Tea Tribes Women of Assam: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

            Women all over the world are kept out of socio-political realm as a marginalized section of the society. They are victims of oppression and exploitation of men at every level of life. This study attempts to understand the challenges that has been facing by Women of tea tribes of Assam through a women centric approach. Though there are several provisions in our constitution in order to promote their status, but still the condition of the tea tribes women is so pitiable. Since they spend most of their time working in tea gardens, they are less conscious about rights and privileges .So they have been the victim of different types of gender based violence such as rape, domestic violence, sexual harassments, reproductive coercion, obstetric violence as well as harmful customary practices including honor killing, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, which hunting etc. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues and challenges being faced by women of tea tribes of Assam and also to suggest suitable recommendations for their empowerment. The study stands on primary as well as secondary data.