Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO) is taking the lead in organizing five parallel sessions in collaboration with ILC Asia, Landesa and Womanity Foundation at the India Land & Development Conference, 2025 being held from 18-20th November 2025 at Ahmedabad Management Association in Ahmedabad. These sessions aim to critically reflect on the journey of women’s land rights (WLR) in India, by examining the intersections of gender, caste,class, religion, ethnicity, occupation and age. This reflection will help to address the gaps in feminist land right discourses. WGWLO and MARAG are taking the lead in organising this parallel session ‘Unheard Voices: Land Rights and Livelihoods of Nomadic Tribes and Pastoralists’ to bring together the voices of underrepresented and excluded communities particularly women. This session will amplify the voices of Nomadic Tribes and Pastoralists, highlighting the often overlooked agendas, issues and challenges which they face. These include exclusion from the broader development narrative, economic empowerment that neglect their unique needs and agroecology and climate change that overlook their knowledge and traditional practices The Context Nomadic Tribes and Pastoralists are integral to India’s diverse cultural and economic landscape, with approximately 13 million pastoralists across 46 groups, including Gujjars, Bakarwals, Rebaris, Raikas, Kurubas and Maldharis. These communities face significant challenges in accessing and using land particularly for women, due to historical injustices, ongoing marginalization and gender disparities. Some of the challenges they face are; lack of formal land titles, displacement without proper rehabilitation or compensation due development projects, mining and conservation efforts, loss of grazing lands, fragmentation of natural habitats and disruption of traditional migration routes due to conservation efforts, development projects and infrastructure construction Further, climate change affect the quality and availability of grazing lands, affecting livestock productivity. They also face social stigma. All these challenges disproportionately affect women, impacting their access to land and livelihoods and affecting their participation and decision making within the house and in the public sphere. 

Objectives

The key objectives of holding these sessions are to: 

1. Explore the relationship of women from nomadic tribes and pastoral communities with land and commons.

2. Understand the factors that strengthen or weaken their right to land and commons. 

3. Listen to their challenges, how they face them and their hopes for the future 

4. Learn how ecosystem actors (government, civil society, donors, and researchers) can better support their land rights. 

Expected Outcome: 

This session will provide a platform to engage directly with Nomadic and Pastoralist communities, especially women, to understand their lived realities, strategies of negotiation, aspirations for change and visions for the future. By centering their voices, the session will shed light on the complexities of their experiences and foster a more inclusive approach to development. The dialogues will be compiled into a Collective Outcome Document for ILDC 2025, outlining key insights and recommendations to support the land rights of these communities. This document will serve as a guide for policymakers, donors, researchers, and civil society actors to develop a clear plan for the next decade.