As per the 2011 Census, female population of Odisha was 207,45,680 and a major chunk plays a very vital role in the State’s economy. The Census reveals that there has been an increase in total workforce with proportion of male workers to male population and female workers to female population. Women workers constitute 28 per cent of the total women population.
The continued natural disasters and industrial and mining based economic interventions have been affecting the agriculture sector leading to a distress condition and having impact on the most marginalised sections. The condition of women in agriculture, mining and industrial areas is adversely affected.
The ongoing crisis in agrarian sector has been affecting women in their struggle to manage family and other economic activities outside family. Rural women have been playing a major role in the agricultural economy though they are not being recognised as farmers and without land entitlement. The women constitute about half of the workforce of agricultural and other allied activities.
Women workers have been facing access to credit and other Government schemes due lack of land entitlement and male dominance in all sphere of social life. The male dominated public institutions also very rarely encourage women for self employment at par with others. Women are mostly encouraged to form self help groups (SGH) to get Government subsidy and largely a majority of groups have no productive activities except private lending.
The prevailing distress condition in rural areas has rendered women more vulnerable in the absence of social security and entitlement rights along with socio-religious barriers. While a major chunk of male workers are migrating to different parts in search of livelihood, the women are left in family with the responsibility of managing family of children and elders. Women of marginalised sections such as Dalit and Adivasis are sharing the burden of livelihood in family apart from household responsibility. Women are mostly engaged in agriculture, forestry, minor forest produce collection, animal husbandry work but mining activities have changed their occupation as construction workers and casual labourers. lack of homestead land and proper shelter is a major issue which affects women more in providing security to self and family. Along with agriculture, many Dalit and Adivasi women are working in mines as casual labourer under contractors in Sukinda, Keonjhar and Sundaragarh mines areas. They face all kinds of exploitation like lack of minimum wage, social security and protection against sexual harassment at work place etc. The flow of truckers and migrant workers disturb the normal life of the local people and particularly women are more venerable to this situation. It is found that there are single mothers (unwed mothers) in mining areas of Sukinda, Keonjhar, Angul and Jharasuguda. Their socio-economic condition is very bad which needs urgent attention. The condition of women in mining hutting is very insecure with alcoholism and crimes ruling the roost. The health condition of women in mining areas marked with low infant mortality and pollution related disease like TB and Asthma etc.
The Odisha Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy says that unmarried girls above the age of 30 years have to be treated separate families. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 also says an unmarried Hindu woman is entitled to equal share in ancestral property along with other male members. Many land owning caste Hindu families women are taking the advantage of it in mining areas while getting compensation for their land. But Dalit and Adivasi women are not getting this advantage because of their landlessness and lack of education for formal jobs.
The State Government has instructed to issue homestead land “patta” in the name of both husband and wife but it has been observed that no where women are applying for land patta at tehsil offices. Women are participating in all public events organized in protest or in demand but women leadership is invisible in all these struggles in various organizations. Marginalized poor, resourceless, unskilled and illiterate families, Adivasies, landless Dalits, fisher folk on river bank, mines workers in mining areas are under pressure to earn a livelihood while coping with the changing local economic scenario. The industrialisation and mining activities have largely impacted over agriculture in all mining and industrial areas in many ways. It is evident that the recent farmer suicides are reported from western parts of the State where mining and industries have a major role in the local economy. Mineral extraction activities cause huge displacement, pollution, loss of livelihood of people dependant on agriculture, water and forest based subsistence economy. There has been growing poverty, dislocation of families and breakdown of community life due to unemployment, low income natural disaster, distress migration and multiple displacements in mining and industrial areas that affect women and make their position vulnerable which encourages girl child labour as domestic maids, wage workers in mines, distress migration, sale of girls by parents and social insecurity in family and community. This kind of situation makes young women vulnerable when they go out to earn a living. They fall easy prey of false promises of marriage and sexual exploitation.
While rural poor and illiterate women are struggling against the impact of the economic policy on agriculture and employment along with continued age-old socio-cultural systems like male dominance, caste and ethnic barriers, and loss of dignity. The violence against women is not limited to sexual harassment, abuse or exploitation; it also includes poverty, unemployment, distress migration, single mother, various forms of gender based discrimination in family and society, trafficking, sexual exploitation with false promise of marriage, sexual harassment at workplace and rape etc. The State Commission for Women has registered hundreds of complaints of cheating and rape cases and the number of these cases are on the rise.
Mining attracts the inflow of outsiders, truckers, casual workers, contractors and encourages a consumer culture, where liquor and different type of addictions play a key role. Poor young women are trapped easily by this culture. As a result, sexual exploitation by cunning male and consent of young women for sexual co-habitation is taken fraudulently that lead to unwed motherhood. leave apart mining, there are also male perpetuators in the village, protected by dominant people of the locality, who are denying marriage in demand of dowry and avoiding the girls on caste, religion and community ground after having exploited them sexually.
In these cases girls are being insisted to go for illegal abortion and threatened with gross atrocities if they expose the case in public. The Government should encourage women organisations in rural areas to play a proactive role of counsellor and facilitator along with all kinds of support and training to handle the cases. The Government and the women organisations should provide multi level services like socio- psychological support, minimum financial assistance for livelihood, employment and emergency child health care and legal aid to access justice.
By the effort of women movements with progressive ideas, there has been growing consciousness about women human rights and bringing change in patriarchal legacy as a global phenomenon. Many of the concerns of gender discourses have been visibly reflected in Government’s development policy relating to education and employment of women, social security for workers, women participation in governance and gender budgeting. But most of the programmes are limited to urban educated women and women of organised sector are the major beneficiaries of such schemes and provisions. The women in rural areas are being deprived of the benefits of such schemes and programmes.
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