PAPER—9 Module -14

Women and Environmental Movements and Policies in India

A) Personal Details

Role Name Affiliation

Principal Investigator Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University, Allahabad

Paper Coordinator Prof Saraswati Raju Centre for the Study of Regional
Development, JNU, New Delhi

Content Writer/Author (CW) Prof. Sheela Prasad University of Hyderabad

Content Reviewer (CR) Prof Saraswati Raju Centre for the Study of Regional
Development, JNU, New Delhi

Language Editor (LE) Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University, Allahabad

DESCRIPTION OF MODULE

Subject Name Women’s Studies

Paper Name Geography and Women

Module Name/Title Women and Environmental Movements and Policies

in India

Module Id PAPER—9 Module- 14

Pre-requisites Basic understanding of human-nature relationship and

some exposure to feminist perspectives therein.

Objectives This module presents an overview of the role of

women in environmental movements globally, and
more specifically in India. It looks at some major
environmental movements in India that were
spearheaded by women. The module will
emphasise the important contribution of women in
the environmental movement across the world.
The module also critically reviews policies on
environment and emphasises need for policies to
 have a gender perspective.

Women and Environmental Movements and Policies in India

Introduction

“Advancing gender equality, through reversing the various social and economic handicaps
that make women voiceless and powerless, may also be one of the best ways of saving the
environment.”

—Amartya Sen, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics

Women in different parts of the world are actively involved in saving the environment, but
there is still limited recognition of their contribution. If sustainable development is a goal of
the global community, the role of women in achieving this has to be underscored. The
Millennium Development Goals include both, gender equality and environmental
sustainability. Involving women in protecting the environment would help societies develop
the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth’s
resources.

Social movements across the world have drawn attention to a wide range of issues facing
society. The women’s movement and the environmental movement share a close association
as discussed earlier, in the concept of Ecofeminism. With growing evidence of the
environmental crisis, the focus on women as agents of change has intensified. Global
environmental agencies and institutions now increasingly admit to the key role women play
in conservation and protection of environment.

Women and Global Environme ntal Movements

Women’s role in environmental movements differs from the developed to the developing
world. In the developed countries the issues that women are raising are largely related to
pollution and the urban context, while in the developing countries the issues are linked to
livelihood concerns in rural areas.

Globally, there are many examples of women writing/ fighting to save the environment. One
of the first well known environmentalists was Rachel Carson, whose concern for the
environment was voiced in her seminal book, ‘Silent Spring’ in 1962. Carson warned about
the dangers of using chemical pesticides, particularly DDT, as it has serious effects on human
health. Many see Carson as the mother of the environmental movement through the questions
she raised in her book. Carson paved the way for women to come together to protect the
environment. Another strong voice was that of Elinor Ostrom who pointed out that depriving
communities of the access to natural resources is not the most efficient way of managing our
global inheritance. In her book ‘Governing the Commons’ (1990) she gave the world a map
to a more just and sustainable way of managing resources through collective action.

Attempts to save the environment have been made by a wide range of women, from
‘housewives’ to ‘scientists’. In 1978, a 27 year old housewife Lois Gibbs discovered that her
child was attending an elementary school built next to a 20,000 ton, toxic-chemical dump in
Niagara Falls, New York. Desperate to do something about it, she organized her neighbours
into the Love Canal Homeowners Association and a movement was born (see box below). In
December 1997, a 23-year-old woman named Julia “Butterfly” Hill climbed a 55-meter (180
foot) tall California Coast Redwood tree. Her aim was to prevent the destruction of the tree
and of the forest where it had grown. She stayed on the tree for two years and came down in
December 1999. This two year long protest action by one woman saved the tall Redwoods in
the California forest.

Brazil is a country rich in biological diversity, but also high in habitat destruction. One-third
of the world's forests lie in Brazil. More than a fifth of the world's freshwater supply is in
Brazil's rivers. Brazil boasts the world's largest river, the Amazon, and the world's largest
tropical forest, the Amazon forest. The destruction of forests in Brazil has seen a rise in
environmental movements. Between 1990 and 2009, Brazil’s Federal government created 89
extractive and sustainable development reserves in Amazonia, encompassing 24 million
hectares. The conceptual underpinning of these reserves – sustainable and multiple- use forest
management – are daily put into practice by thousands of rural Amazonian women. The
Secretariat of Women Extractivists of CNS helped to transform women’s roles in resource
management. They helped women work across sectors, in cultivation of ties with the State,
capacity building, thus providing a strong foundation for an increasing role of Amazonian
women to promote sustainable forest management and conservation. Another example of a
women environmentalist in Brazil is of Marina Silva, a colleague of Chico Mendes, who was
assassinated for defending the Amazon environment. Marina Silva continues the fight to save
the Amazon forests.

In Asia, women are active in environmental movements related to a range of issues. Rural
peasant women in Thailand as well as in other countries, have contributed in big ways to
movements to defend the environment and natural resources. Forests in Thailand declined
from 53% in 1961 to 29% in 1985. A large part in restoring forests through afforestation, was
played by peasant Thai women. Dhamma Rakhsa Reforestation Program in Thailand, saw
women restoring forests and developing new sources of income linked to reforestation and
sustainable agriculture. Thai women are also coming together to protest against eucalyptus
plantations and shrimp cultivation.

In China, Dai Qing a journalist, has been part of a moveme nt protesting the Three Gorges
Dam Project on the Yangtze river, one of the largest dam projects in the world. She has been
imprisoned for her writings against the dam. Japanese women have been part of local
movements against pollution because of their concern for the health of their families,
especially for their children. Japanese women also played a key role in the campaign against
mercury poisoning by the Chisso Corporation (a fertilizer company) in Minamata (Kyushu)
because most men in that region were on the Chisso payroll and therefore could not challenge
the company without endangering their livelihood. The Minimata campaign in the 60s
exposed the dangers of mercury poisoning and forced industries to treat effluents before
releasing them into seas, rivers and lakes.
One of the most well known environmental movements globally and in Africa is the Green
Belt movement. This is an indigenous grassroots non- governmental organization based in
Nairobi, Kenya that takes a holistic approach to development by focusing on environmental
conservation, community development and capacity building. The Green Belt Movement was
founded by Wangari Maathai in 1977 to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who
reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to
walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. The movement encouraged the
women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater,
provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work. The Green
Belt Movement drew some of its inspiration from the Chipko movement of India. Wangari
Maathai its founder was awarded in 1986 the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004 she
became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Women’s Movements in India

Environmental movements in India though of recent origin, have intensified in the last few
decades and are raising a wide range of questions. Harsh Se thi (a leading scholar on
environmental issues) divides the environmental struggles in India, into five categories: (1)
forest based—forest policy, use of forest resources, etc.; (2) land use— industrialisation and
loss of agriculture and, indiscriminate popularisation of chemical inputs resulting in
degradation of land and waterlogging, exploitation of mineral resources; (3) against big dams
involving the problem of involuntary displacement of tribals and non-tribals residing in the
upstream of the river, environmental degradation including destruction of forests; (4) against
pollution created by industries; and (5) against overexploitation of marine resources.
Movements in India are struggles of the poor – of the dispossessed, the marginalized, the
victims of discrimination, Dalits, women, tribals and the small and landless farmers. Most
movements are concerned with conserving natural resources to sustain livelihoods. One of
the first such ecological movements was that from Champaran district of Bihar in 1917 where
people protested against the indigo plantations that were encouraged by the British. Mahatma
Gandhi took up the protests and finally the plantations were abolished. Another well-known
Gandhian and political movement in the colonial period, was the Salt Satyagraha which
fought for people’s access to the common resources of salt pans that were being denied to
them. Women began manufacturing and selling salt throughout India. Usha Mehta, an early
Gandhian activist, remarked that "Even our old aunts and great-aunts and grandmothers used
to bring pitchers of salt water to their houses and manufacture illegal salt. And then they
would shout at the top of their voices: 'We have broken the salt law!” (Wikipedia). In both
these movements women played a participative and supportive role.
 Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu in the Salt Satyagraha

These initial movements saw a large number of women participating, but they were largely
urban women. It was only from the 1970s that rural women spearheaded the environmental
movements. In rural India, traditionally, women have been responsible for subsistence and
survival for water, food, fuel, fodder and habitat. Women's position in the society is governed
by the norms of a patriarchal system of social organization. Typically, men must prepare the
land for cultivation because there are taboos associated with women operating the plough.
Thus, women are never themselves able to initiate the process of cultivating; they must
depend on men. Men also own the land, as property among is generally transmitted
patrilineally. The labour required to raise crops is, however, almost entirely supplied by
women. Women do the planting, weeding and harvesting and are the keepers of biodiversity.
Women are more concerned with the immediate, local micro levels of everyday life and
hence feel the impact of a degraded environment more.

Women in India are largely visible in the movements against deforestation and in conserving
water. One of the earliest recorded encounters of women protecting their environment can be
traced back to 1731 among the Bishnois, who lived in the scrub forests of Rajasthan, near
Jodhpur. Amrita Bai of Khejaralli village sacrificed her life for saving the Khejri trees of her
village that the Bishnois hold as sacred. In order to save the trees, she embraced the trees, and
lost her life as did 363 others from among the Bishnois. As a result the forest was spared due
to the strong resistance of the villagers. Amrita Bai and her band of women Bishnois can be
considered the first women environmentalists of the world. This movement started by Amrita
Bai in 1731 provided the inspiration for Bachni Devi and Gauri Devi of Uttar Pradesh in the
Chipko movement of the 1972.

Chipko movement
The emergence of the modern Indian environmental movement can perhaps be dated
to 1972, the year the Chipko movement began. The Terai region of Uttarakhand in the
Himalayan foothills was a dense forest area that caught the eyes of the timber merchants.
Large scale deforestation followed commercial forestry, that saw the hills denuded resulting
in loss of top soil and occurrence of landslides and floods. Peasant women living in these
areas saw their lives getting harder as it took them much longer to collect the daily needs of
fuelwood, fodder and water. Over a period of time these women were able to connect the loss
of the forests with the changes in their lives. Thus was Chipko born with Bachni Devi and
Gauri Devi leading the protests.
 The movement began in Chamoli district and spread throughout the Uttarakhand Himalayas
by the end of the decade. Rural women came together to save their forests by hugging the
trees when the contractors came to fell them. One of Chipko's most salient features was the
voluntary mass participation of female villagers. As the backbone of Uttarakhand's Agrarian
economy, women were most directly affected by environmental degradation
and deforestation, and thus related to the issues of conservation most easily. Women are seen
as more sensitive to forests because they have a more direct relationship with them in these
hill areas. The Chipko women were joined by Sunderlal Bahuguna and Chandi Prasad Bhat
who gave the movement a direction and publicity at the natio nal level.

The Chipko Movement was not a movement just to save forests, rather, it was a movement,
concerned with also the maintenance of the traditional ecological balance in the fragile Terai
region, where hill people have traditionally enjoyed a positive relationship with their
environment. The collective mobilization of women for the cause of preserving forests has
raised issues about the present model of development that encouraged commercial forestry in
the hill regions. The impact of Chipko movement did not remain confined within the
Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. The movement impacted other movements across the
country to save forests. The Appiko movement of the 1980s, to save forests in the Uttara
Kannada region of Karnataka was inspired by the Chipko movement. The Appiko Andolan
brought out a new awareness of environmental conservation in southern India and saw a large
number of rural women participating. In 1950, Uttara Kannada district forest covered more
than 81 per cent of its geographical area. With development, major industries like pulp and
paper mill, a plywood factory and a chain of hydroelectric dams sprouted in the area. These
industries overexploited the forest resources, and the dams submerged huge- forest and
agricultural areas. By 1980 the forest had shrunk to about 25 per cent of the district’s area .
The Appiko Movement was a response to this crisis and tries to save the Western Ghats.

Most movements have realized the importance of women in environmental protection after
the Chipko movement. Important movements that are largely driven by women are Deccan
Development Society in Telangana started in the year 1983 that works in sustainable
agriculture; Self- Employed Women's Association (SEWA) of India, a collective of over two
million poor women, working to adopt small-scale clean technologies, such as clean cook
stoves and solar lanterns; Navadanya which means ‘nine seeds’ focuses on biodiversity and
traditional seed banks. All these are women centred movements for the protection of
environment, livelihoods and for biological and cultural diversity.
The Deccan Development society is projecting a working model for the people
oriented participative development in the areas of food security, ecological
agriculture, and alternate education. The society largely works with women’s
collectives or Sanghas. It is also trying to reverse the historical process of
degradation of the environment and people's livelihood system in this semi-arid
region through a string of land related activities such as Perma-culture, Community
Grain Bank, Community Gene Fund, Community Green Fund and Collective
Cultivation through land Lease etc. The Society is trying to reclaim the people's
knowledge in the area of health and agriculture.

SEWA in Gujarat, involves and trains women in water harvesting, building capacity to
manage and maintain water systems and, educating and creating awareness. Through the
establishment of women’s collectives at the community level, SEWA could help
communities gain access to existing government programmes. Grassroots women (200,000)
in over 500 villages of semi- arid regions of Gujarat are playing a leading role in water
campaign activities such as revival of traditional water sources (village and farm ponds),
rainwater harvesting at household and community level, watershed development and
maintenance of state-owned hand pumps and pipe lines. Vandana Shiva founded Navadanya
in 1982 to encourage traditional farming practices. Navadanya is an organisation promoting
biodiversity conservation and organic farming. The organisation has not only helped create
markets for farmers, but also promoted quality organic food for consumers.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA)

One of India’s longest environmental struggles is the NBA, that started in the 1985 and
continues to this day. The NBA is India’s largest mass movement protesting against the
construction of huge dams on the Narmada river, the largest river flowing into the Arabian
Sea. The proposed Sardar Sarovar Dam and Narmada Sagar will displace more than 250,000
people, submerge over 25 villages and forests. While the anti- dam movement began by
protests from small farmers and adivasis spread across Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh, it got a momentum with the coming of Medha Patkar. She formed the NBA in
1989, and has been involved since in the struggles of the people to stall the dam. Under
Medha Patkar, the NBA uses Gandhian means to protest, that are non-violent and raises
larger questions of the ills of modern development.
The NBA questions India’s track record on resettlement of displaced people since
independence. Displacement is gendered and women are the worst hit in such situations. Any
displacement reinforces the existing situation of women’s lack of ownership of land and
property. Men are treated as heads of household and all compensation is given to them. The
impact of displacement adversely affects women with loss of traditional sources of
livelihood, and further marginalizes them in the labour force. Critiques of development led
displacement inform the NBA and give it wide publicity not only in India but also globally.

Women Environmentalists

Some well known Indian women environmentalists are :

 Amrita Devi -- Bishnois Struggle to save Khejri tree

 Bachni Devi and Gaura Devi -- Chipko movement
 Medha Patkar -- NBA
 Sunita Narain -- Centre for Science and Environment
 Vandana Shiva – Activist, Navadanya
 Aruna Roy – Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)
 Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla – Bhopal Gas Tragedy
 Maneka Gandhi – Animal Rights activist; Minister in BJP Govt.
 Sugatha Kumari – Poet; Silent Valley
 And many more…….

Environmental Policies and Women

The gendering of social processes and institutions, and the dominance of values, attitudes and
behaviours culturally defined as masculine, influence significantly the conceptualization of
environmental problems and the formulation of policies designed to address them.
Understanding women’s and men’s relationships to the environment plays an important role
in framing policies for more sustainable use of natural resources. We need to explore the
complex linkages and intersections of gender with policy, politics, environmental exploitation
and sustainable resource use globally. Gender sensitive policies are those that seek to achieve
environmental outcomes while explicitly taking into account both men’s and women’s
opinions, needs, and interests.

There is now available an Environment Gender Index (EGI) that ranks countries on how they
are translating gender and environment mandates into national policy and planning. The
Scandinavian countries perform very well with high scores of EGI, suggesting an integration
of gender concerns into environment policies. Out of 72 countries that were ranked on EGI,
India is ranked 46. In the 1980s, governments and development agencies became much more
aware of the need to consider gender issues in their environmental and natura l resource
management programmes. Policy makers first came to appreciate that women 'play an
essential role in the management of natural resources, including soil, water, forests and
energy...and often have a profound traditional and contemporary knowledge of the natural
world around them'. (World Bank, 1991). While global environmental policies and projects
reflect this change, in India a gender perspective still does not inform policy in meaningful
ways.

Most environmental policies in India perceive women as either saviours, as victims and as the
problem—each of which has differing policy implications. Donor agencies and governments
began to recognise women as managing their environment on a daily basis, with different
needs of resources from men. Social forestry schemes have been redesigned, recognising the
diverse uses of tree products and different species preferences of men and women: men
typically want timber for construction and fencing, while women need fodder and fuelwood.
In water and sanitation activities, women's participation on water committees or in
maintaining facilities is becoming the rule rather than the exception. Wasteland development
projects in India (such as the Bankora projects in West Bengal) have successfully supported
women's group efforts to regenerate forest and improve land productivity. They also build on
women's greater use rights over common property than on privatised lands. Policies in
community forestry, social forestry, water management and sustainable agriculture are
specifically directed at women.

Such understandings have resulted in policies on environment in India acknowledging the

contribution of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendment Act in India has given women 33%
reservation in decision making bodies in both rura l and urban areas. Panchayats, Vana
Samarakshana Samitis, Water Users Associations all now see women members. The Self
Help Groups (SHGs) that are spread all over the country provide another large platform for
implementing policies on environment. The empo werment of women that has been a critical
part of development discourse in recent decades in India, has drawn attention to the need for
gender sensitive policies.
Initiatives to incorporate a gender perspective into environmental policies andprograms in
India, need to focus on first building a data base on sex disaggregated data. Data on gender
inequalities needs to improve and be available, for policies to then take note. Women have to
be more visible in decision making and green governance, through both representation and
participation. As Bina Agarwal argues, environmental policies do not succeed as women are
not seen as key partners in green governance.

There is growing realization that for policies to do better in the developing world they need to
adopt a participatory approach. In this direction, NGOs play an important role in acting as
pressure groups in the framing and implementation of policies, and in facilitating women’s
participation in deeply stratified societies. Many public policies are now decentralized to
enable participation by local stakeholders. Most environmental policies encourage
participation by local women as they recognize this helps proper implementation. But studies
show that women continue to be invisible in decision making, thus constraining the
functioning of participatory environmental policy. Efforts to include women in environmental
policy in more engaging ways need to be conceptualised in the Indian context, keeping in
mind the levels of social stratification that exist in our society.

Some major policies and programs on environment and their implications for women are
briefly outlined.

 The National Environment Policy (2006) recognises that a diverse developing society
such as ours provides numerous challenges in the economic, social, political, cultural,
and environmental arenas. All of these coalesce in the dominant imperative of
alleviation of mass poverty, reckoned in the multiple dimensions of livelihood
security, health care, education, empowerment of the disadvantaged, and elimination
of gender disparities.
 National Forest Policy 1988 and Joint Forest Management (JFM) program of the
1990s mandated that women comprise 33% of the membership of the Va na
Samarakshana Samitis. This inclusion of women to a large extent explains the success
of the program in different states. The logic behind its creation was that the problem
of deforestation could be better handled if the state Forest Departments worked o ut
joint management agreements with local communities to reforest degraded forest
 Biodiversity Act 2002 – sees important role for women as stakeholders and custodians
of traditional knowledge. Historically, women have been the seed keepers in farming
communities.
 Water harvesting programs across India see more women participants working in
partnership with the state and NGOs. Water has gender dimensions. Women and men
derive different benefits from its availability, use and management. Women were
active participants in the Sukhomajri village in Shivalik range of the Himalaya in
Haryana that earned nation-wide acclaim for the way in which they had utilised their
forests and water to their benefit. When women are involved in water management
decisions the community benefits. Gujarat Water Policy (2002) too mentions that
women are the most interested users of rural water supply, domestic urban water
consumption, in health and sanitation issues as well as agricultural production and
sees a crucial role for grassroots women in local water management.
 Renewable energy policies in rural areas address women in households with biogas
plants and solar cookers / panels. Poor women need to benefit from clean and green
cooking energy. Policymakers need to recognize the importance of women in the
 energy sector and to engage them directly in policy making and project design.
Energy policies and programmes that recognize women’s work and roles in the
energy sector, can be effective in promoting access to sustainable energy solutions.

Summary

This module has discussed the role of women in environmental movements, particularly in
India. It is evident that India has a long history of the involvement of women in
environmental causes. In fact, the Chipko movement spearheaded many such movements by
women to save the forests, like Green Belt in Kenya, Save the Rainforest in the Amazon and
Appiko in the Western Ghats. Women have a stake in conserving environment as they
depend on it not just for livelihood but also for daily needs o f the household (water, fuelwood
and fodder).

Gender inequality exists quite sharply in India, as evident from the fact that ownership of
land and property is largely with men. Women in movements are fighting to correct this
imbalance. Women are not just victims, but also key agents of change in environmental
issues. The exclusion of women in policies is related to the gender politics that privilege men
and make women invisible. This is now changing slowly with the mandatory representation
of women in local government bodies that has seen a surge in membership of grassroots
women. Women now collectively manage common resources, whether it is forests,
grasslands, energy, seeds, water, soil or sustainable agriculture. Women can be key players
in the move towards a more sustainable future and policy makers need to realise this. There
needs to be shift from a mere focus on women as an object of policy, to a more nuanced
engagement with gender in the framing of any policy.

References :

Agarwal, B. (2010)Gender and Green Governance: The Political Economy of Women's Presence
Within and Beyond Community Forestry. OUP
Agarwal, B. (2000). Conceptualizing environmental collective action: Why gender matters.
Cambridge Journal of Economics 24(3): 283–310

Bandyopadhyay, J. (1999) ‘Chipko Movement: Of Floated Myths and Flouted Realities’, Economic
and Political Weekly April 10

Baviskar, A. (1995) In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada
Valley. OUP

Gupte, M. (2004) ‘Participation in a Gendered Environment: The Case of Community Forestry in

India’ Human Ecology, Vol. 32, No. 3, June, pp.365-382

Mies, M. and Shiva, V.(1993) Ecofeminism. Fernwood Publications

Shiva, V. (1991) Ecology And The Politics Of Survival, Sage publications, New Delhi.