Subjective Well-Being of Tribes and Non-Tribes: a Quantitative Analysis

The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) Volume 8, Issue 1, DIP: 18.01.099/20200801 DOI: 10.25215/0801.099 http://www.ijip.in | January- March, 2020

Research Paper

Subjective well-being of tribes and non-tribes: a quantitative analysis

Himansu Kumar Deo1*

ABSTRACT Tribes of India are generally known to be ancestors of primitive inhabitants. Many of whom are largely isolated from India’s mainstream society and culture. Among these tribes lodhas are one of the major primitive groups in West Bengal and Odisha. Recent decades witnessed a surge of interest in the development of quality of life, subjective wellbeing of these tribal peoples. Considering the importance of subjective well-being which is a major parameter of development the present study intends to measure the subjective well-being of tribes and non- tribes. In the present study 60 participants are selected from Suljapada block of Mayurbhanj District. Out of 60 participants 30 were tribes and 30 were non-tribes. Both the groups were administered subjective well-being inventory. The study adopted a t-test to compare the two groups. From the study it was found that there exists a significant difference between tribes and non-tribes.

Keywords: Tribes and Non-Tribes, Subjective Well-being.

Now a day, many tribes are largely isolated from India’s mainstream and also society and culture. Some tribes are more backward than the others such as low level of literacy, poverty, economic backwardness and face various health problems etc. They do not possess conducive social and economic conditions for better education. Lack of educational institution, lack of nutritional and health care programmes, poverty is some of the major factors which inhibit the development of tribal people and for this reason they are socially, economically educationally, ecologically deprived and excluded from the society and isolated from modern civilized way of thinking. The social exclusion and deprivation decrease the happiness and subjective wellbeing of tribal people. Due to exclusion the tribal people face many psychological problems like anxiety, depression, and fear etc. They also face economic problem, discrimination and exploitation.

As Subjective wellbeing is one of the most important indicators of development steps should be taken for the overall development of tribal people. Subjective wellbeing refers to how people experience the quality of their lives includes both emotional reactions and cognitive judgments. Psychologists have defined happiness as a combination of life satisfaction and the relative frequency of positive and negative effect. It encompasses moods and emotions as

1Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Udayanath (Auto) College of Sc. & Tech., Odisha, India *Responding Author Received: March 7, 2020; Revision Received: March 15, 2020; Accepted: March 31, 2020 © 2020, H K Deo; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Subjective Well-being of Tribes and Non-tribes: A Quantitative Analysis well as evaluations of one’s satisfaction with general and specific areas of one’s life. It includes positive and negative effect, happiness and life satisfaction. Positive psychology is particularly concerned with the study of subjective well-being. It tends to be stable over time and is strongly related to personality traits. There is evidence that health and subjective well- being may mutually influence each other as good health tends to be associated with greater happiness and a number of studies have found that positive emotions and optimism can have a beneficial influence on health. It refers to perception of one’s position in life in the context of culture, value systems in which one lives and in relation to one’s goals, expectations, standards and concerns (Orley & Kugkenb1994).Now a days the greatest challenge of government is the proper provision of social justice to the tribal people. A variety of policy and plans created for tribal development.

Social exclusion refers to the processes in which individuals and entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities and resources such as housing, employment, health care that are normally available to members of society. Orissa is a tribal dominated state with the largest number of tribal communities (62) representing major linguistic groups. Almost 44.21 percent of the total land area in Orissa has been declared as scheduled area. Mayurbhanj is one of the most dominant districts of Orissa with tribes, which has been declared as the fully scheduled district of the state. The tribes constitute 56.6 per cent of the total population of the district; through the population of Mayurbhanj is only 6 per cent of the state’s total population. According to 2011 census Mayurbhanj houses 30 tribes. The major tribes inhabiting in Mayurbhanj are Santal, Kolha, Bathudi, Bhumij, Munda, Gond, Saunti, Hill Kharia, Mahaliand the minor tribes are Mankirdia, Lodha, Kol, Kisan, Baiga, Holva.

METHODOLOGY Sample The study involved one independent variable, one dependent variable. Independent variable is type of people (Tribes& Non-tribes) and dependent variable is subjective well-being. The sample of the present study includes 60 participants. Out of 60 participants 30 were tribes & 30 were non-tribes. Data from the 60 participants were collected from the district of Mayurbhanj. All participants were selected purposively within the age bracket of 30 to 50.

Instrument Subjective well-being inventory- This subjective well-being inventory was developed by Dr H. Sell and Dr. R. Nagpal. The inventory consists of 40 items with 3 alternatives in each, i.e., “very much, to some extent, not so much”. Among the 40 items, 19 are positive items and 21 are negative items. The scoring system of the values 3, 2 and 1 to response categories of the positive items and 1, 2 and 3 to the negative items. The minimum score can be 40 & maximum can be 120 respectively. The summated score of all the 40 items provide the subjective well-being score of an individual.

Procedure The study continued over a period of one month. Two groups of people i.e., tribes and non- tribes were included in the study. The investigator personally met and collected data after establishing rapport with them. All the 60 participants were selected for the study from Mayurbhanj District. The purpose of the study was explained by the investigator. After establishing rapport, the subjective well-being inventory was administered individually.

RESULT In light of the objective of the research the mean and standard deviation were computed for tribes and non-tribes. In order to test the significance of the mean difference between tribes and non-tribes t-test was performed.

Group N Mean SD T Df P Interpretation Remarks Tribes 30 88.23 6.86 Non- 30 94.50 5.03 4.02 58 .000 P<.01 Significant Tribes

The independent sample t test was performed to know the significance of mean difference between tribes and non-tribes. The results indicate significant difference, t =4.02, df = 58, P<.01 between the tribes and non-tribes. The non-tribes reported higher level of subjective well-being (M=94.50) as compared to tribes (M = 88.23).

DISCUSSION The disengagement of the tribes in mainstream society, with respect to the accessibility of welfare provisions, is a crucial element in regard to social exclusion and happiness. Moreover, the government should devote more welfare resources to assist tribal communities to develop their own social safety net, instead of the individual-oriented welfare provisions. Subject well-being is better among non-tribes as compared to tribes. So Government should take active steps to provide basic facilities to the tribes so that they will lead a better life by enhancing the quality of life of Lodha tribes through subjective well-being which is a major parameter of development in 21st century. For their socio-economic development, Government of Orissa in the year 1986 has established Lodha Development Agency which is situated at Morda. The developmental programmes should be implemented through micro- project include soil conservation, horticulture; agriculture resource flow to micro-project affects the quality of services and their adequacy to the community.

REFERENCES Dey.A (2015). A Comparative Study about Scheduled Tribes in West Bengal, India. International Journal of Advancements in Research and Technology: Vol4(7), 11-18 Mohapatra T (2011). Tribes of Odisha: issues of social exclusion, exclusion and cultural assimilation. An Interdisciplinary journal.Vol.5,15-16 Panda.S. (2015). The Development of Primitive Tribal Groups: A Case of Lodha and Birhor of West Bengal. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development: Vol.1 (6), 28-35 Pattnaik I,Mohanty A (2004). Social exclusion: A challenge for the status of third gender people of Odisha. International Journal of Scientific Research.Vol 3.477

Acknowledgements The author appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the research process.

Conflict of Interest The author declared no conflict of interest.

How to cite this article: H K Deo (2020). Subjective well-being of tribes and non-tribes: a quantitative analysis. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 8(1), 800-802. DIP:18.01.099/20200801, DOI:10.25215/0801.099 © The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 802