Status of tribal women in India

Indian tribes also known as adivasi consist of 8.6 % of total population and 11.3% of total rural population in India( 2011 census) with 5.25 crore males and 5.20 crore females .It is very easy to spot a  tribal women in India as they remain traditional in their dress, language, tools and resources but it is not wise to judge a book by it’s cover so let’s take a look at their status in India :


Growth Rate
If we compare the decadal growth of tribal population in 2011 and  2001 as shown in graph , it reveals that tribal female population growth rate (25%) is higher than tribal male population growth rate (23%).It is significantly higher than that of overall India .

Sex Ratio
Sex ratio of tribal community is 990, which also is higher than national average of 943. A cherry to cake is that their sex ratio has improved from 978 females per 1000 males in 2001 to 990 per 1000 in 2011.


Institutional Delivery
Data  shows that percentage of Institutional Delivery in Tribal women has increased from 17.7% in 2005-06 to 68% in 2015-16 whereas for all categories, there is greater improvement Also, for tribal women, deliveries attended by skilled health
personnel have increased significantly from 25.4% to 71.5% during the period 2005-06 to 2015-16. In both cases, there is a gap of about 10 percentage points for tribal women as compared to overall women population.

Social Status
Women in the tribal communities are considered to be assets and the practice of bride price during marriages is quite  familiar among them. This is in sharp contrast to the general Hindu dowry system . Even In some tribal community, women have the right to marry more than one husband and has the right to decide about her marriage. The process of divorce and remarry is easy for tribal women.

Literacy Rate
Tribal woman have seen increased literacy rate from 34.76 % to 49.4 0% although literacy gap between tribal men and women still prevails as their literacy rate is 19 % less than that of men and 15.2% less than  total women population in India.
Overall the status of tribal women in India is gradually improving at a rate better than that of urban women but they’re still behind in terms of literacy and healthcare facilities and with constant efforts the days of tribal women empowerment aren’t far away.

By – DEEPAK  KESTWAL

SOURCES –

MINISTRY OF TRIBAL AFFAIRS
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/pca/pca_pdf/PCA-CRC-0000.pdf