The Status of Women Among the Tribal Communities of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The tribal population has been enumerated as scheduled tribe population since 1951 in accordance to the constitution (Scheduled tribe) order, 1950. They are the aboriginal or Adivasi or early settler of India and they are the most backward groups in India. This paper focuses on the status of tribal women in their community with respect to their male counterparts both in general and tribal populations. Four indicators such as sex ratio, literacy rate, the general fertility rate of women and women's work participation rate are taken to assess the status and the gender discrimination among the tribal communities. The modified Sopher’s Disparity Index (1974) of Kundu and Rao (1986) has been used to identify the gender disparity and Pearson’s correlation co-efficient techniques have been used to analyze the correlation among the indicators. It has been found that like any other community in India, tribal women face gender discrimination. They are engaged in different economic sectors as economic assets of tribal households but they are often deprived to get their social rights. This paper also finds out the causes of gender disparity and suggests some measures to mitigate the gender discrimination.