Singing naari shakti in Lakhimpur Kheri: Tharu women’s protest songs

I am a Tharu Adivasi residing in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. Tharu Adivasis have lived in this area for the past 300 years. We have been protecting the forest and using its resources such as medicinal herbs, wild grass, and wood from fallen trees. But once the Dudhwa National Park was established in 1977, the forest department started restricting our access to the forest.

We’re attacked by the department for collecting firewood and plants; they don’t even let us fish in the forest pond. Without any access to the forest, we will struggle for food and won’t find building materials, such as wild grass and tree stems, for our houses.

In 2009, the women from our community formed the Tharu Adivasi Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Manch to fight for our rights. Since then, we have been raising slogans and protesting in and around the area to spread awareness among the people about their rights, so that they too join us in the struggle.

Over time, we have changed these slogans into songs that we write ourselves. We wear traditional Tharu attire and perform the songs along with the Hori dance.

The forest department wants us to forget our traditional ways of living. So, we incorporate our traditions in the fight for our rights.

Nivada Rana is the vice president of the Tharu Adivasi Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Manch.

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