Adivasi-Dalit Women’s Federation
Dalit and Adivasi women’s Struggle against Oppression and Marginalization
Dalit and Adivasi women contribute significantly to the development of the community, particularly in rural areas. Their contributions are seldom acknowledged and the question of their rights and priorities are never important on ground, nor are they sufficiently addressed in legal frameworks, national and local policies, budgets as well as in any other strategies of the government. The multiple patterns of deprivation, gender-based stereotypes, discrimination and oppression deny them equal rights, opportunities, resources and services. Historically caste system has dominated the socio-cultural, economic and political framework of Indian life. This has also impacted the Adivasi domains of the country.
Women in the rural areas of Odisha consistently face marginalization in access and control over resources, particularly the Adivasi and Dalit women. Various developmental projects along with dominant socio-cultural, economic and societal changes have eroded the spaces that these indigenous women enjoyed within the social settings. They are systematically and strategically pushed to the fringe either as individuals or groups by the never ending oppression they face from myriad fronts, structural, societal, political exclusion, marginalization, isolation, poverty, and violence, Caste, class, ethnicity, and other identities easily get aligned with the gender disparity based on the value chain constructs of several scriptures of religions. This separates or cuts them off from the rest of the society and therefore their participation is the least counted & most minimal.
These oppressed and marginalized women have encountered this state of affairs in all parts of India since times immemorial. Such background of oppression have led to situations where Dalit and Adivasi women across Odisha are coming out, in order to seek small yet important spaces to resist. Such associations are a reflection of the livid experiences where they break the stigmatization by means of resistance in the struggles for justice and rights. Therefore, the women are turning out to be political actors and are redefining the gender roles in multiple ways. Through their physical participation in movements of resistance against usurpation of natural resources such as land, water, forest and hills, and also by challenging the social dogmas of hierarchies they have proven this trend time and again. This type and pattern of resistance in the quest of justice is a natural response of both Dalit & Adivasi women.
In many ways this radical politics by women living on the margins is diametrically opposite to that of the men in similar movements. The battles of these women within and without the group has actually punctured the pompous claims of masculinity and patriarchy that has been present inside and outside many resistance movements. Further, such resistances to the domination and rejection of patronizing overtures do not find essential space within the classical feminist/ women’s movements and thus the battle to align and find solidarity with other upper caste and urban womenfolk is too rare and often gets contested in the theoretical debates of feminist constructs. It would not be out of place to state that these unwritten and unspoken philosophical and ideological postulations have the strong base of identity and therefore they are different in their tenor and character. It is this particular context that calls for organized mobilization of such womenfolk across rural Odisha where the objective is to fight for a change in the structure and system.
Yet the Dream is Not Dead!
Despite the difficult context and different mechanism of resistance from multiple sections, the dream of a better humane society has not been extinguished by far. Indigenous people have a history of being accommodative, non-dominant, not succumbing to pressures and being able to strike a balance between nature and human and geocentric culture. They are therefore children of the soil and the first owners of land. Through a series of traditional and cultural mechanism they developed a symbiotic relationship with nature. Their history, tradition and culture view human labour as dignified engagement of learning, unlearning, discovering, rediscovering and evolving wisdom. They produce wealth that the mechanism of caste and class views as a commodity to be consumed and therefore loots for the market. In this rush of events, even the men has turned against the women.
For a different dream, one needs to take inspiration from our long history, ancestral spirits and rich culture for future engagement. Hence it is the visualization of a different dream from that of the mainstream ones. It consists of a value chain for women within and outside with equal rights, respect and violence free. It is the visualization of the process for a just, egalitarian, peaceful, fraternal and harmonious world. This is the creation of a society free from the despaired bindings of caste, class, religion, race, ethnicity and above all gender.
For the women it would be a battle against & beyond the many layers of social oppression, political exploitation, economic deprivation, cultural domination, gender discrimination, class isolation, and deliberate exclusion. A society beyond is the premises of the dream. The thrust is to give space and respect to diversity and promote the culture of love, compassion, collectivism and sustainability with specific focus on constitutional values of a socialist, secular, democratic and decentralized norms.
The Vision
The larger and long-term vision is to create a system and space for women based on participation, collectivism and sustainability – where JUSTICE, LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY prevail beyond all rhetoric of differences.
The Mission
To mobilize and organize the indigenous women (both Dalit and Adivasis) into a strong organized federative structure across Odisha in the initial phase and extending it to other parts of India at a later stage.
The Issues and Question for Engagement
- Violence and legislative reforms
- Participation in governance
- Prevalence of discrimination and violence
- Caste exclusion and violence
- Access to public spaces
- Access to justice
- Access to legitimate rights
- Access to rights over land, water, forests and other resources
- Questions of internal and external patriarchy
- Educational Status
- Health Status
- Financial Stability and Sustainability
- Political Status
- Forms of Oppression
The Key Objectives
- Ensure constitutional, legal, political, social, cultural, religious, educational, economic and customary rights of Dalit and Adivasi women
- Access to justice and rights through empowerment of Dalit-Adivasi women towards self-sufficiency and self-sustainable economy
- Ensure indigenous women rights in ethnic, linguistic and regional autonomous bodies through participation, organization building and capacity development
- Need assessment of Dalit-Adivasi women keeping in view the socio-cultural settings
- Consistent research on the unique cultural problems and the need to find a solution
- Networking the different village level organizations into a mass federation of Dalit-Adivasi women at the state level.
- Initiate a process of Dalit-Adivasi women cooperatives in order to ensure the self-sufficiency and financial stability through entrepreneurial initiatives and engagements.
- Engaging in vocational training to our targeted women based on their interest, expertise and entrepreneurial value.
- Ensure accountability and transparency right from the village level organization to the federative structure.
Core Strategy
Community Participation: Community participation of the women as a collective by building community organizations from village to state level. Assumedly the Dalit and Adivasi women as a whole would convert and converge into a community in order to take the responsibility for justice, rights, peace, welfare, happiness, capacitation, development, harmony and mutuality. Thus this is an active process whereby this community would eventually increase in number and exercise control over resources and institutions. At the community level there are two possible approaches of participation a) overall development of the community through women participation and leadership and b) evolution of a new level of community conscientization.
Collectivism: Collectivism has been the strong philosophical and ideological proposition on which the Dalit-Adivasi history has been founded on. It is a value system where individual interests are kept aside and the community (common) interest comes to the centre. It turns out to be the moral concern of the oppressed and marginalized sections in any society which has a different dream and a new vision to grow. This solid cultural element would lay the fundamentals of upholding the participation in decision making and also to ensure that no-one is being excluded from accessing the common good. Thus it is also the basics of governance where the notion of governance is not to exercise power over others, rather it is to reduce oneself so as to give and make space for all. Thus the accommodative history would reverse back and turn out to be the pillar of community institutions and all other institutions of power and governance.
This collectivism has been at stake in the whirlwind of individualism which only the women could bring back.
Sustainability: Sustainability is another key strategy which involves multiple components such as the sustainability of the process, rights, collectivism, community participation, leadership and the socio-cultural, economic and political changes such an exercise would bring in. The protection of basic rights and sustainability of it are the two sides of the same coin. Empowerment is a mechanism whereby the existing citadels of power are challenged and a new mechanism of power evolves, but it is difficult to hold on the last straw of egalitarianism if its sustainability is at stake. Thus, engaging in participatory collectivism and upholding its basic principles at each stage of crisis management/problem solving remains the most important critical element in ensuring sustainability.
Financial stability and livelihood sustainability of the women’s collective and the federation is utmost important too. As such the livelihood questions of indigenous people in Odisha have been under severe erosion in the past three decades and hence a combination of self-sufficient livelihood security along with the questions of justice and rights would surface the fore. Thus a new format of organizational and community sustainability would evolve out of this process. A gender responsive sustainability beyond the extends of social exclusion, caste disparity, cultural inequalities, the cycles of poverty, the multiple formats of violence, psycho-emotional damages and economic stability are essential characteristic of a sustainable process.