Date: Fri Nov 03 2006 - 10:43:23 AST
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"Of the approximately 85,000 agricultural workers that stand to be displaced
by the project, nearly 62 per cent are women, according to B. Venkat, State
General Secretary, All India Agricultural Workers Union."
"Yet there is no recognition of women as the largest group among the
displaced. Despite the high proportion of women among those affected, there
exists virtually no voice that is representing women's views, whether for or
against the project, in all the talk of displacement at Polavaram so far."
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http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/sep/wom-polwomen.htm#continue
INDIA THE POLAVARAM PROJECT - INDIRA SAGAR DAM
Women - Less Than Half a Voice on Project
Among those whose livelihoods will be displaced by the Indira Sagar dam,
women far outnumber men. But there is virtually no voice representing
women's views, whether for or against the project, in all the talk of
displacement here. Instead, nearly all their choices are handed down to
them. R Uma Maheswari reports.
29 September 2006 - Of the population that would be dispossessed or
displaced by the Indira Sagar dam on the Godavari river at Polavaram in
Andhra Pradesh, the percentage of women far outnumbers that of men. Of the
approximately 85,000 agricultural workers that stand to be displaced by the
project, nearly 62 per cent are women, according to B. Venkat, State General
Secretary, All India Agricultural Workers Union, AP chapter. Yet there is no
recognition of women as the largest group among the displaced. Despite the
high proportion of women among those affected, there exists virtually no
voice that is representing women's views, whether for or against the
project, in all the talk of displacement at Polavaram so far.
A local environment NGO, Sakti, has recently compiled excellent statistical
information, a "demographic profile of people facing displacement under
Indira Sagar (Polavaram) village wise" with a map showing the sumbergence
zone. It mentions SC, ST, BC households, and the population whose homes or
livelihoods will be displaced in each case. But nowhere does it give a break
up in terms of gender. In early September, a book titled "Perspectives on
Polavaram: a Major Irrigation Project on Godavari" published by Academic
Foundation, Delhi, in collaboratiion with the World Wide Fund for Nature,
'Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment' project, and Sakti was released in
Hyderabad. It has virtually all perspectives - technological, legal, and
political perspectives (it is meant to be a neutral exercise) - but in this
231-page book there is not a single article presening the gender
perspective. And in state where the women's movement has had a significant
history
It is also strange that none of the womens' organisations based in or
operating from Hyderabad have taken a public view of the implications of the
Polavaram dam on women. Either by way of research, or at seminars, or
discussions; even at the level of engaging the state government, their
voices are conspicuous by their absence. A few well-known persons from
womens' organisations attended the one major meeting held in Khammam
district this year, but little has come of it.
Picture: Dalit women at Karakagudem village, in Khammam district.
The Polavaram project's promises too are in languages men use and
understand. All through my journey along Godavari, along these villages that
might not be, men almost always speak of "R&R" and "package". Some of them,
mostly the non-tribals, even talk of accepting their displacement if they
get a good package - 'manchi packagi'. These are conversations that exclude
women consistently. And throughout the area identified for submergence,
women in the villages have more questions than the men. Deep down, they know
that the men are likely to look at the project in terms that have no meaning
for the women, like 'compensation'. In different castes and communities,
they voice similar concerns - as women about to be affected greatly by plans
that completely bypass them – designed, planned, and implemented (largely)
essentially by men.
The promises, in any event, hold little meaning for the villagers. "Here
since the last thirty years we have been asking for a hospital. Till date
they did not build it for us. What is the guarantee they will give us all
this somewhere else? At least this is our own area. We know it. We were born
and brought up here", says Vijaya of Kathanapally, in East Godavari
district. She adds, "This project is not for the people. That is what I
understand. We do not know what they are doing in this project. All I know
is that my village here will drown. Government people came for some survey.
But they never told us what they were doing. What is this dam all about?
They may have spoken to men here."
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As I travel across Godavari, and move from one village to another, I often
spot two women, sometimes a mother and daughter, at times, two friends, like
this pair in Kondamodalu village who fish for hours starting at day break at
the river with their saree as a net, on days when no vegetables arrive in
the launches. They have learnt to make the most of their limited contexts.
For instance, the health system. In the fourteen villages of Kondamodalu
gram panchayat there is a single PHC and that too locked most time when I am
there. If a woman were to deliver a child, she will have to be taken all the
way to Devipatnam, some three or more hours on a boat – if she were lucky to
get the boat in time.
That women have had an intrinsic relationship with the river is of course a
far cry in these matters. Their days are strongly related to the ebb and
flow of Godavari. With dawn starts their first approach to the river, for
water, to wash clothes, sometimes fish. But they have faced turbulences too,
all this while on account of the same Godavari. Yet, all these years since
independence, no governments, no department helped them this far when these
upheavals happened. Instead, the women themselves found solutions. For
instance, Kumari, from Kondamodalu village, who prides herself on a spotless
clean home and a courtyard garden filled with gladioli and other blossoms,
says, "We tend to keep few things, few utensils, for when Godavari comes we
can quickly move to the hill top. When she recedes we come back to our
homes."
The passing fury of the Godavari, however, is very different from the
dislocation that the government's plans will cause. From this, there will be
no going 'back to our homes'. The Centrally Empowered Committee of the
Supreme Court, under the chairpersonship of Mr. Vijay Krishnan, a retired
IAS officer, visited these areas between the 29th and 31st of July to
ascertain the 'facts' to gauge the 'damages' that the project would do to
the nine mandals of three districts of the state. They did not have the kind
of time or space for looking at the issues in terms of the likely effects on
women – the ones who really know how life in these areas will be reshaped
dramatically.
The irony is that so many major projects that ignore women are carried out
in the name of irrigation, never mind that a larger number of India's farm
workers are women! For most of the women, the choices are simply handed
down. A young woman from Devaragondi, at a rehabilitation colony
construction site near Polavaram, said to me, "I do not like it here. I do
not like these houses. They (includes the government officials and her
husband) forced me to do this (work as construction labour on her own future
home). What can I do? I am helpless. My husband will not listen to me."
R Uma Maheswari
29 Sep 2006
