Some tribal women's
organizations have come
together to form a platform, "Sangharshrat Adivasi
Mahila Manch", to organize a seminar to highlight the
plight and the struggles of tribal women in contemporary
India. Though this has not been in the focus of the
media, it is a fact that all over the country, tribal women are
actively struggling against their exploitation. History has been
a witness to these militant struggles
continuously waged by tribal women. Though away from the
cities and the mainstream women's movements, the courage
and sacrifice of these tribal women are of great
significance to all those who believe in social change. To
highlight these struggles and the circumstances in which they are
taking
place, a seminar has been organized in Ranchi. The seminar will be
followed by a rally and public meeting.
Struggles against
British Colonialism British
Colonialism intensified the exploitation and oppression of
tribals in India. Seeing the potential of exploiting the mineral and
forest resources of the adivasi dominated areas, the British made
efforts to capture these lands. The reasons for
the miserable plight of tribals were many…their
deprivation of forest rights, the entry of landlords
and usurers into their areas etc. Tribal women and men, all
over the country raised their traditional weapons and fought bravely
against
these forms of exploitation. The Santhal Rebellion from
1855-56, the Bhumkal Rebellion in Bastar and Birsa Munda's Ulgulan
movement
in and around Ranchi are some examples. The role of women in these
adivasi revolts was no less than that of men. They
too faced the vicious repression unleashed by the
British to crush these movements.Adivasi men and women
carved their names in blood in the
history of the Independence Movement in India, but what
is their condition in today's so-called Independent
India?
The Status of Tribal
Women
Today tribal women are amongst the poorest, most
marginalized and backward people. Even today they have
no rights over the forest and cultivating forest lands
is considered an offence. In
spite of their important contribution in various types
of labour, within the tribal community too, women are
oppressed by various traditional male chauvinistic
practices. This patriarchal oppression manifests itself
in various ways among different tribal groups. Adivasi women are
deprived of educational and health facilities and we find that the
rate of literacy in this section is 14.5 %. Malnutrition is not only
rampant
among adivasi children but also among women. Though the
government boasts of having welfare schemes and anganwadis, tribal
children
are dying in thousands due to malnutrition each year.
Hundreds of tribal people die of malaria each year, but the government
tries its best to hide these facts.
Tribal women are also victims of incessant sexual
violence and abuse by contractors, government officials
and the police. Luring tribal women to cities with the
promise of giving them jobs, criminal gangs are in fact
trafficking women and ruining their lives. The economic
policies of the central and state governments, in keeping with
liberalization, privatization and globalization, have opened the gates
for
imperialist plunder. It is not surprising then that imperialist
companies and big capitalists are competing with each other for
projects in tribal areas that lead to their displacement and
environmental degredation.
In the last year itself, various Indian and foreign, or
multinational corporate
houses have been expanding their activities or entered into
agreements with the state governments of Orissa, Jharkhand,
Chhatisgadh and Maharashtra. These are companies like Jindal, Essar,
Mittal, Posco, Tata, Reliance etc. Along with this, in an attempt to
divert the adivasis from the path of struggle, Hindutwa communal
organizations are making an all out effort to saffronise the adivasi
community. The "Shabri Kumbh Mela" to be held in February in the Dangs
of Gujarat is one such example. All this is making the possibilities
of future development for tribals bleaker and the plight of women more
miserable.
Tribal Women on the
Path of Struggle.
Tribal women have
risen up in struggle against their exploitation and oppression.
They have given the clarion call to fight the landlords, money-lenders
and state machinery of the ruling classes. They were in
the forefront of the Naxalbari and Srikakulam movements. In the
contemporary
revolutionary movement in Bihar, Jharkhand,
Andhra Pradesh, Bastar, Chhatisgadh, Orissa and
Gadchiroli and Gondia ofMaharashtra, they have built up
a huge women's movement.
In Northeast India, where nationality movements are
going on, tribal women in places like Manipur and
Nagaland have active women's
organizations. In the Narmada Valley, Kashipur and
Kalinganagar, they have agitated against imperialist
backed development projects. By
trying to crush these movements with intense and brutal
repression, the state has made clear its anti-tribal
stand. The inhuman police firing at
Kalinganagar, Jajpur, Orissa, is a recent example of this approach. In
spite
of arrests, beatings and torture by the police, in spite of
false cases being foisted on them, whether it be TADA or POTA, which
have been used against struggling tribal women, they have carried on
fighting
courageously. The state continues to try and crush their movements
through campaigns like "Salwa Judum" and "Sendra" where mass rapes
and murders of tribal women are taking place in the name of a
state sponsored "peace campaign." It is crystal clear that the powers
that
be would rather kill and crush the tribal communities than work for
their development, and yet, fearless and strong, the struggle of
adivasi
women goes on and on….
.. To bring these struggles of adivasi women into focus,
we are holding a seminar on the related issues. We
appeal to all progressive women's organizations, women
activists and intellectuals to participate in this
seminar and help to make it a success.
Sangharshrat Adivasi Mahila Manch.
Rose Karketa, President, Reception Committee.
For correspondence: e-mail:
adivasi_mahila@rediffmail.
share information, build solidarity, have joint action;
ask your friends to join... the more the merrier... and
do post!
[1008 subscribers/79 bouncing/1 March 2006]