Tribal Women and Human Rights: Challenges and Elucidation (A Sociological Study)

Abstract

The tribal population is one of the most vulnerable groups of human society and among them women are even more vulnerable; first due to their tribal status, and second, due to their gender. This issue has been prevalent since ages; tribal people are considered as backward and underdeveloped due to their socio-economic conditions and mostly due to their style of living which does not conform to the Western or European idea of development/industrialization. Their knowledge of law and its working is also limited, which results in multifold exploitation in the Indian Democratic system. The tribal women are deprived of their land rights, although it is evident that they are independent and their labor is equally appreciated and payed for compared to their male counterparts, still many tribes do not confer land rights to their women which open floodgates of ways for tribal men to exploit women’s human rights This paper conducts an empirical study to gather a deep understanding about such exploitation with special focus on the village of Katomkoli in Jharkhand. The author has delved into the status of women’s human rights and land rights in the village and has provided appropriate suggestions to improve such status.

Keywords: Human Rights, Land Rights, Women, Justice, Tribal