidence, as even children begin toexplain their working and benefits to visitors. Thehay boxes are like magic, as people realize howsimple it is to conserve heat and how little is actuallyneeded to cook.

As the management of waste is one of the majorproblems of urbanization, transforming waste intowealth is an important component of urbanplanning. While smaller units can transform theirwaste into biogas for cooking, larger units likemarkets and public spaces can convertbiodegradable waste into electricity, as has beendone in several markets in Trivandrurn.

Institutional ArrangementsDuring this entire process, it became increasinglyclear that people were interested in becominginvolved in their local area and deliberating uponit. Attempts had been made to help them reactduring the Grama Sabhas, but on the one hand, theydid not feel equipped to do so, and on the other,their feelingwas that ward members were interestedonly in handing out doles to beneficiaries and notin long-term planning. It was important to build upa broader-based platform where these discussionscould be broadened and carried through. Therefore,out of this process grew what was called a Citizens'Forum- a group ofconcerned citizens that met everymonth to discuss issues that affected the Panchayat,and to get deeper knowledge of the roles andresponsibilities of the Panchayat under the new Act,and the rights of the citizens in local government.This again was a very stimulating process as muchofwhat they received in the inputs was new to them,and they felt that they could take a more involvedposition in the Panchayat, transcending partypolitics, that is so deep seated in Kerala civil society.

57

Six Case Studies

This group met on a monthly basis and began totake up some activities in the Panchayat.Interestingly, there are both men and women in theForum, with active participation of the men. Perhapsthe lack of interest of men in the earlier stages isrelated to their class status and preoccupation withemployment issues.

Although all these programmes have eventually tobe taken up by the Panchayat, the experiencerevealed that Panchayat members often are unableto initiate the process. It was imperative thereforeto put in place certain institutional arrangementsthrough which this process could be kept alive, andthe following have been done.

• The Citizens' Forum that meets every month,but which has created the Vilappil CitizensDevelopment Samithi

• The Women's Core Group: This has twocomponents, one an informal grouping of theEWRs who meet regularly to see how theWomen's D.evelopment Policy can bepursued in the Panchayat, and the othermade up of active women in the Panchayat,which also meets regularly to pursue someof the programmes undertaken through theCitizens' Forum, concentrating on creatingmarketing support for the Panchayatproducts.

• The Nature Clubs in the schools that willbuild up consciousness on sustainabilitythrough action with the future generation.

Constraints and BarriersIt is fascinating to watch the growing participationof women in such processes, as they become awareof the health and development dimensions of theissue. They arefar more involved in such processesthan men, although men still want to control things.Since the men are not involved in the household,especially if they are in politics, they do not reallyunderstand the importance of such interventions.There is also a huge gap between the EWRsand thelarger base of women, as the latter.actually get busydeveloping skills and implementation that theEWRs cannot do. The EWRs are therefore not ableto really convince other Panchayat members of thebenefits and translate these into policy decisions inthe Panchayat. But the EWRs did get involved in

58

putting together a Women's Policy, based on thework of the core group ofwomen in the Panchayat.It is also a very interesting policy, but whether theywill be able to bring it to any level of implementationstill has to be seen. They have nevertheless been ableto get the Panchayat to budget Rs.500,OOOto meetwomen's strategic needs.

Elected women representatives indeed have a verydifficult task. First, the majority of them initiallyhave a hard time coping with the demands of theirhusbands, and more so when they enter the publicspace. The husbands not only want to beeverywhere their wives are, but often they becomeso unbelievably suspicious and brutal in theircontrol mechanisms, that one wonders why theyeven permitted their wives to stand for public officetobegin with. Secondly, within the Panchayat itself,EWRs are treated as mere puppets despite the factthat they work responsibly within their\wards.Third, they very rarely can take stands they believein, as there is always the party whip telling themwhat to do.

The strategy used was to first give them as muchinformation as possible, thereby building upconfidence on issues to be tackled, on the one hand;and on the other, encouraging them to build a unitedplatform among themselves as women, so that theywould finally be heard and taken seriously by theothers. Working through the gender status studywas found to be the best tool, as this gave them factsand figures about happenings in the Panchayat.Now there was a broader platform to work withother concerned women without feeling threatenedby them, and an ability to find a way forward. Butthe process is not automatic. The attempt has beento see that these women create a strong groupamong themselves and support each other wheninterventions are made in the Panchayat.

Other Outstanding Problems• But there are some also tensions betweenEWRs and other women with leadershipqualities in the wards. The EWRs depend onlocal women leaders to keep the SHGs going,as these women are members of the AreaDevelopment Committees. As these womenactually do the grass roots organizing work,they develop organizational anddevelopment skills. At this point, the EWRs

make sure the others do not overstep theirlimits, with the result that even the micro-enterprises that the SHGs start are not carriedto their logical conclusion. Developingfeminist styles of leadership is a far off dream,when women are expected to live up to themale style of functioning in the wards, ortreated like children in the committee. Theelected representatives in general feel that the

{l!,ward is their territory, and issue orders and• fatwas against those that enter the ward tointeract with the members without theirpermission. In fact, when the ward membersfound women approaching SEWA to helpwith problems, some of them were told theywould not be eligible for Panchayat funds ifthey related to SEWA.

• The existing coconut climbing device is heavyand has to be lightened, but will this raise thecost beyond the abilities of the women to pay? This is an issue that technology has toaddress.

• A household needs a minimum 10 cents ofland to be viable, and there is still a section ofhouseholds that do not have even that.

• Finally, the entire process of decision makingis time-consuming and laborious, and moreso when no political party has a majority inthe Panchayat. Getting consensual decisionsis an extremely difficult and frustrating


process:'But on the other hand, when womenare once enthused, they find ways to forgeahead.

InsightsDeveloping a consciousness and then appropriatetechnologies for sustainable livelihoods ismore thana one-time intervention. It is a process that hasmultiple dimensions, and in our understanding,isrooted in a life-centered development paradigm:Such a paradigm requires exten3ive people'sparticipation, and is based on the concept .that thereare limits to growth and that production shouldessentially focus on need atW~~lOtmerely profit: Sumlivelihood-entered technologies do not focus on themarket and hence do not enter the GNP; thereforethey are also not reflected in figures of'growth'.Hence Panchayats are not likely tosubsidise them. •

There are a large number of trained personnel inthe Governmentwho also have innovative ideas,but are looking f~/iocal coordination which iswanting in the existing organizational structure, andhence the importance of an NGO making theseliriks.Very often NGOs remain outside the officialstructure, and this may not be the most sustainableway in which to proceed. Such interventions haveto lead to policy changes, so that these technologiescan also be subsidized and become accessible to thereally poor who need them the most.

-'<.

Appendixl

Main Findings of the Human Resource Mapping• The basic family pattern was nuclear with around 4 members in a household

•

••

•

••

The percentage of people that had studied beyond the SSLCwas very small in all age groups, butsurprisingly, was lower in the age group 16-22 than in the age group 23-50. Among all categories,there were fewer females.

The majority of households had below 10 cents'of..J.;md.

The major land use was for coconut and mixed crops, with rubber in a round 7 percent of thearea, and despite some wet land there was no paddy cultivation at all. . . •

Over 60 percent of the income came from coolie work. Only 18percent had full employment, andanother 24 percent less for 10-20 days a month. The rest had or worked at home:.. •

People went as far as the city to work and there was very little seasonal or other migration .

Very few of the workers belonged to any workers' organisations, and there were more unionmembers in the older age group than in the age group 23-50 years. They belonged mainly to theagricultural and construction workers' unions.

59

Six Case Studies

• Only about 6-7 percent had participated in all the Grama Sabhas and a few more (5 percent) insome. Generally people did not think they had much to gain or learn through the Panchayatsystem.

• There was a shift in the skills and Fompetencies of the three age groups, with a clear shift awayfrom agriculture into construction, and now into the computer and even tailoring industry asseen below.

Appendix 2.

Main Findings of the Gender ~tatusStudy• Broadly, there was a difference between the participation in the household of poorer and middleclass women, as poorer women contributed substantially financially. In decision making also,poorer women had more say than women in the middle income bracket.

• The majority of the women were dependents, mainly on the husband's income, as 70 percent ofthem had no income of their own

• There was very low possibility of mobility for women, who are often confined to their immediatesurroundings ;1 . I

• The struggle for the needs of daili lifl!, to keep the home fire burning, is an increasing pressure,and this burden is borne mainly.by w~men.

.,.' I• The majority of the women had a physically difficult job at home, both in collecting water andwood for cooking, the basic daily reqUirements to keep life going.,

• In most cases, women did have a say in deciding about the number and spacing of children .•• The 1arg~inajority accepted the social norms of taking and giving dowry.

• Men were somewhat aware of the nuances of sexual harassment, but the general level of awarenesswas low

• A large number of women internalized the idea that men had a right to beat them.

• More than half of the men felt that they had no right to beat their women.

• Most of the women felt that men beat their wives either because they drink, or because they needto cover up other extra-marital relationships, or because of dowry problems.

• The majority of the women felt that they have some level of freedom within their family, butwhen out in public, they felt policed and harassed. ,.

• Men expressed the need for women to be members in pojitical parties, but said they did not needto have any role in decision making or in the leadership.

• 35-50 percent of the women felt that participation in Panchayat activities had helped themsubstantially or in some measure to grow personally, either to take leadership or get involved incommunity issues or to develop a better understanding of social issues or to relate to people.

. . ~• Kutumbasree has facilitated a mobilization process of women, but it has not really led to theirempowerment and involvement in other social issues.

• Most of the women felt that women had absolutely no place in religious practices or events, oreven in decision making bodies

• 77 percent would like to work, but they need the husband's permission to do that.

On the whole, the mobilisation of women and their participation in public life through the process ofdecentralized governance has indeed brought many positive changes in their lives. But the deep-rooted

60


values of tradition and the visual media that depict women as inferior also continue to give men the rightto continue to dominate them. The advances in education did not seem to have given women any enhancedstatus, besides a few who enjoyed greater mobility, with access to motorized vehicles. But this mobilitywas again constrained by eve-teasing and sexual harassment that women had to face on an everydaybasis. Dowries were also on the rise regardless of a woman's educa~on or economic status. Preference fora male child was also showing up in the child sex ration, beginning to be favorable for males, and somewomen admitted that they underwent abortion for this purpose. Women's awareness of their rights andhow they can be assisted by progressive laws was limited, and hence their reluctance to use them.

t l'

Public institutions like the anganwadis, schools and Community Health Centre were still considered ofutmost importance to women, as around 40 percent of them were still poor. Yet there was a feeling thatthese institutions can be better managed and provide better delivery of services in more women-friendlyways. The role of the agricultural department needs to be drastically reframed to meet the needs of farmersand people as they become more health conscious and aware of the dangers of envir?nmental pollutionWhile unemployment was a serious problem to be addressed, there were still a large number of householdswhere the education levels were limited, and hence creation of 'simple' employment is of great importance.

Women's experience in public office revealed that they were more bound by the priorities of the politicaiparty they belonged to than their needs as women. Ai;politicalpafties are very male- dominated, women'svoices get minimal consideration. Moreover, the democratic process of discussion and taking decisions ina more consultative manner. was not encouraged in the"Pailchayat. All discussions were politicallymotivated.

AWomen's Development Policyand some programmes to improve the situation ofwomen in the Panchayatwere developed as an outcome of the gender status study.

61

Insights from the Case Studi~s-an OverviewMina Swaminathan

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, thereis considerable disenchantment in India with theoutcomes of development in the second half of thetwentieth century. While there have been numerousexamples of progress that one can well be proud of,and much of this progress has been directly relatedto advances in science and technology, it is also truethat on the whole, the rich have got richer and thepoor poorer. Far from disappearing, inequality hasincreased sharply, reaching extremes that couldnever even be imagined earlier. Even worse, thenumber of the "unreached" has expandedenormously, while that of those who have gainedhas grown only modestly, so that today there arefar more unreached than well-off or comfortable.In other words, the gap between the excluded andthe rest is now wider than ever before, both in termsof relative numbers and in terms of the differencein lifechances and quality of life.This is the dilemmafaced by the country at the turn of the century-unprecedented opportunity for a few, and life atthe margins of survival for many. It is obviouslytime to reconsider the development paradigm.

The skewed nature of development has been furtherexacerbated by several other social and naturalevents and trends-population movements,displacement due to development projects andrural-urban migration, natural resource degradationand ecological crises, cyclesof disasters, and erosionof natural resources, but is also the outcome ofearlier policies, such as the loss of people's rights toland, forests and water, the failure to provideuniversal education and health care of adequatequality, inadequate redistribution of assets like land,and others which need not now be described in

detail. What is important is the issue of how toprovide sustainable livelihoods for all, in the contextof widespread social exclusion ..

Who are the Excluded?In defining social exclusion, one can begin with adefinition provided by Buvinic ( 2005) as " thedenial of equal access to opportunities imposed bycertain groups in society on others".' This definttiondraws attention to three main aspects of exclusion-that groups are culturally defined, that exclusion isembedded in social relations, and that it results invarious forms of deprivation and/ordisempowerment.

In Indian society, there are broadly four axes ofexclusion-caste/ethnicity, class, gender andlocation. As far as the first category is concerned, itincludes far more than the Scheduled Castes (nowmore generally known as Dalits) and ScheduledTribes notified by the Constitution, and also appliesto a large and amorphous group of other castes andtribes, especially the many nomadic and wanderinggroups ranging from pastoralists to entertainers.While the first two groups account for about aquarter of the population (16.2 and 8.2 percentrespectively in 2001) the percentage of the thirdgroup is not unambiguously defined. As to class,which is concerned with differences in income andwealth, again the statistics are constantly argued. over by specialists, ranging from a quarter to,38 percent of the population. A recent prestigiousstudy' for example estimates that 70 percent of thepopulation'today lives on less than Rs.20 per day,at the edge of survival.

, Buvinic. Mayra(200S).2 Nafio~al CommissioIl on Enterprises in the Uoorganised Sector( 2007)

62

Another dangerously threatened and little studiedgroup in this category, which has grown by leapsand bounds in the last few decades, is the increasingnumber of "invisible" people or "new" nomads-migrants who move in search of livelihoods, livingin makeshift camps, shanty towns and"unauthorized" urban settlements, sometimes foryears together; in other cases, moving from place toplace, mobile in different ways and for differentperiods and reasons, but all seemingly invisible tothe authorities.

As for gender, women in all groups together makeup half the population, or a little less, (due to theadverse sex ratio) but obviously women in theexcluded groups would be more seriously affectedin all dimensions. Finally, location-by which ismeant those furthest from the center, in remote and/or inaccessible locations, who often lack even thesimplest basic facilities. All these form the"excluded" and a little simple arithmetic will showthat they are by far the majority.

The Nature of ExclusionAll these diverse excluded groups not only sharecommon problems, but each also has certaindisabilities and disadvantages specific to the group.For example, women in all categories lack rights toproperty and assets in their own names, and aremuch more poorly educated than the men in theirown social group. Forest dwellers, mainly tribals,have been gradually disempowered and deprivedof rights to the very land, forests, water and othernatural resources that they have lived in, conserved,and nurtured for centuries. It is estimated that about40 million people have been displaced in the lasthalf century by big dams and other developmentprojects. As well, they lack access to education,health care and other services available to the moreprivileged. Dalits, traditionally landless, continueto remain so in large measure and to face, not onlylack of the same basic facilities, but also continuingcaste discrimination. And this in spite of reservationfor SCs and STs in education and employment,starting right from the time the Constitution wasframed in 1950. And the remote, the smallermarginalized groups, and the "new" nomadsmigrants are still struggling even to become visibleon the map of the policy makers.


Yet it is not as though no efforts have been made inthe past to address this state of affairs. A largenumber ofwell-intentioned laws and schemes havebeen developed and implemented over the years,too numerous to list here, and much money has beenpoured into them. But it seems these efforts havenot been able to attack the problem at its roots. Poorimplementation is partly due to the well-knowncorruption, bureaucratisation and sluggishness thatdogs programmes implemented by the state. Butthis is not all. The legal, social and cultural climatehas also not been conducive to such development.In other words, the priorities, perceptions andperspectives have also been out of kilter. This canbe illustrated in several ways, for example, thereluctance of the more privileged groups, who havethe responsibility of carrying out these tasks, or therole of science and technology.

Science and Sustainable LivelihoodClearly, modern science and technology has had inthe past, and continues to have, tremendoussignificance for improving the life of human beings.And indeed, India since Independence has anenviable record in the development of science andtechnology, having broken several barriers andchalked up many achievements. But from the earlydays, the emphasis has always been on heavyindustry, power, infrastructure, manufacturing, andtransport, all seen as the key to economic growth,strength and self-reliance. Later, the emphasisshifted to space, nuclear energy, defence, and airtransport, and still later to telecommunications andInformation Technology.

All these acknowledged aChievements have beenat the cost of simple applications of science andtechnology that would benefit the ordinary citizen,man or woman, especially the lowlier among them.So now we have a proliferation of smooth runningairlines, side by side with onf lakh villages withoutclean drinking water; Indian • .£\~de satellitescircling the skies while 70percent orihe people haveno sanitation or access to toilets; and a galaxy ofbrilliant graduates working in the sector IT here andabroad while 40 percent of all Children under 14are out of school. Could not the same or similartechnologies have been applied to solve theproblems? It seems that high technology has wonover" appropriate" or "intermediate" technology.

63

Six Case Studies

Nevertheless, science and technology must now,more than ever, place themselves at the disposal ofsu~tainable livelihoods for all.

New Approaches to Social Inclusion-the Case Studies-. ,"-

The social barriers suffered by the excluded groupshave undermined both their participation in, andaccess to, the benefits of development, specially inrelation to science and technology-drivendevelopment. Yetdevelopment experiences in Indiahave time and again demonstrated innovativeapproaches to " reach the unreached, " spearheadedby non-governmental organizations andcommunity-based groups, which work in specificcontexts with flexible approaches.

It was with a view to sharing these uniqueexperiences and learning from such strategies andapproaches that this collection of case studies hasbeen put together. The question raised was; can thecollectivewisdom derived from these diverse socialinterventions be of value, not only to other agenciesinvolved in development activities, but mostimportantly, to policy formulation and a new visionand leadership from the state? A quick review ofsome important aspects of the six case studies maysuggest the possibilities. A careful reading of thesix case studies will throw up many interestingpoints for discussion, as well as challenges. Acomparative summary of the main characteristicsof the case studies will be found at pp 68-69.

Similarities and Differences

All the catalyst agencie.sare similar in having firmlychosen to work with amarginalised group, with theintent of carving out a path for their inclusion, andwith the broad general goal ofholistic developmentthrough sustainable livelihoods. But even here, theinterpretations are varied. In three cases, livelihoodsare central to development; while in the other three,empowerment leads the way. Even the perceptionsabout the axis and nature of exclusion to be focusedon vary. Five prioritise gender, but only three ofthese start with a focus on women, while for theother two the community is the focus, with a strongemphasis on women's role imd gender issues; thesixth started by working with the whole tribalcommunity and slowly came to an understanding'.of women's roles.

64

Similarly, two could be described as focusing ontribal communities, of which one included otherunderprivileged rural groups, especially Dalits, andemphasized women's role from the beginning;while the other worked with a simple well-definedtribal group and emphasized women's role onlylater. Yet another started with rural womenlabourers in a poverty context, mostly Dalit, butincluding women of other backward castes. Of thethree groups of women, two were rural, while thethird lived in a partly rural and partly urban orsemi-urban context, which is becoming increasinglyvisible. Thus, the diversity among the groups makesit possible only to say that what they all have incommon is a marginalized status.

Perspectives, Approaches and StrategiesSimilarities and contrasts are also found in theperspective from which each agency carrying outthe intervention isworking, and the approach. Twoare based on knowledge-science and TK(traditionalknowledge), but the equations between the two arequite different in each of the interventions. In onecase, the approach is science-led, gradually-recognizing TK, and from an initial top-downapproach developing a participatory relationshipbetween the two partners and the two knowledgesystems. It is significant that for this agency themajor goal was initially conservation, andlivelihoods were brought in only because peoplehad to be enrolled for conservation by giving thema stake in it. In the other case, the starting point wasboth TK and local resources, which were taken asthe base on which to empower the people and buildtheir livelihoods, leading to pragmatic strategies.Science, mostly technology, came in only to assistand support this process.

The two women-centred interventions both attemptto support women's development, but with varyingunderstandings of how to deal with a patriarchalsociety and how to use science and technology indoing so. The first has a Gandhian approach,showing how to strengthen and include women asequal partners in development without appearingto compete or struggle with men, and this influencesthe unique strategy adopted; the second critically•analyses two different examples ofwomen-focusedactivities, illustrating almost perfectly the differencebetween the how-to and the how-not-to.

The last two interventions are process-based -participatory and exploratory in nature. There areno fixed targets, but a slow, step by step process,inspired by a vision, with a non-linear approach,and as needed mid-course corrections. The firstgrew out of a feminist critique of the currentparadigm of development, started working withwomen, but then went on to involve the entirecommunity, as it intended. The second is anactivist's vision of a multi-faceted struggle forpeople's rights; also non-linear, using severaldifferent strategies, methods, and tactical changes,but always keeping in the forefront the building ofpeople's capacities, conceived as the mainingredient for success. Interestingly, one is a micro-level effort, and the other an attempt at the macro-level, showing that scale need not alter theapproach. In both, the typical action-ref1ection-action cycle of such praxis- based approaches isclearly revealed and justified.

Learnings and InsightsIt goes without saying that the strategies, entrypoints, methods and outcomes which follow fromthese approaches, as well as the relationships toscience and technology also vary widely among thegroups and raise many questions. Chief amongthese is: how far can these efforts be replicated? Ifeach is rooted in its context, how, if at all, can theybe universalized? What policy changes arerequired? What are the lessons to be learnt?

To begin with, the major obstacles facing themarginalized in achieving better and sustainablelivelihoods have to be confronted. The three mainobstacles are lack of access and control overproductive assets, especially land; lack ofrealization of rights and entitlements; and the lackof support services. These have been powerfullybrought out in several of the case studies. They haveto be simultaneously addressed if sustainablelivelihoods for the excluded are to become a reality.

Land other Productive AssetsLack of title (or long-term tenure) to land, which isoften also essential for building other assets suchas houses, workplaces, and wells or buyingequipment, is perhaps the most basic constraintfacing marginalised people, making livelihoodsuncertain, limited and with no assurance for the


future. This issue came up in all the case studies,though in different forms. It is most sh~rplyarticulated in the case of the displaced, a continuingthreat for the two tribal groups included here andmany others, not to mention the millions displacedin the past by dams, wild life sanctuaries and otherdevelopment projects. Equally disturbing is the fateof the traditionally landless, agricultural labourers,mostly Dalits, who today have at the wost houseplots, except in a few instances, but no land forproductive purposes. For example, the women inthe southern districts who have been organized byCCD to make herbal medicines, have no land oftheir own, but collect herbs from waste lands,village lands, road and canal sides, and untilled orfallow fields in the non-eultivating season. Even asmall change in the laws and rules relating to accessto common property resources could play havocwith their livelihoods. In another case from Kerala,the irony of a well-meaning Government arrangingteaching in agricultural skills for women who haveno access to agricu1turalland cannot be missed.

EntitlementsEqually important are other basic rights andentitlements, some guaranteed by the Constitution,others provided by laws and schemes, others yetto be ensured. Some of these are the right toeducation, the right to work, and the right not to bediscriminated against Many of these are unrealized,for various reasons, by the marginalized. Here amajor constraint is that the machinery fordissemination of information is so weak that oftenpeople do not know or are confused about whatthey are entitled to, and how to go about getting it,as well as being deterred by the costs of getting it;compounded by misinformation deliberatelysupplied by vested interests.

In this context, a major new development is the rightto information, guaranteed by the RTI (Right toInformation Act 2005)which makes it compulsoryfor the Government to respond to queries forinformation within a specified time-frame, thusallowing people to demand information. But evenhere, considerable facilitation is required for theweakest and most marginalized groups even to getthe information, let alone act on it. Only one amongthe catalyst agencies has focused on rights andentitlements and developed long-term strategies for

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Six Case Studies

the struggle, combining it with short-term activitieswhich are supportive; the others focus more onshort-term goals, bargaining for achievements thatwill foster self-confidence, leaving the long-termissues for later.

Support ServicesThe third major handicap is the lack of supportservices, needed at every stage to enable theexcluded groups to make use of the availablefacilities, assets and entitlements. Without suchservices, the marginalized may stumble both inusing productive assets and accessing their basicentitlements fully. This becomes most obvious inthe case of women, who are socially required tocarry the full burden of reproductive work(including both care and household chores), inaddition to productive work. Women have thegreatest need for services like child care, health care,and transport, (even to participate in skill trainingprogrammes, for example) and also for facilities anddevices that offer water, toilets, sanitation, fuel,fodder, and energy at the doorstep, and that canthus save both the time and drudgery involved inprocuring these basic necessities of life. Yet theseissues are rarely prioritized, even by those workingmostly with women, and almost never implementedas links with livelihood programmes.

The focus is usually on more visible kinds of supportservices like skills training, capacity building, credit,financial, organizational and marketing support,which are, significantly, the same forboth sexes,andrelate purely to the productive domain. Women'sspecial needs for support services in thereproductive domain, the lack of which is one ofthe main causes of their marginalization, is not oftenemphasized. One of the case studies from Kerala,for example, relating to women's development, hasdeveloped a comprehensive list of the supportservices needed, of the second type, but has notaddressed the first category. Of course, this may bebecause such services are seen as having to bemostly provided by the state anyway, though thereis an increasing tendency towards privatisation. Theneed for greater state intervention in these areas,both to frame just policies, and to implement them,becomes obvious.

, 3 Chambers (1995)

66

The Role of S&TFrom these studies, it seems that science andtechnology (S&T) has not yet played a verysignificant role in addressing the issue of sustainablelivelihoods for the marginalized. Only one agencyconsciously used scienceboth as an entry point andas a tool to develop effective strategies, andsucceeded by gradually entering into dialogic modewith the community. For all the others, S&Tcamein later, as a response to demand, and to an evolvingand changing demand. They found that there wereno rea"dy-madesolutions; appropriate technologieshad to be searched for, then adapted, before theycould be adopted. There were also problems inestablishing the required linkages, and in thetraining. Formal training models developed in verydifferent situations were also found unsuitable andhad to be adapted before adoption. Put differently,technology is not reaching out to specific needs, oreven looking for them. Rather, it is supply driven.In.the one casewhich started with technical training,(the WIA Programme in Kerala), there werenumerous problems and the results were notcommensurate with either the expenditure or theeffort put in. In other words, technologydevelopment has to become more participatory,developing context-and-need-specific solutions,tailoring itself to client needs and resources, andthe economic, social and ecological environment.

Similarly, technologies developed for large-scaleoperations, as in industry, may not be goodsolutions for the small scale-"intermediate" in thesense of scale at least, is required. Another need isfor S&T to work at up-gradation of traditionaltechnologies, as has been demonstrated by severalinstitutions (not represented among these cases).Finally, S&Tmust follow, not precede, the processof empowerment of excluded groups. For S&T tobecome a humble junior partner of poor, mostlyrural, groups of people may be a revolutionarysuggestion, but that is precisely an insight whichclearly emerges from these studies.

Policy ImplicationsChambers (1995)' defining livelihoods, states thatit requires "tangible assets (resources and stores)intangible assets (claims and access), and


capabilities" Keeping in mind both the plurality ofcontexts and the multiplicity of deprivations, whatpolicies are needed to enable the excluded to accessthese critical inputs? How can laws and policiesbecome flexible in operation, but without infringingon rights? The following guidelines emerge fromthis approach.

o Prioritise the realization of rights toproductive assets for the marginalized. Here. implementation of several just and fairexisting provisions, laws and schemes is asimportant as the development of new ones;both should be done in consultation with thepeople, through their organizations,especially as there are multiple systems ofcustomary rights and community rights.

o Develop new laws and schemes to realizeentitlements and support services. Efficient,thorough and fair implementation of existingentitlements and support services should bethe starting point, followed by new proposalsfor services developed in collaboration withpeople's organisations. This is especiallyimportant for women, who need moresupport services than men in every socialgroup.

o Strengthen and collaborate with autonomouspeople's organization! networks. This isimportant for two purposes: a) to listen toexpressions of people's needs and b )tomonitor implementation collaboratively.Several intermediary organizations, likeelected representatives, NGOs, educationalinstitutions and others can also be of help inboth processes, but the direct participation ofpeople's collectives is the basic requirement.

o Promote networking of all agencies,Governmental and other for smooth deliveryof services and an integrated approach toprogrammes. This is perhaps the mostdifficult objective to achieve and requires themost effort. That would be the real test of agenuine commitment to gender and socialinclusion.

Sensitise S&T Departments and institutionsto sodal and gender needs and issues, in orderto bring these on to their agenda of plans andactivities. To begin with, study of the socialand economic environment and ofdevelopment issues should begin earlyamong would-be scientists, right from thestudent level, and continue with regularorientation sessions, so that scientists do notbecome isolated from the social concerns ofthe people, and develop a perspective on it.At the institutional level, planning, researchand extension activities should beundertaken jointly with other stakeholders,rather than independently. A "social justice"impact assessment tool should be developedand used, just as environmental assessmenttools have been, to assess all new large-scaleprojects and programmes.

o

o Develop policy frameworks which can be9m regularly adapted to changing needs and

circumstances. Several of our current policiesare based on laws passed a century or moreago, and have little relevance to the presentsituation. Regular review of laws and policies,especially those affecting marginalizedgroups and development issues, is essential.Not only are new laws and policies needed,but each should have a built-in provision forreview after a certain number of years.

References.Buvinic, M (2005)SocialExclusion in Latin America in Mayra Buvinic and Jacqueline Mazza ( eds) SocialExclusion and Economic Development John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Chambers, Robert (1995) Poverty and Livehoods: Whose Reality Counts? Environment andUrbanization, 7(1)

National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (2007)Reporton theConditionso/Work andPromotionof Livelihoodsin the UnorganisedSector.Government of India

67

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70 .

ProfilesSiddappa Setty Outreach Coordinator, who has been with ATREE since 1998, has aPh.D. from the University of Mysore. His main primary interests are in sustainablemanagement of forest resources and organic farming, value addition to forest andagriculture produce, poverty alleviation and restoration.

Sushmita Mandal has aMasters in SocialWork from the Tata Institute of SocialSciencesin Mumbai, and is a Senior Research Associate. She is interested in environmenteducation, gender justice, and conflict management.

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE)TheAshoka Trust forResearch in Ecologyand the Environment (ATREE)was establishedin 1996in to achieve three goals: (i)conserve biological diversity and promote sustainabledevelopment, (ii) improve the institutional and policy framework for protection of theenvironment, and (iii) strengthen the capacity of government and non-governmentorganizations to solve environmental problems.

ATREE activities include (i) basic and applied research on conservation,(ii) interdisciplinary work on conservation and environment related issues.(iii) development of innovative models to resolve environmental problems, (iv) policyanalysis and implementation, (v)work with local communities to promote conservationand livelihoods, (vi) collaboration with other researchers (vii) provision of information(viii) environmental education,(ix) scholarship and grant support for conservation andsustainable development, and (x)nurturing of young professionals.

Ashoka Trust for Research in Environment and Ecology659 5th A Main, Hebbal Bangalore 560 024T:080-23533942,E-mail: [email protected]/[email protected]

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Muthu Velayudham hails from a farming family known for its social service. Like-minded friends and a Masters' degree in Social Work motivated him to start CCD.Exposure to both Christian and Hindu charity missions strengthened his resolve, andvarious saints and priests are his role-models. He began rehabilitating street children inMadurai city twenty years ago. He dreams Of initiating a vocational-cum-spiritualtraining centre for rural development for NGOs and COOs.

Covenant Centre for Develeopment (CeD)The Covenant Centre for Development (CCD) is a Madurai-based NGO established in1993,working to reduce rural-urban migration by promoting savings and employmentin villages. It provides technology, organizational training, external finance and marketaccess to Community BasedOrganisations. CCDhas 120staff today with 6geographicalsites across Tamilnadu, and 800Self Help Groups (SHG) organized into 7 federations,

,,


with 16,000members from 296 villages, and collective savings of Rs. 24 million. CCDhas also promoted Kitchen Herbal Gardens in 20,000families and helped them to save50percent of their primary health care expenses. CCD has established four communityenterprises.

Covenant Centre for Development18-e/1, Kennet Cross Road, Ellis Nagar, Madurai 625010Tel: 91452 2607762Fax: 91 4522605789/2300369E.Mail: [email protected]/[email protected]

Sudha Soni, a specialist in environment, capacity building and community-basedorganizations, is now a Consultant on environment-related projects, forest certificationprocesses, gender issues, capacity building, training, research and impact assessmentstudies. She is associated with various institutions, including the GSGSKwhere she iscurrently engaged in organizational strearnlining to improve management.

Gandhi Smarak Grama Seva Kendra (GSGSK)The Gandhi Smarak Grama Seva Kendra (GSGSK)established in 1958,was registeredin 1960 as a non-profit secular, non-political organization, serving all sections of thepeople. Since its inception GSGSKhas been engaged in building a new social order-aclassless and casteless society, according to the vision of Mahatma Gandhi. Theorganization has been working for the betterment of society, promoting sustainablelivelihoods, and has reached more than 80,000families, a population of roughly 3,00,000.

Themission of the GSGSKis to serve the poor and the marginalized rural people throughco~unity based organizations, in order to enhance opportunities for employment,income generation, education, health care and better social status.

Gandhi Smaraka Grama Seva KendramS.L.Puram, Alleppey, KeralaPhone :0478 - 2865493,2861493,Email: [email protected]

Dr. P.S. Geethakutty, presently Professor and Head of the Centre for Gender Studies,National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, was from 2000 till May 2007 thefounding Project Coordinator of the Centre for Studies on Gender Concerns inAgriculture at the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. With a Doctorate mAgricultural Extension, she has been a leader in gender studies of farming systems andin promoting gender mainstrearning in agricultural education, with a focus on technologyfor women.

Centrre for Studies of Gender Concerns in Agriculture (CSGCA)The Centre for Studies on Gender Concerns in Agricultulture of Kerala AgriculturalUniversity in the Thrissur campus is a pioneering effort among the State AgriculturalUniversities in India. Established in 1999,the Centre has made many innovative effortsfor capacity building among scientists, teachers, extension personnel, policy makersand students of agriculture to mainstream gender in agricultural development. Incollaboration with MSSRF,Chennai, it has brought out an undergraduate course moduleand resource book on "engendering" agricultural education. Besides various research

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Six Case Studies

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studies involving gender analysis, the Centre is also working towards promotingtechnological empowerment among rural women.

Centre for Studies on Gender Concerns in AgricultureKerala Agricultural UniversityP.O. 680656,Vellanikkara, Thrissur, KeralaPhone: 914872375611Fax: 914872370019,E-mail: [email protected]

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Vidya Das Vidhya Das began her career in development at the SocialWork & ResearchCentre, where her involvement with women helped her understand issues of inequalityand oppression beyond gender discrimination. Moving on to AGRAGAMEE andtribal Orissa, she has taken the struggle forward, helping women organise for the rightto land and livelihoods. She has written extensively writing on displacement, and thedisruptive impact of industrial and mining projects on human rights and social justice

AGRAGAMEEAGRAGAMEEisa registered society formed twenty-five years agoby a group of activistsand thinkers committed toworking with marginalized and underprivileged communitiesin the tribal districts of Orissa. It has initiated a sustainable development process,combining an issue-based approach with programmes for sociQ;?Conomicdevelopment,to promote people-centred development throughout India. The focus is on integratedapproaches to help tribal communities mobilize for self-sustaining developmentinitiatives. The aim is about social change through awareness, as well as by forminglocal level organisations to ensure social justice, and better the economic conditions ofpoor communities by realising the potential of personal skills and resources.

AGRAGAMEEKashipur - 765015,Rayagada Dist, OrissaPhone: 06852259504,E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

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Nalini Nayak is now the Hon.General Secretary of SEWA-Kerala and has worked forover three decades with coastal communities. Of late, she has been working moreintensively with women, and in developing feminist perspectives as well as praxis withinthe fisheries, and in women's organizations.Philip Mathew, the co-ordinator of SEWA's programme on sustainable alternatives, isinvolved in developing appropriate technologies.Sita Dasan a field organizer of SEWA, works to build awareness and participation.

Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)Kerala is a women's membership-based organization affiliated to the national SEWA trade union. It strives to assurewomen workers their rights with dignity. As an effort to safeguard women's access tqlocal resources and livelihood, SEWA(Karala) has been involved in a local Panchayatin a programme towards developing norms for sustainable settlements.

PROTSAHANDivakaramandiram, Ayurveda College West Lane, Trivandrum 695001,KeralaTel No-0471-2460081,[email protected] / [email protected]

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