Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

142 CHHAYA DATAR
environmental objective (as mentioned in the EGA) of regenerating
natural resources and safeguarding common property resources, which
are fast being encroached upon. The government can ensure the sustainability
of the resources by allowing marginalised people and women to
develop and use these for their livelihood. Restructuring access to natural
resources has been started with the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme.
Similarly, there is tremendous scope for allocating access to the
assets developed under the EGS, especially to women. ‘Social forestry’
plots could be given to the women who have worked on those plots earlier.
After paying a certain lease amount to the gram panchayat, the women
should be able to earn their livelihood, using the fodder and timber from
these plots and caring for their regeneration. This could become an entrepreneurship
venture for them.
Water rights and the water delivery system also need to be organised
through the SHG loans or the Swarna Jayanti Grameen Rojgar Yojana (SGRY).
As per the record published by the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Centre
(Nagpur), a total of 4,955,473 ha of wasteland is available in Maharashtra.
This land could be handed over to the women’s groups (or to individuals)
who wish to undertake horticulture or fuel and fodder production by
linking up with the micro-credit groups. The horticulture programme
implemented through the EGS did succeed to some extent in some areas
such as the Konkan, but the benefits did not accrue to the women because
the programme was for those who had land in their own names. Women
can benefit if they are given the wastelands and some funds to organise
the water delivery system.
At present, the EGS funds are being used for sericulture by small plot
holders under the justification that it provides employment to women.
However, it is the men who benefit as the land is in their name. There is
a need to encourage women entrepreneurs and landless women, who
could come together and organise the land-based activity. For example,
they could lease a plot of community land and plant guava trees, which
are least prone to plant diseases and pests. Guava trees bear fruits after
three years. The Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), an official
organisation for the economic development of women, should provide
marketing support so that the guavas could be supplied to food-processing
companies. There could be a pulp-processing factory in every district
and chilled pulp could be transported for packing in tetra-packs. Such