Page 33 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes with men in the economic activities. When men work in other towns and cities, women carry out
agricultural work. If we take education as a socio-economic indicator of status, the literacy rate of
ST women is low. While the literacy rate among women in general in our country in 1991 was 39.3
per cent among tribal women it was only 18.19 per cent. The highest percentage of ST women are
educated up to primary school. The large gender gap may be attributed to non-availability of
schools in villages, non-availability of female teachers, feeling shy of sending girls to schools due
to prevalent traditional values, using grown-up girls for looking after infants when their mothers
go to work, and requiring girls’ help in household chores. Tribal women are not allowed to own
land. Women are totally unaware of their rights regarding property. Their political awareness is
also very low, as they neither read newspapers nor do they listen to the news on the radio and TV.
They have also no place in the micro-level village power structure. They are woefully unrepresented
in the political structures like tribal councils and village panchayats. However, there are some
tribal communities (like Meena, Sema Naga, and Tharus, etc.) in which the status of women
cannot be said to be low on every count.
There is no serious widow problem in tribal societies. A widow is free to remarry. There are some
tribes where a widow marries her deceased husband’s younger brother (levirate marriage). The
bride-price custom has not elevated the status of women. It rather degrades them to be treated in
the manner of articles of property and a commodity to be bought and sold. Divorce is permitted
in many tribal societies. The procedure of divorce is also simple as it consists of mutual consent,
a formal ceremony, and paying back of the bride-price.
Protective Discrimination and Tribal Welfare and Development
(or Tribal Transition)
Tribal transition’ is tribal welfare and tribal development. The governmental programmes
implemented in India for the uplift and rehabilitation of tribals have not been able to achieve their
goals and tribal proletarianisation has persisted since independence. No wonder, the problem of
tribal welfare engaged the attention of a number of scholars in different parts of the country not
only in the 1970s and the 1980s (like L.P. Vidyarthi in Bihar in 1971, A.K. Danda and M.G.
Kulkarni in Maharashtra in 1974, and Ranjit Gupta, and M.V.T. Raju in Andhra Pradesh in 1971)
but also in the 1990s.
Tribal Welfare
The strategies adopted by the British administrators for solving the problems of the tribals included
acquiring tribal land and forests and declaring certain tribal areas as excluded or partially excluded.
But, the British government had also established a number of schools and hospitals in the tribal
areas with the help of Christian missionaries who converted many tribals to Christianity. Thus, by
and large, during the British period, the tribals remained victims of colonial-feudal domination,
ethnic prejudices, illiteracy, poverty, and isolation.
After Independence, provisions were made in the Constitution to safeguard tribal interests and
promote their developmental and welfare activities. Gandhiji and Thakkar Bapa also did some
pioneering work among the tribals. Nehru enunciated the policy of Panchseel for tribal
transformation, which rested on following five principles:
1. Avoiding imposing the culture of the majority people on them and encouraging in every way
their (tribal) own traditional arts and culture.
2. Respecting tribal rights on land and forest.
3. Training tribal leaders for administrative and developmental activities with the help of some
technical personnel from outside.
4. Avoiding over-administering of the tribal areas.
5. Judging results not on the basis of money spent but the quality of human character evolved.
In 1960, the Scheduled Tribe Commission was set up under the chairmanship of U.N. Dhebar to
work for the advancement of the tribals. After the Fifth Five Year Plan, the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP)
strategy was designed in 1980 which consisted of two things: (i) socio-economic development of

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