Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Women and the Struggle for the Environment (the Story of Indian Women)

Indian Women: struggle for the sustainability environment.
Dear my beloved readers, perhaps lately we often heard about the effort to save and defend our environment. The issue of environment become one of the crucial issue today, as we know that there are a lot of negative impact from the destruction of environment and mismanagement of natural resources, like climate change and global warming, water crises, and flood in many area. The decreased of environment sustainability, create many effort to do a tight protection through both locally or internationally. In India, the effort to struggle the environment is much done by the women. Through mobilization, women fight to prevent further more ecological destruction.

The green Revolution has created a positive impact by its success in increasing global food supply, but in the other hand, the failure of this revolution has created a negative impact by the ecological destruction. The problem of debt, the deforestation for the expansion of agricultural land, the negative effect of fertilizer and chemical pesticide, scarcity of water, and the building of dam which expropriate the area of society and agricultural land, and expropriate the role of women in the agricultural and as a the main food provider for their family and society is the become one of problem that is experienced by Indian society especially the women.

The green revolution has moved the control of natural resources (plantation) from women and farmer to the food corporation and multinational agribusiness by new superior varieties technology, and ignore the social and ecological effect of that revolution. In the other hand, Indian women against the natural concept as the pillage and try to protect environment as a Prakriti (the vitality to sustain the life). The Indian society, especially the women struggle to defend and preserve the life. The repression for the environment which is the kind of development model at a present also become a repression for the women, which depend on the nature in their effort to get a food for their family and society.

Try to protect the trees by embrace them.
That’s why the Indian women begin to make a mobilization to protect their environment. One of the movement is called Chipko Movement. Chipko means embrace, which describe the the effort of women to protect the plant by embracing the trees in order to prevent the saw machine and ax cutting the trees. Chipko movement has saved a thousand of square kilometers forests in Himalaya area, because the forest has a relation with their livelihood to fulfill their food supply and become of their income. The other movement is a Narmada Bachao Andolan which is still struggle until now to stop the building of dam in Narmada Valley.

By these movements, the Indian women try to struggle to prevent the ecological destruction. From years after years they commit a demonstration, protest and long march from one village to another village and get a positive result.

The effort of Indian women really wonderful, they have to sacrificed their live to protect the environment, and I hope it’s also become a inspiration for us to care our environment.

(thanks for my best friend, Eka Apritriasa)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Niar,

Can you let me me know about Chipko Movement.what is this you are also mention your blog..

Niar said...

dear Israel charity,
for further information about chipko movements you can visit
Chipko and the Rose-Colored Glasses of Ecofeminism.
www.utexas.edu/research/student/urj/journals/Chipko_for_URJ.doc

Chipko Movement, India. http://www.iisd.org/50comm/commdb//d07.htm

The Chipko Movement.
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80a03e/80A03E08.htm#4

The Chipko Movement. http://spot.colorado.edu/~wehr/491R10.TXT

The Chipko Movement. http://www.indiatoday.
com/itoday/millennium/100people/chipko.html

I am sorry I cant give a comment at your blog, hope you can find much information about chipko movements.

Gail said...

Hi Niar-
I came over to say hello after seeing you on Naval's blog.
Your writing is such a tribute to the power of women. I am inspired and humbled by your words.
Regards,
Gail
peace.....

Grace said...

This is too good that I didn't realized this really exit. There are really a lot of things that I didn't know about some cultures. I love knowing them. Thanks for this post, Niar.

leo7_lion said...

There is so much I can learn from you Niar^^ Let's work together for a better future^^

ayamlin said...

Hi niar!
I feel like global warm every winter. the snow is less than before in Japan.
We don't turn the air coditioning up for environments.
So it's cold at work even though we are inside of the building.
but can we stop global wamr even if we do that?!

Anonymous said...

Hello Niar, Nice post about our Indian women. There are a great many more stories about what they are doing. Unfortunately, much more needs to be done to get more of them out of the shell that they are in. On the climate issue particularly, I have just been to loveely and left a link to a site that may be of interest to you too http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7786910.stm

Tikno said...

As always, your post is interesting. Thank you for sharing this story, Niar. Hope will raise the awareness to environment.
How you feel in Jakarta?

NAVAL LANGA said...

Ms. Niar

The most worrisome issue is the pollution of the rivers. The chemical waste is the main element. It generates a cloud of environmental losses due to the polluted water and water-beds. The factories found disposing their chemical wastes in the rives should be immediately closed down.


Naval Langa
http://cleanfiction.blogspot.com/

Mari said...

It's good to know that there are still people who care for our environment; who protect them putting themselves in harm's way. It is our duty to protect our environment, otherwise our natural resources will be depleted in the years to come.

Nazanin said...

HI dear niar!
tnx pour comment!
yes I myseld did take it!
last winter:D
my id in yahoo is: mti_mti@yahoo.com

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