METHODOLOGY AND OBJECTIVES
The topic - environmental changes and their impact - was discussed in six groups of seven members each. The objective of the exercise was to enable the participants to reflect on the seriousness of the problem of environmental degradaition and the type of impact this was having on peoples lives. Though this discussion, it was hoped that the participants would begin to see their environment related work in a broader conceptual framework. This, in turn, would give them a clearer basis for involving villagers in the programme.
The groups were given six questions to help structure their discussion :

1. What changes have taken place in the environment of your area in the last twenty to thirty years?
2. What has been the impact of these changes on the lives and livelihood of the local people?
3. What has been the specific impact of these changes on the lives of women?
4. What have been the causes (both external and local) for these environmental changes?
5. What can be done to improe the situation by (a) individuals (b) the community (c) the government and (d) the organisation for which you are working?
6. What should be the objectives of your organisation in relation to an environmental programme?

The two hour group discussions proved to be rich and provided fresh insights to everybody. Most of the male participants were quite taken aback by the impact of environmental degradation on the workload and livese of rural women! The main findings of the groups are presented below. In this, the responses to questions I and II have been combined. Responses fo questions V and VI have been presented in the next chapter.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AND THEIR IMPACT OF PEOPLE’S LIVES

These covered a very wide range and have been divided into six main categories.

Decrease in forests

According to the participants, destruction of forests has been a major visible change which has destroyed the ecological balance affecting every facet of life. For example,

• - the quantity and regularity of rainfall has decreased;
• - there is a greater incidence of floods and drought;
• - the quality of the air has become pooer because of fewer trees;
• - the weather pattern has changed. Winters are not so cold now and summers are hotter and longer;
• - soil erosion has increased due to destruction of tree cover which protected the soil;
• - there is reduced moisture availability in the soil due to reduced rainwater percolation into denuded hilly lands. This has also led to lowering of the water table resulting in drying up of wells and shortage of water for drinking and irrigation;
• - the diversity and number of wild life and tree and shrub species has decreased.

Drastic fall in productivity of the land resulting in reduced crop output
Most of the causes for reduced productivity of the land can be linked to the destruction of forests. For example,

• - erosion of good top soil by rain and wind;
• - reduced availability of organic fertilizer from tree leaves, and,
• - use of cattle dung as fuel instead of fertilizer due to the shortage of firewood.

In addition, use of chemical fertilizers with the introduction of so called high yielding varieties has ad a very negative impact on soil productivity. According to the participants, use of chemical fertilizers in a situation of water scarcity has resulted in good soil becoming hard like rock.
As people depend on agriculture for subsistance, the uncertain and falling crop yields have shaken the foundation of their livelihood.

Frplryion of water resources
According to the participants, there was been an alarming change in the quantity and quality of water availability. Besides the increasing unpredictability of the monsoons and recued recharge of ground water due to deforestation, they felt that now there is faster evaporation of water because of reduced tree cover and higher temperature.
Another consequence of the declining water table is that in many areas, the quality of water obtained from greater depths is either coloured, stinking saline or brackish. Some people felt that the taste of milk and ghee has deteriorated as a consequence and that now it takes longer to cook lentils.
Drying up of the wells of poorer farmers is leading to their not being able to irrigate their crops and also suffering shortage of drinking water. Even if they can deepen their wells, they are unable to extract water with the traditional technology of the Persian Wheel using bullock power. On the other hand, richer, usually non-adivasi farmers can not only afford Well deepending but also extract water with diesel or electric pumps. Thus inequality between the rich and the poor has increased.

Changes in livestock
According to the participants, environmental changes have had a significant impact on the quality and composition of livestock owned by people Whereas the total number of animals has increased, the per capita ownership of cattle has decreased. There has also been an important change in the composition of cattle owned by people. Some of the impact on livestock has been :

• - shortage of green fodder from fields and forests has affected animals health negatively. They have become more prone to diseases and milk yields have declined.
• - during drought years, there is little leaf fodder from forests to rely on. In recent years of drought, large numbers of animals have perished because of lack of fodder and water. Poor people have become further impoverished by the loss of their key assets. Many of the participants recounted how ill their own cattle had become during the last year and many had lost at least one animal.
• - earlier, most families had one or more buffalo. Due to fodder scarcity, it is no longer possible to maintain them. People have been forced to switch to goats and sheep. Although these are hardier, uncontrolled grazing by them results in further destruction of vegetation. Natural regeneration of trees and shrubs has become negligible as a consequence. Due to the cattle having to walk enormous distances in search of fodder while grazing, people lose even their dung for use as fuel or fertilizer.

Poorer health status of the people.

Environmental changes have had a drastic impact on people’s health. These have been caused by:

• - reduced nutrition. Nonavailability of fruits and other edible produce from the forests has not only reduced the quantity of nutrition but also the diversity of nutritious foods earlier consumed by people. Availability of milk and milk products has also declined. This has resulted in dietary imbalances, malnutrition and increased incidence of diseases. Now there are fewer old persons in villages. They do not live so long;
• - destruction of many local medicinal herbs and plants which local people used in times of illness. This has been accompanied by an increased propagation allopthic medicines about which people have little knowledge. Loss of faith in traditional medicines is reducing people’s control over their health.
• - small children being forced to work as labourers due to their parents’ inability to support them. This has a negative impact on child health;
• - less availability of meat through hunting wild life;
• - poorer quality of air carrying more dust and other pollutants. Participants also felt that improved communication facilities like roads and buses had exposed local people to new diseases due to increased contact with outsiders.
• - import of poor quality grains from other areas. Earlier, local food production could meet local needs. Locally grown grains are consumed fresh and are healtheir;
• - increased use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and insecticides is leading to new kinds of diseases and health problems.

Changes in traditional occupations and sources of livelihood

- earlier, people’s land holdings were adequate, the soil used to be productive and water sources were perennial. People could produce enough from their lands to meet most of their needs;

- forests yielded enough to supplement the production from their own lands - fruits, gum, honey, fuelwood, bamboo and building timber. Some minor forest produce like ‘tendu’ leaves, gum, bamboo, etc. could either be sold directly or processed further to earn supplementary cash income. With the drastic changes in the environment, the foundation of people’s subsistance economy has got destroyed. Now people are forced to seek other means of livelihood, either working as daily wage labourers on drought relief works or by migrating to other areas in search of work. Having to work for wages means that people cannot devote any time or labour to developing their own land which worsenes the land’s already poor condition.

• - to some extent, relief works and subsidies provided by the government are generating dependency among the people. Many people prefer working on daily wages rather than on their own lands;
• - many traditional occupations such as making baskets from bamboo and selling firewood are becoming unviable due to the destruction of forests. One group cited the example of Naiks to illustrate this point. Naiks are a landless community who used to earn their living by collecting fuelwood and selling it. With fuelwood becoming scarce, this community has had to seek alternative means of livelihood. At the same time, many people who never sold firewood before, are now having to resort to selling it after collecting it with great hardship due to their own land not producing enough;
• - seasonal migration in search of wages gives rise to many hardships -- physical hardships of camping out of doors and working long hours without adequate nutrition in an alien environment; Exploitation at the hands of labour contractors; ever-present worries about the condition of family members left behind. Rasiben told the group of her own experience of migration in search of wages. Their land in Panchmahals yields only one crop and that too in years when there are good rains. Every year they go to the neighbouring district of working on cotton fields. When her parents in-law were alive, she used to be at ease about her children - now she constantly worries about their safety and well being while she is away.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AND THEIR IMPACT ON WOMEN’S LIVES

The discussions on this aspect were an eye opener for most of the male participants who had never given any specific thought to the impact of environmental degradation on women. The following points emerged from the discussions.

Women’s workload and physical hardships
These have increased tremendously because women have to walk much farther for fuelwood, for water and for fodder or for taking animals for grazing. All tehse tasks are considered ‘women’s work’ in the local culture.

• - due to the much greater time required for performing these tasks, there is less time available for child care, house work or rest. Women are unable to eat at the right time and have to either carry little children with them or leave them behind untended or in the care of other children.
• - in addition to walking greater distances, greater energy is now expended for drawing out water from wells whose water levels have gone down.
• - earlier livestock could be taken to village ponds for drinking water. With the ponds having dried up, now water for even the animals has to be drawn from wells by women.
• - earlier women could augment Family nutrition or income by collecting minor forest produce. Now very little of it is available and the rights of collecting even that have been monopolised by contractors.
• - earlier, women didn’t need to work for wages as production from their land and cattle was adequate for family needs. Now they have to bear that burden also, in addition to all their other responsibilities. Their exploitation at the hands of contractors and employers has increased.

Impact on women’s health
Women’s health has been badly affected because of inadequate food grain production and non-availability of fruits and other nutritious foods like edible gums, leaves and flowers workload affects pregnant women particularly badly and in turn, the future generation of children. With complete depletion of many reserves of energy that women may have, they are unable to fight off even minor illnesses and their health status is becoming progressively worse.

Increase in mental tensions
Due to increased food insecurity, there is greater tension between husbands and wives often leading to domestic violence. Many husbands demand better food than the women can serve. Some of the women participants said they come across many women being abused - and even beaten - because they can serve their husbands ‘rotlas’ with only a ‘chutney’ of green chillies and Salt!
When women go out in search of fuelwood they are harassed by forest department staff. They are similarly ill-treated when they go out for wage labour. They live in constant fear of danger to their persons.

Impact of migration on women
As men tend to migrate in search of wage labour, women are left behind to look after the children, old parents, livestock, and the land. Besides disruption of family life, this increase s their responsibilities and workload. On top of that, they are constantly afraid that men will find other women while away. Getting second wives in common among the adivasis of Bicchiwada block.
Women whose husbands have migrated, have to cope with greater insecurity and social abuse.

CAUSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
The causes of environmental degradation were classified into external and local by the participants.

External causes
Among these the participants identified short sighted and inappropriate government policies as the major negative factor.

• - by promoting commercialisation of timber, the major forest produce, the government has assisted over-exploitation of forests through private contractors. The rights of local people were restricted and the benefits transferred to affluent classes outside the area.
• - by promoting factories using forest produce a raw material, massive deforestation has been encouraged. Again, rich industrialists have been given forest produce at minimal prices while local people have been denied access to it even for meeting their basic needs.
• - comercialisation of collection of minor forest produce (like gum, oil seeds, medicinal plants) has resulted in their rapid depletion. Even in this, major rights have been transferred to big contractors with increased harassment of local people.
• - road construction by the government has facilitated rapid plundering of the forests.
• - overall, government policies have resulted in destroying the mutually supportive relationship between local people and the forests. Before nationalisation of forests, each village had some forest area within its boundry for which it was responsible. With nationalisation of forests, these boudaries were removed. Management and control of forests was transferred from local people to a huge, distant and corrupt government bureaucracy. The government has done little to control corruption among its staff while poor people continue to be harassed for minor offences.

Whereas earlier local people exploited forest produce only for meeting their own needs, the government has permitted outside contractors to destroy forests indiscriminately. No systematic effort has been made to replenish the depleted forests.
Earlier, local rulers used to pay village councils an annual fee for protecting forests near their villages. Illicit felling of trees was strictly punished. Such traditional systems of management at the local level have been completely destroyed.
Till recently, government policies encouraged the clearance of forests for agricultural use.

• - the government continues to allocate village pasture lands either to individuals or other users. Reduction of common grazing lands increases the pressure on forests.
• - government policies have resulted in making the people dependent on it for everything. This has resulted in people not accepting responsibility for environmental protection.

Among the other external factors listed by the participants were :

• - unlimited greed of the rich people leading to rapid forest destruction.
• - large numbers of cattle from other areas are brought in for grazing by herdsmen causing massive destruction of vegetation.

Local reasons:

• - Local people do not understand the consequences of deforestation. Simultaneously, destruction of the basis of their subsistance economy and their increased poverty is forcing them to overexploit forests for survival.
• - increase in population has increased the pressure on land. This has resulted in large scale conversion of forest land to agricultural use.
• - cultural differences between adivasis and outsiders result in the former getting exploited. In Bacchiwada block, patel migrants have managed to capture the best agricultural land. This has forced local adivasis to bring hilly forest land under the plough.
• - with increasing popularity of the nuclear family system, the number of housing units to be built has increased. This has increased the amount of timber needed for housing.
• - with increased exposure to the outside world, people’s living standards and expectations have changed. Whereas earlier, adivasi homes had no furniture, today each family desires to have it. This has also increased the consumption of timber.
• - people have traditionally used bullocks or camels for ploughing their fields. Such ploughing does not destroy the small shrubs and plants. With increasing use of tractors, all such vegetation gets unprooted completely.
• - uninformed adoption of hybrid seeds and chemical fertilizers has done tremendous damage to soil productivity.
• - adoption of pumps for irrigation has increased consumption of sub-soil water resources resulting in considerable wastage and over-exploitation. With the traditional Persian Wheel, water can be drawn only at a slow pace and in limited quantities. The soil is able to absorb this water and there is less loss due to evaporation of ubabsorbed water.
• - the practice of uncontrolled grazing has reduced natural regeneration of vegetation dramatically.
• - fewer brids and wild life in depleted forests has reduced regeneration of trees through the seeds carried in their droppings.

APPROPRIATE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION AND ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES
What can be done to improve the degraded environment? What should be the objectives of the organisation in relation to an environmental programme? We present the findings of the group discussion on these questions.
What can be done to improve the environment
This question was discussed by looking at what could be done at the following four levels:

• - individual
• - community
• - government, and
• - organisation (refers to the respective organization people were working in - Editor).

Individual level
People should treat forests as their own and protect them. Individuals should take an oath to plant 8 to 10 trees each and replace each tree cut with at least 2 new trees. They should try to change the practice of uncontrolled grazing by their animals and start stall feeding them instead. They should not cut down trees recklessly, particularly green trees, and should use timber sparingly. By planting fuel and fodder trees on their own land, they can reduce the pressure on forests. This can be done on their hilly land which is lying fallow at present. By terracing the sloping land, more rain water can be conserved and soil erosion prevented. Trees can also be planted along the edges of terraces. Where slopy land is being used for cultivation, terracing must be done to prevent soil erosion. people should grow local species and use domestic waste water for watering the plants. They can also raise plants in basket nurseries for becoming more self reliant. They must increase the use of organic fertilizer to restore soil fertility and respect common rules evolved by the community for protecting the village environment.

Community level
People should organize to prevent reckless, criminal tree fellings. They should collectively grow and protect plantations on parts of their community grazing lands. Rules should be made to prevent indiscriminate grazing on common lands and cutting of green wood. Poorer members of the community who are forced to cut trees for sale as firewood, should be helped by generating alternative local employment. They could be given priority for employment in protecting community plantations or processing their produce. Effective means of ensuring equitable distribution of benefits to all members of the community should be worked out to ensure that everyone gains a stake in protecting plantations on common lands. those still indulging in cutting young trees should be given exemplary punishment.
Women’s involvement should be increased at all lvels as they can be the most effective agents of protection. The community can also organise soil and water conservation works such as building of earthen bunds, digging of ponds etc.

Government Level:
The government must consult local people on all aspects of forest produce. It ishould not have double standards for use of forest wealth whereby the rich are allowed to exploit forests at low costs (both officially and through corruption), and the poor are prevented from getting their legitimate share. Forest legislation should be changed to increase benefits to local people to increase their interest in protecting forest wealth.
The government should inform the people about new programmes so that people are not cheated by contractors and middle men. Corruption by government staff and contractors should be stopped. Relief works should be organised in such a way as to improve the environment. For example, building check dams, making new ponds and desilting old ones, and organising plantations on barren lands.

Organisational level
The work of the voluntary organisation in the area can be grouped under three headings - awareness generation, prevention of environmental degradation and taking up programmes to improve the environment involving people in this effort.
The organisation should organise awareness generation camps and meetings in villages to help people understand the relationship between their own survival / well being and that of the environment. They should also be clearly informed about the organisation’s objectives. Special efforts have to be made to involve women since they suffer most from environmental degradation. People also need to be informed about existing laws and rules related to forests. For all this, educational materials, songs and plays should be prepared.
Efforts should be made to organise people to protect forests, prevent illegal tree felling, demanding relief work and full wages. The organisation can encourage people to plant trees along the edges of field terraces.
To improve the environment, the organisation should take up projects for plantations on both individual and community lands. Soil and water conservation measures like check dams and terracing should be integrated in these. for all this, the organisation should focus on training its workers and local villagers. The training should involve organising people, nursery raising and plantation and soil/water conservation techniques. In the projects, employment should be given to poor local people. people should be assisted in becoming self-sufficient in meeting their biomass related needs.

Objectives of the organisation in relation to an environmental programme.
The objective of this question was to help participants abstract objectives of the organisation from the activities to be crried out. However, we were only partially successful in this and the participants tended to repeat the activities mentioned in the previous section. We have regrouped some of the responses. Thus, the organisation’s objectives could be:

• The organisation should take a comprehensive view of the relationship between the condiion of land, water, forests and people’s well being and take up new programmes on the basis of a clear understanding of their objectives.
• The organisation should aim to create awareness and organise people on these issues,. Solutions to environmental problems should be worked out in consultation with the people.
• The main focus should be uplifting of women and the poorest groups. There was some discussion on how the ‘poor’ were to be defined or identified. It was learnt that in its area, the Jawaja Project has defined its target group as those people who are able to raise only one crop in a year or are dependent on only daily wages.
• The organisation should aim to rehabilitate common lands, during the period of drought, individuals should also be helped to develop their own lands to achieve self reliance in fuel and folder. This will also prevent them from damaging remaining forests.
• There is an immediate problem of food and employment. The organisation should help poor people by creating employment through these project.
• The organisation should be very clear in its objectives and all the workers should know these. For this, methods of communication both within the organisation and with the people need to be improved.

WOMEN’S ROLE IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME
Objectives and methodology.

The participants had already examined the disastrous impact of environmental degradation of women’s lives and work burden. "The objective of this exercise was to take them a step further and reflect on the potential conribution women could make in an environmental programme. Once again, the method used was group work. After 2 hours discussions in six groups, each group presented its report to the large group. Two questions were given to the groups to structure their discussion:

1. What role can women play in an environment related programme, and
2. How can their participation in the programme be increased?

A heartening aspect of the discussions was the male participants’ whole hearted acceptance of the need to increase womne’s participation and recognition of the invaluable contribution they could make to the programme. A synthesis of all the groups findings is presented below. At the end of the chapter, a modified version of a handout distributed during the training on ‘conducting meetings with women’ has been attached.

The role women can play
All ground agreed that women could make an invaluable contribution to the environmental programme as they have been affected most negatively by environmental degradation. Their participation should at least be equal to that of men, preferably even more.
However, it was felt that what constitutes women’s participation should be defined in consultation with the women. Increasing women’s participation should not end up in further incresing their already excessive work burden.
Looking at some of the specific activities involved, the following division of responsibilities between men and women was suggested :

• - selection of species to be planted -- women
• - raising nurseries -- men and women
• - earth work and breaking stones -- men
• - planting, hoeing, weeding, watering - women
• - protection of plantations - both men and women.
• - One group felt that the lack of womne’s involvement in earlier plantation work had resulted in their playhing a desctructive role such as letting in cattle to graze on young plants. This was consequence of their not being aware of why, or for whom, the trees were being replanted.
• - As women’s work, like firewood and fodder collection and taking animals for grazing involves a lot of moving around in forest areas, participants felt that women could play a useful role in collecting seeds of local tree and shrub species. Women tend to have a closer contact with forests and trees, and therefore, know more about them.
• - Women chulha mistris, who have established contact with a large number of local women, could assist in increasing women’s awareness about and partuicipation in, the programme.
• - Due to the problems experienced by women in collecting firewood and fodder, they could be motivated to undertake extensive plantation of trees on their own lands to meet these needs.

Means of increasing womne’s participation
The groups discussed this question in much greater detail. In practical terms, they could see several reasons and problems due to which womne’s participation has remained limited so far. The points made by the groups have been divided into 7 categories.

(1) Reasons limiting women’s participation
The majority of village women suffer from the following:

• - excessive burden of work and responsibilities.
• - non-literacy and lack of awareness and information
• - feat due to harassment from several quarters
• - lack of adequate confidence in the organisation’s motives
• - lack of clarity about the objectives of womne’s meetings conducted by the organisation..

these need to be understood and acknowledged. To increase womne’s participation, something needs to be done to reduce at least some of their problems.

(2) Improved communication methods
Women’s involvement could be increased by adopting more interesting and effective communication methods. These could include :

• - use of songs, bhajans and role plays to increase women’s awareness about environmental problems and make meetings more interesting.
• - organising visits by groups of local women to successful environmental programmes to expose them to what can be done.
• - ensuring that the timings fixed for meetings are convenient for women.
• - using only the local language in village meetings.
• - organising leadeship training programmes for local women so that they can motivate and mobilise other women.
• - organise awareness generation camps for local women so that they can understand the multiple impacts of environmental degradation on their lives.

(3) Reducing opposition by men
The participants identified men’s opposition as a major obstacle to increasing women’s participation. Some of the ways of reducing this could be::

• - keep the men informed about the objectives of holding separate meetings with women to reduce their apprehensions and to check the spread of wild rumours.
• - motivate men to support increased participation by women.
• - motivate mean to share womne’s work burdens so that they have more time to participate in the programme.
• - male staff members of the organisation should set an example for the above by sharing the work of women in their families.
• - ensure participation of both male and female staff members in village meetings.

(4) Improving women’s knowledge and skills

• - provide them information about forest laws and people’s rights to reduce their fear and exploitation.
• - assist women in building up their own organisations and understand the strengths of collective action.
• - provide them equal access to information as men and educate them about their rights.
• - provide local women training in managing nurseries and raising plants in baskets.
• - train women in soil and water conservation techniques.

(5) Improving the skills of women staff members
As each organisation’s main contact with village women is through its female staff, adequate attention needs to be devoted to developing improved skills and capabilities among them.

• - the women staff members need to be good motivators.
• - they should be able to identify local women’s fears and problems and learn to deal with them sensitively.
• - they should be able to involve local women in selecting the species to be planted based on their priority needs of firewood, fodder and icome.
• - they should respect village women’s own knowledge and experimence and try to learn from them.
• - they should be able to increase womne’s confidence in the organisation by explaining its objectives clearly.

(6) Deal with problems of women staff.
The participants felt that the women staff emmbers could not play the important role expected of them unless their own problems are also dealt with. Being local and women, they share with the village women the problems of excessive domestic responsibilities and pressures exerted on them by male members of their families. Their men often start suspecting them in immorality due to their having to move around in villages and keeping late hours. Many of the chulha mistries, who are now taking on responsibilities in the environmental programme, have suffered physical and mental abuse from either insecure or alcoholic husbands. The organisation needs to explore ways of providing its women staff effective support for dealing with such problems.
Another category of thei r problems is related to their status within the organisation and the facilities the organisation provides them. Participants felt that often the women staff are allocated excessive responsibilities over an extensive area where communication facilities are minimal. Reaching some villages can involve walking 10 to 15 kilometers. Besides being physically exhausting, this takes up a lot of their time. Some of this time and energy could be saved by providing them better transport facilities.
Participation also felt that the women staff could make a more valuable contribution if they are more involved in the organisation’s decision making and if communications within the organisation are improved. At present, they are often asked to implement programmes without understanding their larger objectives.
Another handicap faced by some of the women staff is non-literacy. The organisation could provide them some support in learning how to read and write.

(7) Adoption of certain policies by the organisation
At a macro level, the organisation can facilitate greater participation by women and improving their status by adopting certain policies. for example, the organisation could insist on :

• - equal participation by women in all its programmes and refuse to initiate work where the men do not agree with this condition.
• - ensuring that women’s views are obtained while formulating rules related to plantation work e.g. protection, monthly meetuings, payment of wages, basis of distributing the produce, etc...
• - equal representation of women in village committees.
• - getting women’s leader elected in each village and establish the convention of regular meetings among village women
• - opening of savings accounts in the joint names of husband and wife where savings from work initiated by the organisation are seposited. Where the earnings are only the women’s, she could be assisted in opening an account in her own name.
• - joint ownership of land by husband and wife where any new land is allotted.

The organisation could also facilitate environmental work by women or private lands by arranging wages for them. Under present drought conditions, many women are forced to go out for wage work to feed their families.
It is also necessary that each field centre has at least one full time woman staff member.

Summary and reflections
From our point of view, this session, together with the earlier discussion on the impact of environmental degradation on women, were among the most valuable outputs of the training programme. We hope that both will ontribute towards removing the antipathy some of the male staff had started developing towards the women;s programme because of not being involved with it.
It is good that the special problems of the women staff also came up in the discussions. Given women’s unequal position in society, women staff members require extra support from the organisation.
Perhaps it was due to the sensitization to women’s problems through these sessions that at the end of the course, the male staff were supporting the demand for bicycles by the women staff and the presence of a woman staff member during every village meeting.

CONDUCTING MEETINGS WITH WOMEN
(based on the handout distributed during the training)

Why meetings with women?
it is extremely important to get women to participate in village meetings bcause of the crucial role they play in all walks of life. In addition to doing all domestic and child care work, an average adivasi women also does agricultural work and takes care of livestock. She has been affected the most by environmental degradation as it is she who has to go out much further to fetch fuelwood, water and fodder. She also shoulders the responsibility of going out to work on daily wages to meet household expenses.
Despite this, whenever any decisions have to be taken, only men are consulted. But men and women are likely to have different views on several issues. For example women will be more concerned about where a handpump should be installed because it is they who fetch the water. But often, only the men are asked. Similarly, because women fetch firewood, they are likely to give greater importance to planting forewood trees than men.
Due to these reasons, we must ensure equal participation by women in all out organisations programmes. Encouraging women to attend meetings is one way of increasing their participation and learning about their special problems.

How to get women to participate

• - Our first problem will be how to encourae women to participate in meetings. This is so because till now, attending meetings has been considered men’s domain. We can take the following steps to encourage women;
• - As far as posible, at least one male and one female staff member of the organistion should attend every village meetings. Village women will find it easier to communicate in the presence of a woman staff member.
• - During the first meeting in a village, both men and women should be invited and the women given maximum support to express their views.
• - If only a few women attend the joint meetings or find it difficult to speak in large gathering, a separate meeting for only women can be organised subsequently
• - Slowly, we can establish the practice of women getting together regularly to discuss their special problems.
• - As so men may find it difficult to express themselves fully through just talking, we can encourage them to use the media of songs and role plays.

How to deal with resistance from men
Because till now women have had few opportunities to participate in village meetings or have a say in village affairs, it is likely that the men will resist or oppose their coming forward. We will need to think of ways of slowly reducing men’s opposition. For this, we can do the following:

• - In each village meeting we should discuss the reasons why women’s participation in all our work is so important.
• - We need to repeatedly emphasise that no development is possible without edual participation by men and women.
• - We also need to stress that men’s support is essential for women to come forward.
• - We can prevent spreading of rumours about what is done at separate women’s meetings by publishing the objectives of such meetings.
• - We can also emphasise the fact thta women face some special problems for which separate meetings with women are necessary.

Conclusion : This section provides an idea of how analyses can be undertaken with local people regarding the situation of the environment in their own areas. This kind of an analysis is the first step in the movement towards positive action to reconstruct or save the environment from further degradation. Local people’s initiative and ongoing participation are necessary ingredients for effective action.