Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

66 NEERA M. SINGH
These early networking examples provided directions and lessons
for the formation of the Parishad. For almost a year, during 1996–97,
Vasundhara staff facilitated meetings at the village and cluster levels, where
community members expressed the need for networking and for a collective
forum. According to community leaders, they felt that such a forum
would help in resolving inter- and intra-village conflicts, and in increasing
their collective strength to deal with external threats. Following this, in
1997, around 85 villages came together to form a loose network, which
was named the Maa Maninag Jungle Surakhya Parishad, in honour of
the local deity, Maa Maninag, and the Maninag hill and forest.
In the initial phase, the Parishad was dominated by men and there
were hardly any women present at the meetings, as has been the usual case
with other CFM groups and federations. The discussion on women’s
involvement at one of the Parishad’s initial meetings is illustrative. At a
meeting in 1997, when Parishad members were discussing the structure
and tentative byelaws, they were not very forthcoming with any special
provisions for the representation of women and other marginalised
sections such as Dalits and tribals. Staff from the facilitating organisation,
Vasundhara, gently nudged, ‘What about women, do you want to keep
any special stipulations on women’s representation? What about Dalits
and tribals?’ The response from the federation leaders was: ‘But these are
people who destroy forests! If we allow them in, or give special consideration
to their interests and needs, the forest will be gone in no time.’ A
very heated discussion ensued. ‘Is this really the case, and can forests be
protected by ignoring the needs and interests of these forest dependent
sections?’ The federation leaders discussed this till late in the night. The
next morning, the secretary of the Parishad shared their decision, ‘We
discussed this issue at length. We will include women (that is, make special
provisions for their representation). Otherwise, it will not look nice.
Nowadays, most agencies/organisations insist on women’s involvement.
There are also reservations for women at different places, including the
panchayats. Against this backdrop, it will not look nice if we do not include
women. So, we have decided that we will keep women (make provisions
for their involvement)’.
The Parishad has come a long way from the time they included women
as part of a cosmetic ‘look good’ strategy. Here, I discuss this process of
transformation. This section is based on an analysis of the records of the