Impact of Development on Women

Abstract

In India, in the name of development the very people who are totally dependent on life resources are alienated from the same. The fisher folk are weighed down when the sea is contaminated with the DDT, disturbing the life web of the seas.  Likewise the life of the tribal communities is threatened when deforestation is carried out on a massive scale.  Again, it is the tribal that are destabilized by mega hydro projects or excessive mining of the forest.  In the same way, the dalits and peasants are wielded while their only source of livelihood, the land is made infertile by exorbitant use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Of all these oppressed people, it is women that are most affected by the development economy.  It does multiply their work load, affect their economic self sufficiency, curb their mobility, creativity and push them back to “home” to carry out their traditional role as women.