Elinor Gadon's paper: DEVELOPMENT, DISPLACEMENT AND GENDER INEQUITIES

Above: Channeling waste water Elinor W. Gadon’s paper titled, Development, Displacement and Gender Inequities, was presented on November 8, 2005. Locating it in the state of Orissa, India, she traced the impact that “development” has on the lives of tribal women and men. Massive projects on irrigation, dams and mining have disrupted lives of the indigenous population of the region. The inherent imbalances that such investments impose on local communities completely uproot its members from their communites and many are being pushed into urban slum dwellings. The brunt of such “rehabilitation” efforts is borne by women. Devoid of their rights to agricultural land and its produce, women are reduced to working as daily wage labor, domestic help and even sex workers. Focusing on Salia Sahi, an urban slum in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, she presented a series of photographs taken by photographer Souvan Kumar, that vividly depict the struggles of displaced tribal women and men in spaces where they have been ostensibly rehabilitated. For some pictures visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42433998@N00/sets/72057594056880557/