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In feminist political ecological discourses, women are seen as potential initiators and actors in collective action. Gendered differential practices in sustaining certain forms of collective action within the community have remained under-researched. Women play a key role as providers of food, water, fuel and fodder. They have also gained access to alternative means of livelihood and formed groups to conserve forest resources. Women’s roles hold the potential to ensure their claim to inclusion in the development process. This article formulates a set of interrelated questions to interrogate the role of community of practice (CoP) as an analytical framework to understand informal community action led by rural women. These questions concern the significance of collective action in relation to social structures, institutions and processes. Communities practise different kinds of sustainable and shared methods of collective action; for example, women’s collectives or self-help groups continuously work to create sustainable forms of collective action. We argue that the CoP framework provides an opportunity to explore the integral social basis of collective action, which cannot be understood without acknowledging women as important agents in shaping community initiatives.

The late Precambrian phosphorite deposits of the Aravalli Mountain belt occur as discontinuous outcrops within dolomitic limestone and silicified dolomite of the Aravalli Supergroup. They extend from Udaipur in the north to Jhabua in the south. Phosphorites concentrated in algal stromatolitic columns constitute the bulk of the deposit. Petrological, geochemical, and mineralogical studies of the phosphorites around Matoon (including Kharwaria), Kanpur, and Jhamarkotra of the Udaipur district and Khatama, Kelkua, and Amlamal in the Jhabua district have been carried out and the results have been incorporated in this paper.Matoon and Kharwaria phosphorites are stromatolitic, fragmental rocks, composed essentially of microsphorite (authigenic microcrystalline phosphorite mud), embedded in carbonate-chert matrix. Phosphates occur as nodules, intraclasts, and irregular fragments. Kanpur phosphorite is confined to algal stromatolitic columns and is composed of microsphorite grains embedded in a dolomicrite groundmass. Jhamarkotra phosphorite displays a larger spectrum of petrographic types. including algal microsphorite in a micritic groundmass. fragmental phosphatic intraclasts with recrystallized calcareous cement, and microsphorite clasts embedded in silt-sized quartz and pelitic intercalations. Recrystallized apatite crystallites in the fractures of the carbonate host rocks are also common. Phosphorite of Khatama is also microsphorite, rich in siltsized detritus and pelitic disseminations. In Kelkua, microsphorite layers alternate with chalcedony layers and comprise micrite matrix with some detrital quartz.Bulk chemical analyses reveal the oxide distribution pattern in various deposits. The F/P2Oa ratio is higher in Jhabua compared to the Udaipur deposits. Similarly, Na is more common in Jhabua phosphorite except for a few samples from Udaipur. The CO• content of the bulk rock is more or less uniform except where carbonates constitute a significant fraction of the microsphorite groundmass. CO2 determinations in apatite concentrates by the X-ray peak-air method show a low CO2 content in most concentrates indicating a very nilnor substitution in the fiuorapatite structure. The most common phosphate mineral identified by X-ray diffraction studies is carbonate-fluorapatite with partial substitution by Mg for Ca in most samples and Na and Mg in samples from Jhabua. Partial substitution for (PO4) by (COa) is more pronounced in the Kanpur and Jhabua phosphorites. Electron microprobe analysis of minute apatites and discrete crystallites in the microsphorite was utilized for deducing the structural formula of average Precambrian phosphorites of India. The unit cell dimensions indicate a ø --9.362 and c o = 6.868 for Matoon apatites, a": 9.366 and c ø = 6.88 for Kanpur (stromatolitic) apatites, a ø = 9.354 to 9.336 and cø= 6.87 to 6.868 for Jhamarkotra apatites, and a ø = 9.35 to 9.36 and c ø = 6.88 for average Jhabua phosphorites. Heating of samples to 900øC in an open platinum crucible for one hour resulted in a loss of wate...

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