Economic empowerment of tribal women in India

The early 90's marked a shift in the development paradigm from development to empowerment. Empowerment implies expansion of assets and capabilities of people to influence control and bold accountable institutions that affect their lives as stated by World Bank resource book. Keller and Mbewe describe empowerment as a process whereby women organize themselves to increase self-reliance, to assert their independent rights to make choices and to control resources which will assist in challenging and eliminating their own subordination. Women account for over 50%of the workforce in rural India and constitute catalyst of rural economy. In hilly regions of our country women labourers out-number the male labourers. But women have much less control over decision making in the day to day affairs compared to men resulting in a major paradox in the overall development of our society . Women In rural India by and large remain bogged down with domestic work, rearing cattle and other support and productive works. In India women, still lack right to inherit properly, own land, get education, obtain credit, earn income and control their fertility. They are still widely under-represented in decision making at the house hold or social level. Empowerment by means of modest income generation project is clearly inadequate to ameliorate the prospects for a high quality of life for women. Tribal women are subject to discrimination, oppression, expropriation and sexual harassment by the elite class people in the agrarian belt. On the plea of agricultural indebtness tribal women are reeling in abysmal destitution as bonded labourers.