Assessing the Impact of Indigenous Women Entrepreneurship to their Socio-Economic Progress: An Investigation in the State of Chhattisgarh
The Scheduled Tribes represent a small portion of the country’s total population and are disadvantaged in various means. They work even harder than tribal males and contribute to family income with limited revenue alternatives. In Chhattisgarh, 70% of the total population lives in rural areas, of which most of the population belongs to tribal communities, majorly dependent on agriculture and non-timber forest products for their livelihood. There are no other sources of income for tribal women resulting in lower participation of women in the workforce. With the lowest literacy rate, the total work participation of tribal women is 46.39%, lower than the tribesmen. A study conducted in 2010 reveals that Chhattisgarh has extremely high poverty rates in a rural and urban areas with 66.8 % and 28.6% respectively. The study chose Chhattisgarh as the state has a large tribal population. Women in the state are poor and disadvantaged, and their issues should be addressed to resolve them. For society to develop economically, entrepreneurs play prominent roles, while in tribal communities, women are proving to be the major players, and their active involvement is essential to accelerate the socio-economic development of tribal communities. Therefore, this paper explores the Role of Tribal Women Entrepreneurship in their Socioeconomic Development in Chhattisgarh. This paper is based on the conceptual paper and secondary data has been used particularly government official websites and reports, articles, and journals. The findings have the strategies for the socio-economic empowerment of tribal women.
Keywords: tribal women entrepreneurship, Chhattisgarh tribes, tribal population, developmental programs, economic empowerment
