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Abha Bhaiya, Bishakha Bhanja and Pramila Swain during an interview of local women leaders of the anti POSCO movement for the WRN Community Conversations, Odisha. Photo Credit: Abha Bhaiya “We planned beforehand that we will stand naked. Nine of us stood naked in a row, loosened our hair and held in our fists a piece of bone. We felt like Durga (in her fierce avatar) destroying the POSCO demon to save our land. Behind us there were women in two rows. When the police came and saw us they back tracked and fled. In March 2013 three of us announced that on international women’s day we would bear our bodies rather than allow the police to come and take away our land (Five days before POSCO men had hurled a bomb and two were killed). When the police came. We confronted them:’Why have you come? What do you want to see?’ We took off our upper garments. They slapped obscenity charges against us.” — Santi Das Most active women are in the age group of 30 to 50 years. They either have young daughters or daughtersin-law to take care of the household chores, so that the women can be full time anti POSCO workers. Children are the first line of defence and while as a strategy it has been effective, it raises uncomfortable questions. Bishakha and Abha observed “In order for children to join the struggle and picket along with adults, married daughters of protesting women and men were called away from their marital homes so that along with their young siblings, the younger children could join the picketing and the daughters could take care of the household chores. This had a negative fallout as the children picketing, lost out on education”. In 2011, Jaganath Das a class VII student joined more than 200 children and women at the barricade. For 15-20 days they laid down in front of thousands of armed police, until we drove them away. “I would not leave my land even if I got a job. Do you think POSCO would wait till I get a job? And what if I failed in my exam? Do you think even if I passed matriculation, POSCO would give me a job? What kind of job would it be? A peon, a messenger? But if I work here in my vine, catch fish from the sea, I shall earn more money.” — Jaganath Das CORRUPTION & INSECURITY In this confrontation, the police, the legal system and other government agencies have become positioned as a source of insecurity and oppression for the women. The demand is for the withdrawal of the police from their villages. However, there is a curious contradiction. Whereas, in moments of confrontation, women take pride in their defiance of the police, in more reflective moments, the women realise “the police are just the paid servants of government following government instructions. On occasions, the police have confessed that they are with us and we should not stop. So whenever we hold the police hostage in the village, we treat them well”. For the women of the movement, state law and order institutions are deligitimised as they are seen as part of a corrupted system which has sacrificed the interests of citizens and sold out to globalised corporate interests. 18 UNEQUAL CITIZENS: Women’s Narratives of Resistance, Militarisation, Corruption and Security
As can be viewed directly in the MoU with POSCO, the state government is seen as a “promoter” and “facilitator” of the POSCO projects and is viewed as colluding with the company to enable it to bypass statutory and regulatory requirements on environmental issues and peoples’ consultative processes. As the women see it, “corruption is writ large on the POSCO project. The Chief Minister is like God Brahma the Creator, showering the state’s wealth on POSCO.” “Without bribes POSCO could not have entered Odisha! The ruling party has eaten money from the company, we need little food. Since their stomachs are big, they need to eat a lot. This is the reason why the government, instead of protecting the interest of its own people, is protecting the company. For its own benefit the company has kept hired goons by paying them heftily. The police and the bureaucrats have benefited greatly from the company. Local politicians are co-opted by the ruling party leaders.” Security has to do with land and livelihood security. Take away land (private and communal) and there is no security. For the women,“peace exists when we would be left to fend for ourselves, when no government or no company takes away our land. We have our vines and rights over the jungle and sea.” FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES It is important to acknowledge that the anti POSCO movement leaders have been very successful in mobilising women and keeping the morale of the protest high. Women have displayed tremendous courage of conviction, and this is not only because of leaders like Abhay Sahoo but because they are determined to hold on to their source of livelihood and the ancestral land. Women believe they have the largest stake in the movement and that has made for a selfless commitment to the struggle despite brutal assaults and escalating violence by the armed police, government agencies and POSCO men. Abhya Bhaiya, in particular, while recognising the courage and resislience of peoples resistance movements raised certain conceptual questions in the context of the ideological position of the left political resistance movements in general and the anti POSCO movement in particular. “On the one hand, the feminist movement needs to join hands with such popular people centered movements against anti people globalised development. A democratic government that refuses to respect the constitutional entitlement of people, especially women, who are the most honoured owners of the land in terms of how they have maintained the sanctity of the land and its sustainability, in fact has no legitimacy to rule. The anti POSCO movement members including women and children have used their fundamental right to challenge this refusal. Several such movements are ongoing all across the country and in a majority of cases, it is the strong presence and voice of women that stands witness to their rightful demand for justice including the demand to stand strong on their homestead.” “As feminists, the question to ask is whether the effort of the left or any other political formation to use women as front liners, can lead to the gendering of the movement? More often it leads to instrumentalising women for its own end. In the anti POSCO movement, women are not seen as the architect of the movement as they are rarely included in the decision making processes. The strategies women employ are based on their memories of extreme suffering and unimaginable hope. The leadership recognises this magic both in terms of the undeterred commitment of women as well as their practiced subservience to men whether as fathers, husbands or leaders. This is a familiar patriarchal script where women do not need to learn to follow. They, in fact, follow with full faith and trust. Men exploit this quality and find women to be the most reliable strategists and followers.” The widely held belief that issues of life and livelihood are more important and issues of inequality related to gender and caste can be taken up once the economic issue is addressed, is often an obstacle in raising equality issues within the movement. Moreover, the widely held belief that issues of life and livelihood are more important and issues of inequality related to gender and caste can be taken up once the economic issue is addressed, is often an obstacle in raising equality issues within the movement. The fact that women accept that the issue of domestic violence is secondary to the struggle for land and livelihood, is UNEQUAL CITIZENS: Women’s Narratives of Resistance, Militarisation, Corruption and Security 19
Page 1 and 2: UNEQUAL CITIZENS WOMEN’S NARRATIV
Page 3 and 4: UNEQUAL CITIZENS WOMEN’S NARRATIV
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Introd
Page 7 and 8: SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION India offic
Page 9 and 10: tapestry of local ‘grassroots’
Page 11 and 12: JAGATSINGHPUR (ODISHA) The nine yea
Page 13 and 14: heard women students and teachers,
Page 15 and 16: SECTION II: JAGATSINGHPUR: RESISTAN
Page 17 and 18: While celebrating their courage, co
Page 19: Village Women in Community Conversa
Page 23 and 24: we met one girl who is a school dro
Page 25 and 26: SECTION III: KANDHAMAL: THE AFTERMA
Page 27 and 28: a Hindu’s house at night, the mob
Page 29 and 30: “If I am called to court, and I a
Page 31 and 32: SECTION IV: RAJOURI & POONCH: LIVES
Page 33 and 34: “People have long been victims of
Page 35 and 36: The families of militants were unde
Page 37 and 38: A 70-year old grandmother from a fe
Page 39 and 40: Shakeel’s family is no stranger t
Page 41 and 42: The students are only too aware wha
Page 43 and 44: CHAPTER V TRIPURA: A FRACTURED WORL
Page 45 and 46: Reang Women, Dhalai District, Tripu
Page 47 and 48: Women linked corruption with their
Page 49 and 50: CHAPTER VI EMERGING PATTERNS In see
Page 51 and 52: Within the context of armed struggl
Page 53 and 54: In addition the social-legal constr
Page 55 and 56: RECOMMENDATIONS PREAMBLE: We emphas
Page 57 and 58: in the state. Violations of law and
Page 59 and 60: SELECT BIBLIOGRAHY ODISHA ANTI- POS
Page 61 and 62: ENDNOTES 1 Which would trigger the
Page 63 and 64: UNEQUAL CITIZENS: Women’s Narrati

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