This Land is your Land! - India
Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me,
Was a great big sign that said private property
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing
This land was made for you and me.
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When Pete Seeger invoked old Woody Guthrie’s poem in his article that appeared in the US Land reform magazine in 1974, he was obviously referring to the growing menace of private control on forest land across America. The song also went onto become the anthem for many land rights movements across the world. Pete’s version of it at 2009 Presidential Inaugural Concert is my favourite.
In India too, on the 13th of December 1980, when the Forest Conservation Act came about, what it did were two things;
(1) Overnight, it turned the centuries old inhabitants of forest into squatters on their own land.
(2) It created a new form of property appropriation that was never heard before.
The last two decades, if you look at it closely, have been about turning land into either private property or government property. The concept of common land has taken a back seat, says Smita Gupta of AIDWA and Adivasi Adhikar Rashtra Manch.
Ms. Gupta is right.
The decades she was referring to are filled with stories of government(s), in their uncontained urge to industrialise the country side, handing over common property land to corporations and companies, each for a song.
The poorest in this country and their livestock depend extensively on common grazing land and forest for their subsistence and livelihood. When commons disappear, we are essentially driving an already vulnerable population beyond the cliff’s edge. Women and children become most vulnerable to exploitation in such a scenario.
“In less than 24 hours, 23% of India’s Forest cover went to the Forest Department, turning the adivasis away from their livelihood sources”, she added while speaking at the recently concluded two day conference on Women & Land Rights, held at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
The conference, orgnaised by ActionAId India, Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies of JNU, Agrarian South Network, TCOE and CARES, focussed on the issues of land ownership by women and their identity as farmers, from around the world.
The agrarian crisis in India, as it stands today, is a very complex issue and is like a ticking time bomb. At one level, it is of-course about the expelled peasant class, the landless and the small and marginal farmers, being thrust out of the country side and compelled to migrate into the cities, after a series of highly unviable and ecologically disastrous methods of agriculture being forced upon them. The staggering numbers of farmers suicides since 1995 ( over 280,000) and the prevalence of bonded labour are witness to the fact that rising input costs and failing climate are either pushing the peasants towards suicide or into a migration out of utter distress and despair.
Now within this, the situation of women labourers and farmers become further convoluted, thanks to an all prevalent patriarchy that fails to recognise women as farmers and also their independent right to own land. This is despite her often thankless contribution in producing seedlings, sawing, weeding, harvesting etc.
NSSO, 69th round data points us to the fact that in rural areas nearly 62.8% of working women quote agriculture as their primary occupation while the share is 43.6% among men.
An Oxfam report published in October 2013, reveals that Kerala has not more than 14% of its agricultural land operated and owned by women and that is the best case scenario in this country!
A land title in the name of a woman would mean greater independence for her, easier access to credit and certain linkages to government schemes. Denial of that right would mean a life trudged in hard labour with paltry or no wages and a perpetual dependency on others.
The conference presented an opportunity to share experiences and theories of social movements and peasant unions from around the world in addressing the issue of women’s land ownership.
Mercia Andrews from Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) of South Africa was also critical of the social movements across the world, particularly in her country and Southern Africa.
“Women played a very important role in South Africa’s liberation struggle, yet the society has been very silent on issues pertaining to the rights of women and girls. Despite many social movements having women members in large numbers, I see the leadership still in the hands of men. Obviously the question of women and her right to land had taken a back seat.” she says.
Things are changing though, she adds.
“In 2009 we formed the Rural Women’s Assembly comprising of women labourers and farmers from 8 countries of Southern Africa and today they are presenting to us an alternative model to the dominant forms of agriculture.”
She was referring to the collectives of women farmers formed in these countries who are now making their voices heard at COP 17 and through Maputo Declaration among many other.
Roma, from the All India Union of Forest Working People pointed at the fact that a woman is often looked at through the prism of a family. Any reference to her right to own property, whether it’s (inherited, bought or marital), is entertained if she is part of a family. Issues of abandonment, or widowhood or just being single are all conveniently ignored.
There is little or no talk about her independent rights, she says. She also added that while one would support ideas of local collectives and cooperatives, it is also important to not overlook the entrenched patriarchy within these systems.
“It is important to be self-critical, if the questions of women’s access to land have to proceed forward tangibly”, emphasised Roma. Her reference was also to the point raised by Ms. Gupta earlier, wherein she talked about how joint-titles being issued have become a sort of a formula for most Civil Society and State Committees by conveniently side-stepping on the issue of a woman’s independent right to land.
Kalyani Minj, an Oran Tribal farmer from Sundargarh district of Odisha, who was part of a long standing struggle to gain access to Community forest land under the Forest Rights Act, was present at the conference with her two year old daughter. She spoke extensively about Olivia Farmers Collective, of which she is a member and that proved the ecological and economical viability of traditional methods of farming.
Among the Oran, Munda and Khadia tribes of Sundargarh, they practise a cooperative system of working called Pancha, wherein male members of five households would get together to level and terrace the sloppy land and creating water harvesting structures to irrigate their land. So while the men were involved in land development work, the women got together with a plan to start cultivation.
“The pressure on us was always to cultivate hybrid crops. We knew it as a deviation from our traditional methods and that it could spoil the soil”, she said.
The women shifted the focus onto multi-cropping patterns involving Brinjals, and leguminous varieties like Cow-peas and Beans. These crops planted in rows also provided nitrogen to the inter crops. They also relied on organic pesticides like fermented cow-dung, bitter leaves etc and relying on bacteria culture. They ended up growing 12 different types of food crops.
Today the co-operative has become a crucial source of livelihood for the families in the area. “It provides for our diet and nutritional needs and also earns us a handsome income”, she says holding her child close to herself.
Later in the day Roma, tells the audience that the struggle for women’s land rights cannot be fought effectively without a strong alliance – globally and nationally.
“The proponents of private property are too powerful and they can only be dealt with effectively if the women’s rights movement and other formations come together on all these questions. What this conference presents to us are clear and viable alternatives to the current dominant methods of agriculture. These stories need to travel, so that the State is forced to take note of it and scale it up.”
The struggle for land and the question of caste, class and gender all are based on frameworks of food sovereignty that people like Kalyani Minj has shown us. One in which we reject the idea of turning food into a commodity. One in where we value, support and respect the contributions and rights of women, men, small scale farmers, pastoralists, artisanal fishers, forest dwellers, indigenous people, agricultural and fisheries workers, including migrants who cultivate harvest and process food.
Women’s right to land is a natural ally of that framework. It is a long road ahead, yet what keeps all these women going is hope.
“Patriarchy might be the most enduring forms of discrimination ever, but that will not deter us from claiming what is rightfully ours”, exclaims Ms. Gupta to a loud round of applause.
People’s struggles across the world are based on optimism and hope. As a witness to these messages of resilience and hope, I must therefore end this note with Woody’s optimism scripted back in 1944.
When the sun comes shining and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting
This land was made for you and me.
Woman, this land is your land.
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Read the original article here
Source Photo : Florian Lang/Action Aid
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