Saxena, N.C. 1991. New Delhi: ILO.
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| Women were a key target group of India’s major social forestry programmes. However, the author of this short paper argues that the experience of the previous ten years (1989-90) indicates that the benefits of such programmes to women have been marginal. The reasons for this were varied, but essentially reflected the lower social status of women. Thus, for example, women were often poorly informed about their rights to forest products, were paid less than men for the same work and were inadequately represented in the planning and decision-making process, notably in the choice of species for afforestation under social forestry.
An interesting issue raised by the author is the limited private ownership of land by women which affects their ability to benefit from social forestry schemes on private land. Additionally, and challenging a key recommendation of a 1976 report by the National Commission on Agriculture, the author recommends that subsistence requirements should be met from government forests and common lands, while commercial demand for forest products should be met from private lands.
To increase benefits to women from social forestry, the author recommends the following steps: 1) plant multi-purpose species on common lands rather than timber species; 2) involve women in the management and protection of plantations; 3) publicise women’s rights in forest and community lands. The author also recommends changes in forest policy to accommodate these steps.
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| N C Saxena |
access, common property resources, gender, land and tree tenure, social forestry
India |
| Download: Women and wasteland development - policy issues. Paper presented for the ILO workshop on women and wasteland development > (92) |
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