Social Discrimination of Tribal Agricultural Labourers of Wayanad District: A Critical Gender Analysis

This investigation has been done on the basis of qualitative and quantitative data collected from primary sources and explored the social discrimination experienced by tribal agricultural labourers and differential perception of social discrimination by men and women tribal agricultural labourers in a descriptive manner. Tribal agricultural labourers, especially women, fall prey to high order of discrimination by the rest of the society. Tribal communities face socio-cultural, economic, political and gender discrimination from others. Among the tribal communities, Kattunaikans experience a high level of social discrimination than the Paniyas and Kurichiyas. Kurichiyas, who enjoy a better socio-economic status among the tribal communities, could defend the discrimination from others, while, Kattunaikars and Paniyas, who are considered as down-trodden, fall behind the mainstream society. While comparing the tribal men and women, the women experience a higher order of social discrimination, owing to their lower self-confidence, educational status, mass media exposure, political orientation, health and nutrition status and in addition to these, a lower level of awareness about the development programmes. Even though many government initiatives are taken for the welfare and upliftment of tribal people, the reality is that the benefits of these programmes do not reach the intended population.