Mining led industrialisation and gender-based violence amongst indigenous communities in Odisha, India

Large-scale industrialisation has been the major, if not the only, player in the rapid and massive development of the Indian economy. During the new economic reforms in the 1990s, India experienced widespread mining-led industrialisation on account of the abundance of natural resources present within its borders in conjunction with global advocation for the same in mineral resource-rich countries. The new economic policy reforms, intended to eliminate poverty and debt, ironically benefited large corporations and elites while leaving only a residual impact on local indigenous communities. In the last couple of decades, mining-led industrialisation approach has been engulfed in multifaceted problems including deforestation, ecological crises, marginalisation and dispossession, loss of traditional livelihoods, heightening food insecurities, strengthening patriarchy and of instigating gender-based violence amongst indigenous communities. In recent years, a large body of scholars have promoted the application of principles of sustainable development to mining processes to curb the adverse consequences of mining on humans and nature. However, mining-led industrialisation is still associated with multiple sustainability, social justice and gender-related challenges within the context of host indigenous communities. This thesis contributes to the emerging literature on the subject by developing an eco-socialist feminist framework to inform sustainable mining imperatives. Moreover, gender being a critical component in the context of mining, the thesis also employs gender as an analytical category and as a component of theory in exploring extractive industrialisation and its impact on indigenous communities, a research lens hitherto employed in limited application. Eco-socialism in unison with feminism emanates the core principles of Marxism, ecology, sustainable development and feminism. An interdisciplinary theoretical framework based on eco-socialist feminism is employed in this thesis to assess the impact of mining-led industrialisation on indigenous communities through an in-depth case study research method. The case study was undertaken in Odisha, India. The study involved participatory field-based research and employed qualitative multi-methods of investigation and analysis. The indigenous eco-socialist feminist perspective stands in direct contrast to the mainstream neoliberal policy paradigm on social justice, equality and sustainability. However, within the context of indigenous societies, eco-socialist feminism contends that an alliance between eco-socialist and feminist struggles is vital to challenge the alliance between capitalism and patriarchy that dominates and exploits both women and nature. The findings from this study can be an exemplar for effective use of interdisciplinary theories of indigenous eco-socialism and feminism to understand, explain and critique patriarchal capitalism in other parts of the world.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Author dc:creator

• Sinha, Geeta

Contributors dc:contributor

• le Roux, Sara
• Singh, Pritam

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/D1PC-FR24

OAI identifier oai:identifier

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