INCREASING OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDIGENOUS WOMEN AS

KEY ACTORS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ WELL-BEING: HOW TO STRENGTHEN

TRADITIONAL LIVELIHOOD, COMMUNAL ECONOMY AND

KNOWLEDGE

Anima Pushpa Toppoanimapushpa.toppo@gmail.com

EC member of AIPP & Convener, Jharkhand Jangal Bachao Andolan (India)

Importance of Indigenous peoples

Non Indigenous

Indigenous

LIFE and LIVELIHOOD IS CENTRED IN FOREST

FOREST BASED SOCIETYTraditionally the spiritual, cultural and

economic life of the tribe is largely dependent on flora and fauna

Forest and Tribal Society

Forest and women

The notion of ‘mother earth’ is at the center of the value system

Forest has always been a source of empowerment for women in tribal society’

In the pre-patriarchal era woman enjoyed special status in society as the discoverer of agriculture and as the healer because of her intimacy with forest. In the patriarchal era too neither the state nor the tribal patriarchy could ever fully alienate her from the forest

Forest resources are strictly associated with women

Tribal economy concept

Monetary benefits Which are identified as saleable goods in the

market as per the domain of the traditional knowledge system.

Non-monetary benefitsThose benefits which are cannot be weighed in

monetary balance but necessary for the traditional economy to carry out economic work like, teamwork, family support, sharing and learning, traditional institutions (pancha, madait).

Tribal economy concept

Women find their involvement in both the monetary as well as non monetary economic benefits.

Women are backbone of the traditional knowledge holder.

Possess dearth of knowledge about variety of food availability, technique, practices, which have been learned and shared within family and society, and used as a main strategy during the crisis situation over the years.

Women in traditional economy

Specific Role of Tribal Women

Gathering fruit, roots, herbs, firewood…To perform rituals, and spiritual activities. Agriculture –put out the traditional seeds

from grain house Build and Take care of homeInformation gathering and transferring to the

larger society

Recognition by International bodies

Indigenous knowledge is an invaluable basis for developing adaptation and natural resource management strategies in response to environmental and other forms of change’ (IPCC, 2007).

This recognition was reaffirmed at IPCC’s 32nd Session (IPCC, 2010a) and consideration of traditional and indigenous knowledge was included as a guiding principle for the Cancun Adaptation Framework (CAF) that was adopted by Parties at the 2010 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference in Cancun (UNFCCC, 2010).

Factors for strengthening traditional economy:

Strengthening local institutionCommunity function as a unit under different

institutions like Gram Sabha, women group, youth group, cultural groups and traditional helping groups (Pancha, Madait). These local institutions are nothing but the subsets of knowledge block.

Promoting community own resource management

Community owned resources are usually governed by rules and sanctions framed by local people in order to protect available resources, manage and continuous access to it.

Factors for strengthening traditional economy:

Trust creation by promoting Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

A constant programme and training on IPR should be given to indigenous community so that they can feel proud of their knowledge and safeguarded, which is in fact part of their culture and identity.

Increase women participationIndigenous women are the prime knowledge holder.

Hence, women participation should be increased at different level and institutions, within society so that learning and sharing process get strengthen.

Factors for strengthening traditional economy:

Strengthening Bottom approachOnce the youth and children recognize their

traditional economy then they can further work on strengthening and protection. If children don’t recognize and show interest then with the expiration of knowledge holding generation the whole set of knowledge will be lost.

Factors for strengthening traditional economy:

Implementation of Govt. policy, Act and schemes which supports traditional knowledge system

Traditional economy can also be strengthened by properly implementing Govt. policy, Act, and schemes which are framed towards protection and conservation of traditional economy.

In India, Forest Right Act (FRA) 2006, Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) 1996, are the few which has the provision of protecting traditional economy.