Sub-Group on Sex Disaggregated Data of the IAWG on Gender ... · Women’s Role and Contribution to Forest-Based Livelihoods by Prema Gera The analysis and policy recommendations

Women’s Role and Contributionto Forest-Based Livelihoods

by

Prema Gera

The analysis and policy recommendations of this Paper do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe United Nations, its Executive Board or its Member States

Sub-Group on Sex Disaggregated Dataof the IAWG on Gender and Development

UNDP, 55, Lodi Estate,New Delhi - 110003, India

Website - http://hdrc.undp.org.in

UNESCO HouseB-5/29, Safdarjung EnclaveNew Delhi - 110 029, India

Website - http://unescodelhi.nic.ine-mail - [email protected]

2002

ii

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Dr. N.C. Saxena and Ms. Madhu Sarin for reviewing this paperand providing useful insights, inputs and encouragement and to Ms. Anu Bhasin for editorialassistance. The study was carried out in August 2001.

The contribution of Ms. Swati Bakshi Moghe in providing relevant papers and secondaryreferences that are available at the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal isgratefully acknowledged.

Acknowledgements

iii

Two national workshops jointly organised in 1998 by the UN System, the Department of Women and ChildDevelopment and the Central Statistical Organisation helped in identifying a set of 18 indicators to be compiledat the district level and areas of research that needed more focus. Access to resources, to assets, widowhoodand destitution were identified as possible areas for special studies to be undertaken with the aim of improvingthe data system. Control over resources was among the proposed 18 indicators with work force participationrate and wage rate differentials as the current proxy. Subsequent discussions and reports such as the South AsiaHDR 2000, which focused on gender, also highlighted the critical importance of improving gender data espe-cially with regard to the women’s control over resources. Therefore, it was thought useful to focus on women’saccess to and control over resources.

Women workforce participation rates (WPR) in tribal areas have been consistently high. This has implicationsfor computation of Gender Development Index (GDI) for tribal communities and areas. In terms of spatialdisaggregation (district and sub-district) the GDI measure could be used as a tool for resource allocation anddecentralised planning. Given this orientation, this paper studies women’s role and contribution to forest basedlivelihoods, especially the minor forest produce (MFP) by mapping the existing data available not only with thenational data bases (Census and National Sample Survey and National Accounts System) but also with the linedepartments at the state level.

The Human Development Resource Centre of the UNDP India Country Office and United Nations Educa-tional Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) took the lead in having this paper prepared as part ofthe activities of the Sub-group on Sex Disaggregated Data of the UN Inter Agency Working Group on Genderand Development.

Ms. Prema Gera has been associated with the development sector since 1990. She has worked with NGOsand international donors and is currently a development consultant.

ProloguePrologue

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GLOSSARYGLOSSARY

JFM Joint Forest Management

NCO National Classification of Occupations

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

NIC National Industrial Classification

NSS National Sample Survey

NTFPs Non-Timber Forest Products

SNA System of National Accounts

TRIFED Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited

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CONTENTSCONTENTS

Section I INTRODUCTION 1

Section II WOMEN’S ROLE IN FORESTRY 3

Gathering Fuelwood, Fodder and NTFPs 3

Employment and Income 5

Management and Protection of Forests 9

Women in User Groups 10

Women in Forest Departments 11

Summary 11

Section III GENDER FOCUS IN FOREST POLICY AND PROGRAMMES 13

Gender Focus in Policy, Programmes and Schemes 13

Gender Reporting in Forest Department Operations 19

Employment: Direct and Self-employment 22

Gender Budgeting 22

Section IV INCLUSION OF WOMEN’S ROLE IN FORESTRY INNATIONAL DATABASES 24

National Sample Survey 24

Census of India, 1991 28

National Accounts Statistics 31

Time-Use Surveys 31

Gender Reporting in the Databases 33

Suggestions for Strengthening Databases 34

APPENDIX 36

BIBLIOGRAPHY 39

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Gender Distribution of Work in Forestry Operations 5

Table 2 Employment Generated by Forest Department’sHarvesting Operations (1980) 5

Table 3 Women’s Employment in the Forest Service 11

Table 4 Representation in Forest Development Authorities 17

Table 5 Gender-wise Employment and Wages in Forestry: NSS Reports 26

Table 6 Gender-wise, Rural-Urban Distribution of Main and MarginalForestry Workers 29

Table 7 Gender-wise, Occupational Classification of Main Workers 30

Table 8 Gender-wise, Time-Use Survey of Forest-Related Activities 32

LIST OF BOXES

Box 1 Employment Opportunities in the Forestry Sector 5

Box 2 Panchayats and NTFPs 9

Box 3 Employment Opportunities in Forestry Operations 19

Box 4 Forest Produce Cooperatives 20

Box 5 Activity Status of Working Persons in the Forestry Sector 25

1

IntroductionIntroduction

Poverty in rural India is generally con-sidered to be linked to inadequate arableland or its low productivity. Collectionsfrom forests such as fuelwood and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and theircontribution to household income inrural areas especially for communities liv-ing adjacent to forests, are largely unno-ticed1 . There are an estimated 100 mil-lion people in the country who live inand around forests and another 275 mil-lion for whom forests constitute an im-portant source of livelihood2.

As a result of the gender division ofwork, it is primarily women who are themajor gatherers of a wide range ofNTFPs for subsistence and as a sourceof income. Women are also employedalong with men in forestry operations ofthe forest and other departments. Ad-ditionally, they have been prominent inregional movements for forest protec-tion, such as the Chipko Movement inUttaranchal and self-initiated forest pro-tection groups.

An emerging understanding of the fol-lowing has triggered interest in the roleof women in forestry and the foresteconomy:

l Importance of forest produce, espe-cially fuelwood, fodder and NTFPs,

in the livelihood of the rural poor.

l Participation of women in the forest-derived economy as primary collectorsof forest produce, as wage employeesin forestry operations and forest-basedenterprises and in forest management.

l The dominant role played by womenin mass movements to protect forests.

l A growing realisation that forestryprojects can only partially succeed ifthey do not involve women.

l An increasing focus on gender andequity issues in international and na-tional fora and policymaking and onthe need to analyse gender issues foreach sector and programme.

In this context, the present paper is anoutcome of a study commissioned by theHuman Development Resource Centreof the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme and UNESCO, New Delhito examine the following:

l Women’s role and contribution to for-est-based livelihoods, with special ref-erence to non-timber forest products(NTFPs).

l Gender focus in forest policy, forestryschemes and government programmes.

1 Kumar, N., N.C. Saxena, Y. Alagh and K. Mitra, 2000, Poverty Alleviation through Forestry Development, CountryCase Study, Operations Evaluation Department, The World Bank. Washington DC.

2 Bajaj, Manjul, 2001, The Impact of Globalisation on the Forestry Sector in India with Special Reference to Women’sEmployment, Paper for National Commission on Labour: Group on Women and Child Labour, New Delhi

There are anestimated 100 millionpeople in the countrywho live in andaround forests andanother 275 millionfor whom forestsconstitute animportant source oflivelihood

SECTION I

2 WOMEN’S ROLE AND CONTRIBUTION TO FOREST-BASED LIVELIHOODS

l Gender reporting of women in forestryin:- The Census, National Sample Sur-

veys and National Accounts Statis-tics

- Departmental data.

l Indicators that capture women’s rolesin forest-based livelihoods including anevaluation of the adequacy ofworkforce participation rates and wagerate differentials as a proxy for women’scontrol over forests and forest produce.

l Suggestions for strengthening genderreporting on issues related to forestsfor national databases and departmen-tal data.

This paper is based on:

l A desk review of secondary literatureand relevant government publicationsand documents. The sources consultedare referred to in the footnotes and alist of relevant publications on womenand forestry is given in Appendix.

l Meetings and discussions with expertsand resource persons, research andpolicy institutions and governmentdepartments (the footnotes refer todiscussions where relevant).

The paper is organised as follows:

Section II discusses the role of womenin forestry as reflected in secondary lit-erature on the subject.

Section III examines the gender focusin forest policy and programmes, prima-rily of the Forest Department, with sug-gestions for strengthening gender-basedreporting in departmental data.

Section IV presents the reporting ofwomen’s role in forestry in nationaldatabases namely, the Census of India,National Sample Surveys and NationalAccounts Statistics. It examines the ad-equacy of the representation of women’sroles in the databases and puts forth sug-gestions for strengthening gender report-ing in the forestry sector.

3

Women’s Role in ForestryWomen’s Role in Forestry

A review of secondary literature high-lights the role of women in forestry inessentially three areas:

l Gathering fuelwood, fodder andNTFPs;

l Employment and income; and

l Protection and management.

Gathering Fuelwood, Fodderand NTFPsApart from industrial timber, mostNTFPs, such as fuel wood and fodder,come from forests and provide valuableflows for subsistence and cash income.Gathering of fuelwood, fodder andNTFPs is an important subsistence andeconomic activity for poor women andabout 60-70 percent of gatherers arewomen3. Their relative status within thefamily is higher in well-forested villages,because their contribution to subsistenceand cash incomes of households isgreater in villages close to natural for-ests4. Moreover, as their ownership ofprivate resources is negligible, women,particularly those who are poor, dependheavily on common resources for meet-ing their survival needs.

Fuelwood: Between the late 1970s andearly 1990s the share of fuelwood intotal energy consumption increased from55 percent to nearly 62 percent5. Woodtends to be the main domestic fuel inpoorer regions with low productivity. InBihar, for instance, 90 percent of thepeople depend on fuelwood for theirenergy needs. Gathering firewood, or“head loading” as it is often called, fordomestic use and as a source of incomeis the most widespread gender-based ac-tivity for poor women. It has been esti-mated that two to three million peopleare engaged in headloading, with themajority being tribal and other poorwomen6.

Fodder: About 30 percent of fodder re-quirements are met from forests andabout 25 percent of the country’s live-stock graze on forestlands. A studyshows that, in the absence of forest re-sources, 66 percent of small and mar-ginal farmers in Andhra Pradesh wouldbe unable to cultivate their land, as theywould not be able to maintain a pair ofbullocks7. According to the Forest Sur-vey of India records, grazing takes placein over 83 percent of forest lands in

3 Discussions with Mr. Rajiv Kumar, Assistant Inspector General of Forests and Mr. M. Satyanarayana,Deputy Inspector General (Forest Policy & NAEB) at the Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi.

4 Kumar, N., N.C. Saxena, Y. Alagh and K. Mitra, 2000, Poverty Alleviation through Forestry Development, CountryCase Study, Operations Evaluation Department, The World Bank, Washington DC.

5 TERI. 1996, TERI Energy Data Directory and Yearbook, 1995/96, Tata Energy Research Institute. New Delhi.6 Centre for Ecological Sciences, 1995, Community Forestry: An Ecological, Economic and Institutional Assessment of

Western Ghats, Report to the Ford Foundation, Mimeo, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka.7 Singh, D., A. Kumar and A. Khare, 1993, Common Lands of Andhra Pradesh: An Analysis of the Grazing

Problem, Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development, New Delhi.

Women’s Role in Forestry

Gathering offuelwood, fodder andNTFPs is animportant economicactivity for poorwomen and about60-70 percent ofgatherers are women

SECTION II


Uttar Pradesh, over 87 percent in WestBengal, over 85 percent in Meghalaya,over 70 percent in Orissa, over 75 per-cent in Sikkim and over 53 percent inNagaland8.

In Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal,very little fodder is grown on agriculturalland and livestock graze mainly in pas-tures and forests. In these regions, treefodder is predominant and it is mainlywomen who manage lopping and foddercollection. As many of these regionshave a high degree of male migration,the responsibility of agriculture and ani-mal husbandry lies with women9.

NTFPs: NTFPs are obtained fromabout 3,000 species in the country andform an important source of food andlivelihood for communities, particularlytribals and rural poor living adjacent toforests10 . About 70 percent of NTFPsare collected from Maharashtra, MadhyaPradesh, Bihar, Orissa and AndhraPradesh, states that are home to 65 per-cent of the country’s tribal population11.

Several thousand tons of NTFPs are re-

8 Forest Survey of India, 1987, The State of Forest Report 1987, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun,Uttaranchal.

9 Kaur, R. 1991, Women in Forestry in India, Working Paper (WPS 714), Women in Development, The WorldBank, Washington DC.

10 Kumar, N., N.C. Saxena, Y. Alagh and K. Mitra, 2000, Poverty Alleviation through Forestry Development, CountryCase Study, Operations Evaluation Department, The World Bank, Washington DC.

11 Saxena, N.C. Women in Forestry, http:\planningcommission.nic.in/wforest/htm.12 Kumar, N., N.C. Saxena, Y. Alagh and K. Mitra, 2000, Poverty Alleviation through Forestry Development, Country

Case Study, Operations Evaluation Department, The World Bank, Washington DC.13 Prasad, R, 1999, Joint Forest Management in India and the Impact of State Control over Non-wood Forest Products,

Unasylva, 198, Volume 50.14 Campbell, J.Y., 1995, “Evolving Forest Management Systems to People’s Needs” in S.B. Roy (ed.) Enabling for Joint

Forest Management, Inter India Publications, New Delhi; Malhotra, K.C., D. Deb, M. Dutta, T.S. Vasalu, G.Yadav and M. Adikari, 1991, Role of Non-timber Forest Produce in the Village Economy, IBRAD, Calcutta.

15 Kumar, N., N.C. Saxena, Y. Alagh and K. Mitra., 2000, Poverty Alleviation through Forestry Development, CountryCase Study, Operations Evaluation Department, The World Bank, Washington DC.

16 Khare, A., M. Sarin, N.C. Saxena, S. Palit, S. Bathla, F. Vania and M. Satyanarayana, 2000, Joint ForestManagement: Policy, Practice and Prospects, India Country Study, Policy that Works for Forests and People Seriesno: 3, World Wide Fund for Nature - India and International Institute for Environment and Development,UK.

17 World Bank., 1993, India Forestry Sector Review, The World Bank, Washington DC.

moved annually from Indian forests pro-viding earnings that run into billions ofrupees each year12. At the national level,40 percent of state revenues and 70 per-cent of forest export revenues comefrom NTFPs, mostly in unprocessed andraw forms13 . Some studies point outthat NTFPs contribute a higher eco-nomic return than timber14. About 60percent of NTFP collection goes unre-corded as it is consumed or bartered bythe 15 million people living in andaround forests15.

In Andhra Pradesh, around 58 percentof mahua flowers and seeds and 17 per-cent of tamarind fruit collected bytribals are consumed by them. In dis-trict Bastar, Chattisgarh, about 75 per-cent of forest-dependent people supple-ment their food with tubers, flowers andfruits. In the Andaman and Nicobar Is-lands, several tribes subsist wholly onfood derived from forests and the sea16.In Maharashtra, tribal groups living nearforests derive about 30 percent of theirdiet from forest products17.

NTFPs are obtainedfrom about 3,000species in the countryand form an importantsource of food andlivelihood forcommunities,particularly tribals andrural poor livingadjacent to forests

5

Employment and Income

The main forest-based activities fromwhich people derive employment andincome are18 :

l sale of firewood and fodder;

l rearing of livestock (grazing in and/or collecting fodder from forests);

l collection and processing of NTFPs;

l forest-based handicrafts and cottageindustries; and

l wage labour. (Box 1)

Employment generated in forestry canbe classified broadly into direct employ-ment, self-employment and secondaryemployment.

Direct Employment

The Forest Department and other de-partments (Rural Development, Agricul-ture and Cooperatives) generate directemployment under regular forestry ac-tivities in forests under their control andthrough special afforestation progra-mmes. The forestry staff prefers womenfor forestry operations such as nurserywork, transplanting and tendu leaf col-lection. The work is contracted eitheron a daily-wage or piece-rate basis, butwomen often get lower wages than menfor similar work, are not paid regularlyand harassed if they complain19. Theseforestry operations are largely sporadicowing to the seasonal nature offorestry work (Table 1). Firm estimates


18 Kaur, R., 1991, Women in Forestry in India, Working Paper (WPS 714), Women in Development. The WorldBank, Washington DC.

19 Bajaj, M., 2001, The Impact of Globalisation on the Forestry Sector in India with Special Reference to Women’sEmployment, Paper for National Commission on Labour: Group on Women and Child Labour. New Delhi.

20 Ibid21 Olsson, G., 1988, Employment and Income Generation in Social Forestry: Case Study from Orissa, International

Labour Organisation, Geneva.

Development WorkNursery operations xClearing and road work x xEarth work x x

Maintenance WorkWatering xWeeding and applying xfertilisers & pesticidesProtection x x

HarvestingMajor produce xMinor produce x

ManagementForest officials negligible xVillage Extension Workers x x

Table 1: Gender Distribution of Work in Forestry Operations20

Forestry Operations Women Men

of women employed in forestry opera-tions are hard to come by.

In social forestry projects, too, womenhave benefited only to a limited extent.The Orissa social forestry project re-viewed in 1985-86 showed that womenhad only 37 per cent of the total persondays of employment generated for thedifferent sub-components (nursery, vil-lage woodlots, reforestation, farm for-estry for rural poor, rehabilitation andprotection)21. (Table 2)

Source: Madhya Pradesh Human Development Report 1998.

In Madhya Pradesh, the forestry sectormakes a significant contribution to thestate’s exchequer (9.7 percent between1989-94), and also provides:l Around 100 million person days em-

ployment to the rural poor annually.l Regular employment to 43,000

people in various forest departmentestablishments.

l Employment opportunities fortribals (25 percent of the state’s popu-lation are almost entirely dependenton forestry for their livelihood) ofapproximately 70 million person days.

Box 1: Employment Opportunities in the Forestry Sector


22 Malhotra, K.C.,D. Deb, M. Dutta, T.S. Vasalu, G. Yadav and M. Adikari., 1991, Role of Non-timber ForestProduce in Village Economy, IBRAD, Calcutta.

23 Saigal, S., 1998, Participatory Forestry in India:Analysis and Lessons, M.Sc. thesis, Oxford Forestry Institute,Oxford.

24 Indian Institute of Forest Management Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 1998, Study for the Ministry of Environ-ment and Forests, New Delhi.

25 Planning Commission, Government of India, 2001, Appraisal of the Ninth Five Year Plan. Chapter 34 -Environment & Forests.

26 Bajaj, Manjul, 1998, How Much is a Lot? An Economic Evaluation of the Contribution of Non-timber Forest Productsto the Tribal Economy of Madhya Pradesh, Food and Agriculture Organisation, New Delhi.

27 Bajaj, Manjul, 1997, Medicinal Plants and other Non-timber Forest Products in Himachal Pradesh, Overseas Devel-opment Administration, New Delhi.

28 Kaur, R., 1991, Women in Forestry in India, Working Paper (WPS 714), Women in Development, The WorldBank, Washington DC.

Self-employment

Self-employment in forestry refers to in-dividual or family units geared towardsderiving income from activities such asthe sale of firewood, livestock rearing(where income is derived from the saleof milk) and collection, processing andmarketing of NTFPs.

West Bengal: In West Medinipur districtmany village communities derive as muchas 17 percent of their annual householdincome from NTFP collection and sale22.

Orissa: Women, especially in tribal areas,depend more heavily than men on forestproduce for employment and income. Insome areas, 91 percent of men and 98percent of women were engaged inNTFP collection from forest areas. Inthese areas, processing of NTFPs is done

primarily by women, with the exceptionof liquor making from mahua flowers23 .

A study conducted in 301 randomly se-lected tribal households (Kondhs,Mundas and Saoras) in six districts(Boudh, Phulbani, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh and Gajapati)shows that on average a tribal family de-rives about 50 percent of its annual in-come from forests and trades about one-third of the products gathered24 . Ac-cording to another estimate, about 15lakh poor people, mostly women, derive10-40 percent of their annual incomefrom tendu leaf collection25.

Himachal Pradesh: A study in theKullu-Mandi region shows that about10 percent of the families derive on anaverage 15 percent of their total cashincome from NTFP sales, the main col-lectors being women26.

Chhattisgarh: In a study of two dis-tricts in this predominantly tribal state,NTFPs contribute to around 20 percentof the per capita income in villages27.

Gujarat: A study conducted inPanchmahal district shows that 35 per-cent of the total earnings of tribalhouseholds was from NTFPs28.

Self-employment inforestry refers toindividual or familyunits geared towardsderiving income fromactivities such as thesale of firewood,livestock rearing(where income isderived from the saleof milk) andcollection, andprocessing andmarketing of NTFPs

Table 2: Employment Generated by Forest Department’sHarvesting Operations (1980)

Harvesting Operation Employment Employment(Million Man Days) (Million Woman Days)

Minor forest products (21 products) 456.97 03.17Major forest products 136.42 46.06(coniferous and non-coniferouswood, pulpwood and fuelwood)Plantation activities 31.29 15.69Total 624.68 364.92(% of total mandays + womandays) (63.13) (36.87)

Source: M.M Pant. 1984. Forest Economics and Valuation. Medhawi Publishers,Dehradun, Uttaranchal.

7

Jharkhand: In district Dumka, a studyshows that fuel wood sale is the mainsource of income for about 65 percentof women29 .

Secondary Employment

This refers to employment in wood-basedand small-scale forest-based enterprises.These enterprises, many of which rely onNTFPs, provide up to 50 percent of theincome for about 25 percent of India’srural labour force30 . According to a 1987estimate, women accounted for 572 mil-lion person days (i.e., 35 percent) of anestimated 1,623 million person days ofemployment in forest-based enterprises31.Approximately 90 percent of this em-ployment is generated in small-scale en-terprises that depend on applying localskills and village-level technology for thecollection and processing of produce,where production can be pursued as ahousehold or non-household cottage in-dustry. Although women’s participationrate in some large enterprises such as thematch industry may be very high, totalwomen’s employment is less than halfthat of small-scale enterprises.

In addition to forest-based enterprises,secondary employment also includesemployment generated through the col-lection and sale of NTFPs to contrac-

tors, agents of the Forest Developmentcorporations or directly to the corpora-tions. This is essentially for nationalisedNTFPs in most states, except in MadhyaPradesh where select non-nationalisedNTFPs can also be sold to the MinorForest Produce Federation.

Madhya Pradesh: The state accounts fornearly 21 percent of the country’s totalforest cover. The Madhya Pradesh For-estry Department controls legally desig-nated forest lands comprising about34 percent of the state’s geographicalarea32. Apart from meeting the needs ofurban and industrial establishments,these forests are an important source oflivelihood for at least 30,000 villages (42percent of the state’s total villages) lo-cated on the fringes of forest areas andhome to 90 percent of the state’s tribalpopulation33. The forests meet 50 per-cent of Madhya Pradesh’s fodderdemand.

The nationalised NTFPs (tendu leaf,sal seed, harra and gum) contribute anannual revenue of around Rs 750 mil-lion to the state government. In 1996-97 the total disbursement in the formof wages to collectors of tendu leaf,harra and sal seeds was Rs. 1,700 mil-lion. Since 1995, the Madhya Pradesh

29 Khare, A., M. Sarin, N.C. Saxena, S. Palit, S. Bathla, F. Vania and M. Satyanarayana., 2000, Joint Forest Manage-ment: Policy, Practice and Prospects, India Country Study. Policy that Works for Forests and People Series no: 3,World Wide Fund for Nature - India and International Institute for Environment and Development, UK.

30 Campbell, J.Y., 1995, “Evolving Forest Management Systems to People’s Needs” in S.B. Roy (ed.) Enabling for JointForest Management, Inter India Publications, New Delhi.

31 Kaur, R.,1991, Women in Forestry in India, Working Paper (WPS 714), Women in Development, The WorldBank, Washington DC.

32 Madhya Pradesh was bifurcated to create the new state of Chattisgarh in November 2000. After thebifurcation, the state’s forests are 24.38 percent of its geographic area according to the State of Forest Report1999 Supplementary for the newly reorganised states of Bihar and Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh,Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Forest Survey of India (Ministry of Environment and Forests), Dehradun,Uttaranchal.

33 Madhya Pradesh Human Development Report, 1998, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal.


Although women’sparticipation rate insome largeenterprises such asthe match industrymay be very high, thetotal women’semployment is lessthan half that of small-scale enterprises.


34 Ibid.35 Saxena, N.C., Women in Forestry. http:\planningcommission.nic.in/wforest/htm36 Saxena, N.C., Women in Forestry. http:\planningcommission.nic.in/wforest/htm37 Saxena, N.C., 1995, Forest Policy and Rural Poor in Orissa, Wasteland News, Volume XI, No. 2, November-

January, New Delhi.38 Saigal, S., C. Agarwal and J.Y. Campbell, 1996, Sustaining Joint Forest Management: The Role of NTFPs, Society

for Promotion of Wasteland Development, New Delhi.

Minor Forest Produce Federation hasbeen given the task of collecting non-nationalised NTFPs through its Pri-mary Cooperative Societies. Wagespaid in 1996-97 amounted to Rs. 28million for 35 species34.

Gatherers used to be able to sell forestproduce to any buyer, but afternationalisation of NTFPs, produce canbe sold only to the Forest Department.In most cases the Department has ap-pointed agents formally or informally.

Although the private trade ofnationalised NTFPs is illegal, tribals doexchange the produce for low-pricedbasic necessities from shopkeepers andtraders, which the latter then sell to gov-ernment bodies. Under these conditions,gatherers are forced to operate illegallywhich further reduces their collectionand incomes.

For gatherers, it is not merely the vol-ume but the remuneration that matters.In 1981, sal seeds were a nationalisedNTFP in Madhya Pradesh, which gavethe state government monopoly rightsover its collection. Primary collectorsof sal seeds could sell only to govern-ment-appointed agents/contractors,who in turn sold the produce to privateoil mills after paying royalties to the stategovernment. A study carried out in twovillages in district Sarguja, MadhyaPradesh, found that the majority of salseed collectors were women35. Of the

price of Rs. 2.20 per kilogram paid byprivate oil mills, the percentage sharesas royalty of the state government,agents/contractors and tribal women,was 45, 36 and 19, respectively. Women,thus, received less than one-fifth of thetotal income generated by their labour36.

Government officials justify nationa-lisation of NTFPs on the grounds thatthe private sector, if unregulated and al-lowed to openly trade, would exploit thepoor gatherers. In actual practice, how-ever, shopkeepers and traders manage tobuy produce from gatherers at low prices.In Orissa, only one private company hasbeen given collection rights for 29 NTFPsfor ten years with no limits on prices itpays tribal collectors37. Field studies fur-ther show that primary collectors of theseNTFPs, mainly women, are paid wagesoften at low rates based on the time in-vested, and that the profits from valueaddition through processing are accruedmainly by traders, contractors or forestdepartment agencies38. Nationalisationhas reduced the number of legal buyers,choked the free flow of goods and de-layed payment to gatherers because for-est departments find it difficult to makeprompt payment to the licensed traders.The late payments in turn induce tradersto pay lower amounts to gatherers, so asto operate with higher margins and tobribe the police and other authorities toignore their illegal activities. The realityis that the current system reduces the in-

Gatherers used to beable to sell forestproduce to any buyer,but afternationalisation ofNTFPs, produce canbe sold only to theForest Department

9

39 Based on comments from Dr. N.C. Saxena40 Sarin, Madhu, 2001, From Right Holders to ‘Beneficiaries’? Community Forest Management, Van Panchayats and

Village Forest Joint Management in Uttarakhand, (Draft paper available with author: [email protected])

come that forest dwellers might get fromgathering NTFPs.

The current thinking is that the govern-ment needs to end its monopoly bygradually denationalising trade inNTFPs, starting with mahua flowers andsal seeds. When primary gatherers are freeto stock, process and sell without need-ing licenses, their knowledge about mar-ket conditions will improve, the num-ber of traders will increase, and condi-tions will be created to increase compe-tition. This will increase profits for gath-erers and encourage value additionthrough local sorting, bulking and stor-age. Encouraging the setting up of lo-cal processing units by the private sec-tor or individuals is also recommended;forest departments should be assignedtargets for setting up such units and thusbecome facilitators of higher incomesfor forest dwellers rather than regulators.

The urgency to do away with the gov-ernment monopoly is also because un-der the new legislation for tribal areasby the central government (Schedule VAct), the gram sabha/panchayat and notthe government owns the NTFPs(Box 2). Although this law has been onthe statute since December 1996, itsimplementation unfortunately has beenextremely tardy. States have ignored thelaw and not modified various provisionsof the forest regulations that control theflow of NTFPs39.

Management and Protectionof Forests

Given their significant role in, and con-tribution to, forest-based livelihoods,women have rarely been accorded dueimportance in planning of forestryprogrammes and formal forest manage-ment and protection systems. Therefore,their role in protection and managementof forests largely through informal andself-initiated women’s groups (mahilamandals) remains largely invisible andconsequently unrecognised, unacknowl-edged and poorly reported. As a result,their ‘invisible’ forest management sys-tems are often destabilised when,through supervision of ‘participatory’programmes, control over forests istransferred to the male elite40.

Prior to 1988, the Forest Department’sprogrammes, projects and schemes en-listed women’s participation as essen-tially wage earners. Projects and schemesrequiring participatory planning with lo-cal communities mostly involved onlymen. The 1988 Forest Policy mandateda shift from complete state controlled

When primarygatherers are free tostock, process andsell without needinglicenses, theirknowledge aboutmarket conditions willimprove, the numberof traders willincrease, andconditions will becreated to increasecompetition


Box 2: Panchayats and NTFPs

Source: Madhya Pradesh Human Development Report 1998.

erative societies. Of the total profit, 20percent was to be spent on forest re-generation, 50 percent would be dis-tributed among collectors and the bal-ance would go towards village devel-opment.

Following the 76th Amendment of theConstitution and enactment of thePanchayats (Extension to the ScheduledAreas) Act, 1996, the Government ofMadhya Pradesh decided to give the netprofits from NTFPs to primary co-op-


Participation in planning anddecision-making

The process by which the ManagementCommittee is constituted determinesthe extent of representation of diverseinterest groups within a community andconsequently its gender and equity con-cerns43 . None of the resolutions requirethat forest-dependent women within acommunity should select women repre-sentatives so that they can represent thepriorities of women forest users, whichhas implications on the participation and

forest management to decentralised andparticipatory management, and to imple-ment the new policy the Ministry of En-vironment and Forests initiated the JointForest Management Programme (in June1990) which required state forest depart-ments to work with local communitiesto regenerate degraded lands. Currently25 states have issued orders and about1.16 million hectares of degraded for-ests (15 percent of India’s total forest-land) are being regenerated under com-munity management by more than45,000 joint forest management (JFM)committees and by promising local com-munities access to forest resources41.

Several studies suggest a positive impactof both the Joint Forest ManagementProgramme and self-initiated forest pro-tection on the condition of forests. Lo-cal community institutions are provingeffective in protecting forests and manystates have recorded increases in forestproductivity often with increased flowsof NTFPs42.

Women in User Groups

While acknowledging the positive im-pact of the Joint Forest ManagementProgramme, studies analysing its opera-tional issues have raised concerns relatedto equity and gender. These are dis-cussed in greater detail in Section 3 of

this paper (“Gender Focus in ForestPolicy…”). The gender and equity is-sues raised in these studies aresummarised as follows:

Representation in managementbodies

According to the Joint Forest Manage-ment guidelines (revised in February2000), the Joint Forest ManagementGeneral Body should have 50 percentfemale representation and the Manage-ment Committee a minimum of 33 per-cent. Although this represents a signifi-cant improvement on the initial guide-lines of June 1990, even 50 percent rep-resentation does not ensure membershipaccess to the poorest and neediestwomen and men users.

41 Figures by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, New Delhi, quoted in Information E-bulletin on ParticipatoryForest Management, Volume 1, No. 2, July 2001. Published by Resource Unit for Participatory Forestry,Winrock International India (www.winrockindia.org). New Delhi.

42 Singh, R.P., 1996, Degradation to Sustainability - Kudada Shows the Way. New Voices in Indian Forestry, Societyfor Promotion of Wasteland Development. New Delhi; Poffenberger, M., P. Bhattacharya, A. Rai, S.B. Roy,N. Singh and K Singh, 1996, Grassroots Forest Protection: Eastern Indian Experiences, Asia Forest ResearchNetwork Report No. 7. Berkeley; Bahuguna, V.K., 1992, Collective Resource Management: An Experience inHarda Forest Division, Regional Centre for Wasteland Development, Indian Institute of Forest Management,Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

43 Sarin, M., M. S. Raju, M. Chatterjee, N. K. Banerjee and S. Hiremath, 1998, Who is Gaining? Who is Losing?Gender and Equity Concerns in Joint Forest Management, Mimeograph, SPWD, New Delhi.

Several studiessuggest a positiveimpact of both theJoint ForestManagementProgramme and self-initiated forestprotection on thecondition of forests

11

access of primary users to forest use aswell as its produce. The representationnorm also fails to reach out to disad-vantaged women within a householdsuch as widowed, divorced, separatedand unofficially abandoned women andwomen-dependent households (as a re-sult of male migration, unemploymentor disability, or women remainingsingle)44.

Access to resources

With the Joint Forest ManagementProgramme’s focus on natural regenera-tion, forest patches demarcated for jointmanagement are closed for protection.The absence of primary forest users’participation in micro-planning and plan-ning alternatives hampers the thoroughassessment of forest uses and conse-quently the consumption and incomeneeds of those acutely dependent onforest produce.

Women in Forest Departments

Field studies have shown that the em-ployment of women as field staff andofficers in forest departments helps im-prove interface with village women inmicro-planning and forest management.

The absence of women among forestryfield staff was recognised as a major con-straint for promoting women’s participa-tion in social forestry projects. In re-sponse, some states have recruited a fewwomen field staff in positions equivalentto forest guards, terming them “villageforestry workers” (Haryana, TamilNadu), “lady forest guards” (Himachal

Pradesh) and “extension workers” (WestBengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka,Maharashtra, Orissa and Bihar). Orissais the only state to recruit women at lev-els equivalent to Range and Block For-est Officers.

The Indian Forest Service opened towomen in 1979, but its present level of81 women officers constitute barely3 percent of the total cadre (Table 3). Fur-ther, many states still do not allow womento enroll in their State Forest Services.

In recent years, Himachal Pradesh hasissued separate notifications for all cad-res to allow women applicants by speci-fying the required physical standards.Karnataka, West Bengal and AndhraPradesh have taken a policy decision toreserve one-third of all governmentjobs, including those in forest depart-ments, for women45.

Summary

This section clearly brings out the factthat the nature of forest-based liveli-hoods is varied and so is the dependenceof different communities in different

44 Ibid.45 Report of the Advisory Committee to Promote the Involvement of Women in Forestry, April 1999, National Afforesta-

tion and Eco-Development Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi.

Field studies haveshown that theemployment ofwomen as field staffand officers in forestdepartments helpsimprove interface withvillage women inmicro-planning andforest management


Table 3: Women’s Employment in the Forest ServiceCategory No. of Women Employed

Indian Forest Service Officer 81Assistant Conservator of Forests 6Range Officer 31Deputy Ranger 84Forest Guard 169Forestry Worker 34Source: Report of the Advisory Committee to Promote the Involvement of Women in

Forestry. April 1999. National Afforestation and Eco-Develop-ment Board. Ministry of Environment


regions. Some of the key issues relatedto this are summarised here:

l Although there is a lot of variationin the dependence of poor and tribalcommunities on forest produce forsubsistence, it is nevertheless high.

l As a result of the seasonal nature ofwork, direct employment generatedby forestry operations is sporadic anddepends on the location of forestryoperations in a particular year.

l Self-employment, which is largely inthe informal sector and involves col-lection and sale of fuelwood, live-stock rearing and collection, and pro-cessing and sale of NTFPs, variesfrom region to region. However, mi-cro case studies have shown that indistrict Dumka, Jharkhand, for ex-ample, sale of firewood is the mainsource of income for 65 percent of

women and in Orissa tribal commu-nities derive 50 percent of their earn-ings from NTFPs.

l Fuelwood is collected throughoutthe year for domestic consumptionand sale.

l Collection of NTFPs species-wise isa seasonal activity. However, if onetakes into account the range ofNTFPs - nationalised and non-nationalised for both subsistence andincome - then field studies reflect en-gagement of households and espe-cially women in NTFP collection fora major part of the year.

l Although women are a significant cat-egory of forest users, their participa-tion in forest departments and for-mal local institutions is far lower thantheir contribution to forest-basedlivelihoods.

Although women area significant categoryof forest users, theirparticipation in forestdepartments andformal localinstitutions is far lowerthan their contributionto forest-basedlivelihoods

13

Gender Focus in Forest Policy and ProgrammesGender Focus in Forest Policy and Programmes

About 90 percent of India’s 64 millionhectares of forests are under state own-ership, and only 10 percent are commu-nity and private forests. This paper, thus,focuses on understanding the gender di-mension of the government’s forestpolicy and programmes.

Forestry is primarily the domain of theMinistry of Environment and Forestsand state forest departments. However,afforestation and tree planting schemesalso figure in the portfolio of the Minis-try of Rural Areas and Employment,Department of Poverty Alleviation andRural Employment and Department ofAgriculture and Cooperation.

Gender Focus in Policy,Programmes and SchemesForest Policy

The evolution of forest policy in Indiasince independence can be divided intothree phases. Prior to 1976, the 1952Forest Policy continued to follow theBritish system that was based onmaximising the timber harvest for thestate and industry. The second phase,which began in 1976, was characterisedby social forestry, which sought to meetindustry’s demand for forest materials aswell as people’s needs of fuelwood, fod-der and construction timber from plan-

tations outside forest areas. During thisperiod, as revenues from NTFPs beganincreasing, state governments nation-alised major products and establishedforest development corporations to pro-cure and sell these for revenue. The 1952Policy as well as the 1976 National Com-mission on Agriculture stressed theimportance of production forestry andachieving self-sufficiency in the supplyof wood products from national forests.

The 1988 Forest Policy marked a radi-cal shift as it changed the focus substan-tially. It set a target of increasing forestcover to 33 percent of India’s land areaand treated forests primarily as an eco-logical necessity, then as a source ofgoods for local populations with particu-lar emphasis on NTFPs and, third, as asource of wood and other products forindustry. It acknowledged the depen-dence of local communities on forestsfor livelihood, and specifically men-tioned the need to involve women tomeet the policy objectives46.

Although states are entitled to formu-late their own forest policies, only somehave done so and, apart from MadhyaPradesh47, none of these policies have aspecific focus on women.

46 National Forest Policy, December 1988, No. 3A/86-FP, Ministry of Environment and Forests. New Delhi.47 Report of the Advisory Committee to Promote the Involvement of Women in Forestry, April 1999, National Afforesta-

tion and Eco-Development Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi.

SECTION III

The 1988 ForestPolicy marked aradical shift as itchanged the focussubstantially

Gender Focus in Forest Policy and Programmes


The Madhya Pradesh Policy for Womenhas specific provisions for:

l Increasing women’s control over in-come from the collection, processingand marketing of NTFPs.

l Organising women’s cooperatives tosafeguard them from exploitation.

l Providing shelter and water at NTFPcollection centres.

l Introducing welfare measures to re-duce occupational hazards.

l Ensuring at least 50 percent partici-pation of women in managerial anddecision-making bodies in associatedinstitutions such as the Primary Co-operative Societies for NTFP

l Collection and Forest Protection Com-mittees under the Joint Forest Man-agement Programme.

Joint Forest Management

The 1998 Forest Policy paved the wayfor the formulation of the Joint ForestManagement Programme (Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, Governmentof India Circular: June 1, 1990; revised,February 2000)48. In response to the cir-cular, 23 states have so far issued ordersfor enabling joint forest management.

The Joint Forest Management Prog-ramme aims at fostering a partnershipbetween state forest departments andlocal institutions of forest users to shareforest management responsibilities and

benefits. Under this framework, moststate forest departments have given par-ticipating villagers access to specifiedNTFPs and a 20-50 percent share ofpoles/timber49 (in cash or kind) on finalfelling. Villagers, in return, are expectedto protect the forests after forming anorganisation along the lines specified byforest departments.

Women’s ownership of private resourcesis negligible and they depend heavily oncommon resources for their survivalneeds; a programme such as Joint For-est Management can provide them in-dependent access and entitlements toforest resources.

States such as West Bengal, Orissa andHaryana have completed a decade ofJoint Forest Management, and their ex-periences along with those of otherstates have brought to the forefront arange of issues related to gender andequity. Many of these issues are referredto in government documents as well.

Some of the issues relevant to this pa-per are discussed here:

Women’s Access to Planning and Deci-sion-making Institutions: Field studieshave shown how, as a result of the one-representative per household norm, avast majority of forest users have beenexcluded from the joint forest manage-ment processes50. The initial resolutionhad stated that the joint forest manage-ment resolutions of all states, except

48 For further information on guidelines, visit http:\\envfor.nic.in, Forest Protection Division of the Ministryof Environment and Forests, New Delhi; for state JFM resolutions visit www. viksat.org\ envirodebate.

49 Exceptions: In Andhra Pradesh, 100 percent of the poles/timber goes to the villagers; Himachal Pradesh hasrecently revised its rules whereby 75 percent goes to villagers and 25 percent to gram panchayats.

50 Suess, W.,1995, How Joint is Forest Management in the Actual JFM Implementation? Observations on Practice, Problemsand Prospects of JFM from Selected Cases in Udaipur District, Sewa Mandir, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

The Joint ForestManagementProgramme aims atfostering apartnership betweenstate forestdepartments andlocal institutions offorest users to shareforest managementresponsibilities andbenefits

15

Gujarat and Haryana, would use thehousehold as the basic unit for member-ship of the local institution’s generalbody. (In Gujarat, any interested personcould become a member of the generalbody and in Haryana all male and fe-male adults were eligible.) According tothe initial resolution only one represen-tative per household was eligible to bea general body member. However, thisrepresentative is almost always a manwho is socially and culturally perceivedto be the head of the household. As aresult, a majority of women andmarginalised men, who in most cases areacutely dependent on forests, do nothave the right to participate in Joint For-est Management on their own behalf51.Several studies have further indicatedthat male household ‘heads’ neither con-sult their household women nor repre-sent their priorities. These studies havenoted the lack of awareness among maledecision-makers of a household aboutthe negative impact of sudden and to-tal closure of forests on women’s (fromthe same household) gendered respon-sibility for procuring fuelwood52.

In response to criticism of women’s ex-clusion from forest protection commit-tees despite their being major gatherersand users of forests, the West BengalJoint Forest Management resolutionmade a provision that a husband’s mem-bership automatically ensures his wife’s

membership on a committee.

Subsequently, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Orissaand Madhya Pradesh have allowed oneman and one woman per household tobe members, so that at least approxi-mately 50 percent of the members arewomen. However, studies have shownthat, as long as the ‘household’ contin-ues to be the qualifying unit, member-ship access to the poorest cannot be as-sured, as it implicitly assumes thathouseholds are essentially nuclear fami-lies of husband, wife and children. (The1981 Census recognises 10 types ofhouseholds, and only 44 percent of thepopulation can be categorised intonuclear households.) Further, the normfails to reach out to the disadvantagedwomen within a household, such as thewidowed, divorced, separated and un-officially abandoned53. Moreover, noneof the resolutions require that forest-de-pendent women within a communityselect women representatives who canbetter present the problems and priori-ties of women forest users.

The Advisory Committee to Promote In-volvement of Women in Forestry consti-tuted by the Ministry of Environment andForests in 1998 recommended in itsreport of April 1999 that women shouldhave a greater participation in theforestry sector. The revised Joint Forest

51 Sarin, M., M. S. Raju, M. Chatterjee, N. K Banerjee and S. Hiremath, 1998, Who is Gaining? Who is Losing?Gender and Equity Concerns in Joint Forest Management, Mimeograph, SPWD, New Delhi.

52 Sarin, M., 1994, Regenerating India’s Forests: Reconciling Gender Equity with JFM, Paper presented at the Interna-tional Workshop on India’s Forest Management and Ecological Revival by University of Florida and TERI,New Delhi, February 10-12, 1994; Correa, M., 1995, Gender and Joint Forest Management: A Research Study inUttara Kannada District, Karnataka, Mimeo, India Development Service, Dharwad, Karnataka.

53 Sarin, M., M.S. Raju, M. Chatterjee, N.K. Banerjee and S. Hiremath, 1998, Who is Gaining? Who is Losing?Gender and Equity Concerns in Joint Forest Management, Mimeograph, SPWD, New Delhi.


Studies have notedthe lack of awarenessamong maledecision-makers of ahousehold about thenegative impact ofsudden and totalclosure of forests onwomen’s genderedresponsibility forprocuring fuelwood


Management Guidelines of February 2000provide for 50 percent representation ofwomen in the general body and 33 per-cent in the management committee.

Access to Forests: As mentioned inSection 1, with the Joint Forest Manage-ment Programme’s focus on natural regen-eration, forest patches demarcated for jointmanagement are closed for protection. Asprimary forest users are not included in mi-cro planning, a proper assessment cannotbe carried out of forest uses and the con-sumption and income needs of thoseacutely dependent on forest produce suchas for firewood head loading and livestockgrazing. Nationalised NTFPs in protectedforest patches continue to be procured byforest department agencies or their agentsand their benefits do not accrue to com-munities from their management of forests.

In many areas, protection has reducedaccess to certain NTFPs. In West Ben-gal, Orissa and Bihar, where sal leafplate-making is an important source ofincome, the increasing height of pro-tected sal trees reduces collection aswomen find it difficult to reach newleaves. Similarly, the volume of tenduleaves tends to decline in a regeneratingforest as growing trees shade the tendubush and adversely affect leaf growth54.Tendu leaves also need pruning for goodleaf growth but the Joint Forest Man-agement resolutions do not allow localcommunities to undertake pruning.

Centrally Sponsored Schemes

During the Ninth Five-Year Plan, thefollowing state schemes were initiated:

l Non-timber forest produce (includ-ing medicinal plants) scheme.

l Area-oriented fuel wood and fodderproject scheme.

l Integrated afforestation and eco-de-velopment projects.

l Integrated village afforestation andeco-development schemes and thecreation of a forest developmentagency.

Given their specific focus, all the cen-trally sponsored schemes have the fol-lowing common operational features:

l Joint Forest Management (as perJoint Forest Management Guidelinesof June 1990) as a central and inte-gral part of all plantation activities.

l People’s participation in planningand implementation.

l Conducting participatory rural ap-praisal for developing microplanswith people.

l Employment generation especiallyfor the most needy: women, sched-uled castes/tribes and landlesslabourers.

l Formation and registration of villageforest committees.

l Finalisation of protection mecha-nism, rules for penalties, establish-ment of village funds, benefit-shar-ing mechanisms, calendar of meet-ings and quorum for meeting includ-ing the mandatory representation ofwomen as required by the village for-est committee and forest department.

54 Based on comments from Ms. Madhu Sarin.

Nationalised NTFPsin protected forestpatches continue tobe procured by forestdepartment agenciesor their agents andtheir benefits do notaccrue tocommunities fromtheir management offorests

17

The ‘operational guidelines’ use of termssuch as ‘participation of people/village/local community’ in planning and set-ting up village-level committees with‘due representation from villagers’55

however does not bring into focus thesignificant role, dependence and contri-bution of women to forest-based liveli-hoods. As discussed above, most forestprotection committee schemes do notemphasise women’s participation inplanning and management. As a result,their role remains invisible; they are ex-cluded from micro-level planning andare not adequately represented in for-mal village-level committees for decisionmaking and management.

The Integrated Village Afforestation andEco-development Scheme (and creationof forest development agencies - FDAs)initiated on a pilot basis during the NinthPlan has a more detailed emphasis onwomen’s participation and employmentgeneration targeting mainly the weakersections56. It also has selection criteriafor villages as those with:

l A preponderance of scheduledcaste/scheduled tribe population;

l People who are willing to participatein forest conservation efforts;

l Forest protection committees/eco-development committees;

l Some extent of degraded forest land;and

l A degree of dependence on biomassresources.

The funds under this scheme are releaseddirectly to FDAs and specify a labourcomponent of about 60 percent and aminimum number of women represen-tatives in the Forest Development Au-thority. The requirements are given inTable 4.

The scheme has been implemented innine states and it is proposed to extendit to all states during the Tenth Plan57.

State forest departments’ concurrentmonitoring of schemes track mainlyquantitative aspects: progress on/achievement of physical and financialtargets, person days of employment

55 Each centrally sponsored scheme has its own operational guidelines that are available with the NationalAfforestation and Eco-Development Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests,Government of India.

56 Integrated Village Afforestation and Eco-development Scheme and Creation of Forest Development Agency: OperationalGuidelines, May 2000, National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board, Ministry of Environment andForests, Government of India.

57 From discussions with Mr. Arvind Kumar, Assistant Inspector General of Forests, Ministry of Environ-ment and Forests, New Delhi.


Most forest protectioncommittee schemesdo not emphasisewomen’s participationin planning andmanagement

General Body Executive Body

Chairperson - Conservator of Forests.

Member Secretary cum Chief ExecutiveOfficer-Divisional Forest Officer.

Ex-officio members (without votingrights) District Development Officer,and district-level officers of 9 depart-ments.

Chairperson of district panchayatforest committees.

25 nominees from village forest com-mittees/eco-development commit-tees to include at least 14 women.

Chairpersons of all village forest com-mittees.

Member secretaries of all village forestcommittees.

One designated woman memberfrom each forest committee.

Chairpersons of district panchayatforest committees.

Range forests officers, ACFs/SDFs.

Table 4: Representation in Forest Development Authorities


generated and amounts disbursed inwages. Evaluations commissioned by theNational Afforestation and Eco-devel-opment Board, Ministry of Environmentand Forests, on the other hand, examinethe scheme as a whole and cover issuessuch as people’s participation and ben-efits to local communities, and assessqualitative aspects such as the survivalrate of saplings, health of plantations,training programmes, the effectivenessof local management systems, etc. Theevaluation format for the NTFPschemes refers to women only once interms of their number represented invillage forest committees58.

Externally Aided Projects

Ten externally aided projects are presentlybeing implemented:

l The World Bank in Uttar Pradesh,Uttaranchal, Kerala;

l Japanese Bank for International Coop-eration in Rajasthan (2 projects),Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, TamilNadu; and

l GTZ in Himachal Pradesh.

Externally aided projects on an averagehave a total budget of Rs. 3,000 millionover a four to six year period. Joint for-est management is an integral part ofthese projects and about 75 percent ofthe donor budget is for employment gen-

58 Evaluation Format for the National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board (Ministry of Environmentand Forests, Government of India) Scheme Sanctioned to States in the Ninth Five Year Plan currently beingused for the first phase evaluation of the NTFP scheme.

59 From discussions with Mr. Rajiv Kumar, Assistant Inspector General of Forests and Mr. M. K. Jiwrajka,Deputy Inspector General (Forest) at the Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi.

60 For details on these guidelines, visit http:\\envfor.nic.in, Forest Protection Division of the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, New Delhi.

eration. Among the ongoing projects,those funded by the World Bank recordthe impact of the project on men andwomen in terms of the number ofwoman days and man days generated,wage earnings of men and women indifferent forestry operations and mem-bership and participation in village for-est committees59.

National Biodiversity Strategy andAction Plan

The Ministry of Environment and For-ests is currently preparing the NationalBiodiversity Strategy and Action Planin close collaboration with the non-governmental organisation (NGO),Kalpvriksha, and with funding from theGlobal Environment Facility. Prepara-tion of the plan involves participationof key stakeholders: a large number ofvillage-level organisations and move-ments, academicians, scientists, govern-ment officers from various line depart-ments and the private sector. Detailedguidelines have been formulated for de-veloping the action plan. To ensure thatissues of participation, empowermentand access integrating gender sensitiv-ity are an integral part of the plan de-velopment process, separate guidelinesfor each of these issues have been for-mulated60.

Externally aidedprojects on averagehave a total budget ofRs. 3,000 million overa four to six yearperiod. Joint forestmanagement is anintegral part of theseprojects

19

Gender Reporting in ForestDepartment Operations

Employment and Wage EarningsGenerated by Forestry Operations

As mentioned earlier in this paper, theForest Department (and other depart-ments involved in afforestation) gener-ates direct employment under regularforestry activities in forests under theircontrol and through special afforestationprogrammes and schemes61 (Box 3). Forthe different forestry operations, the de-partment records employment generatedand wages disbursed to people hired aswage labour.

The muster rolls available at the officesof the Division Forest Officer recordthe employment generated for the dif-ferent activities and wages disbursed.The name of the person is recordedagainst the wages paid and may oftenspecify, if required, whether the personemployed as wage labour is from thereserved or general category. Therefore,it is possible to generate data on employ-ment and wages earned by men andwomen separately going by the name ofthe person recorded. However, as it isnot required for reporting purposes, it isnot segregated in the muster rolls62.

Collection and Sale of NTFPs

In the 1960s and 1970s, as the commer-cial importance of NTFPs increased, thestate government nationalised importantproducts, apparently with the intentionof helping the poor. While the natureand extent of NTFP nationalisation

varies by state and product,nationalisation requires gatherers to sellnationalised NTFPs only to forest de-partments or their agents. Differentstates have adopted different ways toprocure nationalised NTFPs, which area major source of revenue for the state,as well as generating substantial employ-ment and income for NTFP collectorswho, as mentioned earlier, are mainlywomen (60-70 per cent)63.

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing De-velopment Federation of India Limited(TRIFED) is an apex body of StateTribal Development Corporations andother tribal marketing cooperatives/fed-erations for procurement, processing, fix-ing prices and sale (domestic and export)of agricultural commodities (e.g., tama-rind, soyabean, gram, tamarind, masoor,turmeric, ginger, etc.), handicrafts andnationalised NTFPs (including medici-nal plants). The State Forest Develop-ment Corporation is represented in theTRIFED’s Board of Directors at thestate level.

At the apex level in states, there arecorporations for marketing NTFPs suchas the Kerala Forest DevelopmentCorporation, Girijan Cooperative Cor-poration in Andhra Pradesh, Large-size

61 Refer to section 1.2.1 in this report for direct employment generated by forestry operations.62 Discussions with Mr. Rajiv Kumar, Assistant Inspector General of Forests. Externally Aided Projects

Division, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi.63 Refer to section 1.2.2 in this report for employment generated by NTFP collection.


Nationalisationrequires gatherers tosell nationalisedNTFPs only to forestdepartments or theiragents

Box 3: Employment Opportunities in Forestry Operations

l Development Work: Nursery operations,clearing and road work, earth work

l Plantationl Maintenance Work: Watering, weeding,

applying fertilizers and pesticides, pro-

tectionl Harvesting: Major produce, minor pro-

ducel Management: Village extension workers


Multipurpose Cooperative Society inWest Bengal and the Madhya PradeshState Minor Forest Produce CooperativeFederation (Box 4). Monopoly collectionrights for nationalised NTFPs are oftenauctioned to contractors (e.g., tenduleaves in Gujarat and most NTFPs inOrissa and Karnataka) or leased to otheragencies (e.g., Large-size MultipurposeCooperative Societies in tribal areas ofWest Bengal and other states). In Orissa,only one private company has collectionrights for 29 NTFPs for 10 years with nocheck on the prices it pays to tribal col-lectors64. With respect to reporting, datagenerated at TRIFED covers quantitiesprocured and sold of different commodi-ties. For forest department agencies andagents primarily responsible for procur-ing NTFPs from collectors, data at thestate level relates to revenue generatedand quantities collected and wages paidfor different NTFPs.

Although private trade of nationalisedNTFPs is illegal, gatherers manage toexchange these with shopkeepers andtraders for low-priced basic necessities,which they then sell to government bod-ies. This means that a large part ofnationalised NTFP collection goes un-recorded. Similarly in many states thecollection of non-nationalised NTFPsfor sale remains unrecorded in official

records. However, in Madhya Pradeshwhere the Minor Forest Produce Coop-erative Federation is responsible for col-lecting selected non-nationalised NTFPsof commercial importance through itsprimary cooperative societies, officialforest department records have begunto keep records.

With respect to the sale of NTFPs, pass-books of members in primary coopera-tive societies (for example, in MadhyaPradesh) are updated at the time of sale.As anyone from a household can sell theproduce, it is difficult to track collec-tion of NTFPs by women alone. In ar-eas, which do not have primary coop-erative societies, receipts to collectorscarry the name of the person receivingpayment, but this may or may not nec-essarily be the collector. Madhya Pradeshhas put into practice the relevant provi-sions in the state policy for women butonly rarely are women collectors re-corded as members of primary coopera-tive societies.

Suggestions for StrengtheningGender Reporting

This paper focuses on forest depart-ments, however, the suggestions listedbelow for strengthening gender report-ing can be relevant for afforestationprogrammes of other departments aswell.

Within forest departments, gender focusof schemes and programmes can be im-proved by strengthening

l Operational guidelines, and

64 Saxena, N.C., 1995, Forest Policy and Rural Poor in Orissa, Wasteland News, Volume XI, No. 2, November-January, New Delhi.

Although private tradeof nationalisedNTFPs is illegal,gatherers manage toexchange these withshopkeepers andtraders for low-pricedbasic necessities

Box 4: Forest Produce Cooperatives

The collection and sale of NTFPs isdone through a three-tier cooperativestructure: at the apex is the MadhyaPradesh State Minor Forest Produce Co-operative Federation at the state level;

the District Primary Forest Produce Co-operative Union at the district level andthe Primary Forest Produce CooperativeSociety at the village level. Members ofthe Primary Society are collectors.

21

l Implementation and monitoring.

Gender reporting could be integrated inschemes and programmes that

l Generate employment and wageearnings;

l Are mandated to establish local in-stitutions such as the Forest Depart-ment Authority under the IntegratedVillage Afforestation and Eco-devel-opment Scheme and the Village For-est Committees under Joint ForestManagement guidelines.

Gender Focus

As women ‘forest users’ are the signifi-cant if not the largest single group offorest users, a gender focus in the op-erational guidelines of programmes andschemes can be strengthened if the fol-lowing are included during micro plan-ning65 :

l Explicit directions for the involve-ment of women (especially forest us-ers) in micro planning and their rep-resentation and participation in vil-lage-level committees.

l Identifying and, to the extent pos-sible, quantifying pre-project benefitslikely to be foregone by women andtheir households, with special atten-tion to households headed bywomen: e.g., when- common land is to be used for tree

plantations;- gathering and sale of wood from

government forests is eliminatedas a source of income for poorhouseholds;

- the use of NTFPs is likely to be-come commercialised; or

- changing gender-specific eco-nomic interests and incentives in-duced by project interventions arelikely to deprive women of accessto previously accessible resources.

l Identifying and, to the extent pos-sible, quantifying probable gains towomen from planned interventions:e.g.,- increased availability of forestry

products (but with checks for po-tential conflicts arising betweenmen and women, between com-mercial and subsistence users);

- availability of new products forsubsistence and/or market-ori-ented income generation;

- introduction of new income-earn-ing activities based on forest prod-ucts not previously available;

- generation of wage-labour oppor-tunities (but with checks for po-tential distortions in male-femalecompetition for new employ-ment).

l Identifying workload implications forwomen: e.g.,- the extent of added labour re-

quired of women from differentsocio-economic groups for projectactivities (such as watering, weed-ing, protection);

- changes in distances to be tra-versed for gathering fuel, fodderand other products previously ob-tained from land now brought un-der a different production and

65 Comments by Dr. N.C. Saxena.


Women ‘forest users’are the significant ifnot the largest singlegroup of forest users


management regime;- the effect of such additional labour

requirements on women’s timeand labour allocation and onwomen’s and household welfare(e.g., reduced time available forother tasks, increasing reliance onchild labour).

l Differences and potential conflictsbetween probable gains and lossesfor women and those anticipated formen, households in general or thecommunity as a whole: e.g.,- men’s strong preference for tim-

ber species crowding out women’sneed for fuel and fodder trees;

- men’s preference for selling treesen bloc conflicting with women’sneed for domestic or home-indus-try use of by-products;

- or men’s interest in cash-croppingof trees and their command overthe labour of women in theirhousehold forcing women to re-duce their time allocations toother family-care and/or income-earning tasks.

Gender Reporting

To ensure that women’s role in forestryis reflected in departmental data,progress monitoring formats at the de-partmental level and any independentevaluation of schemes can include indi-cators to assess women’s participationin planning, protection and managementof forests and plantations. The assump-tion here is that the department’sbaseline data will have information onthese aspects.

In the light of issues raised in this andprevious sections, reporting status on thefollowing could be integrated with ex-isting formats:

Employment: Direct and Self-employment

l Disaggregated data on employmentgenerated and wage earnings fromforestry operations.

l The number of women employed inNTFP collection and NTFP-basedenterprises in the organised sector.

Participation and access

l Representation of women in the gen-eral body.

l Number of women in management/executive committees.

l Number of management and execu-tive committees with women aspresident and/or secretary.

l Number of women participants, asa percent of the total, present dur-ing microplanning.

l Percent women from the forest de-pendent group of women in the gen-eral body and management/execu-tive committees.

l Gender balance within the forest de-partment.

Gender Budgeting

There is a growing recognition of the con-cept of ‘gender budgeting’ for integrat-ing gender into national budgetary pro-cesses. Such a process allows govern-ments to undertake a gender analysis of

Progress monitoringformats at thedepartmental leveland any independentevaluation ofschemes can includeindicators to assesswomen’s participationin planning,protection andmanagement offorests andplantations

23

66 Australia (1984); South Africa (1995); Fiji, St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados and Sri Lanka (1997); Namibia,Tanzania, Uganda, Canada, Mozambique, United Kingdom, India. Reference in Lahiri, Ashok, LekhaChakraborty and P.N. Bhattacharyya, 2001, Gender Budgeting in India: Post-budget Assessment Report,National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, India.

67 Ibid.

their schemes and programmes, study thegender differential impacts and developa gender sensitive budget. Many coun-tries have already initiated the process ofdeveloping a gender-sensitive budget andassessing its gender differential impact66.The Ninth Plan (1997-2002) directedcentral ministries and departments toidentify a “Women Component Plan” toensure that at least 30 percent of thefunds and benefits flow to women fromdevelopmental sectors.

The Department of Women and ChildDevelopment sponsored a study on gen-der budgeting in India undertaken by theNational Institute of Public Finance andPolicy. A recent report67 assembles use-ful information on the Union Budget2001-02 and provides a post-budgetgender diagnosis of progress towards

achieving budgetary allocations andimplementation to improve the eco-nomic status of women. The report as-sesses the expenditure specifically tar-geting women by different ministries anddepartments of the government, publicexpenditure with pro-women allocations(not exclusively targeting women) andtaxation and subsidies specifically ben-efiting women.

At present, the Ministry of Environmentand Forests is not one of the governmentbodies that identified women componentplans in its programmes and schemes.Gender budgeting is nevertheless an im-portant process through which forest de-partments can strengthen and monitorthe gender focus in programmes andschemes.


Many countries havealready initiated theprocess of developinga gender-sensitivebudget and assessingits gender differentialimpact


Inclusion of Women’s Role in Forestry inNational Databases

Inclusion of Women’s Role in Forestry inNational Databases

This part of the paper assesses the na-tional databases, the National SampleSurveys, Census of India and NationalAccounts Statistics, from the followingpoints of view:

l How the forestry sector is representedin the databases in terms of the dif-ferent forestry activities.

l What categories of data are collectedand presented.

l Whether gender disaggregated data isavailable for different types of forestryactivities.

It also discusses the adequacy (or other-wise) of the above databases in termsof representation of women’s role andlists suggestions to strengthen gender re-porting in the forestry sector.

National Sample Survey

This paper reviews two National SampleSurvey (NSS) reports that are relevant:

1. NSS Report No. 45568 : Employmentand Unemployment in India, 1999-2000.

68 Employment and Unemployment in India, 1999-2000 – Key Results. NSS 55th Round - July 1999- June2000. NSS Report 455. National Sample Survey Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Imple-mentation; Government of India. December 2000.

69 Common Property Resources (CPRs) in India, NSS 54th Round, Jan.-June 1998, NSS Report 452, NationalSample Survey Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; Government of India,December 1999.

70 Refer to Appendix for a detailed classifications of industry and occupations in the forestry sector.

2. NSS Report No. 45269 : CommonProperty Resources in India.

NSS Report 455: Employment andUnemployment in India

Enquiries for this quinquennial surveywere conducted between July 1999 andJune 2000, and estimates were made ona quarterly basis. The survey adoptedstratified multi-stage random samplingfor rural and urban areas and the datawas collected at the household-level.

To generate estimates on employment-unemployment, the report defines “eco-nomic activity” as any activity resultingin the production of goods and servicesthat add value to the national product.Such ‘economic activities’ include pro-duction of all goods and services for themarket as well as production of primarycommodities for own consumption andown-account production (i.e., non-mar-ket activities).

Representation of the Forestry SectorThe tables use the National IndustrialClassification (NIC) 199870 to classify in-dustries. Forestry figures can be found

SECTION IV

To generateestimates onemployment-unemployment, thereport defines“economic activity” asany activity resultingin the production ofgoods and servicesthat add value to thenational product

25

in the category “Agriculture, Huntingand Forestry” (at the one-digit level),which is further classified (at the two-digit level):

l Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry- Agriculture, hunting and related ser-

vices- Forestry, logging and related ser-

vices

l Fishing

- Fishing, operation of fish hatcher-ies and fish farms; service activitiesincidental to fishing.

According to the NIC classification, thefollowing activities (referred to as sub-class) are covered under forestry:

l Growing of standing timber: Planting,replanting, transplanting, thinning andconserving of forests and timbertracts; operation of tree nurseries.

l Logging: Logging camps and loggersprimarily engaged in felling timber andproducing wood in the rough such aspilprops, split poles, pickets, hewnrailway ties or fuelwood.

l Gathering of tendu leaves.

l Gathering of other wild growing for-est materials (balata and other rubber-like gums, cork, lac, resins and bal-sams; vegetable hair and eel grass;acorns and horse-chestnuts; mosses,etc.) including fuel/firewood.

l Forestry services activities: Transportof logs in association with loggingchiefly within the forest.

71 Refer to Tables 5 and 6 in NSS Report 455.72 Refer to Tables 1-4 in NSS Report 455.

l Logging service activities: Transportof logs in association with loggingchiefly within the forest.

Data Categories and Gender Reporting

l NSS Report 455 gives estimates of thedistribution of ‘usually working per-sons’ in the principal and subsidiarystatus as a total for the two divisionsunder the category “Agriculture, Hunt-ing and Forestry”. These are presentedfor each state and union territory andcover men and women in different agegroups71 (Box 5).

l Further, the distribution of persons byprincipal and subsidiary activity statusas a total for the two divisions underthe industry category is presented forthe following ‘activity categories’ thatmen and women in different age groupsare involved in72 :- Worked in household enterprise

(self-employed) as an own-accountworker (code 11);

- Worked in household enterprise(self-employed) as an employer (code12);

- Worked as regular salaried/ wageemployee (code 31);

Box 5: Activity Status of Working Persons in the Forestry Sector

For the reference period of 365 days pre-ceding the date of survey:

Principal Usual Subsidiary Status re-fers to the activity status on which a per-son spent a relatively longer time (i.e.,major time criterion).

Subsidiary Economic Status Activity:A person whose principal usual statuswas determined on the basis of major

time criterion could have pursued someeconomic activity for a relatively shortertime during the reference period. Ifsomeone was engaged in more than onesubsidiary economic activity, then thedetails of subsidiary activities for twoactivities - subsidiary status I and sub-sidiary status number II - were recordedon the basis of time spent on them.

Source: NSS Report 455, 2000.

Inclusion of Women’s Role in Forestry in National Databases


Observations

l Estimates for the two divisions in theindustrial category are clubbed to-gether and forestry is not representedseparately. As a result, forestry activi-ties according to the NIC classifica-tion at the sub-class level, although re-flecting the range of forestry activi-ties discussed in previous sections ofthis paper, are not reported separatelyin the estimates.

l Consequently, gender-disaggregateddata at the sub-class level, importantfor an understanding of women’s rolein forestry, is not available.

l The five activity categories cover allkinds of employment options in for-estry available to men and women.Estimates for the activity categoriesare available for different types of ac-tivity status, primary and subsidiary(I and II). However, estimates at thesub-class level would have been use-ful for an understanding of the roleof women in different forestry activi-ties. These are instead available as atotal of two divisions and further, arenot available for different states andunion territories.

l Forestry is listed as a separate categoryfor wage earnings. However, it onlycovers casual labour, which is only oneof five activities used to generate es-timates for the different activity cat-egories. Women, as evident from thetable, earn lower daily wages thanmen, which is not different from theground reality discussed in previoussections of this paper.

NSS Report No. 452 73 : CommonProperty Resources in India

Given the important role common prop-erty resources play in rural areas, espe-cially as livelihood sources for the poor,this NSS report is the first attempt to pro-vide comprehensive state and national-level estimates of the size, utilisation andcontribution of common property re-sources (CPR). The countrywide en-quiry was conducted between Januaryand June 1998 in rural areas, with datacollected at the household level.

73 Common Property Resources (CPRs) in India, NSS 54th Round, Jan.-June 1998, National SampleSurvey Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; Government of India,December 1999.

- Worked as casual labourers in othertypes of works (code 51);

- Attended domestic duties and wasalso engaged in free collection ofgoods (roots, vegetables, firewood,cattle feed, etc.), tailoring, weaving,etc., for household (code 93).

l On wage earnings, the report providesaverage daily wage earnings only forcasual labourers, for men and womenin rural and urban areas. This is spe-cifically for “forestry”, which is listedas a ‘type of activity’ (code 07) for thefirst time in an NSS survey (Table 5).

Table 5: Gender-wise Employment and Wages in Forestry:NSS Report

Type of Estimated person Average wageOperation days earnings per day (Rs.)

Male Female Male Female

Forestry 14,77,200 8,18,600 46.45 33.34

Source: NSS Report 455, 2000.

Gender-disaggregateddata at the sub-classlevel, important for anunderstanding ofwomen’s role in forestry,is not available

27

74 Tables 1.1 – 1.3; 2; 3.1-3.2 and 4 in NSS Report 452.75 Tables 5 and 6 in NSS Report 452.76 18 NTFPs: Fuelwood, bamboo/cane/reeds, medicinal plants, tendu/kendu leaves, other leaves, thatching

materials, fodder, edible oilseeds, fruits, other edible products, lac, gums and resins, non-edible oilseeds,fibres and flosses, tans and dyes, honey, bee-wax, kattha.

77 11.1-11.2;12.1-12.2 and 15.2 in NSS Report 452.

Representation of the Forestry SectorWith regard to forest and forest produce,the enquiry covers:

l State-owned forests including re-served (with absolute rights of own-ership vested in the government andwhich cannot be used by local popu-lations unless through grant of privi-lege), protected and unclassed forests.

l Village forests/woodlots and any for-estland belonging to the forest depart-ment or any other government depart-ment (such as revenue departmentsand public works departments) butformally under the management of thevillage panchayat or village commu-nity, such as the Van Panchayat inUttar Pradesh, and areas under JointForest Management. These areclubbed under Common Village Landor Common Property Resource landwhich also include village panchayatgrazing land/pasture land, village sitesearmarked for common use for eco-nomic activities and other barren orwasteland not owned by an individual.

Data Categories and GenderReportingl Availability and access74 to common

village land and forests, are defined asfollows:

Availability is defined in terms of areaof village common land and forestsvis-a-vis total geographical area in dif-ferent states and agroclimatic zones;

common village land per household bypopulation size and; common villageland and forests for each climatic zone.

Access to a resource is determined ei-ther by legal status or by convention.Right of use for forests is categorisedas ‘no right of use’, ‘right of use forcollection of a large number of forestproduce’, ‘of minor forest produce’, ‘ofrestrictive use’. For village commonland, right of use is categorised as ‘noright of community use on any part’;‘some area for community use’; ‘re-served for a particular community ormanaged and owned by a tribal com-munity; ‘partly reserved for certaincommunities’; ‘entirely for all villages’.

l Use of common village land and for-ests for collection of different materi-als in different agroclimatic zones75 :Data on households reporting collec-tion of timber and 18 non-timber for-est products76 is presented separatelyfrom common village land and forests(within the village or outside).

l Number of households reporting col-lection and sale of fuelwood77 : Dataon households reporting use offuelwood collection from CommonProperty Resource lands and forests isavailable by agroclimatic zones, statesand union territories and category ofhousehold (rural labour, landholdingclass and others).


Access to a resourceis determined eitherby legal status or byconvention


78 Tables 19.1, 20. and 21 in NSS Report 452.79 Table 22.1-22.2; 23.1 – 23.2 and 24.1 – 24.2 in NSS Report 452.80 Materials apart from manure selected in these tables are fruits, roots tubers, etc.; gums and resins; honey;

medicinal herbs; leaves and weeds, grass, bamboo, etc.81 Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India Census of India, 1991, Relevant Volumes on Economic

Tables, M. Vijayanunni of the Indian Administrative Service, Registrar General and Census Commissioner,India.

82 See Appendix for details on industrial classifications under the Census of India.83 Prabhu, K. S, P.C. Sarkar and A. Radha, 1996 Gender-Related Development Index for Indian States: Methodological

Issues, Economic and Political Weekly, October 26.

l Number of households reporting col-lection of fodder78 : Data on house-holds reporting collection of fodderfrom Common Property Resource landsand forests is available by agro-climaticzones, states and union territories andcategory of household (rural labour,landholding class and others).

l Number of households reporting col-lection of selected materials and valueof collected materials79 : Data onhouseholds reporting collection ofmanure and six materials80 from Com-mon Property Resource lands is avail-able by states and union territories andcategory of household (rural labour,landholding class and others).

Observations

Extensive data is presented for each ofthe selected materials for agro-climaticzones, states and union territories, andhouseholds by different categories andsources (forest and common villageland). This is a useful document tounderstand the dependence of differentlandholding classes, rural labour andothers on forests and common land forsubsistence and income. Within a house-hold, however, the role of differentmembers, men, women and children, incollection of forest produce is not re-flected.

Census of India, 1991

The survey for the Census of India isconducted decennially. Unlike the NSS,it carries out a full count for the differ-ent data categories. At a macro level, theeconomic tables of the Census of India199181 provide data on main and mar-ginal workers classified by industrialcategory82, age and gender.

According to the Census, work is de-fined as participation in any economi-cally productive activity, and may bephysical or mental in nature. It involvesnot only actual work but also effectivesupervision and direction of work. Forthe first time, the 1991 Census includedunpaid work on farms or in family en-terprises. Enumerators were also trainedto probe into economic activities car-ried out by women83. A main worker isdefined as a person who has worked fora major part of the year preceding thedate of enumeration, i.e., more than 183days or six months. A marginal workeris someone who has done some workfor a period less than 183 days or 6months in a year.

Representation of the ForestrySector

The category relevant to our study is In-dustrial Category III, “Livestock,

According to theCensus, work isdefined asparticipation in anyeconomicallyproductive activity,and may be physicalor mental in nature

29

84 For further details, refer to tables B-1 (S), B-2 (S), B-2 (F), B-6 (F) and B-8 (F) in relevant volumes ofEconomic Tables of Census of India 1991.

85 National Classification of Occupations 1968, Directorate General of Employment and Training (Occupa-tional Information Unit), Ministry of Labour, Employment and Rehabilitation, Government of India,March 1969, See Appendix for the NCO Classification 1968 of categories reflecting the forestry sector.

86 See Appendix.87 Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India Census of India 1991, Series I – India, Part II B - B Series,

Economic Tables, Volume 9 Parts I and II.88 Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India Census of India 1991, Series I – India, Part III B - B

Series, Economic Tables, Volume 8 Part I.


Table 6: Gender-wise, Rural-Urban Distribution of Main andMarginal Forestry Workers - All India

Urban Rural Total

Total Male Female Total Male Female

MainWorkers 71,693 66,377 5,316 2,21,618 1,91,380 30,238 2,93,311

MarginalWorkers 1,791 646 1,145 40,603 5,461 35,141 42,394

Total 73,484 67,023 6,461 2,62,221 1,96,841 65,379 3,35,705

Source: Census of India. 1991. Economic Tables, Volume 9 Parts I and II.

Group 66of NCO:ForestryWorkers

Forestry, Fishing, Hunting, Plantation,Orchards and Allied Activities”. Thetables84 do not provide separate infor-mation on forestry.

Data Categories

The Census includes an occupationalclassification of main and marginalworkers. Using the National Classifica-tion of Occupations (NCO) 199885 itprovides data at two, three and four-digitlevels. Further, it classifies workers intofour categories, cultivators, agriculturallabourers, workers in household indus-try and other workers. The category“other workers” includes family mem-bers working in forestry, logging, fuel,charcoal production, gathering and sell-ing fodder and other forest produce,plantation, hunting, fishing, mining andquarrying.

The Economic Tables (Census 1991) onoccupational classification of main andmarginal, male and female workers rel-evant to this paper are discussed below.

Using the NCO 1968, data under thisclassification is available at the two-digitlevel for all divisions, the one relevantto this paper being division 06: Farm-ers, fishermen, hunters, loggers and in-dustrial workers. The data has been fur-ther classified at the three-digit or grouplevel, and the group relevant to this pa-per is 66: Forestry workers. For eachgroup, data has been further provided

for the fourth-digit or family level, theone relevant to this paper being family660-663 and 66986 .

For each group and family under each di-vision, data has been provided by indus-trial categories as per Census 1991, therelevant one for this paper being CategoryIII: Livestock, forestry, fishing, hunting,plantation, orchards and allied activities.

Table B-21 (F) - Part A (Urban) andPart B (Rural)87 : Occupational classi-fication of main and marginal workersother than cultivators and agriculturallabourers by gender (full count). Dataunder this classification is available atthe three-digit level, i.e., group 066 fordivision 06 (Table 6).

Table 19(F)88 : Occupational classifica-tion of main workers other than culti-vators and agricultural labourers by in-dustrial category and gender (full count)(Table 7).

The Census classifiesworkers into fourcategories,cultivators,agricultural labourers,workers in householdindustry and otherworkers


Observations

l While the Census gives a full count ofworkers in different families of thegroup on Forestry, it is obvious fromthe tables above that data collectionat the group level does not reflectground reality.

l In Family 661, which represents gath-erers of forest produce, the number ofwomen involved is negligible and, infact, lower than the number of men.This is contrary to the role of womenas gatherers discussed in the previous

sections of this paper. In the descrip-tion of Family 661 (see NCO classifi-cation, Appendix), NTFPs are inad-equately represented as they are lim-ited to lac, medicinal plants and fire-wood.

l The occupational classification tabledoes not reflect the fact that fuel woodcollection for sale is an important ac-tivity for many poor rural women anddependence on NTFPs for income iswidespread among tribal populations.Moreover, Table 19(F) considers only

Table 7: Gender-wise, Occupational Classification of Main Forestry Workers - All India(other than cultivators and agricultural labourers)

Industrial Category IIIas per Census 1991

Main Workers Urban Rural

Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female

Group 66of NCO

Fores t ryWorkers

2,82,323 2,46,935 35,388 67,866 62,607 5,259 2,14,457 1,84,328 30,129

1,42,445 1,38,826 3619 38500 37683 817 1,03,945 1,01,143 2,802

20,597 15,121 5,476 3,203 2,788 415 17,394 12,333 5,061

59,221 50,526 8,695 15,260 13,768 1492 43,961 36,758 7,203

2,304 1,853 451 272 210 62 2,032 1,643 389

21,901 17,607 4,294 4,277 3,732 645 17624 13,875 3,649

Family 660of NCO

Forestersand relatedworkers

Family 661of NCO

Harvestersand gatherersof forestproductsincluding lac(except logs)

Family 662of NCO

Log fellersand woodcutters

Family 663of NCO

Charcoalburners andForestProductProcessors

Family 669of NCO

Loggers andother forestryworkers

Source: Census of India. 1991. Economic Tables, Volume 8 Part I.

31

main workers and not marginal work-ers, which further contributes to un-der-representation of forestry workersin the occupational classification.

National Accounts Statistics

The Central Statistical Organisation,Ministry of Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation regularly compiles andpublishes estimates of national accountsaggregates (such as domestic product,consumption expenditure, capital forma-tion, savings, stock, etc.).

The Principal Conservator of Forests ofeach state supplies data on productionand prices of industrial wood, fuelwoodand minor forest products to the Na-tional Accounts Division of Central Sta-tistical Organisation89. Data on minorforest products submitted by states con-tains details of the quantities procuredfor different nationalised NTFPs. Thetotal procurement of NTFPs is furthersub-divided into ‘recorded by the ForestDepartment’ and ‘Unrecorded’, the lat-ter representing the Department’s esti-mate of NTFPs collected by people90 .

Observations

These statistics capture only those for-est products that can be marketed anddocumented and whose prices exist in amarket. They cannot account for thesubsistence collection by local commu-nities and local market transactions ofboth nationalised and non-nationalised

89 Central Statistical Organisation National Accounts Statistics, 2000, CSO, Ministry of Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation.

90 Discussions with Mr. K.C. Saxena, Assistant Director, Agriculture, Accounts Division, Central StatisticalOrganisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, New Delhi.

91 Report of the Time-Use Survey, April 2000, Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation, Government of India, New Delhi.

NTFPs. There is therefore considerableunderestimation of total as well asspecie-wise production.

Time-Use Surveys

Given the limitations of the above sur-veys in capturing the roles of men andwomen in forestry (and in other sectorsas well), the time-use survey is emerg-ing as an important tool to measure paidand unpaid work of men and women.The Central Statistical Organisation car-ried out a time-use survey for the firsttime on a pilot basis between July 1998and June 1999 in 18,591 householdsspread over six states: Haryana, Orissa,Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Meghalaya and Gujarat91. The surveywas conducted for the sampled house-holds for a range of activities classifiedinto three categories:

l SNA (system of national accounts)activities covering primary productionactivities such as crop farming, animalhusbandry, fishing, forestry and min-ing; and secondary activities such asconstruction, manufacturing, trade,business and services;

l Extended SNA activities such ashousehold maintenance, care of chil-dren, sick and elderly; and

l Non-SNA activities such as learning,social and cultural activities, massmedia, personal care and self-mainte-nance.


The time-use surveyis emerging as animportant tool tomeasure paid andunpaid work of menand women


Representation of the ForestrySectorActivities related to the forestry sectorfall under SNA primary productionactivities:

l Fishing, forestry, horticulture, garden-ing (code 13) - nursery seedlings (code131); planting, tending and processingof trees (code 132); wood cutting,chopping and stocking firewood (code134).

l Collection of fruit, water, plants, etc.,storing and hunting (code 14), collec-tion of minor forest produce, leaves,bamboo, etc. (code 142); collection of

fuel/fuel wood/twigs (code 143).

Table 8 presents how much time menand women spend on forestry-related ac-tivities. The report has data for urbanand rural areas separately, but is pre-sented here as an aggregate of both.

Observations

l Although it is a pilot survey coveringa small number of households, thetime-use survey brings out the role ofwomen and men in different forestryactivities, which is closer to theground reality (especially with respectto minor forest produce/NTFPs) com-

tending andprocessing oftrees

choppingand stockingfirewood

minor forestproduce,leaves,bamboo, etc.

fuel/fuelwood/twigs(code 143).

Source: Central Statistical Organisation’s report on the Time Use Survey, April 2000.

Table 8: Gender-Wise, Time-Use Survey of Forest-Related Activities( weekly average time in hours)

Activities Haryana Madhya Gujarat Orissa Tamil Nadu Meghalaya

M F M F M F M F M F M F

Fishing, forestry, horticulture, gardening

Nursery 0 0 .02 .01 0 0 0 0 0.02 0.01 0.06 0

Planting, 0 0 .02 0 0.02 0 0.03 0.03 0.03 0 0.67 1.08

Wood cutting, .03 .09 0.32 0.20 0.03 0.02 0.30 0.17 0.23 0.02 1.80 0.69

Collection of fruit, water, plants, etc., storing and hunting

Collection of 0 .01 0.15 0.25 0.10 0.18 0.22 0.30 0.04 0.02 0.06 0.24

Collection of .03 0.39 0.14 0.48 0.01 0.01 0.13 0.33 0.07 0.27 0.21 0.42

seedlings

Pradesh

33

pared to the Census and NSS surveys.

l The report on the Time Use Survey isan interim document, which releasessome important results of the survey.Reports on methodology, estimates ofworkforce/labour force, valuation ofunpaid work and lessons learnt areforthcoming.

Gender Reporting in theDatabases

It is obvious from the preceding sectionthat forestry as a sector and specificallythe role of women in forestry are inad-equately reflected in the Census, Na-tional Sample Surveys and NationalAccounts Statistics. Given the esti-mated 100 million forest dwellers in thecountry living in and around forests andthe additional 275 million for whom for-ests constitute an important source oflivelihood, the databases do not reflectthis scale of dependence. Sections 1.1and 1.2 in this paper have captured thedependence of different communities invarious regions primarily on NTFPs forsubsistence and income. Estimates ofemployment are hard to come by in sec-ondary literature and departmental dataand whatever is available is consideredan underestimation. The Census, NSSand NAS lag behind the ‘underesti-mated’ data available at the departmen-tal level and in secondary literature. Thereasons for the underestimation or in-adequate reflection of the sector as awhole and women’s role in it are dis-cussed below.

At the first level, forestry is clubbed withother sectors in the occupational and in-

dustrial classifications (NCO 1968 andNIC 1998, respectively). Along with ag-riculture and agricultural labour, collec-tion of forest produce and wage earn-ings in forestry operations and forest-based enterprises, as the previous sec-tions have shown, are important sourcesof income and subsistence. Census andNSS estimates, however, grossly under-estimate the engagement of men andwomen in forestry activities.

The available data on women’s partici-pation as main or marginal workers inforestry sector activities (as reflected inthe Census) or on primary and subsid-iary status of activities in which men andwomen are engaged (as reflected in theNSS Survey) show women’s contributionas negligible.

The invisibility of women’s contribution,as is true for the major sector of agricul-ture92, is an outcome of the following:

l Households including women them-selves do not report on their engage-ment in this sector either because mendo not recognise their contribution orwomen report themselves as non-workers as they consider this activityas additional in spite of its significantcontribution to income and subsis-tence. Time-use surveys make visiblethe different activities they are involvedin, which remain unreported in NSSand Census surveys.

l The prevailing cultural attitude wherefor an enumerator the man is the pri-mary wage earner or worker.

92 Human Development in South Asia: The Gender Question, 2000, Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre,Oxford University Press, UK.


The available data onwomen’s participationas main or marginalworkers in forestrysector activities or onprimary andsubsidiary status ofactivities in whichmen and women areengaged showwomen’s contributionas negligible


l Over a year different NTFPs are col-lected in short periods when they areavailable and therefore get excluded inthe prevailing system of categorisingmain activities and secondary activi-ties under the Census or principal andsubsidiary activities under the NSS.

l Women are mainly involved in the col-lection stage and not in the value ad-dition stages and are therefore over-looked in national databases. For ex-ample, the collection of nationalisedand non-nationalised NTFPs whichare not processed by them into finalproducts; collection of fodder whereassale of milk may be done by men.

Typical census questions such as ‘mainactivity’, ‘secondary activity’ or ‘work’are insufficient to capture women’s en-gagement in the labour force93 especiallyas a large part of NTFP collection is forsubsistence. When collected for income,it is an activity which for a particularspecies, lasts for a few days and its col-lection is often intertwined with otherdaily tasks. The NSS surveys, althoughmore frequent than the Census and whichprovide more detailed information thattakes into account persons ‘engaged ingainful activity resulting in productionof goods and services for both marketand own consumption’, still underesti-mate female workforce participation dueto the nature of women’s work and bi-ases produced by the questionnairemethod of collecting data94.

93 Mehta, Asha Kapoor., 1996, Recasting Indices for Developing Countries: A Gender Empowerment Measure, Eco-nomic and Political Weekly, October 26.

94 Prabhu, K. S., P.C. Sarker and A. Radha., 1996, Gender-Related Development Index for Indian States: Methodologi-cal Issues, Economic and Political Weekly, October 26.

Suggestions for StrengtheningDatabases

Currently, women’s workforce participa-tion rates and wage rate differentials arethe two primary indicators reflectingtheir participation in forestry activities.However, in the current scenario wherethe forestry sector as a source of sub-sistence and livelihood is grosslyunderreported, where women’s role inforestry although significant, remainslargely invisible and where cultural bi-ases of both the respondent and enu-merator continue to result inunderreporting, women’s workforce par-ticipation rates as well as wage rate dif-ferential are not adequate proxies forwomen’s participation in forestry activi-ties, their contribution to forest-basedlivelihoods and their control over forestresources.

Participation of women as reflected inthe databases is negligible, primarily be-cause the nature of women’s engage-ment is not captured by the prevailingsystem of categorising these under Cen-sus and NSS. To enable a better repre-sentation of women’s role in forestry,data collection needs to take into ac-count the following elements thatcharacterise the work of women in-volved in this sector:

l Time as a criterion for engagementin activity: Given the reasons forwomen’s invisibility in this sector, data

Women are mainlyinvolved in thecollection stage andnot in the valueaddition stages andare thereforeoverlooked innational databases

35

collection systems need to be strength-ened where time as a criterion reflect-ing engagement of men and womenin forest produce is focussed upon.Household surveys conducted ontime-allocation patterns for men andwomen95 for the forestry sector willbring out a more realistic picture oftheir engagement in collection of for-est produce.

l Value of the product: With respectto forest produce, the value of theproduct and not just the number ofdays spent on collection should betaken into account. A particularNTFP collected in one week may yieldcash income equivalent to a month’sdaily wage earning from some otheractivity, such as agricultural labour.

l Inflow of continuous income: Sea-sonal availability of forest produceexcept fuelwood may not indicate a

“secure” employment or source of in-come. However, it is a source of in-come flow throughout the year from arange of products that areeither sold or consumed.

Additionally, it would be useful if dis-aggregated data is made available notonly at national and state levels but evenat the district level. Availability of dis-trict-level data can strengthen planningprocesses as it can be used for genderanalysis of forestry-related activities,analysis of gender differential impactsand design of gender-sensitiveprogrammes, monitoring and reportingsystems.

Given this data, the contribution of theforestry sector to the ‘economic’ and‘subsistence’ component of a householdeconomy and the different roles of menand women will become more represen-tative.

95 Mukherjee, Mukul., Towards Gender-aware Data Systems: Indian Experience, 1996, Economic and PoliticalWeekly, October 26; Jain, Devaki., Valuing Work: Time as a Measure, 1996, Economic and Political Weekly,October 26; Most field studies on NTFP collection prepare activities calendars that chart the month-wiseactivities of men and women in collecting a range of forest products.


Availability of district-level data canstrengthen planningprocesses as it canbe used for genderanalysis of forestry-related activities,analysis of genderdifferential impactsand design of gender-sensitiveprogrammes,monitoring andreporting systems


AppendixAppendix

1. National Industrial Classification (NIC): All Economic Activities96

Only sections of the NIC relevant to forestry are included

Tabulation Categories: Classification at the One-digit Level

A. Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry

Divisions: Classification at the Two-digit Level

For Tabulation Category ADivision 01 - Agriculture, Hunting….Division 02 - Forestry, Logging and Related Service ActivitiesDivision 05 - Fishing….

Detailed StructureFor Tabulation Category A and Division 02

Sub-class 02001 Growing of standing timber: planting, replanting, transplanting, thinning andconserving of forests and timber tracts. Operation of tree nurseries.

Sub-class 02002 Logging: logging camps and loggers primarily engaged in felling timber and pro-ducing wood in the rough such as pilprops, split poles, pickets, hewn railway tiesor fuelwood.

Sub-class 02003 Gathering of tendu leaves.

Sub-class 02004 Gathering of other wild growing forest materials (balata and other rubber-likegums, cork, lac, resins and balsams; vegetable hair and eel grass; acorns andhorse-chestnuts; mosses, etc.) including fuel/firewood.

Sub-class 02005 Forestry services activities: timber cruising, timber evaluation, fire-fighting andforest management including afforestation and re-forestation.

Sub-class 02006 Logging service activities: transport of logs in association with logging chieflywithin the forest.

96 Published by the Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Planning and Programme Imple mentation,Government of India, New Delhi. 1998

37

2. National Classification of Occupations 196897

Only sections relevant to forestry are included

Divisions: Classification at the One-digit Level01 Professional…02 Administrative, Executive…03 Clerical and …04 Sales Workers05 Service Workers06 Farmers, Fishermen, Hunters, Loggers and Related Workers07-09 Production and ….X Workers not classified by occupations

Divisions and Groups: Two-digit Level

For Division 06: 9 Groups - Code 60 – 68

Code 66 Forestry Workers

Groups and Families – Three digit level ---Fourth/5th digit level

For Group 66: 5 Families – Code 660-663 and 669

660 Foresters and Related Workers660.10 Forester660.20 Forest Guard660.30 Forest Fire Watcher660.90 Foresters and Related Workers, Others

661 Harvesters and Gatherers of Forest Products Including Lac (except logs)661.10 Gatherer, Lac661.20 Gatherer, Medicinal Herbs661.30 Gatherer, Firewood661.40 Cane Cutter661.50 Thatch cutter

662 Log Fellers and Wood Cutters662.10 Log Feller662.20 Wood Cutter662.30 Marker, Log662.40 Sandalwood Extractor

97 Published by the Directorate General of Employment and Training (Occupational Information Unit),Ministry of Labour, Employment and Rehabilitation, Government of India. March 1969.


663 Charcoal Burners and Forest Product Processors663.10 Charcoal Burner, Wood663.20 Digester Operator, Wood663.30 Digester, Turpentine and Eucalyptus663.40 Lac Treater663.90 Charcoal Burners and Forest Product Processors, Other

669 Loggers and Other Forestry Workers, Other669.10 Estimator, Timber669.20 Sorter, Timber669.30 Log Driver669.90 Loggers and Forestry Workers, Other

3. Census of India 199198

Industrial Category of Workers

I CultivatorsII Agricultural LabourersIII Livestock, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting, Plantation, Orchards and Allied ActivitiesIV Mining & QuarryingVa Manufacturing, Processing, Services and Repairs in the Household IndustryVb Manufacturing, Processing, Services and Repairs in other than House hold IndustryVI ConstructionVII Trade & CommerceVIII Transport, Storage & CommunicationIX Other Services

98 The Economic Tables of Census of India, 1991.

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