Beyond Storytelling: Reclaiming Voice and Agency Through Participatory Video Among the Sahariya Tribe
Loading...
Files
Size: 470.9 KB, File format: Adobe PDF
Date
Authors
Sisodia, Renu
Conn, Cath
Supervisor
Item type
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Cincinnati
Abstract
Participatory Video (PV) offers a transformative medium for reclaiming voice and agency among marginalised communities. This paper draws from a Participatory Action Research (PAR) doctoral research project with 72 Sahariya tribal youth in Rajasthan, India, which employed PV to document their lived realities of water scarcity and governance failures (https://youtu.be/AODuocliBOs). For the Sahariya, water insecurity is not only an everyday struggle marked by long hours of fetching water, seasonal depletion, and unequal distribution, but also a structural injustice shaped by neglect and exclusion. Through PV, youth were able to narrate these embodied hardships while also asserting representational control, cultivating technical and reflective capacities, and fostering intra-community dialogue. Moving beyond narrative collection, the study demonstrates how PV transformed individual testimonies of thirst into collective claims for justice. Emphasis is placed on the ethical scaffolding required for meaningful engagement— including readiness assessment, safety protocols, and context-sensitive facilitation grounded in respect, equity, and self-determination. Anchored in critical theory, anti-oppressive practice, and subaltern perspectives, the paper positions PV not merely as a method but as a praxis of resistance, relational accountability. It concludes by recommending the integration of PV with complementary participatory tools to deepen inclusivity and amplify impact in addressing water insecurity.
Description
Keywords
39 Education, 3904 Specialist Studies In Education, 44 Human Society, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, Participatory Video, Participatory Action Research, Water Justice, Anti-Oppressive Practice, Sahariya Tribe, Safe water
Source
Journal of Participatory Research Methods, ISSN: 2688-0261 (Print); 2688-0261 (Online), University of Cincinnati, 7(5). doi: 10.35844/001c.167228
Rights statement
JPRM is a Diamond Open Access journal. There are no fees to authors publishing in JPRM and there is no fee for readers or libraries.
Permanent link
Collections
Endorsement
Review
Supplemented By
Referenced By
Creative Commons license
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Creative Commons Attribution