International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Volume 3 Issue 8, Aug 2018 www.ijasrm.com ISSN 2455-6378 Socio-Demographic Inequalities among Scheduled Caste Women: A Block Level Analysis of Malda District of West Bengal, India Bikash Barman1, Avijit Roy2 and Pradip Chouhan3 1,2Research Scholar Dept. of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda, West Bengal, India 3Associate Professor, Dept. of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda, West Bengal, India Abstract as well as education (Benjamin, 1991; Pai, 2000). This work attempt to study the block wise In British rule as the result of faulty and neglected inequalities of the different socio-demographic educational policy, the Scheduled Caste and variables (SC female population growth, sex ratio, Scheduled Tribes were far distance from the main child sex ratio, female literacy, female work stream of the society (Chaterjee, 2000). Though participation) of Scheduled Caste women and their after that Indian government has been taken present status in Malda district with the help of different initiatives or policies or safe guards which secondary data which has been collected from the helps them to acquire higher social status (Francis, District Census Hand Book 2001 and 2011. 1993) as well as higher education and economic Different methods have been applied for the opportunities (Khatoon, 2013) also. Though the depiction of result i.e. growth rate, Gender male populations of the Scheduled Caste category Disparity Index, Standardized Score (Z-Score) and are more developed than the Scheduled Caste Composite Score. Result tells about the increasing women (Manohar,1989), they also are going pattern of women’s participation in different forward in terms of education and social status developmental sector with the increase of female (Isaac, 1997). Scheduled caste women status has literacy and work participation. been studied under the large umbrella concept of Key Words: Inequality, Female work participation rate, woman empowerment and equality. Great strides Gender disparity. have been made toward equality in modern era (Menon, 2000). The Constitution also provides 1. Introduction: safeguards to sc woman from all possible arising Regional differentiation is the main matter of problems and expressing them in public. Even they geography which deals with the analysis of have joined their hands together to fight against inequalities on the different elements of the region social illness and injustice (Sharma & Ashis, 2014). to region (Dholakia, 2003; Chandna, 2014). As They have full right to take bold decision and lead because social geography also deals with the study the world independently. It has still limited effect of the regional inequalities or differentiation of the on women’s conditions (Kusum, 1974). No doubt, human behaviour (Rai, 2015) , their regional that sc male get much more advantage, only SC custom, their means of livelihood (Banerjee, 1989), women’s are avoided. Basically the country is their educational as well as economic situation and moving away from male dominated culture (Khan it is obviously seen that there are various et al, 2012), discrimination on a wide range of inequalities among them according to their region ground can be highly seen in rural as well as urban or living place (Ghosh, 2006; Rustogi, 2010). areas in small villages and even metropolitan cities Scheduled Caste are the termed as the depress class in almost all spheres of life (Williamson, 1965). or fifth class or untouchable or Dalit of the society Only women are considered as disadvantage in this who are originally backward in terms of economic regard. In some remote space sc women have failed 71 International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Volume 3 Issue 8, Aug 2018 www.ijasrm.com ISSN 2455-6378 in seeking their own space in modern society = the mean value and (Nayar, 2008). SC women- men equality is linked u = stands for standard deviation with sustainable development where both can enjoy In standard score analysis, a positive value all the opportunities and access to all the rights of specifies a datum above the sample mean, where a decision making (Kurian, 2000) with regard to age negative value shows the result a datum below the at marriage, distribution of power, financial sample mean. independency, contraceptive use, develop their iii) Composite Index after Iyengar & personal ambitions and interests and may more Sudarshan’s Method: This index have been used alike (Rafikul, 2010). Gender equality does not for showing the status of Scheduled Caste women mean that they should be dealt on the same scale of the different blocks of Malda with the help of but they should have accessibility to all resources composite score.In 1982 Iyengar & Sudarshan put and should not be discriminated or constrained on forwarded this method following modified the ground of gender. In this paper, an attempt has dimension index. They used dimension index for been made to analyze demographic data to measure making data standardized in this compositing the socio-demographic inequalities among the approach. Using dimension index they transformed Scheduled Caste female population among the original data in to a new form of data set. Divided different blocks of Malda district and it also data set summed up region/block/district wise and investigates the roots of gender disparities which after that ranked on that data set by descending more and more from years to years. order. This value range from 0 to 1, greater the value of compositing indicate higher development. 2. Materials and Methods: The following formula have been used- The entire work had been done on the basis of secondary data collected from District Census Dimension Index = Hand Book (DCHB) 2011 of Malda district. The essential cartographic techniques such as maps, 3.Analysis: diagrams and tables used with the help of GIS-Arc 3.1 Growth of Female Population: software. For the fulfillment of the study many Growth of population is the rate in the number of parametric measures have been used such as – people living in a particular area between two i) Modified Gender Disparity Index: The given points of time. The net change between the modified disparity index proposed by Kundu & two points of time is expressed in percentage and is Rao (1986) is- described as the growth rate of population. Table 1 gives the highlights of growth rate of SC female ( ) DI = log population Malda District over the decade (2001- KR ( ) 2011). In Malda Total population in 2001 was Where, 554165 including female population of 269439. In X1= Value of Deprived Group (Female) 2011, the value reached up to 281265 and 133247 X = Value of Dominant Group (Male) respectively (DCHB of Malda). 2 3.2. Trend of Sex Ratio among SC population: This (Disparity Index by Kundu & Rao) method is Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per most suitable to measure the inequality between thousand of males. Of all the demographic two variables. The value of DI 0 means the perfect attributes of population, sex ratio is the most equality between two variables. Greater the value fundamental as it determines the reproductive indicates higher gender inequality. potential, marital status, work force, migration ii) Standard Score (Z-Score): To analyse the pattern, growth of population, and the socio- spatial distribution of different socio-demographic economic relationship. In fact it is an important characteristics of Scheduled Caste women standard demographic indicator to measure the extent of score has been applied which is the sign number of prevailing equality between males and females in a standard deviations an observation or datum is society at a given point of time. above the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity that involves the varying means and varying standard 3.2.1. Inter Block Variation in Sex Ratio deviations and therefore, it can be suitably used to Among Scheduled caste population in Malda examine the pattern of regional distribution of a District: variable (Sarkar, 2013; Bhandarkar et al., 2005). This section describes the inter-block variation Standard Score (Z-Score) has been calculated using spatio-temporal analysis of Sex ratio of Scheduled the following formula- ( ) Caste population of Malda district. Malda has not Z = been able to beat the West Bengal scenario. From Where the table 2 it is very clear the overall sex ratio of x = the variable to be examined Malda block is far better in the year 2001 and the 72 International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Volume 3 Issue 8, Aug 2018 www.ijasrm.com ISSN 2455-6378 rate of sex ratio decreases in the decade of point difference (996 in 2001 and 943 in 2011). 2011.Chanchal –II block has registered highest Table 1. Block Wise Variation in SC Population of Malda District 1901 Growth 2001 2011 Growth rate Rate of CD Block of Total Sc Female Sc Total Female Total Female Population Population Ratua-I 17646 8537 30538 14561 0.731 0.706 Ratua-II 12812 6281 12880 6140 0.005 -0.022 Harischandrapur-I 40806 19885 49,069 23,723 0.202 0.193 Harischandrapur-II 22126 10645 32294 15423 0.460 0.449 Kaliachak-I 8337 4000 15033 7259 0.803 0.815 Kaliachak-II 17349 8382 32686 15768 0.884 0.881 Kaliachak-III 22351 10850 105698 51572 3.729 3.753 Habibpur 86865 42634 105386 51002 0.213 0.196 Bamangola 63459 30649 71176 34078 0.122 0.112 English Bazar(R) 35085 16823 47532 22952 0.355 0.364 Old Maldah(R) 36572 17750 50287 24418 0.375 0.376 Manikchalk 24192 11665 74816 35903 2.093 2.078 Gazole 98649 47966 128464 62485 0.302 0.303 Chanchal-I 23736 11660 27370 13184 0.153 0.131 Chanchal-II 14518 7243 17112 8305 0.179 0.147 Malda District 554165 269439 835430 402686 0.508 0.495 Source: Calculated From DCHB, Malda (2001-2011) It may be lack of education facilities and lack of marginal increase in the number of females to economic development.