Social Status of Tribal Women in India

By Shikha Mishra, Modi Law College

Introduction

India may be a very interesting country to review the meaning of diversity because this can be one among the exemplar countries to grasp different features, basis, and layers of diversity. Diversity exists on every basis like economic, religious, caste, status, etc. The country’s prosperity ideology lies in moving ahead as a conglomeration, and with a concomitant among all people despite being different, but the concept hasn’t been properly executed. Few shreds of the blame visit British as they left as devastated and amid catastrophic conditions, because they made the country itself poor decreasing its wealth what was 27% of the GDP within the 1700s to three in 1947 with the bulk of the population lying Below personal income (BPL), whereas the literacy rate was 12%. The govt. henceforth the independence of India owns several blames and owes many reformations for those that are still below BPL. People below BPL are much-discussed problems with many solutions provided but none properly implied by the govt. a correct brief study of sociological and economic factors of tribal women fraternity deserves plenty more attention then what it gets.

What does a tribe mean?

Anthropology defines a tribe as a notional variety of small human system, whose identities consist traditions of common descent, language, culture, and beliefs.
The tribal committee as mentioned is an organisation comprising of few people, but a conglomeration of all their data says that tribe constitutes 8% of India’s population, and tribal women are almost 1/2 those populations. There exist several tribes in every state and every one differing from the others. Tribal groups are that section of the population that hadn’t gained enough betterment since independence.

Sociological status of Tribal women in India

The status of any member of a society depends on the ideology and structure of society. Patriarchy has been the structure of most societies in India, but that doesn’t imply that matriarchal society does exist, they are doing exist within the sophisticated socio-economic class of the society and in society too. the rationale for a society following matriarchy isn’t education and a change in leadership from the daddy to the mother, but because the families of these societies have a matriarchal descent, matrilocal residence, and inheritance of property is completed through the feminine lineage. Garo and Khasi tribes of North India are a major example of a matriarchal tribe society. In some tribes, patriarchy is followed, and in some none of the parent have a dominant role, Ho, and Gond are a major example. The environment of most of the tribal families is that the boys are seen as future beacon holders. The ladies in society hold a significant position because tribal women, quite a lady of any society, work harder and therefore the family economy and management rely on them. Studies show that job participation of tribal women is over scheduled caste and therefore the general population, but there’s an absence of fixed and permanent livelihood. The ladies here make their and their family’s livelihood out of agricultural activities. Women of tribes residing in various activities pursue various different activities like labour work, craft making, etc. for fulfilling their basic needs. Because of modernisation and urbanisation, tribal women have begun to savours non-tribal activities and be smitten by it.
Furer Haimendorf (1943), Hutton (1921), Hunter (1973), and Firth (1946) reported that among Tharus of the U.P., Nagas, and Goris of North-East, women enjoy the next and better position. Women in such tribal societies have the proper to settle on their partner, child marriage isn’t practised, and ladies ain’t stigmatised for widowhood. The birth of a lady is taken into account an honest sign as they contribute to economic activities quite men, and ladies can even divorce the husband on the various grounds of cruelty, incompatibility, impotency, infidelity, poverty or negligence. Harm to the modesty of ladies by man isn’t considered a trivial matter, and proper punishment is granted. Thus women enjoy almost equal status with men except within the sphere of rituals.
Where there exist tribes that grant women senior status there also exists women who have an occasional status. In some societies, women work quite men and are still granted less remuneration than men. In certain tribes, only males can participate in worship. The ladies lack the choice making power.

The economic status of Tribal women in India

Tribal women enjoy an economic status capable their male counter-part. They participate all told agricultural activities, whereas certain agricultural activities like cultivation, transplantation, etc. are done purely by women. General ploughing is finished by men, but in some tribes, women may be seen ploughing too. They need footprints in every sector of the indigenous cottage, industries, tribal arts, and production of artefacts. There are some tribes where men and ladies are equal partners in economic life and hence traditionally are assigned a very important role in society.

Educational status of Tribal women in India

The educational status of tribal women is extremely poor because most of them lack education, the rationale being tribal women contribute to the family’s income and thus are made to enjoys money making business since a really young age. Recent statistics gives out a disappointing statistic for ST girls. The literacy rate of ST girls in 2011 was 54.4%. The dropout percentage of ST girls in school I-V is 33.9%, in-class I-VIII is 55.4%, and in-class I-X is 71.3%. The literacy rate of ST girls has increased post-independence but a literacy rate of 54.4% after 64 years of independence isn’t a satisfactory result. There are tribes with a 0% literacy rate of ladies. The Urban Nagas had a literacy rate of 61%, whereas in many tribes the literacy rate was 1%. In Santals, which is one among the massive tribal groups, the agricultural female literacy rate was 4 to five per cent in Bihar, Orissa, and state.

Conclusion

Over the 7-decade Sociological, Economic and academic status of Tribal women has increased but to not the extent that it should are, because post-independence progress should are seen at a greater pace but sometimes it’s slow and sometimes even stagnant. As we’ve got seen some tribes are way prior the time and grant women the rights they deserve and a few places are way worse as women don’t even get the essential rights. Tribal women contribute equally to their male counter-part and are considered a vital resource in their family. Education may be a sector where tribal women need plenty of motivation because the results don’t seem to be acceptable. Over-all a way improvement is feasible and may be through with the government’s help and proper execution of schemes and laws.

Endnotes

·  Tribe, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/tribe-anthropology.

·  Pujasree Banerjee, Social and Economic status of tribal women in India – The challenges and the Road Ahead, International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS), chrome-extension://ohfgljdgelakfkefopgklcohadegdpjf/http://www.ijims.com/uploads/3765dbde1a96580628d3D10.pdf.

·  Tirpude College of Social Work, A Research Study On Migrant Tribal Women Girls in Ten Cities: A Study of Their Socio-Cultural and Economic Reference to Social Intervention, NITI Government, chrome-extension://ohfgljdgelakfkefopgklcohadegdpjf/https://niti.gov.in/planningcommission.gov.in/docs/reports/sereport/ser/stdy_mgrwmn.pdf.