Adivasi women in Andhra Pradesh’s Scheduled Areas bear the invisible burden of sustaining households, farms and forests while facing unequal wages, insecure land rights, poor healthcare and limited mobility.
A youth leaders’ meet in Addateegala urges that tribal development be judged not by roads and schemes, but by women’s dignity, safety, voice in Gram Sabhas and access to justice and opportunity.
Around 30 tribal youth leaders from different Scheduled Areas of Andhra Pradesh gathered at Addateegala in Andhra Pradesh’s Polavaram district on July 27-28, 2026, to reflect on the challenges confronting Adivasi communities. The discussions covered a wide range of issues, including livelihoods, governance, education, climate change, and constitutional rights. Yet, one concern consistently surfaced above all others—the everyday struggles of Adivasi women.
Drawing on their own experiences and interactions within their villages, the youth described the realities that tribal women continue to face despite constitutional safeguards and decades of development programmes. Their reflections offered an important reminder that the success of tribal development cannot be measured only by roads, schools, welfare schemes, or economic indicators. It must also be judged by whether Adivasi women are able to live with dignity, security, equality, and opportunity.
At the heart of every tribal household stands an Adivasi woman. She cultivates fields, collects minor forest produce, fetches water and firewood, prepares food, raises children, cares for the elderly, manages livestock, preserves indigenous knowledge, and sustains the family’s food security. Her work stretches seamlessly across the home, the farm, and the forest, leaving little distinction between paid and unpaid labour. Yet, despite being central to the survival and well-being of tribal communities, her contribution remains largely invisible and undervalued.
The challenges confronting Adivasi women are not isolated problems but the result of multiple and interconnected disadvantages. Gender inequality combines with geographical isolation, insecure livelihoods, weak public services, and changing socio-economic conditions to create layers of vulnerability. Although many tribal societies have historically been regarded as relatively egalitarian, increasing commercialisation, migration, market pressures, and the weakening of traditional community institutions have altered social relations in ways that have disproportionately affected women.
Economic inequality remains one of the most persistent forms of discrimination. Adivasi women contribute equally, and often more than men, to agricultural production. They sow, weed, harvest, and process crops while simultaneously managing household responsibilities. Yet equal work rarely receives equal wages. In several tribal areas, women continue to receive significantly lower wages than men for performing the same agricultural work.
Even these modest earnings are uncertain. Agriculture in most Scheduled Areas depends almost entirely on rainfall, making livelihoods increasingly vulnerable to erratic weather and climate variability. Employment opportunities under public works programmes are often available only for a limited period during the year, leaving many families without stable sources of income. As household incomes become more uncertain, women shoulder an even greater responsibility for sustaining their families.
Ironically, while women perform much of the agricultural labour, very few own the land they cultivate. Land titles are usually issued in the names of male family members, and inheritance practices seldom recognise daughters as equal heirs. Without legal ownership, women remain excluded from institutional credit, agricultural investments, insurance, and several government programmes linked to land ownership. This lack of economic security reinforces their dependence and limits their ability to make independent decisions.
The forest, which has sustained tribal communities for generations, is equally important in the lives of Adivasi women. Every season they collect tamarind, honey, hill brooms, medicinal plants, leaves, fruits, and other forms of minor forest produce that contribute significantly to household incomes. Yet women rarely receive the full economic value of their labour. Limited storage facilities, inadequate processing units, poor transport, and restricted market access force them to sell their produce through intermediaries who capture much of the profit. Strengthening women-led producer groups and ensuring better market access could substantially improve their incomes and economic independence.
Healthcare presents another serious challenge. Many tribal habitations are located in remote forests where health facilities remain difficult to access. During pregnancy or medical emergencies, reaching a hospital often becomes a race against time. Anaemia, malnutrition, poor maternal health, infant mortality, and inadequate nutrition continue to affect many tribal communities. The shortage of women doctors and specialists further discourages women from seeking timely medical care.
The physical burden of daily life also takes a heavy toll on their health. In many villages, women spend several hours every day collecting drinking water and firewood, often walking long distances while carrying heavy loads. These demanding tasks result in chronic back pain, joint problems, and other health complications that frequently go untreated because they are regarded as an ordinary part of women's responsibilities rather than as serious public health concerns.
Mobility remains another invisible barrier. Many Adivasi women depend on male family members simply to travel to markets, banks, health centres, or government offices because they have never been provided opportunities to learn driving or access affordable transportation. This dependence restricts their participation in education, employment, skill development programmes, and public life.
Social discrimination continues to exist in both subtle and overt forms. In some communities, women still face restrictions during menstruation, while household decision-making often remains dominated by men. Domestic work and caregiving continue to be viewed exclusively as women’s responsibilities, even though they contribute substantially to household incomes. Their voices are frequently overlooked despite the central role they play in sustaining family and community life.
These inequalities are also reflected in local governance. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) envisioned Gram Sabhas as institutions of participatory democracy where every adult member would have an equal voice in decisions affecting community life. However, many women either do not attend Gram Sabha meetings because of domestic responsibilities and social barriers or, when they do participate, hesitate to express their opinions. Even when they speak, their views are not always given equal consideration.
The limited representation of women in leadership positions further highlights this gap. Across the Scheduled Areas of Andhra Pradesh, out of 3,908 elected positions of Vice Presidents and Secretaries in PESA Gram Sabhas (1954), only 108 are women. Such figures demonstrate that legal provisions alone cannot ensure meaningful participation without corresponding social change, leadership development, and institutional support.
Rapid social and economic changes are creating additional challenges. Alcohol abuse contributes to domestic violence, while economic stress and the undervaluation of women’s work often result in psychological distress. Practices such as dowry and child marriage, once relatively uncommon in many tribal societies, are becoming increasingly visible under the influence of consumerism and changing social aspirations. Families now face demands for cash, motorcycles, household goods, and even land, placing additional burdens on already vulnerable households.
The education of tribal girls remains another area of concern. Poverty, long distances to schools, inadequate hostel facilities, domestic responsibilities, and concerns about safety continue to force many girls to discontinue their education. Incidents of harassment and abuse further discourage families from allowing daughters to pursue higher education. Every girl who leaves school represents not only a personal loss but also a setback for the future development of her entire community.
Climate change has further intensified these vulnerabilities. Traditional mixed farming systems that once ensured food and nutritional security are gradually being replaced by commercial monoculture crops such as coffee, cashew, turmeric, pineapple, and silver oak. While these crops may generate higher incomes in favourable years, they also reduce crop diversity, increase dependence on markets, and make communities more vulnerable to climatic uncertainties. Since women remain primarily responsible for household food security, they experience these impacts most directly.
The scarcity of local employment has also increased seasonal migration. Growing numbers of tribal women migrate to towns and cities to work in construction, hotels, aquaculture farms, poultry units, factories, shops, and agricultural fields. Many work under exploitative conditions for low wages while facing unsafe workplaces, insecure housing, and limited legal protection.
At the same time, many women remain unaware of government welfare programmes or are unable to access them because they lack essential documents or face complicated administrative procedures. Benefits that appear accessible on paper often remain beyond the reach of women living in remote tribal habitations.
Despite these multiple challenges, Adivasi women continue to preserve indigenous seeds, traditional ecological knowledge, forest biodiversity, community institutions, and cultural heritage. They are not merely beneficiaries of development programmes; they are custodians of sustainable livelihoods and indispensable partners in the future of tribal societies.
India possesses a strong constitutional framework for protecting tribal communities through the Fifth Schedule, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, the Forest Rights Act, and various welfare programmes. However, these constitutional commitments can fulfil their promise only when policies are designed and implemented from the perspective of the lived experiences of Adivasi women.
Empowering Adivasi women requires more than welfare assistance. It calls for equal wages for equal work, secure land rights through joint land titles, improved maternal healthcare, quality education for girls, women-led forest enterprises, better access to markets, safe transportation, year-round livelihood opportunities, stronger implementation of PESA, greater representation of women in Gram Sabha leadership, and decisive action against gender-based violence and discrimination.
The true measure of development in India’s Scheduled Areas is not merely the number of roads built or welfare schemes implemented. It is whether an Adivasi woman can own land, earn equal wages, access quality healthcare, educate her daughter, participate confidently in community decision-making, and live a life free from violence, discrimination, and fear.
When the voices of Adivasi women are heard, respected, and reflected in public policy, tribal development will cease to be merely an administrative programme. It will become a genuine process of justice, equality, inclusion, and democratic transformation.
Palla Trinadha Rao is a practicing lawyer and tribal rights activist
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth