A Study on Social Change of Tribal Women in Nabarangpur District of Odisha

The tribal communities in Central India are excluded in many ways from accessing and benefiting from the fruits of mainstream development. Within tribal groups, women are more marginalised and sidelined than men despite their multiple roles in the household. Women’s exclusion from the mainstream knowledge systems, market sphere and their limited access and control over the resources affects the overall development of tribal communities. Key for economic growth of tribal communities is the equal participation and promotion of women’s physical and economic rights. This necessitates for a purposive design of activities and institutional mechanisms for both socially inclusive economic empowerment and environmentally sustainable growth by building their knowledge and skills to restore agriculture based value chains for sustainable livelihood. The present article is an attempt to analyse and document the findings of an inclusive cashew livelihood model to address the geographical, social, technological and economic inclusion of 10,000 tribal women in the cashew supply chain and downstream market integration to improve their income in Nabarangpur district of Odisha state. It is found that by employing inclusive strategies, scientific technologies and participative approaches, the socially excluded women could be organised, engaged and integrated successfully by leveraging proven cashew-based livelihood model in the value chains and markets for increasing their income.