From silence to solidarity: How tribal women in Gujarat built movements

 

In the rugged, resource-scarce hills of Gujarat’s Panchmahals district—one of India’s most underdeveloped regions, marked by high poverty, poor nutrition indicators, and large tribal, Dalit, and Muslim populations—women who once stayed confined to household labour and early marriages have forged a different path. Through ANANDI (Area Networking and Development Initiatives) and three grassroots women’s organisations in Devgadh Baria, Panam, and Gogamba, they have moved from isolated survival to organised collective power.

Their stories, shared in a recent episode of the Episode 12 of the podcast Unmute, reveal decades of patient organising that links everyday struggles over water, food, wages, and safety to larger questions of rights, governance, and democracy. Hosted by civil society leaders Gagan Sethi and Minar Pimple, the episode examines the evolution of grassroots women’s organising in Panchmahal and Dahod, Gujarat. 

Through a conversation with Neeta Hardikar and leaders Guliben, Shaniben and Champaben of three women-led collectives supported by ANANDI, the episode traces the journey from the state-backed Mahila Samakhya programme to autonomous women’s organisations. It shows how everyday concerns around livelihoods, food, social security, violence, entitlements and local governance can become the foundation for collective action, leadership and rights-based organising.

The Shift from Individual Empowerment to Collective Strength

ANANDI—meaning “joyfulness” in Gujarati—was founded in the mid-1990s by five women—Nita Hardikar, Janhavi, Sejal, Sumitra, and Preeti—who had earlier worked with the Mahila Samakhya programme. They saw the limits of state-designed “empowerment” schemes that treated women mainly as beneficiaries. Guided by values of justice, freedom and fraternity, their core work has been building and strengthening rural women-led community-based organisations among tribal, Dalit, denotified tribe and other marginalised communities for sustainable livelihoods, rights and entitlements, and a violence-free society for women, youth and children.

“When sisters do not come into organisations, they cannot give new leadership to their communities,” Hardikar explained. The founders chose to work in the most marginalised blocks of Panchmahals and nearby areas, combining an empowerment approach with a rights-based one. Daily questions—why the anganwadi does not open properly, why ration is short, why NREGA work is delayed—became the entry points for building collective consciousness and leadership.

Local women leaders Guliben, Shaniben, and Champaben describe how that process unfolded in their lives.

Guliben, a widow from an extremely poor household who was married at 11 and faced constant taunts and violence, recalls the first meetings. Facilitators asked simple but radical questions: Whose house is this? Whose children? Whose land? Whose labour? The answers revealed that women did almost all the work yet owned nothing. Starting with a modest savings group of ₹10 per member, she and other women gradually opened bank accounts, took loans, and claimed widow pensions and other entitlements. Family opposition was fierce—brothers hid, neighbours mocked—but solidarity slowly grew.

Shaniben, who joined after seeing her mother’s involvement, focused on widows’ rights. In her area alone, the organisation now supports hundreds of widows each year in securing pensions, ration cards, land rights, and PM-Kisan benefits. Pension amounts rose from ₹120–500 to higher levels through persistent struggle, including participation in the national Pension Parishad campaign.

Champaben, from the more challenging Panam organisation, overcame deep fear and isolation. A street play on health and panchayat issues performed near her home gave her the first spark of confidence. She later joined NREGA mobilisations, learned to write songs for campaigns, and helped build leadership in a place where organising had been slow to take root.

Claiming Space in Local Governance and Livelihoods

After the 73rd Constitutional Amendment reserved seats for women in panchayats, ANANDI began deliberate work with elected women representatives. They organised separate mahila sabhas and youth meetings before gram sabhas so women could prepare agendas, draft petitions, and practise speaking. Gender-just governance maps and solidarity from the wider organisation helped counter the widespread “sarpanch-pati” phenomenon, in which husbands or male relatives controlled the formal positions.

On livelihoods, the groups have fought for proper implementation of NREGA—demanding timely work, wages within 15 days, and basic facilities at worksites. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, NREGA became a critical lifeline in many villages when migration stopped. Leaders express alarm at recent legislative changes (referred to as the VB Ramji / new NREGA framework) that they say dilute the guarantee of work and remove clear entitlements to facilities. They have submitted representations from village to district level and warn that without the employment guarantee, families will be forced back into distress migration, harming children’s education and local livestock economies.

In Devgadh Baria, women have also built cooperatives and producer groups around forest produce—mahua, tendu leaves, gum, and other non-timber forest products—seeking greater control over collection, processing, and marketing rather than remaining dependent on distant traders or fluctuating government schemes.

Confronting Old and New Forms of Violence

The organisations run nyay samitis (justice committees) and support the formation of mahila suraksha samitis at the panchayat level. They handle cases that can be resolved through dialogue while referring serious crimes such as rape or severe assault to the formal police and courts. Leaders note a shift in the nature of violence: alongside domestic abuse linked to unpaid labour or suspicion, they now see young women facing family violence over friendships or relationships, as well as unsafe transport and harassment when travelling for education or work.

The 2002 communal violence left deep scars. In several villages, ANANDI women protected neighbours’ property and lives across community lines and later faced labelling and attacks for standing with Muslim families. Hardikar and the leaders describe ongoing efforts to maintain diversity in programmes and to resist polarisation, even as social fabric has frayed—many Muslim trading families left villages, disrupting long-standing local economic ties around forest produce. Rebuilding those connections remains an unfinished task.

Looking Ahead: Deepening Democracy Amid New Pressures

The leaders acknowledge current challenges. Individual casework on rights and entitlements absorbs enormous energy, sometimes weakening the sense of collective identity—“my work is done, why stay organised?” Youth often join with aspirations around education and employment rather than broader constitutional or ideological questions. Sustaining organisations requires continuous capacity building for new teams and second-line leadership. Market forces and centralising administrative tendencies further squeeze civic space.

Yet the women insist the core strength remains. In gram sabhas today, more sisters stand up and speak about water, health, and safety because they know the organisation stands behind them. They challenge officials who dismiss their demands, reminding them that public salaries are paid by citizens’ taxes and that guarantees written into law must be honoured.

“Democracy’s alternative is not something else—it is deepening democracy,” the host reflected at the close of the conversation. The work of ANANDI and its affiliated sangathans—taking rights awareness and organised collective action into every village and household—offers one concrete expression of that deepening in one of Gujarat’s most difficult terrains.

Their message is clear: leadership does not remain static. New generations must be prepared, new forms of violence and economic pressure must be met with fresh strategies, and the constitutional values of equality, justice, and participation must continue to be practised on the ground. The women of Devgadh Baria, Panam, and Gogamba have already shown that collective power is possible even in the most adverse conditions.