Managing Assets and Vulnerability Contexts: Vistas of Gendered Livelihoods of Adivasi Women in South India

Abstract

In general, indigenous livelihoods are often adversely incorporated within development processes and policies on account of their multiple disadvantages and discrimination. The paper argues that the ability to build on or manage livelihoods is largely gendered, often exacerbated through the nuanced working of socio-economic forces as women's experiences of poverty should be located and deconstructed within the configuration of local, political, social and economic forces. Despite notable state led development initiatives in Kerala, the multidimensionality of deprivation among different groups of poor and women within these communities is yet to be seriously considered. Only then, responsive measures can be developed, that will bear any significant difference and meaning to a historically neglected social group. Their social, economic and political participation is important to develop responsive and specific policies and institutions in lieu of those that are designed on the basis of preconceived notions of 'modernisation' and 'homogeneity' of indigenous livelihoods.

Finding Voice: The Photovoice Method of Data Collection in HIV and AIDS-Related Research

“…The study has provided insight into the multidimensionality of poverty and deprivation and the patterns of poverty. It has been well documented that gender relations affect all aspects of poverty including income, opportunity, security and empowerment (Arun, 2008), playing out as both the cause and a characteristic of poverty. In the study, 13 of the 20 households portrayed in the volunteer photographs were female-headed households living in conditions of extreme deprivation.…”

“…Research around the feminization of poverty has recognized the nexus between gender and poverty in terms of its extent, incidence and patterns (for example, Budowski & Bixby, 2003). Female headed households are seen to have higher incidence of poverty (Arun, 2008). Figure 3 presents one of the families living in extreme poverty.…”