Gender considerations in implementing the Forest Rights Act in Jharkhand, India Amanda Richardson Resource Equity

Best Practices in Community Lands Project  Six case studies and a synthesis report  Peru, India, Kyrgyzstan, China, Ghana, and Namibia  All projects attempted to foster and protect women’s land rights  Question: which strategies and implementation methods are most beneficial to women?

Jharkhand, India  Constituted on 15 November 2000  28 percent scheduled tribes, 12 percent scheduled caste  30 percent forested

The Forest Rights Act  Recognizes forest dwellers’ rights to forests  Individual Forest Rights: title rights to land that is being farmed by forest dwellers  Community Forest Rights: rights of forest dwelling villages to protect, use, and manage forests  Gram Sabha (village assembly) initiates process, verifies claims, and constitutes committees to protect and manage forest

The Project  Facilitating Individual and Community Rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 and Strengthening Campaign on Peoples’ Access and Control over Natural Resources in Five Districts of Jharkhand  April May 2015  Oxfam India funding  Implemented by Naya Sawera Vikas Kendra (NSVK), a local NGO that focuses on strengthening the rights of communities

The Project: Components  Awareness raising  Local, village, and state level  Forest Rights Committee formation  Individual Forest Right and Community Forest Right application support

Case Study Findings: Organizational Commitment to Gender  Cross-cutting theme  Fewer women than men social workers  Self-help groups and women’s issue committees  Commitment to meaningful participation of women  Attention to time constraints

Awareness Raising Community level  Trainings on gender and Forest Rights Act  Equal numbers of men and women trained, and 60% of village leaders trained were women  Men were open to including men and women’s names jointly on documents  Interviewed men and women were unlikely to identify women leaders as dispute resolvers Government level  Local and state-level sensitization  Ongoing need to sensitize state-level officials, including the Forest Department  Ongoing need for advocacy to have documents issued

Forest Rights Committee Formation  Between 1/3 and 2/3 of Committees were women  50% of those present during FRA decision-making were women  Women in some villages had formed groups to protect the forest

Filing for Individual and Community Forest Rights  Assisted communities to map the forest and to list members who use the forest for agriculture  In some villages, women were not included in the mapping process  Sensitization on the importance of including women on titles  Both women and men were aware of the importance of documents and of their meaning

Case Study Recommendations  Promote deep involvement in target communities  Advocate for joint titling (both men’s and women’s names on titles)  Hold frequent meetings of women’s groups to help empower women  Use local staff  Work closely to build capacity of and provide incentives to implementing partners  Support government agencies when possible

Thank you!