Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

Engendering Mining Communities Examining the Missing Gender Concerns in Coal Mining Displacement and Rehabilitation in India

Abstract Forced displacement by development projects seriously affects the well-being of communities, revealing mixed and varied outcomes. Although scholars and policymakers have recognized the need for new forms of interventions, gender aspects of displacement and rehabilitation remain mostly unexamined in the empirical literature, which largely assumes that women’s and men’s experiences of displacement and rehabilitation processes are similar. Consequently, rehabilitation policy remains largely gender-blind, insensitive to the differential impacts upon and diverse concerns of women and men affected by development projects. Seeking to fill this knowledge gap, this article brings into focus how the restructuring of state-controlled coal mining in the regions of Jharkhand in Eastern India and the resulting displacement of local communities, including adivasi (indigenous) communities, affect women in gender-specific ways. Displacement from the original habitations often means not only the physical relocation but also the loss of livelihoods derived from the subsistence resources offered by the local environment. For women in these communities, the value of these resources cannot be overstated. This article argues for a refocus of policy debates on displacement and rehabilitation in ways that can engender the meaning of ‘the community’ and offer a gender-specific appreciation of issues regarding resource control and livelihood.

Digging women: towards a new agenda for feminist critiques of mining

This article addresses how a contemporary feminist perspective can problematise the ancient human endeavour of mining, and indicates which direction research on the interface between extractive industries and gender could usefully take. Feminist research has confronted masculinist discourses of mining by questioning the naturalisation of men as industrial workers, and by illustrating the gender-selective impacts of capitalist mining projects. The article probes the sources of these masculinist discourses of mining and reinterprets these critiques. Most importantly, by highlighting the diverse range of extractive practices that reflect different stages of surplus accumulation, it encourages a rethinking of mining itself as an area of feminine work. Finally, it makes tentative suggestions as to how the field of women and mining might be examined and addressed by contemporary feminists. A postcapitalist feminist critique of mining would hinge upon revealing womens agency in mining and revisit the conventional definitions of mining as industrial work and begin to see the feminine livelihoods in mining.

Digging to Survive: Women's Livelihoods in South Asia's Small Mines and Quarries

The global trend of the informalisation of womens work is also evident in what is commonly known as artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) practices. Small mines and quarries are extremely diverse in nature, but comprise a repository of extremely poor people. This article focuses on the gender and livelihood issues and concerns in small mines and quarries of South Asia. In view of the lack of official quantitative data, the research presented here is based on proxy indicators and field surveys. It addresses a gap in existing knowledge in ASM and makes visible gender roles in the informal work in the mines and quarries. The article provides the necessary backdrop, relevant information and interpretation of livelihood needs with a view to sensitising policy makers to the issues rooted in gender.

Artisanal and small scale mining in India: selected studies and an overview of the issues

In India, mining is one of the main economic activities since time immemorial, giving rise to a long historical tradition of artisanal mining. As modern mining rose during the colonial occupation, artisanal mining activities began to be overlooked and this great tradition became obscure. This invisibility, added with confusion with regard to legally accepted definitions has enhanced the negligence of the artisanal mining sector in India. This study draws attention to the contemporary artisanal mining practices in India – both traditional and non-traditional ones – with regard to four commodities, gold, tin, coal and lignite, and gemstones. It briefly discusses the occurrences of such mining, their salient features and concludes with four specific recommendations. Our recommendations primarily deal with the need for creation of a broader information base, delineating a responsible body to deal with this kind of mining, legal reforms leading to definitional changes and finally, the recognition of the poverty alleviation potential of this sector in view of the Millennium Development Goals.

Informal mining in livelihood diversification: mineral dependence and rural communities in Lao PDR

In the context of mineral extraction in South East Asia, the rural poor are generally portrayed as victims of large, invading corporatized mining enterprises. However, this paper argues that local villagers have also shown considerable agency in taking advantage of the mineral resource boom by diversifying their livelihoods to include informal mining. In South East Asia, the growth of informal mining has occurred within the overall process of agrarian transition. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich valley in southern Laos to highlight the location-specific nature of such transitions. The valleys environmental transformation has both caused and accompanied a modification in the peasant ways of life, and the recent entry of transnational mining companies and the growing market price of tin have fundamentally altered the relationships of the peasants with place, while at the same time encouraging them to claim mineral resource rights in ways that are not accommodated in conventional mining legislation. To conclude, the paper notes the multiple interpretations and contradictions of the increasing mineral dependence among Lao peasants in a rapidly changing world.

Act on Gender: A Peep into Intra-Household Water Use in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Region.

Abstract Intra-household water use and management from a gender perspective has remained a relatively under-researched theme in developed countries. Australia is no exception, with the lack of research particularly evident in the many rural and peri-urban communities. These communities have experienced significant water scarcity in recent years. In this context, this paper explores the potential of water use diaries to explore gender perspectives in Australian intra-household water use. Primarily a methodological paper, it examines the concepts that might inform a water diary examining gendered aspects of intra-household water management and use. Following the research approach to gendered intra-household resource allocation established in developing nation research, the aim is to develop a tool that has the potential to clarify the gender implications within households of current water policies and practices. Albeit a tentative step toward understanding gender aspects of intra-household water use and management, this paper raises a number of issues suggesting this type of research has both practical usefulness and academic importance. Its practical value lies in it capacity to influence the water agencies’ ability to target specific ‘water user groups’ and develop effective public policy in a participatory manner with detailed household information. The academic worth lies in the ‘cutting edge’ nature of the research as it explores an approach proven in developing nations but as yet narrowly adopted in Australia and other developed countries.

Medicalising menstruation: a feminist critique of the political economy of menstrual hygiene management in South Asia

Womens use of water differs from men in essentially one aspect: in cleansing the body of menstrual blood. The pledge of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector to place ‘women at the centre’ of development has in recent years, therefore, come to focus on menstruation. International development agencies have begun to push the agenda of menstrual hygiene management (MHM), but their use of a medical approach requires critical rethinking. This article argues that through MHM lessons, menstruation is medicalised to construct new and repressive expectations of normality for the female body. A medical construction also poorly accommodates the natural biological process of menstruation within the gamut of existing sociocultural practices. Consequently, menstruation becomes associated with the perceived need for not only sanitisation of the female body of the rural poor, but also to turn it into a working body that is able to ceaselessly and ‘normally’ perform its productive and reproductive chores. I note that the success of medicalisation relies upon the separation of the body from its purported waste, the menstrual blood. Once menstruation is confined to a pathological condition, treatable only by public agents such as doctors and commercially produced goods such as sanitary napkins, a defining essence of womanhood is thereby dissociated from the female body.

The Megaproject of Mining: A Feminist Critique

Mining has been the original human endeavor of engineering; tools are an integral part of the project of mining itself. Most contemporary mining projects continue to be characterized by the intensive use of technology and capital, and have come to symbolize the evils of neoliberal development. Consequently, a host of ideologies and approaches to development have battled with each other on the mine sites, especially as they increasingly break new grounds in third world countries. This paper critiques this megaproject of mining from a feminist perspective, and problematizes the interface between mining and gender in a bid to re-humanize the mining landscape. The critique rests on illuminating the naturalization of men through masculinized representations of mining as work, the masculinity of the miner, re-interpretations of gender-selective impacts of mining projects, and on exploring how technology in mining interacts differently with women and men.

'Like the Drifting Grains of Sand': Vulnerability, Security and Adjustment by Communities in the Charlands of the Damodar River, India

Abstract Charlands are islands formed in major river systems particularly in the flat deltaic plains such as those in the Bengal delta in eastern India and Bangladesh. The charlands in the lower reaches of the Damodar River in India are prone to frequent floods, shifting river channels and consequent riverbank erosion. In spite of these risks posed by the environment, migrant communities from Bihar and Bangladesh settle in the charlands because the soils are fertile, and because being untitled, they are relatively cheaper than legal lands. This paper explores the mental maps or perceptions that the chouras—the charland inhabitants—have of their places of living. We ask: How do the chouras see their fragile environment? Our findings are as follows: first of all, we agree that the perceptions of vulnerability and insecurity are subjective, and may differ widely between different communities or groups living in the charlands. Secondly, we note that ‘adaptation’ might be too broad a term; the specific process is more contingent than a long-term adaptation and best described as ‘adjustment’. Finally, we note that in light of our study into the livelihoods that people keep pursuing in marginal environments such as that of chars, a felt need has arisen to redefine categories such as ‘resilience’, ‘vulnerability’ or ‘security’. 1 Quote from our informant Naren Sarkar.

‘period problems’ at the coalface

Menstruation leave for women workers brings into the public domain of mining ongoing debates around protective legislation for women. It brings into focus the presumed tensions between gender equity and gender difference with regard to womens economic citizenship. Large-scale mining in East Kalimantan in Indonesia has offered some opportunities to poor and unskilled rural women to find formal jobs in the mines as truck and heavy equipment operators. This paper presents a case study of women in mining occupations, considers the implications of current menstruation leave provisions on the employment of women in the mines and raises serious issues related to gender equity in the workplace. The involvement of women in a non-conventional workplace such as the mine pits, providing a novel site for contestation over the rights of women workers, illuminates a less-debated area in feminist studies, especially in view of the significant ongoing changes in the Indonesian framework for industrial relations.