1. INCREASING OPPORTUNITIES FOR
INDIGENOUS WOMEN AS KEY
ACTORS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’
WELL-BEING:
HOW TO STRENGTHEN
TRADITIONAL LIVELIHOOD,
COMMUNAL ECONOMY AND
KNOWLEDGE
Anima Pushpa Toppo
animapushpa.toppo@gmail.com
EC member of AIPP &
Convener, Jharkhand Jangal Bachao Andolan (India)

2. Importance of Indigenous peoples
Indigenous
Non Indigenous

3. Forest and Tribal Society
LIFE and LIVELIHOOD IS CENTRED IN
FOREST
FOREST BASED SOCIETY
Traditionally the spiritual, cultural and economic
life of the tribe is largely dependent on flora and
fauna

4. Forest and women
The notion of ‘mother earth’ is at the center of the
value system
Forest has always been a source of empowerment
for women in tribal society’
In the pre-patriarchal era woman enjoyed special
status in society as the discoverer of agriculture
and as the healer because of her intimacy with
forest. In the patriarchal era too neither the state
nor the tribal patriarchy could ever fully alienate
her from the forest
Forest resources are strictly associated with
women

5. Tribal economy concept
Monetary benefits
Which are identified as saleable goods in the market as
per the domain of the traditional knowledge system.
Non-monetary benefits
Those benefits which are cannot be weighed in
monetary balance but necessary for the traditional
economy to carry out economic work like, teamwork,
family support, sharing and learning, traditional
institutions (pancha, madait).

6. Tribal economy concept
Women find their involvement in
both the monetary as well as non
monetary economic benefits.
Women are backbone of the
traditional knowledge holder.
Possess dearth of knowledge about variety of food availability,
technique, practices, which have been learned and shared within
family and society, and used as a main strategy during the crisis
situation over the years.

7. Women in traditional economy

8. Specific Role of Tribal Women
Gathering fruit, roots, herbs, firewood…
To perform rituals, and spiritual activities.
Agriculture –put out the traditional seeds from grain
house
Build and Take care of home
Information gathering and transferring to the larger
society

9. Recognition by International bodies
Indigenous knowledge is an invaluable basis for
developing adaptation and natural resource
management strategies in response to environmental
and other forms of change’ (IPCC, 2007).
This recognition was reaffirmed at IPCC’s 32nd Session
(IPCC, 2010a) and consideration of traditional and
indigenous knowledge was included as a guiding
principle for the Cancun Adaptation Framework
(CAF) that was adopted by Parties at the 2010 United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) Conference in Cancun (UNFCCC, 2010).

10. Factors for strengthening traditional
economy:
Strengthening local institution
Community function as a unit under different institutions
like Gram Sabha, women group, youth group, cultural
groups and traditional helping groups (Pancha, Madait).
These local institutions are nothing but the subsets of
knowledge block.
Promoting community own resource
management
Community owned resources are usually governed by rules
and sanctions framed by local people in order to protect
available resources, manage and continuous access to it.

11. Factors for strengthening traditional
economy:
Trust creation by promoting Intellectual
Property Rights (IPR)
A constant programme and training on IPR should be
given to indigenous community so that they can feel
proud of their knowledge and safeguarded, which is
in fact part of their culture and identity.
Increase women participation
Indigenous women are the prime knowledge holder.
Hence, women participation should be increased at
different level and institutions, within society so that
learning and sharing process get strengthen.

12. Factors for strengthening traditional
economy:
Strengthening Bottom approach
Once the youth and children recognize their traditional
economy then they can further work on
strengthening and protection. If children don’t
recognize and show interest then with the expiration
of knowledge holding generation the whole set of
knowledge will be lost.

13. Factors for strengthening traditional
economy:
Implementation of Govt. policy, Act and
schemes which supports traditional
knowledge system
Traditional economy can also be strengthened by
properly implementing Govt. policy, Act, and
schemes which are framed towards protection and
conservation of traditional economy.
In India, Forest Right Act (FRA) 2006, Panchayat
Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) 1996, are
the few which has the provision of protecting
traditional economy.