Work Participation of Tribal Women in India: A Development Perspective

Abstract

"This paper has been written on the basis of qualitative and quantitative data collected from secondary source and discussed work participation of tribal women in India in a descriptive manner. The tribal women have been equal partners with tribal men in the contribution to household economy. Quite often their women do more physical labour in their agricultural fields and forest than that of the tribal men. Tribal women have usually enjoyed a higher social status in their own communities than Indian women in general. Some of the tribes like Khasi in Mizoram and Meghalaya are matriarchal. However, the literacy rate among the tribal's and more so in case of tribal women is quite low and this is also associated with poor nutritional and health status among the tribal's. The estimate of poverty made by Planning Commission for the year 1993-94 shows that 51.92 percent rural and 41.4 percent urban Scheduled Tribes were still living below the poverty line. They are engaged in various occupations like hunting shifting cultivation to settled agriculture and rural crafts. A very negligible percent are engaged in non-agricultural activities The Scheduled Tribes constitute 8.2% of India's total population. In all there are 700 Scheduled Tribes in India. States of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa all together have about 40% of the total tribal population of the country."