Background
The growing human population all along the coastal zone is vulnerable to cyclones, storm surges and other natural disasters, including sea level rise. The livelihoods of millions are likely to be affected as a result of both physical and social vulnerabilities. Despite inherent capacity among coastal communities to adapt and cope with changing scenarios, the situation analysis at Sorlagondi village, located in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh (AP), revealed that an asset-less community depending largely on uncertain income sources is facing vulnerabilities due to climate change. They are Yanadi, one of the prominent tribal congregates present along the extended areas between the rivers Krishna and Godavari. The traditionally preferred life style was to live in harmony with god, humanity and nature however, their strong attachment to natural environment was lost due to displacement. They remained landless and homeless for decades, living in undulating terrain rich in natural resources, especially water bodies and mangrove forests. […]
Process and strategies
An attempt to enhance ability to make strategic choices for their future lives and livelihoods was done by strengthening access to and control over natural physical resources. This was achieved by extending financial support as well as developing social and human capital. As a first step men and women of Yanadi community were given representation in the village level institution along with the fisher community and helped create an enabling environment to contribute in the formal and informal decision– making processes as well as voice their needs and rights, earlier denied in the larger society. […]
The impoverished Yanadi community with the technical guidance and financial support established IMFFS. It is similar to aquaculture ponds but comprises inner bunds to grow mangroves/halophytes and water spread area to culture fishes/crabs/ shrimps in an integrated manner. It is an eco-friendly and low input aquaculture farming with tidal flow through gravity. […]
Traditional gender relations among married Yanadi were economic cooperation by complementing and supplementing their productive roles and carrying the produce together to market. Accordingly men and women were going for fishing and catch crabs from mangrove wetlands using ‘J’ shaped hooks and ring nets tied with bait. […]
Mainstreaming into society
They have also acquired skills to negotiate, particularly with the traders for marketing the produce, and with government officials to access their schemes. Once hiding from village meetings, they are now able to communicate effectively. Earlier women were dependent on men for all their needs. But now they travel to nearby towns and procure their domestic needs and necessary house hold articles. Once asset less families now possess ownership rights to one acre pond each. Women are entitled for access and control over land as a productive resource except selling, as it is classified as D form land. The land at the time of purchase was Rs.8000/acre but due to its productive functions is now worth to Rs.200,000/- per acre. […]
Demand for justice
Generally Yanadi women were victimised and harassed by fishers, traders etc. but it was ignored by both by men and women as they were dependent on them for livelihoods. But mobilising them into self-help groups and providing space in village level institutions not only increased their participation and decision making capacity at household and community levels, but also enhanced self-reliance, self-esteem and self- confidence among women. This further gave them power to raise their voices for their rights in the public sphere. […]
The transformation over eight years which began in 2007 with tiny steps addressing their practical gender needs at the household level is today taking big leaps to address their strategic gender needs both at household and community levels.
Source: “Diversification of Livelihoods in Transforming Socio Economic and Gender Relations: A case study of Yanadi Tribes in AP” by Dr. Sophia J D, Principal Scientist, MSSRF, Chennai
URL: http://www.mssrf.org/mssrfoldsite/?q=content/diversification-livelihoods-transforming-socio-economic-and-gender-relations-case-study
Date accessed: 11 January 2019
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[*] Some clarifications on caste-related issues by reputed scholars
Understanding “caste” in the context of Indian democracy: The “Poona Pact of 1932”
“Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar differed over how to address caste inequities through the electoral system. Their exchanges led to the Poona Pact of 1932, which shaped the reservation system in India’s electoral politics. […]
Two prominent figures who have significantly contributed to this discourse are Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Father of the Constitution. The two stalwarts of Indian politics, while revered equally by the public, had contrasting views on the caste system. Their subsequent debates have shaped the course of Indian society and politics. While Gandhi denounced untouchability, he did not condemn the varna system, a social hierarchy based on occupation, for most of his life. He believed in reforming the caste system through the abolition of untouchability and by giving equal status to each occupation. On the other hand, BR Ambedkar, a Dalit himself, argued that the caste system disorganised and ‘demoralised Hindu society, reducing it to a collection of castes’. […]
And yet, despite their differences, they developed an understanding to work for the betterment of the marginalised.” – Rishabh Sharma in “How Ambedkar and Gandhi’s contrasting views paved way for caste reservation” (India Today, 6 October 2023)
URL: https://www.indiatoday.in/history-of-it/story/ambedkar-gandhi-caste-system-poona-pact-1932-reservation-2445208-2023-10-06
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“That upper caste groups should declare themselves to be OBCs [Other Backward Castes] and want to avail of the reservation policy is a pandering to caste politics of course, as also are caste vote-banks. It is partially a reflection of the insecurity that the neo-liberal market economy has created among the middle-class. Opportunities are limited, jobs are scarce and so far ‘development’ remains a slogan. There’s a lot that is being done to keep caste going in spite of saying that we are trying to erode caste. We are, of course, dodging the real issue. It’s true that there has been a great deal of exploitation of Dalit groups and OBC’s in past history; making amends or even just claiming that we are a democracy based on social justice demands far more than just reservations. The solution lies in changing the quality of life of half the Indian population by giving them their right to food, water, education, health care, employment, and social justice. This, no government so far has been willing to do, because it means a radical change in governance and its priorities.” – Romila Thapar (Emeritus Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University) interviewed by Nikhil Pandhi (Caravan Magazine, 7 October 2015)
URL: https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/discipline-notion-particular-government-interview-romila-thapar
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“Casteism is the investment in keeping the hierarchy as it is in order to maintain your own ranking, advantage, privilege, or to elevate yourself above others or keep others beneath you …. For this reason, many people—including those we might see as good and kind people—could be casteist, meaning invested in keeping the hierarchy as it is or content to do nothing to change it, but not racist in the classical sense, not active and openly hateful of this or that group.” – Book review by Dilip Mandal for Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (The Print, 23 August 2020)
URL: https://theprint.in/opinion/oprah-winfrey-wilkerson-caste-100-us-ceos-indians-wont-talk-about-it/487143/
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“The theoretical debate on caste among social scientists has receded into the background in recent years. [However] caste is in no sense disappearing: indeed, the present wave of neo-liberal policies in India, with privatisation of enterprises and education, has strengthened the importance of caste ties, as selection to posts and educational institutions is less based on merit through examinations, and increasingly on social contact as also on corruption. There is a tendency to assume that caste is as old as Indian civilization itself, but this assumption does not fit our historical knowledge. To be precise, however, we must distinguish between social stratification in general and caste as a specific form. […]
From the early modern period till today, then, caste has been an intrinsic feature of Indian society. It has been common to refer to this as the ‘caste system’. But it is debatable whether the term ‘system’ is appropriate here, unless we simply take for granted that any society is a ‘social system’. First, and this is quite clear when we look at the history of distinct castes, the ‘system’ and the place various groups occupy within it have been constantly changing. Second, no hierarchical order of castes has ever been universally accepted […] but what is certain is that there is no consensus on a single hierarchical order.” – Harald Tambs-Lyche (Professor Emeritus, Université de Picardie, Amiens) in “Caste: History and the Present” (Academia Letters, Article 1311, 2021), pp. 1-2
URL: https://www.academia.edu/49963457
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“There is a need for intercultural education. We all need to work together to bridge these divides not only between religions and castes but also regions. It is not correct to think that one part is better than the other. Some of the limitations of India as a whole are due to our common heritage, say the one that has restricted women from having a flourishing life for themselves.” – Prof. V. Santhakumar (Azim Premji University) in “On the so called North-South Divide in India” (personal blog post in Economics in Action, 13 April 2024)
URL: https://vsanthakumar.wordpress.com/2024/04/13/on-the-so-called-north-south-divide-in-india/