Photograph by Régis Binard
The concept of “the economic man” that sees the man as the breadwinner and the woman as a caregiver has been changing for a while now. Women have claimed their spaces and are excelling in all fields, be it education, services, or even tourism. According to UNWTO (United Nation World Tourism Organization), the tourism sector has a majority female workforce of 54% worldwide. The question that arises here is that if women exceed the number of men in the tourism sector worldwide, why are they not equally visible as men in the same industry. The preliminary reason for this is that women work at the grassroots level while men take up positions like tour guides, trekking instructors, or travel agents. Consequently, men get the spotlight of being drivers of tourism all over the world. However, in Ladakh, women have been the torchbearers of change in the tourism industry. By rising above the gender norms and making their own space in this male-dominated industry, Ladakhi women are making their way into tourism as never before.
Tourism is a flourishing industry in Ladakh and since its inception, it was predominantly driven by men. However, with the idea of homestays creeping in, this perspective is changing. Tourists traveling to Ladakh prefer to stay in Homestays to get connected with the true Ladakhi culture. This has given women the opportunity to evolve as entrepreneurs and manage their own homestay businesses. The opportunity and possibility of running a business at home give women leverage to manage homestays efficiently. There is a possibility of working at home and balancing household chores and business concurrently. This can help in closing the gender gap and pave the way to gender equality in Ladakh. The success of homestays has given women the confidence and belief that they can manage other businesses equally well. Now numerous hotels and guest houses are being handled by women. Not only in the main city of Leh but also in remote areas, hotels and guest houses are being managed by women. One such woman is Diskit Dolker from Tangtse Durbuk, a place 117 km away from Leh. She runs her husband’s guest house for the past 18 years. They now own a hotel as well. However, the guest house is still handled fully by Diskit. Recollecting the memories of her olden days, Diskit says “Since the beginning people were supportive and my biggest support was my husband. The only difficulty I faced was the English language because at that time only foreign tourists used to visit Ladakh.” Comparing the present scenario with the past, she has mixed emotions, with the increase in the number of tourists, there is an increase in revenue, however, there is also exploitation of limited resources.
Restaurants play a major role in Tourism. This field is again marveled by some of our very own female entrepreneurs. The famous restaurant owner and the recipient of the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar 2019, Nilza Wangmo is an entrepreneur in the Tourism sector. She started her Restaurant ‘Alchi Kitchen’ way back in 2016 and it is the first-ever open kitchen eatery in Ladakh which serves traditional Ladakhi cuisine with her twist of modernity, thus keeping the culture alive in her unique way. The employees working at Alchi kitchen are rural women, who are personally trained by Nilza to cook, serve, and manage a restaurant. She also conducts workshops for tourists and takes care of some underprivileged children. Nilza shared her memories wherein she expressed how during her initial days, it was difficult to manage everything by herself from running the restaurant, cooking, washing, and even marketing. People were underestimating her capability as according to them, an individual woman couldn’t run a restaurant by herself. Her worth was questioned at every point. Also, Ladakhi women being too shy were reluctant to accept the open-kitchen concept let alone being interested in it. But, her determination and hard work helped her and with time her marketing source became word of mouth. Nilza also expressed her sadness and said “Due to the Covid situation, my restaurant is not working well as the inflow of tourists is minimal. Alchi kitchen is completely dependent on tourists, the locals do not support the way I had expected. I am trying in my way to conserve and promote our culture, a little support and encouragement from my people will boost my morale. This is all I want from them.” Alchi kitchen is now a main go-to place for all the tourists coming here.
De-khambir, another famous restaurant, catering the tourists with traditional food is a start-up by Tsetan Dolma. She started her career as a tourist guide and now she is the owner of this successful restaurant.
With tourism coming in, cross-cultural dynamics are coming into the picture which is not always good especially considering that Ladakh is a tribal population. Women in Ladakh are preserving our culture by selling traditional handicrafts and this has been popular among the tourist population as well. For the world, it may not count as mainstream tourism but it is one of the ways through which women are transforming tourism, making their livelihood, and keeping the already threatened Ladakhi culture alive.
Conventional tourism activities which involve travel agencies and tourist guides had been an entitlement of men until recently when a Ladakhi woman, Thinlas Chorol changed this perspective by starting her career as a tourist guide, the first female tour guide of Ladakh. She is now a leading Ladakhi entrepreneur in the Tourism industry and owns her women-based travel agency LWTC (Ladakh Women Travel Company) in which women are employed and trained as guides, cooks, and workers. They promote and help Ladakhi women in tourism by giving them a proper course on trekking and they also promote women run homestays. Starting a career in a male-dominated area was initially a cumbersome task for Chorol but with time, it got easier and the idea percolated through the minds of our people. Speaking to Thinlas Chorol, she talked about her career’s inceptive days, where she went to two travel agencies for being a trekking guide and they said “Being a girl, we could take you as a tourist guide to show tourists the famous destinations and not for trekking”. This disappointed Chorol deeply and as a result, she decided to enroll for some basic mountaineering courses. Later, when she started her career as a trekking guide, she got a very good response from tourists and from the local women. Many women approached her with their same interest which made Chorol start her own women-based travel company in 2009. Women are taking up positions in the tourism industry which were primarily occupied by men, Thinlas Chorol is just one such example.
Wildlife Tourism is a new addition to Ladakhi Tourism and some of our women are already an intrinsic part of it. People come from all over the world for wildlife and bird sighting in Ladakh. We talked to a 23 years old little birder, Padma Dolkar. She started her birding guide career in 2018 when she became a part of The Wildlife Conservation and Birds Club of Ladakh. It was her college Eliezer Jordan Memorial College Leh, that used to conduct wildlife tours. Padma found her interest area and started learning more about it. She then underwent training as a birding guide by Tourism Department Leh. Now Padma is a proud birder and she hopes to perceive more knowledge in this career. The count of women in wildlife is low as of now, however, we can hope for better participation soon.
Our women came across a lot of subjugations to make their dream come true in varied fields. They went through a lot of tantrums, questions and difficulties just to be at a place where their counterpart is already doing well. We as a society must understand that all the genders are equally talented and can work in any sector they want. Tourism in Ladakh is broadly gender equal these days which is a great thing to experience. Getting recognised for something that you have been doing for a long time is such a beautiful thing. A society that recognises all its participants is civilised. Tourism has brought a lot of changes in our daily lives, one of them being gender neutrality. To our superwomen who are working days and nights to show the path to the upcoming generations are worth celebrating. Let us then celebrate and encourage each woman in pursuit of her dreams.
