Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Current trends in social research reveal that women’s multiple modalities of activism and leadership are extending both the meanings of gender and the contours of social action and political engagement across a number of formal and informal domains within civil society, government, and the economic sphere (Harrison, 2013). India is an emerging economy with massive migration from rural to urban areas, and with 70% of the population under 35. Still, about sixty-two percent people live in rural areas, the majority of them are women. India is an emergent economy, going through a paradigm shift in development through opportunities wrought by globalization, technological advancement with the skill training initiative enforced by the state. Because of this new context, civil society groups led by women emerged actively. The Indian experience provides a unique model to study rural women’s activism in the context of globalization and development. Indigenous rural women in India, particularly in Odisha (eastern State) have demonstrated in the last decade their strong resistance against the hegemonic state and its neo-liberalist policies. The question is not whether they have lost or won, but the fact that they have been relentless, able to keep their struggles and resistance alive in a highly hostile environment, where they are faced with the double disadvantage of patriarchy and a degrading and dwindling indigenous resource base is important to understand. My paper discusses women’s resistance movement in the context of industrialization and globalization.