Volume 7, Number 4

Women and Environment: The Missing Link in India’s Environment Policy Landscape

  Authors

Aashi Srivastava, India

  Abstract

A large and growing body of policymakers, development professionals and academicians in India have been resonating the need for gender inclusive framework supported by indigenous and traditional forms of knowledge to spearhead India’s environment policies. In this paper, I will look at the philosophical underpinnings, their critiques and relevance in present environment landscape of India. I will further try to contextualise the learnings from women led environment movements to understand key enablers and obstacles in the way of achieving gender parity. The findings suggest that country’s environment policies and action remain gender blind except for Joint Forest Management Programme and National Forest Policy of 1988. While these policies do entail gender component in their design, the policies fail to engage women during implementation and evaluation stage. There is no gender disaggregated data available to ascertain women’s participation in these Joint Forest Management Committees and Biodiversity Management Committees that can guide real-time measures and policy reforms. The paper also highlights key insights that may guide the policymakers in designing, implementing, and evaluating gender inclusive environment policies in India.

  Keywords

Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology (FPE), Mahila Mandal Dals, Village Committees, Van Panchayats, Joint Forest Management.