GENDER, ENVIRONMENT AND LIVELIHOOD SECURITY: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEWPOINT FROM INDIA

Summary Using a case study from India, this article examines the limitations of populist ecofeminist thought. The case study shows that both men and women assume interchangeable roles as destroyers and conservers of the environment, depending on both the material relationship they have with their natural resources and the social context within which they operate. Secure livelihood opportunities and usufruct rights, and the existence of enabling institutional mechanisms are of considerable importance for people to have a stake in conserving their natural resources. The article further shows that if environment?focused development programmes are to be sustainable, it is necessary to develop a consultative process with both men and women, so that the concerns and needs of all social groups within a community are addressed. In the case of common property resources, the role of inter?village dialogues, which take into account the complex gender and social relations within and among the village communities, are of critical importance. RESUME Le genre, l'environnement, et la sécurité des moyens de vie: un point de vue alternatif en lnde Par le biais d'une étude de cas en Inde, l'article examine les limites de la pensée populiste de l'éco?féminisme. L'étude de cas démontre que les hommes comme les femmes assument des rôles interchangeables de destructeurs et de conservateurs de l'environnement, en fonction à la fois des rapports matériels qu'ils entretiennent avec les ressources naturelles et aussi, du contexte social au sein duquel ils opèrent. Les opportunités d'assurer les moyens de vie et les droits d'usufruit, et l'existence de mécanismes institutionnels qui facilitent ces opportunités sont d'une importance considérable si l'on veut que les membres de telles populations puissent participer activement à la préservation de leurs ressources naturelles. L'article démontre en outre que si les programmes de développement axés sur l'environnement veulent être permanents, il est nécessaire de développer un processus de consultation auprès des hommes et des femmes, de sorte que l'on puisse s'adresser aux inquiétudes et aux besoins de tous les groupes sociaux dans telle ou telle communauté. Dans le cas des ressources en copropriété, le rôle des dialogues inter?villageois sont d'une importante cruciale, dans la mesure où ces dialogues tiennent compte des relations complexes qui existent au niveau social et au niveau du genre au sein de ces communautés villageoises, et entre elles. RESUMEN Género, medio ambiente y seguridad de subsistencia: un punto de vista alternativo de la India Basándose en un caso de la India, este artículo examina las limitaciones del pensamiento populista ecofemenino. El estudio de este caso demuestra que tanto hombres como mujeres asumen roles intercambiables como destructores y conservadores del medio ambiente, dependiendo de su relación material con los recursos naturales, y del contexto social en el que operan. Las oportunidades de subsistencia y los derechos de usufructo, así como la existencia de mecanismos internacionales tienen una importancia considerable para asegurar la participación del pueblo a la hora de conservar recursos naturales. El artículo demuestra, además, que para alcanzar programas de desarrollo sostenibles ? enfocados hacia el medio ambiente ? es necesario poner en marcha un proceso de consulta con hombres y mujeres de tal forma que se discutan las preocupaciones y necesidades de todos los grupos sociales dentro de una comunidad. En el caso de propiedad común, el rol del diálogo entre comunidades cobra una importancia crucial, porque toma en consideración las complejas relaciones sociales y de género dentro de éstas, y en su contacto con otras similares

Relationship between health-related quality of life and respiratory health status among coal-based sponge iron plant workers in Barjora, India

Background: Many coal-based sponge iron plant workers have poor health-related quality of life in general, and specifically a poor respiratory health status. However, the relationship between their health-related quality of life and respiratory health status is unknown. Aim: This study investigated the relationship between health related quality of life, measured using the EuroQol- 5D (EQ5D), and respiratory health status, measured using the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), among coal-based sponge iron plant workers in Barjora, India. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among coalbased sponge iron plant workers in Barjora, and complete data were available on 252 participants. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were reported to show the strength of relationship between health-related quality of life and respiratory health status. Results and conclusion: Significant correlations were found between all EQ5D dimensions/visual analogue scale (VAS) and all SGRQ scores except between EQ5D-VAS and SGRQ-activity. A range of correlations was found. They were moderate between EQ5D-anxiety/depression and SGRQ-symptom, EQ5D-VAS and SGRQ-symptom, and EQ5D-anxiety/depression and SGRQ-total, but weak between all the other factors

Investment-induced displacement in central India. A study in extractive capitalism

India’s abundant natural resources are a key feature of its new found status as ‘emerging market’ that attracts foreign investments. As India’s output of these metals and their ores increases, investments pour into India to secure deals over mineral deposits and manufacturing plants. Apart from direct funding for new projects, the new investments pay for a large increase in deployment of security forces, multi-layered ‘briberization’, and ‘protection money’ funding Maoist outfits, in yet another unending war which is fundamentally a resource war around mineral and metal production – primarily steel and aluminum as well as coal and water. In this paper, we examine the mining operations in Central India where Vedanta Resources, a corporation that has become symbolic of neoliberal capitalism in India today, elicits huge new foreign investments to exploit India’s resources under the logic of emerging markets. If a quarter of postcolonial India’s Scheduled Tribe population was displaced by ‘development’ projects, this time it is foreign investments that are causing large scale displacement of indigenous populations

'Show me the evidence' : mobilisation, citizenship and risk in Indian asbestos issues

This paper examines asbestos issues, mobilisation and citizenship in India. It shows how asbestos has been considered as a tool for Indian economic growth and modernisation and explores the scientific debates around its ‘safe’ use. In seeking to locate experiences of citizenship within a globalised context, this research has focused on anti-asbestos mobilisation and protest in cosmopolitan cities as well as more decentralised contexts. It argues that the state’s narrow definition of asbestos diseases enables it to officially document the lack of asbestos diseases experienced by Indian workers. This process, which defines sufferers as politically invisible and inconsequential, accompanied by the 30 year delay between exposure and the onset of disease, hinders anti-asbestos organisations as there is no constituency to be mobilised. Parallel (and partially interrelated) grassroots asbestos movements which are more worker-orientated are, however, marginalised from the transnational protests. The paper argues that mobilisation around identity issues thus creates different contexts in India, in which activists are simultaneously both intimately connected and enormously distant to different aspects of the mobilisation process. In addition, while geographic and political differences are compressed through transnational mobilisation; class, regional and educational differences are expanded. Keywords: asbestos; mobilisation; citizenship; anti-asbestos mobilisation; India; asbestos diseases