Caste

Citation:

K.C., Luna, and Gemma Van Der Haar. 2019. "Living Maoist Gender Ideology: Experiences of Women Ex-combatants in Nepal." International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (3): 434-53.

Authors: Luna K.C., Gemma Van Der Haar

Abstract:

Studies of women’s participation in civil conflict as armed combatants have attributed diverse motivations to such participation and examined the implications of participation for women’s empowerment in the aftermath. The authors contribute to these studies through an in-depth analysis of female combatants’ struggles for equality and empowerment during and after Nepal’s decade-long Maoist conflict. Scholars have argued that the emphasis of Maoist ideology in Nepal on the emancipation of women and on ending gender discrimination attracted a large number of women to the cause. Based on narratives of Maoist female ex-combatants, the authors investigate women’s engagement with Maoist ideology during and after the conflict. These narratives reveal that despite discourses of gender equality in Nepal’s Maoist struggle, promises around gender equality remain unkept in the period after the war. A reintegration program has offered women ex-combatants few options and has pushed women back into traditional gender roles. Struggles continue in this terrain. Incorporating intersectionality, the paper highlights how women ex-combatants’ gender identities intersect with caste and other social locations to produce diverse challenges for their lives.

Keywords: Maoist armed conflict, gender ideology, empowerment, women ex-combatants, post-conflict Nepal

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Caste, Combatants, Female Combatants, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Post-Conflict Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2019

Citation:

Patel, Amrita and Jasmine Giri. 2019. "Climate Change, Migration and Women: Analysing Construction Workers in Odisha." Social Change 49 (1): 97-113.

Authors: Amrita Patel, Jasmine Giri

Abstract:

The research article seeks to focus on the status of women from the coastal districts of Odisha who have become migrants essentially because of repeated floods and extreme climatic events. Fluctuating weather conditions, the consequent depletion of agricultural work and availability of other forms of employment in their place of origin are some reasons behind the migration of these women. The study particularly looks at Bhubaneswar where women, largely illiterate and landless, mostly belonging to Scheduled Caste groups, have been able to find work on construction sites. Despite evident hardship, they have been able to meet the challenges of living in new urban destinations and in the process better their living conditions. This can be seen in the improvement of their financial status, a new-found focus of educating their daughters, the development of levels of self-confidence and the overcoming of some deeply entrenched social barriers. However, in other areas, the marginalisation of such groups continues, and vulnerabilities prevail in many forms, evident, for instance, in the lack of land ownership by women, the absence of opportunities to upgrade skills to access better work opportunities and issues of safety and security of young girls.

Keywords: women, migrants, climate change, construction workers

Topics: Agriculture, Caste, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Climate Displacement, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2019

Citation:

Leder, Stephanie, Fraser Sugden, Manita Raut, Dhananjay Ray, and Panchali Saikia. 2019. “Ambivalences of Collective Farming: Feminist Political Ecologies from Eastern India and Nepal.” International Journal of the Commons 13 (1): 105–29.

Authors: Stephanie Leder , Fraser Sugden, Manita Raut, Dhananjay Ray, Panchali Saikia

Abstract:

Collective farming has been suggested as a potentially useful approach for reducing inequality and transforming peasant agriculture. In collectives, farmers pool land, labor, irrigation infrastructure, agricultural inputs and harvest to overcome resource constraints and to increase their bargaining power. Employing a feminist political ecology lens, we reflect on the extent to which collective farming enables marginalized groups to engage in smallholder agriculture. We examine the establishment of 18 farmer collectives by an action research project in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, a region characterised by fragmented and small landholdings and a high rate of marginalised and landless farmers. We analyze ambivalances of collective farming practices with regard to (1) social relations across scales, (2) intersectionality and (3) emotional attachment. Our results in Saptari/ Eastern Terai in Nepal, Madhubani/Bihar, and Cooch Behar/West Bengal in India demonstrate how intra-household, group and community relations and emotional attachments to the family and neighbors mediate the redistribution of labor, land, produce and capital. We find that unequal gender relations, intersected by class, age, ethnicity and caste, are reproduced in collective action, land tenure and water management, and argue that a critical feminist perspective can support a more reflective and relational understanding of collective farming processes. Our analysis demonstrates that feminist political ecology can complement commons studies by providing meaningful insights on ambivalences around approaches such as collective farming. 

Keywords: agriculture, collective action, collective farming, commons, feminist political ecology, FPE, Gender, India, irrigation, land, Nepal, water

Topics: Age, Caste, Class, Agriculture, Ethnicity, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Households, Intersectionality, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Nepal

Year: 2019

Citation:

Zwarteveen, Margreet, Sara Ahmed, and Suman Rimal Gautam, eds. 2012. Diverting the Flow: Gender Equity and Water in South Asia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Authors: Margreet Zwarteveen, Sara Ahmed, Suman Rimal Guatam

Annotation:

Topics: Caste, Class, Development, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia

Year: 2012

Citation:

Sugden, Fraser, Niki Maskey, Floriane Clement, Vidya Ramesh, Anil Philip, and Ashok Rai. 2014. “Agrarian Stress and Climate Change in the Eastern Gangetic Plains: Gendered Vulnerability in a Stratified Social Formation.” Global Environmental Change 29: 258-69. 

Authors: Fraser Sugden, Niki Maskey, Floriane Clement, Vidya Ramesh, Anil Philip, Ashok Rai

Abstract:

This paper reviews the complex impact of climate change on gender relations and associated vulnerability on the Eastern Gangetic Plains of Nepal and India. Field research has identified that gendered vulnerability to climate change is intricately connected to local and macro level political economic processes. Rather than being a single driver of change, climate is one among several stresses on agriculture, alongside a broader set of non-climatic processes. While these pressures are linked to large scale political- economic processes, the response on the ground is mediated by the local level relations of class and caste, creating stratified patterns of vulnerability. The primary form of gendered vulnerability in the context of agrarian stress emerges from male out-migration, which has affected the distribution of labour and resources. While migration occurs amongst all socio-economic groups, women from marginal farmer and tenant households are most vulnerable. While the causes of migration are only indirectly associated with climate change, migration itself is rendering women who are left behind from marginal households, more vulnerable to ecological shocks such as droughts due to the sporadic flow of income and their reduced capacity for investment in off-farm activities. It is clear that policies and initiatives to address climate change in stratified social formations such as the Eastern Gangetic Plains, will be ineffective without addressing the deeper structural intersections between class, caste and gender.

Keywords: climate change, vulnerability, Eastern Gangetic Plains, Gender, class, caste

Topics: Agriculture, Caste, Class, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Gender Regions: Asia, South Asia

Year: 2014

Citation:

Chakravarti, Uma. 2000. “Inventing Saffron History: A Celibate Hero Rescues an Emasculated Nation.” In A Question of Silence? The Sexual Economies of Modern India, edited by Janaki Nair and Mary E. John, 243–68. London and New York: Zed Books.

Author: Uma Chakravarti

Annotation:

Topics: Caste, Class, Gender, Governance Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2000

Citation:

Ray-Bennett, Nibedita S. 2009. “The Influence of Caste, Class and Gender in Surviving Multiple Disasters: A Case Study from Orissa, India.” Environmental Hazards 8 (1): 5–22.

Author: Nibedita S. Ray-Benett

Abstract:

Sociological and anthropological studies in India reveal that caste, class and gender in everyday life are both rigid and dynamic, but little is known about how they influence the survival mechanisms of women during ‘multiple disasters’, nor about how women negotiate with these structural mores to meet their cultural and biological needs. This is explored through the experiences of 12 women-headed households from different social castes in Orissa, India. Multiple disasters or disasters that occur in ‘one specific place’ (such as floods, cyclone and drought) are regular events in coastal parts of the state of Orissa. The super-cyclone of 1999, two floods of 2001 and 2003 and drought of 2000 and 2002 form the case study. Participant observation, in-depth interviews and documentary evidence complement the fieldwork. The findings suggest a complex interplay of caste, class and gender in surviving the multiple disasters including structural mutability under the purview of social organization. In doing so, women demonstrated their individual and collective agencies in order to meet their cultural and biological needs under severe crisis. This research stresses that gender and disaster studies must include a consideration of caste and class for effective disaster management and social vulnerability reduction.

Keywords: Gender, multiple disasters, Orissa, women-headed households, class, caste

Topics: Caste, Class, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Households Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2009

Citation:

Ray-Bennett, Nibedita S. 2010. “The Role of Microcredit in Reducing Women’s Vulnerabilities to Multiple Disasters.” Disasters 34 (1): 240-60.

Author: Nibedita S. Ray-Bennett

Abstract:

This article explores the relationship between microcredit and vulnerability reduction for women-headed households in ‘multiple disasters’. Here multiple disasters are understood as disasters that occur in one specific place and cause severe devastation. The case study covers the super-cyclone in 1999, floods in 2001 and 2003, and drought in 2002 in Orissa, India. The study entailed eight months fieldwork and interviews with several governmental and non-governmental officials and 12 women-headed households from different social castes. The findings suggest that micro-credit is a useful tool to replace women’s livelihood assets that have been lost in multiple disasters. But inefficient microcredit delivery can cause microdebts and exacerbate caste, class and gender inequalities. It is posited that microcredit delivery cannot achieve vulnerability reduction for women in multiple disasters unless it is complemented by effective financial services, integrated policy planning and disaster management between government, non-governmental organisations and the community.

Keywords: microcredit, multiple disasters, Orissa, vulnerability, women-headed households

Topics: Caste, Class, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Livelihoods, NGOs Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2010

Citation:

Onta, Nisha, and Bernadette P. Resurrección. 2011. “The Role of Gender and Caste in Climate Adaptation Strategies in Nepal.” Mountain Research and Development 31 (4): 351–56.

Authors: Nisha Onta, Bernadette P. Resurrección

Abstract:

Despite the growing number of studies and research projects on climate change adaptation, only a few have examined the gender and cultural dynamics of the adaptation process. Inequality has been identified as a major indicator of the vulnerability of individuals and groups; nevertheless, the gender and cultural aspects of inequality have not received much emphasis. The present article attempts to analyze the influence of gender and cultural relations on the process of climate change adaptation by presenting a study of Dalit and Lama households in the mountainous Humla District of Nepal. The inhabitants of Humla have been experiencing a shift in the monsoon season, a decrease in snowfall, and longer dry periods, with adverse effects on their livelihoods. The main focus of this article is to highlight the cultural, social, and economic dependency of the Lama and Dalit ethnic groups and to examine whether processes of adaptation exacerbate or alter gender inequalities and intercaste dependencies. (Abstract from original source)

Keywords: climate change, adaptation, gender, caste, Dalit, Humla, Nepal

Annotation:

Topics: Caste, Environment, Climate Change, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2011

Citation:

Authors: L. Mercier, J. Gier-Viskovatoff

Abstract:

Annotation:

Topics: Caste, Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, West Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries, North America, South America, Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe Countries: Bolivia, Cuba, Ghana, India, Japan, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America

Year: 2006