Women in India: A reality check – Tribal Cultural Heritage in India

Shanthi Kunjan with mother © Priti David in
“The forest in Shanthi Teacher’s classroom” | Ruralindiaonline.org >>
More about Tribal elders & Women | Success stories >>

“National development and the development of tribal communities are linked to each other” – Droupadi Murmu | Learn more >>

“Tribal communities are a standing example of how women play a major role in preservation of eco historic cultural heritage in India.” – Mari Marcel Thekaekara (writer and Co-Founder of ACCORD-Nilgiris) | Learn more >>

“There is no social bias against women in tribal communities such as there exists among the middle castes, especially landed ones. Women can ask for a divorce, and in many communities, money is paid to the girl’s family at the time of marriage.” – Abhay Bang, the award-winning doctor and social activist from Gadchiroli in Maharashtra | Learn more >>

Tracing the rise of patriarchy to class-based “civilisations” and the diminishing role of women in such societies, Chris Harman, in his book ‘A People’s History of the World’, says in hunter-gatherer societies, there was no male supremacy over women as there was almost always a division of labour between the sexes, with the men doing most of the hunting and the women most of the gathering. […]

New intensive production techniques tended to prioritise men’s labour over women’s. The use of the plough, for instance, encouraged an increased division of labour between the sexes, since it was a form of heavy labour not easily done by women bearing or nursing children. These new ways of production created new relations between members of the group.

Women everywhere lost out with the polarisation of society into classes and the rise of the state. From being co-decision-makers with men, they were thrust into a position of dependence and subordination. […]

Today, when most societies consider themselves highly advanced compared with our “barbaric” ancestors, the position of women in society has changed little. ‘Frontline’ takes a look at the position of women in India today.

Source: Women and Men in India: 2012, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Source: “Women in India: A reality check”, Frontline Magazine (Cover), 25 January 2013
Address: http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/women-in-india-a-reality-check/article4275963.ece
Date Visited: Sat Oct 24 2015 10:19:10 GMT+0200 (CEST)

“Restoring land and livelihoods, empowering women, providing basic civic amenities such as fuel, water and sanitation are preconditions to advancements of rights of tribal children. Unless the government undertakes urgent steps to address these issues, its proclamations on child rights would remain examples of empty rhetoric and its actions would effectively continue to exclude those already sidelined.” – Archana Mehendale in “Isolated Communities and Ignored Claims: Tribal Children’s Right to Education in India” >>

“If women are empowered, there is more development in society” – Droupadi Murmu | Find this and other speeches by the 15th President of India >>

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Annual Report – 2014-2015 >>
Backup copy (PDF, 5,1 MB) >>
Learn more
Accountability | Childhood >>
Childrens rights | Women >>

India must ratify the International Convention against Torture
The National Human Right Commission regards crimes like rape, molestation, torture, fake encounter in police custody as manifestations of a systemic failure to protect human rights

National Human Rights Commission

As in the past, the Commission continued to receive complaints from different parts of the country on a wide range of issues where rights of the people had been violated or negligence was shown by a public servant in the prevention of such violations. These complaints included cases alleging custodial deaths, torture, fake encounters, police high-handedness, violations committed by security forces, conditions relating to prisons, atrocities committed on women and children and other vulnerable sections, communal violence, bonded and child labour, non-payment of retrial benefits, negligence by public authorities, etc. […]

The Commission once again calls upon all the aforementioned State Governments to take immediate steps for sending their compliance reports to the Commission and simultaneously take comprehensive steps for protection and promotion of civil, political, economic, social and health rights, along with special measures to prevent acts of violence and discrimination towards women, including those belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. […]

Source: Annual Report, National Human Rights Commission (2014-2015), Chapter 2.12 “Number and Nature of Complaints”, pp. 9-12
URL: https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/NHRC_AR_EN_2014-2015_27022019.pdf
Date Visited: 13 January 2022

[Bold typeface added above for emphasis]

“Cover Your Country” by PARI: Rural people speak about their lives through photos, narratives, film, and audio materials >>

Video | “I saw women working 90 per cent of the time. They did backbreaking jobs for which you need an erect spine,” says P. Sainath in Visible Work, Invisible Women: Bricks, coal and stone | RuralIndiaOnline.org >>

In Marginalised but not Defeated, Tarun Kanti Bose (a seasoned public interest journalist) asserts that “the mainstream development paradigm is being questioned and new rainbows of collective, community reassertions are happening across the tribal belt in India. More so, in most cases, led by brave, empowered and resilient women.” | Learn more: https://countercurrents.org/2023/05/book-review-marginalised-but-not-defeated >>

“In less than 200 years, photography has gone from an expensive, complex process to an ordinary part of everyday life. From selfies to satellites, most of the technology we use and spaces we inhabit rely on cameras. […] While photographic documentation can aid in shaping history, it can also be a window into the horrors of the past.” – Read more or listen to Butterfly Effect 9 – The Camera on CBC Radio Spark 26 May 2023 >>

Watch “The Good Ancestor – The Legacies We Leave” (3 min.): An animation that explores the legacies we might leave for future generations >>

Links to some of the most important organisations, thinkers and doers that are leading the way and that have inspired the book The Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric >>

Even though they are responsible for protecting the largest part of the global forest heritage […] a third of indigenous and community lands in 64 countries are under threat due to the lack of land tenure rights.
Pressenza Rio de Janerio in “Indigenous people are heading to CoP26: ‘There is no solution to the climate crisis, without us‘” (Down To Earth) | Forest dwellers in early India – myths and ecology in historical perspective by Romila Thapar >>

For a list of websites included in a single search, click here. To search Indian periodicals, magazines, web portals and other sources safely, click here. To find an Indian PhD thesis on a particular tribal community, region and related issues, click here >>

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