ECOFENISM

The growth of industrialization, urbanization has adversely affected the country’s bio-mass which
have disturbed the livelihood of poor women.

Eco-feminism was coined as a term in 1974 when Frenchwoman Françoise d’Eubonne called
for an ecological revolution to be led by women in order to save planet Earth. It presupposes
a direct connection between women’s biology and women’s relationship with the
environment.

Women, particularly those living in rural area, play a major role of managing natural resources
which include soil, water, forests and sources of energy. Their task in agriculture and animal
husbandry, as well as their central role in the household make them daily managers of living
environment.

As the women work ahead in the environment, they are the one who suffer more from the adverse
effect of environmental degradation.

The “women and the environment” approach stresses the potential of women’s role as
“day-to-day administrators” of natural resources. It is maintained that women are the
most affected by the energy crisis; therefore they should be considered as being the best
placed to tackle and resolve this crisis. So in this approach, the focus is on the special
characteristics of women as “custodians of the environment”.

The way in which male-female interaction affects and is affected by environmental change.

The ideology that sustains and defines the subordinate position of women as against men and
the obstacles that women face in obtaining access to and control of environmental resources,
and in exercising power in decision-making processes dealing with the direction of
sustainable development

Scarcity of energy:
The scarcity of cooking fuel forces the women to reduce the energy used for cooking. This
may result in fewer hot meals being prepared per day, or increasing the quantity cooked,
reducing the cooking to once a day or every two days. This is not only means nutrient losses,
but also great risk of infection and illness form eating stale food. Undercooked may create
toxic.
The food gathering activities of women provided that bulk of subsistence food
and men’s hunting activity provided only supplementary proteins. Thus
women’s relationship to the environment is life giving rather than life taking.

NGOs working in rural India report that women in many villages find themselves walking 2
km or more to their daily drinking water source.

easier access to water is desirable not just for economic reasons but for overall quality of life,
regardless of how the extra time is spent.

In urban and semi-urban areas in the developing world, women and children would not have
to walk long distances, but waiting in line takes time.

The 2006 Human Development Report concludes that there is a “straight trade-off between
time spent in school and time spent collecting water”, and that this is much less true for boys
than it is for girls.

In rural India and Africa, especially during the dry season, 30% or more of a
woman’s daily energy intake is spent just in fetching water.

Carrying heavy loads over long periods of time causes cumulative damage to the spine, the
neck muscles and the lower back, thus leading to the early ageing of the vertebral column.

Women and irrigation:

Women are often denied direct (that is, not mediated by male relatives) access to irrigation
water. Second, new participatory irrigation management policies may not improve women’s
access to water unless the policies take account of gender-specific roles in agriculture

Women are most affected by lack of sanitation and safe water.

Women and Fuel wood:

It has been observed that the relative status of women within the family is higher in well-
forested villages/ villages close to natural forests, because their contribution to subsistence
and cash incomes of households is greater.

Movement:

The mid seventies and eighties witnessed several environmental movements in Asia, Africa
and Latin America.

Chipko Movement
The Chipko movement is particularly known because of its actions to resist the destruction of their
lands and livelihoods since 1974. In that year, the government of Uttar Pradesh (now: Uttarakhand
region) in the Himalayan foothills diverted the men of Reni village to a fictional compensation
payment site. At the same time labourers disembarked from trucks to start logging activities near
the village. Under the leadership of Gaura Devi, (a 50-year old illiterate woman) women rushed
from their homes to hug the trees (‘chipko’ means hugging) and prevent them from being cut. A
four-day standoff ended in victory for the villagers. The actions of the women of Reni were
repeated in several other places in the region, as hill women demonstrated their power as non-
violent activists. Then question comes why women imitated this kind of resistance for the forest?
The threat of deforestation was enough to rally the local women to civil disobedience to protect
the eco-system. They knew very well that their well-being, their prosperity, their life, all was
associated with the forest. Some commentators have described Chipko movement as ‘Women’s
Movement’ (Bahuguna 1975).

A fight to save environment- Himachal Pradesh

It was a moment of pride for every Indian woman when in 1995 a scheduled caste, illiterate woman
of a Below Poverty Line family from a remote village of Himachal Pradesh with fragile frame was
given honour to inaugurate the 4th World Conference on women in Beijing, China. In fact the
chief guest was Ms Hillary Clinton, the then first lady of the US. But she invited bare foot
environmentalist to light the lamp as she felt her to be the most deserving person. This Great
women Environmentalist, died in 2007 at the age of 75 years, Kinkari Devi who belongs to Village
Sangrah, District Sirmaur of Himachal Pradesh. Kinkari Devi belonged to a poor family where
education of girls was considered a foolish and money wasting task, and even they did not have
enough resources to make their male child literate. So like other girls, she was left uneducated and
got married in her teens. She was forced to work as a daily wages worker but unable to manage
even two meals a day for herself and her son. Since childhood, Kinkari Devi had an attachment
and love for environment. All these difficulties were also not able to break her bond and relation
with ‘Jal, Jungle and Jameen’ (Water, Forest and Land). With courage and determination, she
fought a long battle with mining mafia and system to protect the valuable mountains of Himachal
Pradesh from getting ruined. Then she decided to make the local people aware and to organize
them for the survival of the hills. She held small demonstrations, rallies and speeches with the
support of one local NGO. As a result of Kinkari’s determination and courage, local people of the
village started to support her and organized themselves into small groups, which created awareness
in other villages. These small groups played a crucial role in making people aware about their
rights to have clean environment. She took the case to the High Court. The story of Kinkari Devi
is a tale of a true Indian Rural Woman who despite facing different odds did not leave the path of
truth. Kinkari Devi explained the reason behind her initiative, “Pahar se hi hamara vajood hai.
Pahar nahi honge to hum bhi nahi rahenge.” (Our existence depends on mountains, without
mountains our survival is not possible). She said that in her culture, the environment is considered
as mother and serving the mother is everybody’s duty. She was honoured by ‘Rani Jhansi Stri
Shakti’ awarded by the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee for her invaluable
contribution to protect the environment of the region.

Movement in West Bengal:

A group of women from Grameen Mahila Shramik Unnayan Samit in Bankura district of West
Bengal organized themselves to reclaim wasteland. Women have also been active in the movement
of saving the land, a particular resistance movement dedicated to protection of the village
commons. Here the regenerated commons have been managed exclusively by women.

Women movement against industrial pollution in Japan

In Japan, in the 1950s, the Nakabaru Women’s Society and Sanroku Women’s Society protested
loudly against pollution from industries and power plants in the Tobata region. Women
started to raise their voices in opposition and organized an increasingly powerful movement. From
the authorities and companies, the women claimed the right to live in a safe and healthy
environment. This resulted in major pollution prevention measures taken by the local government
and corporations.

It is important to recall the names of Indian women who have fought legal battles in the court of
law for environment protection, as Mrs. Sarla Tripathi of Indore, Kinkari Devi of Sirmour District,
Krishna Devi of Rajasthan etc. Today the torchbearers are Maneka Gandhi, an environmentalist &
politician, Medha Patekar, a social worker & environmentalist who are carrying on the crusade of
environment protection.

In Germany women moved against the atomic power plant.

Women’s movement in Malaysia to fight against deforestation.

In the developed world, women, recognizing the relationship between consumerism and the
environment are finding expression through various groups such as Women’s
Environmental Network in the UK and similar groups in Canada, Switzerland and Malaysia.
Beside this, women have campaigned on a wide range of issues, including dumping of waste
materials, use of toxic and chemicals in agriculture.

Since 1988, Mother and Children against toxic waste has actively campaigned against the
production and dumping of toxic waste in the U.K..

Canadian and Australian women have demonstrated against uranium mining.

Orkney women have campaigned against the Dounreay Nuclear Reactor.

Green Belt Movement

Another movement, which is one of the biggest in women and environmental history, is the Green
Belt movement. The Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai founded this movement on the World
Environment Day in June 1977. The starting ceremony was very simple: a few women planted
seven trees in Maathai’s backyard. By 2005, thirty million trees had been planted by participants
in the Green Belt movement on public and private lands. The Green Belt movement aims to bring
environmental restoration along with society’s economic growth. This movement led by Maathai
focused on restoration of Kenya’s rapidly diminishing forests as well as empowering the rural
women through environmental preservation, with a special emphasis on planting indigenous trees.