Empowered or tokenized? Gendered realities in decentralized forest governance frameworks

This paper critically examines the evolving dynamics of grassroots forest governance through a case study of the Brindabanpur Mahila Forest Protection Committee in Bankura district, West Bengal, through the theoretical lens of socialist ecofeminism. It interrogates how the imposition of neoliberal forest policies under the capitalist patriarchal order obscures the original philosophy of Joint Forest Management Committees. Although the institutional discourse presents these women’s participation as progressive, their involvement often remains tokenistic. This research introduces the concept of phantom empowerment to capture the illusion of agency granted to women within these institutional structures, where representation is neither transformative nor emancipatory. The study further explores the multidimensional aspects of feminized precarity, where women are compelled to undertake precarious labour due to inadequate financial support from forest-based programs. This sociological analysis reveals how dominant power structures subdue grassroots resistance and depoliticize women’s collective action by reducing it to a managerial function. The findings underscore the need to dismantle linear narratives of empowerment and call for a radical restructuring of environmental governance that prioritizes emancipatory governance by rural women.