6.1.5 Differential Impact Of Environmental Change

6.1.5 Differential Impact of Environmental Change
There is a gendered impact of environmental change due to a variety of reasons like everyday dependence on forest, land and water resources. More than two third of women respondents said the time required for collection of fuelwood has increased leading to increased physical drudgery. The decline in soil fertility has adversely impacted food production and access to nutrition, this in turn has resulted increased migration of men, and greater dependence on market products. Both these developments have increased women’s work load and impacted their access to food and nutrition. Two third of women respondents said due to the drying up of water springs they have to walk longer distances for collecting
The programs of peoples groups and organisations were varied, decentralised, context specific and based on traditional religious and cultural practices. These programmes presented ample scope for participation. ii. A number of environmental programmes were being undertaken by the peoples group, community based organisations and voluntary organisations. These programmes were related to protection and management of forests, soil conservation, water conservation, awareness generation, nursery development, revival of traditional agricultural practices. iii. The programmes of peoples groups and voluntary organisation related to forest focussed on regeneration through protection and afforestation. Most programmes utilised people’s traditional indigenous knowledge for conserving and protecting natural resources. These programmes provided better scope for participation vis-`a-vis government programmes. iv. The respondents showed good awareness of environment, while members of women’s group, voluntary organisation showed relatively better awareness. A majority of the respondents were not aware of the government schemes and
Women undertake most of the implementation work in the voluntary and people group these were, i) Patrolling and guarding the fields and forest, ii) Undertaking fencing to check illegal encroachment, iii) Implementing the rules and procedures for forest protection, iv) nursery development and plantation of trees, v) planning, and implementation of clean drives, vii) environment awareness programmes and viii) social action programmes. Women’s efforts have led to regeneration around 600-700 hectares of degraded forest land in three villages of the study