Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Images
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Origins of the Gaothan Problem
- 2 Responding to the Threat of Eviction
- 3 Understanding Complexity
- 4 Addressing Government Neglect
- 5 Breaking the Bonds of Migratory Labour
- 6 Strengthening Katkari Collective Organization
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Breaking the Bonds of Migratory Labour
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Images
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Origins of the Gaothan Problem
- 2 Responding to the Threat of Eviction
- 3 Understanding Complexity
- 4 Addressing Government Neglect
- 5 Breaking the Bonds of Migratory Labour
- 6 Strengthening Katkari Collective Organization
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Fishermen have been spotted near the stream. The daku fish tells his wife: ‘Do not worry. I will be all right. Do not wipe your kunku till they rub haldi (turmeric, usually applied with salt to fish before cooking) in my eyes. I can come back even after they put me in the pot.’
– A Katkari tale about the daku fishInterpretation: The fish known as daku masa does not die easily. It can survive out of water for a long time. The daku masa is telling his wife not to assume he is dead even if he is gone for a long time. He tells his wife not to wipe off her ‘kunku’ – the spot a married woman applies to her forehead when she weds but rubs off when her husband dies. He promises to come back.
The bonds of migratory livelihoods weigh heavily on Katkari efforts to improve their lives. They are like chains keeping the Katkari tied to highly exploitative work during part of the year and dependent on local patrons to bridge meagre earnings during the rest of the year. They are also a significant barrier to Katkari engagement in the political and social life of the broader community and an enduring source of vulnerability to eviction. They isolate the vast majority of the Katkari from mainstream employment and sources of power and integrate only the youngest and the strongest into the lowest rungs of the industrial labour pool. Breaking these bonds is a vital challenge with significant implications for virtually all aspects of their lives.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fighting EvictionTribal Land Rights and Research-in-Action, pp. 146 - 176Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2012