Deepa Kozhisseri is a Qualitative Social Scientist who hails from Palakkad District in Kerala and has trained in sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Her research interest is in rural sociology and she will be sharing her study on the inter-relationship of nature and tribal communities in the forests of Attapadi Hills part of the Western Ghats in Kerala.
About Deepa’s Research
The forests of Attapadi Hills part of the Western Ghats in Kerala homeland to Adivasi people is a frontier region where a settler population is now predominant. Deepa aims to bring the concept of borders as a heuristic device to interpret gender-ecology-indigeneity in Attapadi. The conversations among Adivasis, between Adivasis and settlers, between Adivasi women and their children become in media res dialogues of their border subjectivity. This was an empirical study in Attapadi in which life experiences, oral history and myths were studied using narrative analysis.
Deepa’s research paper discusses four findings: First, how land dispossession disproportionately impacted Adivasi women. Second, the gradual increase of elopement and its linkage with land dispossession among women and loss of commons. Thirdly, the collapse of the household due to alcoholism and Adivasi women’s social movement to protect their oikeon. Fourthly, the rupture of gender agriculture foodways and how women are running community kitchens for nutritious meals.