Table Of ContentTribal Won1en
and
Developn1ent
Edited by:
J.P. Singh
N.N. Vyas
R.S. Mann
Rawat Publications
Jaipur
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• First Edition 1988
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@The MLV Tribal Research & Training Institute Udalpur
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Acknowledgements
The Institute is grateful to Mr. M.L. Mehta, I.A.S., the
then Commissioner, Tribal Area Development Department,
Rajasthan, Udaipur, for his valuable guidance in organizing the
Conference, Mrs. Anita Brandon the then Lecturer in Sociology
in the Institute, deserves special thanks for performing the
entrusted reaponsiblllty of convening the Conference and also
bringing out the report. Thanks are due to all other members
of the Institute for performing the aaslgned duties In dedicated
manner.
The present volume contains a selection of papers pre
sented in the Conference and also specially invited papers
from other scholars. We are highly thankful to all of them.
The Institute feels greatly Indebted to Dr. K.S. Singh
Director General, Anthropological Survey of India, New Delhi,
for writing the foreword to this volume.
N.N.V.
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Contents
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Foreword by K.S. Singh
VII
Introduction •
XI
Introduction
1. Tribal Women
: An Anthropological perspective 3
-K.S. Singh
•
2.
Challenges of Development and Tribal Women
of India
11
-B.K. Roy Burman
3.
Status of Women in Perspective 28
Gopa/a Sarona
Women and Economic Activities
4. Tribal Women and the Economy 47
-Buddhadeb Chaudhari
5. Status of Women 58
-M.P. Jagirdar
6. Scheduled Tribe Females of West Bengal :
Socio-Economic Levels 65
-M.K. Chowdhuri
Tribal Women: Impact of Socio
Economic Change
7. Tribal W91Den in the Throes of Development
-Sachchidananda 79
8. Tribal Women and Development Milieu 91
-S.P. Punalekar
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• TRIBAL WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT
IV
9. Tribal Women in India : A Study in the Political
Economy of Social Change 109
-K. Murali Manohar &: B. Janardhan Rao
10. Economic Development and Women: A Case Study
of the Irula of the Nilgiris 136
-Jakka Parthasarthy
11 . .,jribal Women of North-East India in the
'Perspective of Change and Continuity 149
-.4.lokananda Nath &: D.N. Majumdaf
169
12. Bride-Price in Tribal North-East India
-K. Mann
13. Bhil Women : Indigenous Legal System and
Legitimation 179
-N.N. Vyas
14. Socio-Economic Changes among Santal Women
in a Rural Setting in West Bengal 187
-Debal K. Singharoy
Tribal Women: Need for Education
and Training
15. Bettering the Lot of Tribal Women : Some Issues 197
-M.L. Mehta
16. Education and Training for Tribal Women 20 l
- K. Dutt
17. Women's Education in the Tribal Areas of
Assam : A Few Basic Issues 209
-B.N. Bordoloi
18. Education for Tribal Women : A Suggestion 221
P .K. Bhowmick
and Tribal 228
19. Education, Functional Literacy
Women
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- B.G. Banerjee
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CONTENTS
V
Voluntary Action for Tribal Women'•
Development
20. Empowerment of Rural Poor Tribal Women:
Some Experiences from Work with Bhil and
Meena Tribal Women 237
-GiMy Srivastava &: Anita Mathur
21. Together We Stand : A Case Study of Tribal
Women and their Struggle for Water 247
-Om Shrivastava, Sunita &: Bans/la/
22. Tribal Women's Development and Possible
Alternatives 258
- Preeti Oza
23. Developmental Efforts for Tribal Women in
Habra, West Bengal 265
-S.K. Mukherjee
24. Successful Interventions For Tribal Women's
Development : A Case Study of the Lodhas
of West Bengal 273
-Sushama Gayen
25. New Economic Strategy Model of the Primitive
Tribal Women : Action Studies among the Birhor
of Cbotanagpur 282
-P.K. Sircar
26. Sericulture for Tribal Women 292
-Rohit R. Brandon &: B.M. Dixit
21. Tribal Women and Development : An Epilogue 304
Yogesh Aral
List of Contributors 309
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Foreword
.. ln recent years studies in the anthropology of women have
departed from the stereotype of women as passive partners of
men in economic and family activities and highlighted their
autonomy and role which is as important if not more so as bread·
winners and so on. The origin of division of labour based on
sex, relationship of power and authority, and differential impact
of the development process on women are being explored with
a sharper analytical focus. Though women have not been as
invisible in anthropolgy as in some other disciplines, even so
their role and status are subject matter of much greater concern
today than was the case before.
:While the status of women, their economic right, their
participation in management, their access to employment and
food, and many other things have been debated for many years,
these issues have not been focused in relation to tribal women.
The study of tribal women and the struggle for recognition
of.their rights to land and movable property have yet to arouse
the interest of all concerned. The few studies of tribal
•Women which have been published have dealt with division of
labour, erosion of their status and rights and deterioration
in their conditions of work as a result of the destruction of
forests and exposure to market forces. However, the crucial
issues facing tribal women have not been pointedly discussed.
Therefore, it is a matter of happiness that the M.L.V. Tribal
Research and Training Institute organized a national conference
on tribal women and their problems in July 1986. The
.objective of the conference was to provide a forum for exchange
-of· information on tribal women and to devise appropriate
.strategies for their development. The seminar which was
.divided into a number of sections, started appropriately with
a survey of the conditions of tribal women in different parts
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VIII TRIBAL WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT
of the country, and went on to discuss the impact of socio
economic change and the strategies particularly in the field
of education that affect them. A few success stories were dis
cussed in this connection and the efforts of the government
and voluntary agencies were evaluated.
It is recognized that the status of tribal women in a tribal
society is better than that of their non-tribal counterparts.
The sex ratio is favourable ; there is no bride burning ; there
is high participation in economic activities ; infant mortality
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is low. All of this has a lot to do with the tribal ethos which
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recognizes the equal role of women.
However, there has been a great deal of romanticism in the
portrayal of tribal women in anthropological literature. It
is time that the role of tribal women is assessed as it is and the
impact on them of growing poverty and deprivation in large
areas of Tribal India is particularly highlighted. It will be
useful to start this process by analysing the role and status of
tribal women in every region of tribal India. It is widely
recognized that there are tribal regions and tribal regions and
that the status of tribal women is not uniform everyw,here.
The seminar therefore appropriately brought together papers
on regional perspectives on tribal women from the North-East,
the East (Santhal), middle India (Kissan) and from the South
(Irula) and from such groups as hunters and foodgatherers
(Chenchu), nomads and settled agriculturists. There is no gain
saying the fact that the status of women in North-East is
higher than in middle India and south. Even in the patrilineal
system they enjoy a measure of influence and visibility which
is not to be found elsewhere. Of course in the rnatrilineal
societies of the North-East they continue to remain owners of
property even though its management is in the hands of the
males. Even though they are not as visible in politics and
administration, they are emerging in a big way in the tertiary
sect.or also. In the polyandrous communities of the Toda and
and the Jaunsar, they continue to enjoy a measure of freedom
in material matters, even though they do not control 1'_nd.
This aspect has not been brought out in the papers pres~tcd.
Elsewhere women have only a right to rnaintenanc~ bu~ ha.ve
. .
no rights to land ; even so they have a larger participa_tion
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