Gender Inequality in Educational Status of Tribals in India – An Extensive Review of Studies

Education is not only a means of development, but also it is an end in itself. Education to women is as essential as to men. Among the weaker sections in India, the Scheduled tribe is considered as the most backward community lagging far behind other communities in terms of educational and socio-economic development. As in every patriarchal society in general, women are subservient and dominated by men that indicates gender inequality and lower status of women, so also in majority of tribal communities, the patriarchal system has gradually evolved due to various forces of social change which has produced different facets of gender inequality and lower status of women in general. Today, the educational status of tribal women in many parts of India is also observed as very low as compared to their male counterparts. Development of literacy among tribal women is a challenging issue in the present scenario. Despite various constitutional provisions and government policies for the development of tribal in general and tribal woman in particular, they still are lagging behind other categories of women in respect of their literacy and education as such. There are many critical issues and problems in the field of tribal women’s education which need proper attention of government while making policies and programmes. Based on an extensive review of secondary resources and available literature, this paper reveals a grave issue of gender inequality in educational status while dealing with various problems of tribal women’s education and it suggests some remedial measures for their educational empowerment and development.