JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 11, 2020 Access to Education by Women among Scheduled Tribes of North East India

Tejaswita Duarah1

1Research Scholar, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Received: 22 March 2020 Revised and Accepted: l6 May 2020

ABSTRACT: Women in tribal societies have differential access to development measures such as education, based on their cultural variability in gender relationships. This is observed by the effects of region and location on culture, which reflect on the gender relations of a particular tribe and the status of women’s mobility to access education. As the tribal population in North-East India is spread throughout the region both in plains and hills, the plains provide an easier interaction with the non-tribal population concentrated in these fertile valleys while the hills provide them with more seclusion to retain their ethnic practices. Moreover, tribal societies have often faced religious influences over time shaping their cultural dynamism, which further impacts women’s access to education. This study looks into the gender disparity in education caused by the locational difference of tribal societies living in hills and plains of the region. It analyses different tribes of their literacy and age-specific enrollment according to their area of location. These differences reflect on the gender relations in different tribal societies which again reveals the flexibility and accessibly women have to education. KEYWORDS: Tribal society, women, education, accessibility, location and cultural dynamism.

I. INTRODUCTION Women’s status in society determines her mobility to access development measures and autonomy, which varies across regions and communities. One’s ethnicity is a great determinant of decisive power and access to development opportunities such as health, education, employment, political representation and civil rights. Gender apparently cuts across all sections of the society to attain a status of “disadvantaged of the disadvantage” (Ridgeway, 2001). As gender is rooted deep into the societal pattern of patriarchy, it is necessary to study the intensity of patriarchy existing in that particular community which affects the autonomy of the women. This is expressed on the development indexes of females, namely gender disparity in education considering literacy and enrollment. The current disparity (as per Census 2011) explains the extent culture has changed over the years in a tribal society and how many ethnic traditions have they retained. Education is one of the critical indicators of human development, which scales one’s individual growth in understanding the surroundings better and pass knowledge to close members of the society and the next generation (Kumar and Sangeeta, 2013). In 1985 the International Women Conference held at Nairobi expressed education as the ‘milestone for women empowerment’ as it is the only way to challenge their traditional roles and bring about changes in life as an able-bodied individual (HDI Report, 1995). The flexibility of a society decides the access of women to attain education, while the attainment of education shall help women to be more independent and challenge the existing social norms. Even though there is significant progress in female literacy rates from 1981 to 2011 and narrowing of the gender gap, females still lag behind considerably; especially in the level of educational attainment and the choice of learning in higher education (Chanana, 2000). The gender disparity in educational attainment has a differential pattern in distribution over social groups and regions. Gender relationships have been observed to be rooted in the agricultural pattern of an area (Agarwal, 1994). This includes ownership of land and property and also the division of labor, where both genders either divide the work activities (gender roles) or share the work. This difference in work pattern on agriculture decides not just gender relation but also construct social hierarchy. The region plays a significant role in differencing gender relations or even the variations in the practice of patriarchy in the plains from that in the forested hills. Hence, such a social structure does reflect upon the status of women to access education accordingly. Moreover,

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gender is also largely affected by the religion practiced especially in the case of missionaries in colonial India. The influence of different religions in different societies and their target social groups result in differential outcomes in educational development as education was used as one major measure to promote religious and cultural beliefs among people. Such was the case of spreading education among marginalized sections of the society especially tribal population both by the Christian missionaries and so did the Arya and Brahmo Samaj to revive and reconvert these people (Bhatt, 1968). However, the reach of these efforts vary among social groups and regions and so was their outcomes of educational development varied accordingly.

II. EDUCATION OF TRIBAL WOMEN IN NORTH-EAST INDIA: A TRIBE-WISE ANALYSIS The North-East Region (NER) is a well-defined region with a unique physiographic, socio-economic structure, racial mixture, and transitional political landscape. Tribal societies do not practice the concept of private property here, thus women enjoy a significant socio-economic position. Although patriarchy does exist among the communities of the NER, women’s significance as a producer bears some gender neutrality in society. She plays an important role in her family and her community in production and reproduction, promoting autonomy among women. It creates flexibility in society for her mobility. This environment promotes accessibility to institutions providing development measures to uplift the conditions in a society. These include education along with other aspects like health, justice, social and political representation and economic opportunities. Mobility further enhances the prospect of freeing oneself from dependency. The level of education for women is a significant factor to autonomy, while autonomy provided by the culture of the society shall decide upon her reach to education itself. Thus, the level of education of women in a society reflects the behavior of the cultural or ethnic traditions of the society itself. Tribal communities living in seclusion have continued to practice their traditional norms of life, which some refer to as ‘primitive’ (Boas, 2013; Durkheim, 2009). However, there have been unavoidable interactions with a different non-tribal population of migrants since early times and these have left some kind of imprint of ‘their’ culture on the tribes coming in contact with them. The span of time of interaction leaves a stronger impact accordingly and there is observed to have absorption and alteration of tribal culture. There is a great geographical significance to the level of interaction of the general population with tribal communities as accessibility is vital for contact and communication. The Brahmaputra valley and other plain areas have experienced various migration waves that observed interaction of tribal and non-tribal populations and a consequent socio-economic and political dynamism in these areas. This had a major impact on the gender relations in tribal societies, especially in the plains Thus, a study to observe the differential pattern among tribal societies according to their location shall understand the effect of terrain and region in the cultural dynamism. For this, a Tribal map drawn by Sarthak Sengupta (2003) is superimposed upon a physical map of North-East India to locate the domain of specific tribal groups in the region

Map 1.Locating tribes in North East India by using Tribal Map of Sarthak Sengupta on Physical Map of India

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The above map clearly displays the distribution of various tribes over the physical landscape of the region. The region is covered by the Purvanchal Himalayas and the plateau, which is drained by large flood plains of the Brahmaputra, Barrack, and valley. These plains are the favorable grounds of habitation and a large population of both non-tribals and tribals occupy these fertile plains for sustenance agriculture. Some of these tribes living in the plains are Boro Kacharis, Dimasas, Lalung, Miri, Tripuri Tipperra, Deoris etc. But more number of tribes have inhabited the hilly forested tracks of the region and maintained a strong tribal identity like the Nagas, Mizos, Khasi Jaintiyas, Garos, Apatanis, Mishmis, and many others. The tribes living in the hills have more seclusion than those in the plains. Thus, cultural influence in tribal societies living in more seclusion retains their ethnic traditions with special significance given to gender relations here as compared to those tribal groups who have easier and frequent interactions with non-tribal communities. Hence, this study takes education as an indicator to observe gender disparity among tribal communities.

Map 2.District-wise Gender Disparity in Literacy among Scheduled Tribes in North East India

Scheduled tribes are spread in all districts of the NER spread across hills and plains. Accessibility plays a great role in these tribes acquiring development opportunities. The educational development in the region thus varies from region to region, with some of the highest percentages in districts like Aizawl (98%), Serchhip (97.96%), Champhai (95.94%), Kolasib (95.63%), Mokokchung (93.27%) and Dimapur (91.04%) in , , and . However, the districts of (62.72%), Sonitpur (64.46%), Chirang (64.80) and Dhubri (67.92%) lying in the plains of and Manipur have shown a comparatively poorer performance in literacy rates of both ST population and in the overall population. However, districts of like Tirap (48.51%), Kurung (48.59%) and Tawang (51.79%) shows an overall poor performance in literacy in spite of being a hilly region. The GPI of the literacy rates to speak a similar pattern parallel to what the percentage figures of literacy rates seem to display. It is observed here that literacy is higher in hilly parts of the area except for Tripura while plain districts have performed poorer. But this factor comes in contrast with the fact that building infrastructure and institutes of education is much easier and concentrated in the plains and the hills are not easily accessible. Due to poor infrastructure, the people are discouraged to send their children to far off places or to distant places to learn. However, this factor is not significant in the region due to the remarkable efforts of the Christian missionaries to promote education even in the remote parts of the region. This phenomenon can be observed from the dominance of Christianity as a religion in the states of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and hill districts of Tripura. Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh has a small Christian population and so its literacy rates in spite of being a hilly area. Unlike the rest of the hill areas, missionaries didn’t have much of its reach of influence here. Thus, formal education which was only introduced during the colonial era had not been popular among the people of NER as

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 11, 2020 most communities’ especially tribal groups practiced only informal oral narrations passed down from generation to generation. Formal education gained momentum under the patronage of the Christian missionaries and its effect is still experienced by the patterns displayed by the level of literacy in different districts of the region. The effect of culture is significantly revealed by gender relations in a community or a tribe. Thus access to education by both genders can be observed to measure the gender neutrality of the society. Each tribe has its ethnic traditions and each has had experiences of changes to evolve in time to what it embodies in the present date. Even though formal education may have not been a part of tribal life but gender neutrality is evidenced to have existed among each tribe varying in intensity, but modernization in the present world has introduced education as an important measure for development. Thus, its implication even in the tribal society may be a modern issue but ethnic traditions allow both genders to access it equally. Accordingly, to study the level of education of each tribe today and the disparity within male-female education, it shall conclude how much has the ethnic traditions changed within the practices of the tribe or the tribe has able to keep traditions alive, in spite of the influence of other cultures. The study has further selected a total of 17 tribes from all tribes inhabiting the seven states of the NER. Each of these tribes comprises at least more than 10% of the total ST population in their respective dominant state and has been summed up with the few populations of the tribe scattered over the whole region. These 17 tribes thus constitute the major tribes of NER and are listed below.

Table 1.Selected Tribes of North East India and their composition percentage to total scheduled tribe population in the state TRIBES OF STATE COMPOSITION NORTHEAST INDIA (TOTAL TRIBES) (%) 1 Nyishi Arunachal Pradesh (114) 26 2 Karbi Assam (29) 11.08 3 Boro 35.06 4 Miri 17.52 5 Garo Meghalaya (17) 32.12 6 Khasi, Jaintiya 55.24 7 Tangkhul Manipur (33) 15.3 8 Thadau 18.49 9 Poumai Naga 10.91 10 Any Mizo/Luashai Tribe Mizoram (15) 70.93 11 Chakma 9.36 12 Ao Nagaland (22) 13.25 13 Konyak 13.88 14 Lotha 10.12 15 Sema 13.81 16 Riang Tripura (19) 32.12 17 Tripuri, Tipperra 50.76

Literacy is taken as the most basic indicator of educational development and gender disparity in literacy is significant in understanding the accessibility to education by each gender. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) of Literacy for the selected 17 tribes has been categorized to observe a deferential attitude towards women’s education.

Table 2.Categorization of Gender disparity of Literacy Rates among selected tribes of NER

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GPI_LR VALUE TRIBES OF NER 1-0.90 HIGH Khasi Jaintiya, Ao, Any Mizo, Sema, Lotha, Tangkhul 0.89-0.80 MODERATE Thadou, Konyak, Garo, Tripuri Tipperra, Boro, Poumai Naga, Nyishi, Karbi, Miri <0.79 LOW Riang, Chakma

The above table and illustration clearly show moderately fair conditions for all tribes with above 0.6 GPI, but still female literacy comparatively less than male. The GPI levels for all tribes are towards 1 which shows a closer gap to gender equality in acquiring education with some tribes like Khasi Jaintia and Ao reaching almost 0.99 and 0.98 GPI values. However, we observe a pattern among the tribes with some faring relatively better than others. These tribes include Khasi Jaintia, Ao, Mizo Lushai, Sema, etc. which are majorly found in the hilly tracks of the NER and have maintained a stronger ethnic tradition. The tribes like Boro, Karbi, Miri, Tripuri Tipperra, etc have had a history of direct contact and interaction with Non-tribals inhabiting the plain areas of the region. These tribes have been influenced by the Hindu society and incorporated many of their traits to become Hinduized. The Khasi Jaintiya and the Garo tribes have practiced matrilineality as their ethnic custom which gives a greater status to women in society. As a result, these tribes have shown tremendous GPI levels in literacy too. But the case of Garo which has been categorized under a moderate value of 0.85 must-have resulted due to the inclusion of some Garos living in the plains of Assam alongside Boros which have to be Hinduized. The status of women of the Plain Garos has weakened the overall outcomes in GPI of literacy of the tribe. The Riang and the Chakmas consist of a smaller population than the rest and scattered over the plains of Manipur and hill tracks of Tripura. These tribes have rather showed a poor performance in GPI values of literacy in the region. GPI of literacy shows only the overall achievement of the tribe and this is generally considered over age and time period. Also, an uneven distribution of the population over age group and sex may distort actual facts. But to see the present situation of educational attainment and in each age group or level of education, we need to study each tribe in depth by taking the GPI of Age-specific enrollment rate of6-14, 15-19 and 20-24. These age groups overlap the primary level of education, the secondary and higher secondary level of education and higher education respectively. Table 3Gender disparity of enrollment in 6-14 age group or primary education of selected NE tribes GPI (6-14 age) VALUE TRIBES OF NER >=1 EQUAL/MORE Khasi Jaintia, Garo, Ao, Lotha, Sema, Tangkhul, Any Mizo 0.99-0.90 HIGH Konyak, Boro, Miri, Poumai Naga, Tripuri Tiperra, Thadou, Karbi, Nyishi, Riang 0.89-0.80 MODERATE Chakma 0.79-0.70 LOW <0.69 VERY LOW

Table 4.Gender disparity of enrollment in 15-19 age group or secondary and higher secondary education of selected NE tribes GPI (15-19 age) VALUE TRIBES OF NER

>=1 EQUAL/MORE Khasi Jaintia, Konyak, Sema

0.99-0.90 HIGH Ao, Tangkhul, Any Mizo, Lotha, Garo, Poumai Naga, Miri, Boro, Nyishi, Thadou

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0.89-0.80 MODERATE Karbi, Tripuri Tiperra

0.79-0.70 LOW Riang

<0.69 VERY LOW Chakma

Table 5.Gender disparity of enrollment in 20-24 age group or higher education of selected NE tribes GPI (20-24 age) VALUE TRIBES OF NER >=1 EQUAL/MORE Khasi Jaintia, Ao 0.99-0.90 HIGH Sema, Any Mizo, Lotha 0.89-0.80 MODERATE Konyak, Tangkhul, Garo 0.79-0.70 LOW Poumai Naga, Miri <0.69 VERY LOW Thadou, Boro, Tripuri Tippera, Nyishi, Karbi, Chakma, Riang

The above tables observe a decline in GPI values for many of the tribes as they go for higher studies. It is seen that there is a lot less gender gap among primary education of 6-14 aged population and this gender gap widens as they move to secondary and higher secondary education of 15-19 age group and even more in higher education of 20-24 aged population. This is often the result of women dropping out of school or discontinuing further studies. Education in tribal society had been introduced by Christian missionaries and later by Independent India but this universal education system seemed irrelevant to tribal people in their daily life. The inspiration that promoted basic education for a better understanding of the world was not effective for higher education. This was more so in the case of women since their economic value lay in household and primary activities of tribal life. The need for higher education was essential for entering into employment in secondary and tertiary activities in both the colonial world and also in the present-day context. However, studies do show an increasing rate of female education in higher education after liberalization to enter the neoliberal market. A low enrollment rate is also a result of the limited institutions that provide higher education thus accessibility is limited due to distance and availability. Most institutes providing higher education are located in urban circles which discourages women to travel far distances from rural areas and remote villages. Hence the lack of women enrollment in higher education results in a wider gender gap in the 15-19 and 20-24 aged population. The tables also present a pattern on which tribes maintain a better GPI in all age groups, even though there is an overall decrease in GPI value. Tribes that basically inhabits hilly areas like Khasi Jaintia, Garo, Ao, Sema, Lotha, Tangkhul, Mizos have comparatively better GPI values in each age group than tribes which reside in and around plains such as Boro, Karbi, Miri, Tripuri Tipperra, etc. The pattern observed shows a more rapid decline in GPI values of such tribes living in the plains in higher education. This suggests that gender relations in such tribes have an as poorer status for women as the influence of the non-tribal culture of a patriarchal society affects these tribes living alongside them. These tribes have incorporated much of non-tribal culture which includes a more patriarchal based society that their ethnic tribal norms, thus women are often discouraged to go for higher studies.

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Figure 1.Gender Disparity in Enrollment Rates over different Age-groups of 6 to 14, 15 to 19 and 20-24.

Gender disparity rises with each age group or level of education. The above figure clearly illustrates this for every selected tribe. It displays a better GPI value for 6-14 aged population in primary education, closely followed by 15-19 aged population in secondary and higher secondary education, some tribes even showing an almost overlap in these two age groups. Though GPI values are comparatively much lower among the 20-24 aged population in higher education, there is an interesting case among the Khasi Jaintia tribe and Garo tribe which shows a high GPI value in this age group which is higher even than 6-14 age groups. These tribes sustain a matrilineal society. Another observation is seen in the widening gap between the age groups which is more among tribes living in and around plains than compared to tribes living in the seclusion of hills and have a lesser gap among the GPI of each age group. Here the dots representing the GPI values are more scattered and distant from each other in the case of tribes residing in and around plain areas. The above study conducted is based on the location of the tribes based on Sarthak Sengupta’s understanding of the Tribal Map of North-East India. Thus, tribes located over an area have been overlapped with the topography of that area, which is done manually. This aids in understanding the habitation of the tribes and its subsequent effects felt from the influences of other non-tribal populations or the accessibility to the tribe in relation to cultural and social influence. As theory suggest, there is more dynamism in cultural practice with more interaction of varying cultures while seclusion especially caused by terrain protects ethnic culture and aids in better conservation of ethnic tribal values and norms, as well as gender relations in the society.

III. CONCLUSION Gender gaps in literacy and enrollment show the access women have to attain education. However, the differences in disparity over tribes have exposed that factors of culture are different for each tribe. Differences in cultural practices evolved over time and space in each tribe, results in forming a pattern in gender disparity in education. The status of a tribal is thus expressed by their access to educational development. To briefly take stock of their situation the study displays the existing gender gaps in literacy and enrollment among different tribes of NER. The calculated GPI values for the selected 17 tribes observed a deferential attitude towards women’s education which forms a pattern over the region. Even though tribes in the NER shows a better condition than most scheduled tribes of the country, there are still some distinct differences even among them. A relatively high disparity in literacy is observed among tribes like Boro, Karbi, Miri and Tripuri which inhabit the fertile plains of the region. On the other hand, tribes living in the seclusion of the hills rather display good GPI values suggesting lesser disparity among tribes like Khasi Jaintia, Ao, Mizo Lushai and Sema. In the case of enrollment gender disparity in tribes increases as age-group increases, meaning disparity magnifies in higher studies. Thus most of the tribes shift to lower GPI values of enrollment as they go higher in the level of education and this is more intense for

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plain tribes like Boro, Miri, Tripuri and Thadou. It is observed that in the higher age-groups tribes tend to cluster more on towards low GPI value range. Thus a geographical patterning appears in the light of gender disparity in the educational development of literacy and enrollment. This suggests easier access to education by women in the hills of NER in comparison to women in the plains. Although the topography of the hilly tracts discourages the availability of educational institutes which reflects in the overall status with a higher percentage of both literacy and enrollment in plain areas, in the case of women’s status there is higher participation in education in hilly regions than in the plains. The women’s access to education among hill tribes detects a cultural permit of women’s autonomy in the ethnic traditions of a tribal society. Tribal societies are spread all across NER, but plains have always provided easier mobility for the migration of people with their flat, fertile belts. Such fertile belts thus become the point of intense interaction of people from different cultural backgrounds. Tribes traditionally practice a rather gender-neutral environment as women are considered a social and an economic asset, these relationship changes with changes in socio-economic practices. Such as the pattern of agriculture and belief systems of the society, this faces immense dynamism in the plains. Here the pattern of agriculture changes from jhum to subsistence agriculture and with the influence of the Indo-Aryan migrants there have been several transitions over the years in their beliefs and practices. Whereas hill societies have maintained seclusion away from the direct influence of other cultures, which aids them in retaining their ethnicity. Furthermore, the arrival of Christian missionaries which particularly targeted the hill population to spread their religion incorporated formal education into tribal life. This enabled the promotion of educational development in hill areas more than the plains of the region. This can be observed by the practice of a western lifestyle and a preference for education in the present day too. Such that Arunachal Pradesh which had a negligible reach by the missionaries still performs poorly in both literacy and enrollment in spite of being a hilly region. Thus, to conclude tribal societies have been greatly influenced by non-tribal societies, particularly Indo-Aryans in the plains and Western colonialist in the hills. Over the years tribal societies have tried to retain their ethnic traditions signifying the role of women in the society, but cultural dynamism results in differential practices in allowing women to access development as expressed by education in the present day. The geographical patterning of a better gender relationship with regards to women’s accessibility to education in the hills shows that tribal societies here have retained their ethnicity to allow women’s mobility. The already existing flexible society gives no restrictions to acquire the available resources (here education) regardless of one’s gender. The patriarchal practices within tribal societies take a stricter form in the plains, discouraging women’s participation. Cultural dynamism in time and space affects women’s autonomy in tribal societies and their ability to retain ethnic practices. Thus it is necessary to observe these changes in tribes over time resulting from the absorbed or adopted cultural traits out of the interactions and influences of non-tribal societies.

IV. REFERENCES [1] Ridgeway, C. L. (2001). Gender, status, and leadership. Journal of Social issues, 57(4), 637-655. [2] Kumar, J., & Sangeeta, M. (2013). Status of Women Education in India. Educationia Confab, 2(4), 162. [3] Human Development Repot (1995), United Nations Development Programme, Oxford: Oxford University Press.nc. [4] Chanana, K. (2000). Treading the hallowed halls: Women in higher education in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 1012-1022. [5] Agarwal, B. (1994). A field of one's own: Gender and land rights in South Asia (Vol. 58). Cambridge University Press. [6] Bhatt, G. S. (1968). Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, and the church-sect typology. Review of Religious Research, 10(1), 23-32. [7] Boas, F. (2013). The mind of primitive man. BoD–Books on Demand.nc. [8] Durkheim, E., & Mauss, M. (2009). Primitive Classification (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.nc. [9] Sengupta, S. (2003). Tribes of North-east India. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. p.15. [10] Dutta, A., & Saikia, D. (2016). Pattern of female literacy and gender variation in North-East India. The Clarion, 5(1), 65-72. [11] Raju, S. (2011). Introduction: Conceptualizing Gender, Space, and Place. Gendered Geographies: Space and Place in South Asia, 1-30.

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