Author: Anitha Nernahalli Bellappa
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Diss. no.GD-20-01
Year: 2020
Academic Program: Gender and Development Studies (GDS)
Type: Thesis (Ph. D.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 2020
Examination Committee: Kyoko Kusakabe (Chairperson); Philippe Doneys, Jayant Kumar Routray (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: Literature on the impact of conservation policies on indigenous people has focused on their livelihoods, land rights, the gender differentiated impact of such policies and their challenges in joining mainstream society. This research focused on the issue of mobility among the indigenous people and how the policies that force changes in livelihoods have also changed mobility patterns of indigenous people which in turn affected their relations within household and society. The concept of motility (Kaufmann, 2002), the capacity to be mobile, was used to enable us to better understand how the changes in their mobility impacts on their livelihoods and vice versa. This research was conducted in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka, India, to study the transformation in the livelihoods of the Soliga community following the Supreme Court order on the implementation of the ban on non-timber forest products collection in 2004. This research is based on semistructured interviews with 63 women and 37 men, and 10 key informants. The studied podus were categorized into three clusters on the basis of location within forest and distance from road and public transportation. Research findings reveal that the ban changed the livelihood, which affected and was affected by the changes in mobility patterns of women and men. The ban on entry into the forest prohibited men from entering forest and forced them to go to other towns for migration, while women were forced to enter the forest for family survival. Soliga women enter the forest, but such improvement in mobility did not lead to women’s improved status since the mobility was linked to their low social status as women. Access to other resources such as land has shaped the mobility patterns of women and men, with landholders internalizing mobility restrictions of the state much more than others. Finally, this study concludes that motility is a critical factor in the livelihood choices of women and men following loss of access to NTFPs.
Scholarship Donor(s): Government of Japan Scholarship
Note: A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development
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