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Changing Narratives: How Women Empowerment and Conservation in Rural Assam Are Interlinked

Sampriti Barman

By Sampriti barman

 

When we talk about the conservation of a species in a rural backdrop, we seldom think that the women of the villages are stakeholders in bringing a species back from almost extinction. Women in rural Assam, however, have proved to change this narrative by becoming the guardians of the rare Greater Adjutant Stork. The Hargila Army, a band of more than 10,000 rural women hailing from the villages of Dadara, Pacharia, and Singimari in Assam is now creating a mass movement of weaving conservation and women empowerment together, which has resulted in both a better standard of living for the women and the rise in population of Hargila.

 

The success of this community conservation module did not happen overnight and was the result of almost two decades of painstaking involvement of passion, implementation, and dejections. Starting from around 28 nests in 2007, the women-led conservation movement successfully increased the nest numbers to a over 200 nests in the present. Pioneered by wildlife biologist Purnima Devi Barman, the conservation movement initially challenged public perceptions and gender stereotypes. The bird, once called a ‘bad omen’ and a ‘pest’ is now a cultural symbol. But what sets it apart from most conservation modules is how Purnima successfully empowered rural women economically and socially, apart from the positive species recovery and an image make-over of the Hargila bird over the years. Involving rural women in conservation is not always an easy task. When Purnima started, she recalled how no woman would show up because of them being restricted by their domestic workload. Purnima then started organizing cooking (pitha-making) competitions, a way to attract rural women to join environmental education workshops. Their initial hesitancy disappeared, as they were now given a stage to prove their skills and talents, something that was not often tapped in rural Assam. Through events like these, Purnima started to aware the rural women in these villages on the importance of Hargila and the need for their protection. This was not, however, the only manner through which these women were mobilized to become the ‘Stork Saviours’ they are claimed to be today.

 

The women in Dadara, Pacharia, and Singimari are exceptional weavers. They are proficient in weaving the traditional Mekhela Sador, the Assamese traditional attire, and the revered Gamusa, the Assamese towel carrying a deep cultural significance. Considered the pride of Assam, they are very close to Assamese sentiments. Purnima realized the potential of the women weavers and chose a new way for the bird’s image makeover- weaving these attires with Hargila Motifs. Through skill development workshops, sewing machines and yarn distribution events, the local women eventually became equipped to weave and embroider Hargila in the tradition of Assam. Now in 2024, their Mekhela Sadors and Gamusas with stork motifs are sold all over the world, which has made these women economically independent, and has driven their passion to protect the birds in their backyard. Purnima also organizes ‘Hargila Panchamrit’ which is the Happy Hatching ceremony of the birds during their breeding season, replicating the traditional ceremony of celebrating Assamese expecting mothers. The women are now protectors- they monitor the bird and inform of any new rescues. The women are now celebrators – they wear Hargila headdresses and celebrate the co-existence of humans with the bird.

 

The use of Indigenous knowledge and community attachment in the field of wildlife conservation can thus been seen as a successful tool to protect a species in their habitat, especially in areas that are not legally protected (unlike National Parks or Sanctuaries) and fall in private properties of individuals (mostly men, in rural setups). In Rural India, women are often not given a space to express themselves, or even work in the public sphere and many a time, even when they have the ‘freedom’ to choose a lifestyle, they are unable to do so for the lack of education and opportunities growing up. In a sense, the way to attain these means is not accessible. Contrastingly, in conservation modules like that of the Hargila conservation in Assam, taking up women as the leaders in conservation made sense provided the close connection a woman shares with her backyard, the trees, and the bird. Traditionally, she is seen as a nurturer, an educator, and a compassionate being. However, this again clashes with the societal barriers she faces in society. By encouraging them through traditional methods, like the pitha-making competition, or the Hargila Panchamrit, her connection to nature is made ‘visible’. By selling the traditional attires with Hargila Motifs, she gets economically empowered.

 

A financially independent woman is a ‘free’ woman, now that she can spend on herself, and also on her family with an independent’ will. Thus, community conservation and women empowerment are closely interlinked, if not interdependent or often cyclical. They are not, what Purnima says ‘an isolated’ process. Conservation projects come and go; communities endure. Governments come and go; communities endure. Thus, the best long-term solutions are those where avian conservation practices are embedded in the landscape of human–bird encounter and in the fabric of human economic, political and cultural activity. Such solutions, participatory by nature, recognize and build upon what already exists, and go on to change what is necessary (Bonta, 2010). Hargila and women empowerment are now almost synonymous, a lesson for developing further ethno-ornithological modules for conservation.

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