“AIT is the leading institute in development education and I recommend
AIT to students from China”, he said.Excerpts from the interview conducted by Bajinder Pal Singh (BPS) for
Hot Seat:BPS: Congratulations on receiving the prestigious
Ramon Magsaysay award. It is an honor for AIT as well.
Yu Xiaogang: Thank you. After receiving the award, I
received lots of congratulatory letters from international
organizations including donors, as well as those with whom I had lost
contact. They wrote to me and reestablished their contact. Yesterday,
two Ph.D. students from AIT came up to me wanting to visit my area to
learn more. Others have said that they would like to follow me. It is a
good feeling.
BPS: You were not able to complete your Ph.D. at AIT
due to certain restrictions imposed upon you. Would you like to revisit
your Ph.D.?
Yu Xiaogang: Recently I was told that the
restrictions on my travel abroad have been lifted. So now I can pursue
my Ph.D. I was a doctoral candidate in AIT on watershed management and
gender relations.
BPS: What is the relation between watershed
management and gender relations?
Yu Xiaogang: There have been many decisions on
watershed management, which are often announced by the government
without seeking any participation from local people and women. In many
communities in China, people are dependent on forest use. But following
a big food in the Yangtze River in 1998, the Chinese government decided
to ban forest logging. They also imposed many restrictions on community
use of forest.
Things are much better now. They can use the forest produce, though
logging is still not allowed. Such decisions make life very difficult
for the local communities. The government in turn decided to develop
the tourist industry. But that too had its negative effects.
BPS: Tourism is a huge industry all over. What
negative effects of the tourism industry did you come across?
Yu Xiaogang: With a ban of logging, men find it very difficult to find
a job, though women can find jobs in the tourism Industry. This has
both negative and positive impacts. Some women even go to the sex
sector. Others work in restaurants where they get paid very poorly
since they do not have any bargaining power vis-a-vis the restaurant
management. This in turn impacts other women, since the average wages
fall.
