Youth Eco-Feminist
Community Action Course.

The Youth Eco-Feminist Community Action Course is designed to help Adivasi and Dalit youth to dialogue on culture, Constitutionality and identity, and to engage with their natural resources through a gender-just lens. The course has been jointly developed by Dhaatri - A Resource Centre for Women and Children, Sakhi Trust, and Keystone Foundation. The inaugural batch (2023-24) had a total of 15 youth hailing from Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Most of them had already been working in their communities, and post the completion of the course, are now working on local actions with their expanded knowledge and newly-gained perspectives.

Sessions and Updates

Graduation Day

Congratulations to the first cohort of our Youth Eco-Feminist Community Action Course, on their successful graduation!
During the graduation ceremony, they presented their course experiences and outlined plans to apply their newfound knowledge to address critical issues within their communities.

Review Sessions

The course concluded with participants reviewing and assessing the integration of ecology, feminism, and community action in their learning, connecting course themes to field assignments, and emphasizing eco-feminist principles in future youth-led community actions.

Community Action

After the input sessions and exposure visits, the youth actively engaged in community work, conducting baseline surveys and mapping challenges within their own communities. Through consultations, they mobilised villagers to address common issues by submitting representations to officials and volunteering for local activities like building their own roads and cultivating kitchen gardens.

Community Research

Apart from baseline surveys in their villages, participants engaged in a campaign on energy equity for women, aiming to understand women's energy needs for cooking, electricity, water, and transportation. They conducted research through house-to-house interviews, and learnt how to compile and analyse the data collected. This experience allowed the youth to gain a deeper insight into community issues and explore solutions based on local realities.

Workshop on Analog Forestry

A one-week Analog Forestry workshop at Keystone Foundation, facilitated in partnership with the International Analog Forestry Network, provided the youth with technical training in forest health assessment, resource mapping, and regeneration techniques using AF tools.

Workshop on Biodiversity and Forest Resources

A community workshop in Adilabad's forests, led by adivasi women experts, trained the youth in Community Forest Rights and biodiversity regeneration. Activities included biodiversity mapping and a forest walk for knowledge exchange among local villagers and youth, enhancing their understanding of forest resources and community rights.

Adivasi Academy

The Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh was a storehouse of knowledge and resources that ignited reflections on adivasi history, culture and identity among the participants. The Vacha museum provided a space to explore the range of adivasi musical instruments, artefacts, jewellery, paintings etc. The participants appreciated the importance of documenting and disseminating traditional knowledge, oral histories, folklore, music and cultural practices among adivasis. They also visited various workshops that preserved and promoted the extraction and use of natural dyes, rapidly diminishing forms of traditional weaving and novel forms of paper-making using banana fibre and other agricultural waste that the youth were interested in experimenting with.

Hangati Cooperative Society

The participants had the opportunity to interact with a cooperative society, Hangati, which is run by the women of the Gamit adivasi community. The women shared their journey - from a self-help group established to organise women from interior villages with limited access to the public sphere to a cooperative society that actively lobbies with the village governance and district administration bodies. They were instrumental in the agitation against Vedanta’s zinc smelter plant and the Tapi river linkage project. This discussion shed light on how their collectivisation led to the financial and social empowerment of women and provided them with a safe space to fall back on.

Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation

The participants visited Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation during their exposure visit in Gujarat. They were introduced to various livelihood initiatives for farmers with small landholdings and entrepreneurial opportunities for the landless. Among these were ways to grow mango orchards, mixed cropping using climbers and exotic fruits that maximise output using less land and investment, and scientifically designed shelters for cows, goats and poultry. They had the opportunity to visit the factory and processing unit for value addition of mangoes, and the shop run by the producers’ cooperative society which sells provisions at affordable prices for the local community. The participants learnt about different models of water conservation, graded canopies in farming forest and fruit trees and different techniques of grafting.

Adivasi Sports

At the sports meet on the annual day celebration of Adivasi Ekta Ane Vikas Sanghathan, a movement based organisation that works on asserting adivasi rights over their forests, the participants witnessed various sports like archery, kho-kho, kabaddi, tug of war etc. in which women and men, the young and old all participated in the spirit of preserving their culture. The participants also visited an archery academy where children and youth from the Bhil community receive formal training in their traditional sport archery, which prepares them to compete in national and international level championships. They also tried their hands at the wooden and modern bow while watching the students practise after an interaction with the founder.

Korchi Mahagramsabha

The participants got the opportunity to attend a monthly Mahagramsabha meeting in Korchi village, Gadchiroli. Having a close look at the working of the Mahagramsabha, a coalition of several gram sahbhas, they gained a better understanding of aspects related to community Forest Rights and the Rojgar Hami Yojana, the state employment guarantee scheme.

Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi

The participants went on an exposure visit to Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra, where they got a deeper understanding of community (CFR) and individual (IFR) forest rights.

ATREE

The participants visited ATREE’s honey processing unit under the brand Adavi which is owned by the Soliga community which is situated in the protected area of Biligiri Rangaswamy Hills. Following an introduction to the producers’ company by Dr. Madegowda, the participants were taken through the machinery of the honey processing unit, quality and moisture check, filtering and packaging. They also viewed the various value-added products made from NTFP that Adavi sells and tasted four varieties of honey extracted from four native species of honeybees. They were also able to view the filtering of honey through the traditional method using cloth.

This was followed by a visit to a Soliga hamlet passing through farms and coffee plantations. The status of their forest rights claims were also discussed before proceeding to ATREE’s field office. Their activities in mapping native species using scientific data and traditional knowledge, mapping and conservation of sacred groves and claims for habitat rights were also discussed. The importance of documenting the traditional knowledge and cultural practices of the indigenous communities for knowledge transfer to future generations and its value in acting as an evidence for the existence of a community was stressed upon. The participants were able to appreciate the need for the presence of adivasis at the policy and decision making levels in addressing their marginalisation and recognition of their rights.

Sahaja Seeds

The participants visited Desi Seeds, a farmer producer organisation started by Sahaja Seeds in Mysuru. Their work with organic farmers for seed cultivation and marketing was discussed in the introductory session followed by orientation to their seed storage, germination test, cold storage and packaging. Some exotic varieties new to the market, like aerial potatoes were also shown. Sales of organic seeds in bulk which are suitable for organic farming and smaller packages for kitchen gardens were also displayed along with some natural fertilizers about which the participants discussed.

This was followed by a visit to the parent organisation Sahaja Seeds, in which the participants learnt about how it emerged as a result of an extensive collection of seeds, the role and functioning of self-help groups through which they work and the difference between organic and natural farming. They also viewed more varieties of seeds and seasonal calendar based on seeds.

Forest Rights Act

In the last leg of the exposure visit to Keystone Foundation, the participants had a session on the Forest Rights Act by Mr. Bagavanidhi who works on grassroots governance in the community well being programme. Unlike any other session on FRA, the participants thoroughly appreciated the rights-based perspective that the resource person explained by understanding the injustice of landlessness and dispossession. With a special emphasis on historical injustice and recognition of rights at the core, the process of claiming rights through grassroots mobilisation, the collection of evidence and constitution of different committees was also discussed.

The participants were taken to a short trek on the last day in Keystone and were able to spot various native animals and birds in the early hours of the day.

Climate Change and Analog Forestry

In the Sigur field centre, the participants had a session on climate change and analog forestry. The climate educators introduced the participants to the geography, plants, animals, snakes and honeybees. They were able to witness the functioning of a bee box and taste freshly extracted honey from the honeycomb. This was followed by an activity which is used by climate educators in schools to differentiate between climate and weather by stepping right or left based on whether a given statement indicates weather or climate. Ms. Bhavya then took a session on different aspects of climate change through which the participants understood the concepts of mitigation, adaptation and resilience. A case study was given for group discussion and presentation that helped in reflecting on climate justice.

The participants visited Chokkanalli which falls near the core zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. They had a chance to discuss People and Nature Collective’s work with village elders who take classes for children on traditional knowledge, culture and biodiversity and their implementation of analog forestry.

Sigur Plateau

The participants were given an orientation to the Sigur plateau, the indigenous communities in the region, the elephant corridor and certain native fishes and animals endemic to the region. This was followed by a visit to Bhoothanantham in which an adivasi farmer narrated how his ancestors migrated to these hills some generations ago and now every household in the village are their heirs and part of the same family. The crops grown, method of irrigation and differences in animal attacks in the farms were discussed. The participants were also asked to attempt a resource map of the village to better understand accessibility and distribution of resources.

Ooty and Mudumalai

In the visit to Ooty, the participants were taken to an observation centre which had an orchid nursery, a museum space depicting the native species and indigenous communities of the Nilgiris and a watchtower nestled amidst the pine forests in which the participants spotted the Nilgiri Langur which is rare and native to the region.

In the safari in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, the participants spotted a leopard, elephants, deers and langurs among the many animal and bird species in the core zone. They also visited the elephant camp during the feeding hours and understood the care needed for rehabilitated elephants that cannot live in the wild on their own.

Climate Educators and Community Radio

The participants got the opportunity to revisit some of the aspects of Keystone’s work with the climate educators and community media through the fellows forming Seeme Suddhi who document and publish traditional knowledge, cultural practices and voices of the marginalized and Radio Kotagiri which is the community radio initiative of Keystone.

A panel discussion was held with the climate educators who described the educational status of women and reasons for drop-out during their schooling, shared what gives them happiness as teachers and reflected on their understanding of and vision for education.

The participants revisited the tenets of community radio, the work and reach of Radio Kotagiri and had the opportunity to visit the recording room where the software for broadcasting recorded and live content was demonstrated. The importance of creating a platform for voicing the views, documenting the culture and spreading information and awareness to the marginalized along with maintaining credibility from reliable sources of information was discussed.

Mr. Mohammad Raees conducted a session on dalits and hill sanitation work in which he elaborately deconstructed the fundamentals of caste hierarchy. He explained his stance that the outcasting of dalits is connected to the position of a toilet inside or outside a house/temple to whom doing the dirty work is relegated. He also maintained that in the hills, caste hierarchy can be observed through geographical locations of different castes divided between higher and lower elevations.

Community Wellbeing

The participants were introduced to the community well being programme headed by Dr. Jyotsna. The three wings, that is, environmental governance, traditional livelihoods and community well-being and health were explained through their programme framework that seeks to connect the implementation, communication and advocacy on these three thematic areas with traditional knowledge, gender and climate resilience. The multidimensional approach towards well-being that includes income, physical and social security, physical and mental health, cultural and traditional knowledge was further understood by a group discussion and presentation by the participants where they chose an issue and an area and analyzed it through its social, political, cultural and biological (physiological and psychological) dimensions.

This was followed by a visit to the KMF Hospital in which Dr. Miriam explained the work of health volunteers which support Keystone’s public health interventions. She addressed various questions on the inaccessibility to healthcare, especially in case of emergencies, to adivasi hamlets in remote areas near Kotagiri, their mobile healthcare support and stressed on the value of empathy and affirmation to the efforts of caregivers in palliative care.

Aadhimalai

On their visit to Aadhimalai, a farmer producer organisation started by Keystone which now runs independently, the participants were introduced to an entity driven by and for indigenous producers. The visit made a deep impression on the participants, who appreciated the company’s stance on ownership by the adivasi cultivators, profit-sharing with producers, fair bargaining while fixing prices, doorstep procurement and quality check, and value addition driven by women.

The bye laws of the company, quality standards and organic certification through a peer-reviewed participatory guarantee system (PGS) were discussed. The machinery for processing millets, two varieties of coffee and silk cotton were also shown. This was followed by a visit to one of the farms in the community’s neighbourhood which cultivated sustainably with crop diversity and a nursery which preserves and distributes native plant species.

People and Nature Collective and Biodiversity Conservation

The sessions on People and Nature Collective and Biodiversity Conservation were held by the heads of the project Ms. Jayanthi and Ms. Shiny respectively. The PNC employs three methods: community media, community foundation and community fellows for preserving traditional knowledge that is key to protecting the ecosystem and ensuring its transfer to future generations. Community and institutional archiving, the initiative of Ownership of Public History and its importance for marginalized communities, preservation of knowledge and documentation for habitat rights for PVTGs spread across different states in the Nilgiris and awareness on their entitlements were discussed. Self-profiling as a method of collecting, preserving and documenting traditional knowledge, cultural practices and challenges faced by indigenous communities was delved into elaborately.

The session on biodiversity conservation shed light on pollinators and different species of honey bees native to India as bee-keeping is one of the major traditional occupations of indigenous communities in the Nilgiris and one of the first focus areas during the formative years of Keystone. Research on pollinators, training on hygienic extraction and quality of honey, overharvesting and advocating for grasslands of the Nilgiris under the category of wetland conservation are some of their main activities. Their work on ecological restoration through replicating the indigenous Shola forests was displayed through the revival at Happy Valley which the participants visited. Their conservatory, apiary and nursery which was visited is also part of their efforts at conserving native species and restoring the ecology.

Kodanadu

Enroute the visit to Kodanadu where the Western and Eastern Ghats meet at the Nilgiris, the participants got the opportunity to see a Toda temple in which natural spirits are worshipped. At the Kodanadu view point, the meeting point of the Eastern and Western Ghats could be viewed as the hill on the opposite side was part of the Eastern Ghats while the hills we stood on was part of the Eastern Ghats which is separated by the Moyar river which also forms the boundary between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Protected Areas

At Keystone, the participants had a session focused on understanding Protected Areas -- the history behind them and the ongoing issues associated with them. The participants learnt about the different types of PAs -- WildLife Sanctuaries, Tiger Reserves, National Parks, and Reserve Forests; and the difference between the rules and regulations enforced in these areas.

Keystone Foundation: Understanding the Organisation

On the first day at the head office of Keystone Foundation at Kotagiri, the participants were given a campus tour in which they were taken through the different projects and initiatives of the organization.

In the biodiversity wing ‘Biduru Hode’, the participants understood the different programmes on the sustainable collection of NTFPs, documenting the use of different parts of plants in consultation with village elders for customary rules and prescribed scientific inputs, advocacy for native species, conservation of grasslands and wetlands and long-term ecological monitoring especially important for climate change.

In the climate change wing ‘Jenugoodu’, different aspects of measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) with respect to climate change, community-based indicators and the initiative of climate smart schools, installation of weather stations and training and implementation of analog forestry for gender just responses to climate change were discussed.

In the visit to the museum space of the People and Nature Collective, the participants viewed the seed collection, display of a variety of millets and discussed the institutional and community archiving of traditional knowledge for preservation and transfer to younger generations with the central question- who has the right on this knowledge?