Transformations – Water and Indigenous Women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

The Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh has a large collection of multi-ethnic indigenous peoples who have had a checkered history in their relationship with the state. Armed confrontation with the military has been settled by a peace treaty which has not served these communities to preserve their access to their traditional lands. As population density has increased in the country and the state has resettled large numbers of mainstream Bangladeshi populations to this region, there has been rapid economic and social change. It has also led to a water crisis that was previously absent. After providing a summative history of dispossession and more recent development activities carried out by the state, military, and development agencies, I look at the changing situation of water and the socio-economic transformations by examining how these affect women in this area. The different sources of stress on water are also presented. Conversations with indigenous or Pahari women reveal a precipitous decline in natural resources, including water. This has substantially altered the architecture and livelihoods in the region and triggered migration both within the hills and away from it. I examine these changes in material conditions and how Paharis perceive these transformations.