Forced from the Forest: Mobile Indigenous Peoples, Gender Equality and the Forest Rights ACT, Sigamany Indrani

Access to justice remains uneven and sometimes elusive for indigenous peoples displaced from ancestral lands. While the Forest Rights Act of India enhanced land security for forest peoples, justice is subverted by several factors: a legal chronology of land expropriation from colonial occupation, contemporary extractive neoliberal policies, and unjust governance. Gender inequalities and legal violations further marginalize indigenous peoples, compounding their forced migration. Nevertheless, the Forest Rights Act also revolutionized the potential to challenge displacement and support indigenous empowerment. This research establishes a new analytical framework contextualizing control of indigenous forest land rights through access to justice.