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Indian Streams Research Journal
ISSN 2230-7850
Volume-4 | Issue-7 | Aug-2014
Available online at www.isrj.net

GENDER INEQUALITY AMONG TRIBAL WOMEN

IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF LEPCHA SOCIETY

Ria Roy1 and Mahua Bardhan2

1
Dept. of Geography, Bhairab Ganguly College, West Bengal.
2
Assistant Professor, Netaji Satabarshiki Mahavidylaya, N 24 Pgs, West Bengal.

Abstract:-The study of gender disparity is important to know the tribal society because women
are the integral part of their development. GDI finds out the average achievement to reflect the
inequalities or disparities between men and women in terms of life expectancy, education and
economy. In all the three parameters of GDI, it is found that women lag much behind the men in
the study area. The root causes of these problems are inequalities in the tribal society, lack of
land-ownership, backwardness in educational facilities and being isolated from the outer
world. So, proper planning will help to solve the problem related to low Gender Development of
the Lepchas in Lingsey village.

Keywords:gender disparity, isolated, enrolment, deprived, young motherhood .

INTRODUCTION

The status of women in a society is a significant reflection of the level of social justice in that society.
Women’s status is often described in terms of their level of income, employment, education, health and fertility as
well as their roles within the family, the community and society. In tribal communities, the role of women is
substantial and crucial. (Awais et al, 2009)There is a tendency to romanticise the position of tribal women. Some
scholars hold that ‘primitive’ societies like tribes give a high status to women, but others disagree. (Burman, 2012).
While some scholars view any change in the tribal society as a traumatic event for women, others opine that this
opens newer realities and wider horizons for them. Since the 1990s a progressively declining child sex ratio heavily
skewed in favour of boys comes back to haunt India every 10 years with the publication of it’s census reports. This is
an indicator of the status of women and girls reveal a peculiar paradox. The inequality in life chances, education, and
income are no accident.
Of the three main communities living in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas - Lepcha, Bhutia, and Nepali - the
first is accepted by all scholars who have researched on the region to be the earliest inhabitants.(Gowloog
,2013).Women form about a half of Lepcha population. So in this paper an attempt has been made to establish the
status of gender disparity in Lepcha tribe through GENDER DEVELOPMENT INDEX, introduced in 1995 in
Human Development Reports written by the United Nations Development Programme. The greater the gender
disparity in basic human development, the lower a country’s GDI. The parameters of this GDI are-Life expectancy at
birth, Education and income according to UNDP guidelines (old).

The study area and the people:

Lingsey is an isolated village in Kalimpong II, Darjeeling district, West Bengal (Location map)and is 24
km from Pedong and 52 km from Kalimpong.(latitude 88°40'29"E and longitude 27°9'46"N and altitude 4800
ft)inhabited by Lepcha tribe. It is geologically famous as Lingsey gneiss or Lingsey granite was discovered in this
village from which the rock-half granite, half gneiss has been christened by the geologist. This village is unique also
in it’s ethnic identity as the Lepchas, who claimed to be the original inhabitant of Darjeeling district. The origin of

Ria Roy1 and Mahua Bardhan2,“GENDER INEQUALITY AMONG TRIBAL WOMEN IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF LEPCHA
SOCIETY” Indian Streams Research Journal | Volume 4 | Issue 7 | Aug 2014 | Online & Print

1
.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

the Lepcha is unknown. Though they believe that they are the first known settlers.
The Lepchas or the Rong pa (ravine–folk) are believed to be the oldest tribe of the state of Sikkim and the
adjoining Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Erstwhile colonial scholars and administrators like Hooker, White,
Risley have mentioned about the Lepchas inhabiting the inaccessible forested ravines of eastern Himalayas
constituting present Sikkim, portion of Darjeeling district of West Bengal, western Nepal and eastern portions of
Bhutan. (Purkayastha ,2013) A peace loving people, the Lepchas were free and independent aboriginal inhabitants
of the Lingsey village. These people used to live an isolated life protected by the forests and the mountains. The
Lepcha have their own language called Lepcha. It belongs to the group of Tibeto-Burman languages. Besides, the
people are referred to as “hidden paradise” or “land of eternal purity”.

Location of the study area:

Women in Lepcha society:

The women in the tribal community, as in other communities, constitute half of the tribal population. The
well-being of the tribal community, as that of any other community, depends importantly on the status of their
women. (Singh,1993). The Rongpas or Lepchas have no joint families and the women have equal rights with men in
general. Female progeny is favoured. The women are respected and allowed to take part in community functions
(Nirash, 1982).But due to extreme poverty the women are not getting proper education and mostly engaged in
household work. The work participation is also very less compared to men. The average income (per capita) of the
village women engaged in different economic activities is much lower than that of men.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:

1. To analyze the socioeconomic condition of the tribe

2. To highlight the importance and significance of gender related development indicators for assessing the status of
women
3. To find out relative levels of progress or backwardness of women across the Lingsey village.
4. To depict the various problems associated with Gender Development.
5. To provide planning strategies to improve the situation.

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.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

METHODOLOGY AND DATABASE:

The study is done on the basis of both primary and secondary data. Primary data obtained from village
surveys with questionnaire schedule which is done by household survey, personal meetings with village people, clan
leader, and Panchayet members. Total 32 households are surveyed randomly out of 50 houses in the village. Some of
the data and/or information collected from local guide. Secondary data are obtained from literature survey, study of
journals, books where ever available and from internet also. Different maps (state, block, and village level), history
and livelihood of Lepcha people were collected from books, journals, published papers etc. After that started
analyzing the collected data on the basis of United Nations development programme GDI calculation method. By
taking the help of some statistical and cartographic techniques various aspects of gender biasness in the study area
are explained.

Calculation and Analysis of the Gender Development Index:

Life expectancy at birth:

It is revealed that at Lingsey male life expectancy at birth (fig; 4) is about 62 years where as female life
expectancy at birth is 50 years (According to survey and health report) which indicates that female life expectancy is
very low. It is due to – Ignorance to the women health issues, High death rate, Malnutrition, Lack of medical
facilities.
There are some other demographic indicators which show the dark side of gender empowerment. The
distribution of male female population (fig: 3) (59.5% male, 40.5% female) Diseases and lack of medical facilities
are one of the reason of low life span. It is revealed that more female died of asthma and cough, typhoid, liver damage
and cerebral stroke than male. Almost equal no of male and female died of gout pain, T.B, high pressure. It indicates
that people are not health conscious and unavailability of medical care.
Another criterion of gender inequality is no of missing person (fig 1). Out of three female cases two are
elopements and one due to insanity and the male simply abandoned the house according to the villagers. The reason
is due to sheer poverty the females are forced to leave their home and nobody cares for this matter.

The age-sex pyramid (fig: 5) of the village people has been divided into five broad age groups. This pyramid shows
that the proportion of age group 46 – 60 years is very high,the proportion of elderely people(>60 age)is medium in
the village when it is compared it the working age group of 30-45 years. Here, the number of both male and female
persons are very low between the age group of 15-30. The percentage of female child (<15) population is low which
indicates that females are not properly taken care of.

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.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

Lorenz Curve ( fig: 2) shows the dispersion of a set of data in terms of their deviation from a perfect distribution
curve. This is a measure of inequality. It proves that at Lingsey female population is unequally distributed than men.
The cause of low female ratio can be explained in this way- high no of maternity death due to delivery at home, health
diseases and malnutrition among women.

EDUCATION:

It is the second important parameter of gender disparity. Gender gap is observed in overall literacy and
adult literacy. In the study area male literates are higher (75%) than female (58%). (Fig: 6)Girls are not given proper
opportunity to attain education which reflects in the no. of drop outs. Though the enrolment ratio is almost same in
both boy and girls (Fig: 7) afterwards most of the time girls are withdrawn from school.
Adult literacy is one of the factors in measuring education index . Through survey it is found that female
adult literacy rate is much lower than the male adult literacy rate in every household. (Fig: 8). It is due to extreme
poverty, compulsion for work, early marriage etc.
Lastly the level of education (Fig:9) reveals that in primary level boys are found double of girls(22 boys and
11 girls).It actually shows the gloomy picture of negligence of girl child. In secondary level also the boys and girls
enrolment is 64.4% and 35.5% respectively. In higher education Lepchas enrolment is very low in both gender. Due
to lack of schools in village, absence of their mother tongue as mode of instruction hinder the development of
education.

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.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

ECONOMY:

Economic condition in respect of income is one of the most important indicators of GDI. An economy
consists of the economic system in a certain region, comprising the goods and services in that region. At Lingsey
village three types of economic sectors are identified such as –Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sector
The Lepchas raise a variety of crops like maize, rice, garden vegetables and keep goats, cattle and pigs. It is
found that -

Women are generally responsible for keeping poultry.

Men and women are involved in agricultural production on equal basis.
Women are primarily responsible for fetching water.
Women cook; do child care and other household tasks.

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.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

The employment status (fig: 10) shows that maximum number of male and female are engaged in primary
sector i.e. agricultural activities. Females are not involved in secondary activities but involved in making local
handicrafts.In tertiary both gender show less participation where they are engaged as teacher, driver, guide etc. The
workers and non workers(fig;11) category among male and female, depicts working members number is more or
less satisfactory though female workers lag much behind the male workers. The income distributions among male
and female members (fig; 12 &13), which indicates maximum number of female and male per family income Rs. <
1000 and Rs. 3000-6000 respectively. This shows the low income level among female rather than male.

TABLE 1: Total monthly income and per capita income among various income classes of male and female
TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME PER CAPITA INCOME

<3000 3000-6000 >6000 <1000 1000-2000 >2000

MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE

9 25 16 7 6 0 9 19 13 13 10 0

Source: Primary survey,2013

TABLE 2:CALCULATION OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT INDEX (GDI)

POPULATION LIFE EDUCATION GDP PER

SHARE EXPECTANCY CAPITA
AT BIRTH INCOME (PPP
(YEARS) ADULT GROSS US$)

LITERACY ENROLMENT
RATIO (%) RATIO (%)

M F M F M F M F M F

0.59 0.41 61.73 50.14 66.10 38.095 65.71 88 571.92 223.02

1.Calculating the equally distributed life expectancy index:

Female: life expectancy index = 0.382Male: life expectancy index = 0.654

Equally distributed life expectancy index = [{0.41 (0.382-1)} + {0.59 (0.654-1)}] -1= 0.51

2.Calculating the equally distributed education index:

Female: adult literacy rate = 0.38095 Male: adult literacy rate = 0.66
Equally distributed adult literacy index= [{0.41 (0.38952-1)} + {0.59 (0.661)}] -1= 0.5093
Female: gross enrolment ratio= 0.88 Male: gross enrolment ratio = 0.6571
Equally distributed gross enrolment ratio= [{0.41 (0.88-1)} + {0.59 (0.6571-1)}] -1=0.73
Education Index = 2/3 (adult literacy index) + 1/3 (gross enrolment ratio) = 2/3 (0.5093) + 1/3 (0.73) = 0.58

3.Calculating the equally distributed income index:

Female: income index = 0.13Male: income index = 0.29

Equally distributed income index= [{0.41 (0.13-1)} + {0.59 (0.29-1)}] = 0.19
Therefore, Gender Development Index = 1/3 (0.51) + 1/3 (0.58) + 1/3 (0.19) = 0.42 .

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.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

The low value of GDI clearly indicates that the Lepcha women in Lingsey village are deprived in every
respect though apparently enjoy equal rights in society. They are lagging far behind than the Lepcha men in
employment, income, work participation, education, life span, health condition etc and leaving home for poverty
supports their pathetic situation strongly.

Findings of the study (Problems of the tribal village people and women) :-

1.At Lingsey, there are no proper medical facilities (especially at emergency) such as public hospital, nursing home,
health centres, medical shops etc. Though government hospitals are located at Pedong and Kalimpong, they are 35
and 50 km away respectively from the village creating obstacle for the people to avail in emergency.
2.The source of water is a spring nearby for drinking, washing, bathing purposes; they use bamboo pipe line for
water supply from the spring which is not at all hygienic. There is no other source of drinking water.
3.No proper infrastructure of education is found here. Though school and colleges are located at Kalimpong, this
hindrance the people to avail proper education. Absence of govt. help, vocational centres etc add to poorer condition
of literacy.
4.The Lepcha possess small and uneconomical land holdings because of which their crop yield is less and hence they
remain chronically indebted causing great hindrance for their economic development. At Lingsey village only a
small percentage of population involved in secondary and tertiary sectors. Maximum people involved in primary
sector which is purely subsistence in nature.
5. The work participation of females is less than the men. This is also the cause of lower rate of GDP growth and
effect overall economic condition.
6.Early marriage is one of the main causes of gender disparity. 42% married are educated up to only 5th standard
which indicates lower education among married women. 74% of the respondents support early marriage as it is their
tradition. Better economic condition of their partner encourages early marriage.
7.Decreasing level of education and income level, young motherhood, malnutrition, maternal death, more number
of children etc. are the problem of early motherhood and hence encourage gender disparity. 11.1% women become
mother below 15 years and 55.5% at the age of 16 – 18 years.
8.Survey reveals that 59% of the women is non-worker and financially depended on their spouses which decreases
the women work participation in the society.
9.Maximum working women engaged in primary sector (81%) as the farming practice is subsistence in nature
women are not financially productive. Their income pattern is also disappointing. 46% women earn below 1000 per
month, 36% earn between 1000 – 2000 and only 9% earn above 2000.(table 1 )
10.Delivery and other maternity health care are neglected in the clan. Distance from hospital, social backwardness,
less awareness result into delivery at home (88.24%) discouraging woman health security.
11.Alcohol consumption (country liquor) in both gender leading to different liver diseases and sometimes sudden
death. This habit is common in all age group.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF LEPCHAS:-

It is proposed to establish a finance group among the women of the village by which they can engage themselves in

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.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

various economic activities as a result of which a viable economic position will develop.
Setting up small scale and cottage industries and household handicrafts (bags based on local materials liken fine
wool) can be encouraged by the government and private entrepreneurs to earn in alternative way.
More primary schools, equal opportunity to education, Mid-day meal programme, Sarba Shikha Abhiyan needed to
be started as the nearest school is 14 km away.
Proper care of agriculture in the village assuring land development and proper irrigation system is the need of the
hour. So that people can earn, grow their own food and for commercial purpose also which will enhance their
economic standard.
Government help is needed with local body to provide safe and secure drinking water and places for proper garbage
disposal so that water bodies are not contaminated.
Mid-day meal scheme is the need of the hour as it can surely attract tribal children to school and reduce drop out and
give equal opportunity to both girls and boys in education.
Another important step that should be taken to improve the socio-economic condition at the village is to increase the
awareness of the villagers about maternity health issues ,disadvantage of taking alcohol, caring girl child through
NGO etc

CONCLUSION:

The status of Lepcha tribal women can be said in less secured condition leading to create more vulnerable
situation for this group of society. Calculating GDI can only help to assess the vulnerable condition of Lepcha
women through the sphere of long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living between men and
women. At Lingsey village GDI represents the low value. So to improve the socio economic status of women and
reduce gender gap education from the grass root level has to be started by panchayets and local governments. Then
only this tribe can put their female in better condition in society like many other tribes in India. Another important
step is to increase the female participation rate in various work sectors to improve their economic level, as a whole to
increase the living standard and gender equality. This can also check early marriage and young motherhood.

REFERENCES:

1.Awais M, Alam T, Asif Md, 2009, Socio-economic empowerment of tribal women: An Indian perspective, Int Jrnl
of Rural Studies(IJRS),vol-16,no-1 Article 5
2.Bareh, Hamlet (2001) The Sikkim Communities, Encyclopaedia of North East India;
3.Bhasin V,2007, Status of Tribal Women in India, Stud. Home Comm. Sci., 1(1): 1-16
4.Burman Roy J J,2012,Status of Tribal women in India, Mainstream vol L No-12
5.Das Bhaswati and Khawas Vimal (2010) Gender Issues In Development (concerns for the 21st century);
6.Gowloog R R ,2013, Identity Formation among the Lepchas of West Bengal and Sikkim, Stud Tribes
Tribals,11(1):19-23
7.Hansdak M E ,1992,The Status of Tribal women in Promoting tribal rights and culture, pp 49-53
8.Heleen, 1969, Information on Lepcha Language and Culture.
9.Moser A, (2007), Bridge-Development Gender,Gender and Indicators-Overview Report
10.Nirash N,1982,The Lepchas of Sikkim(cited on www.HimalayaSocanth.com.ac.uk/collections/journals)
11. Purkayastha S,2013, Hydro Power Development and the Lepchas: A case study of the Dzongu in Sikkim, India,
International Research Journal of Social Sciences, ISSN 2319–3565 Vol. 2(8), 19-24
12.Roy DC 2005. Dynamics of Social Formation among the Lepchas. New Delhi: Akansha Publishing House
13.Singh, Amar Kumar & C., Dec. 1993. , Rajyalakshmi: Status of Tribal Women in India. Social Change. 23(4).p.3-
18.
14.Tamlong D T,2010,Mayel Lyang and the Lepchas in Aachuley,A Bilingual journal illustrating the Lepcha way of
life

Indian Streams Research Journal | Volume 4 | Issue 7 | Aug 2014 8

.Gender Inequality Among Tribal Women In India: A Case Study Of Lepcha Society

Ria Roy
Dept. of Geography, Bhairab Ganguly College, West Bengal.

Mahua Bardhan
Assistant Professor, Netaji Satabarshiki Mahavidylaya, N 24 Pgs, West Bengal.

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