Empowerment of Dooars based Mech and Rabha Women

Empowerment of tribal women refers to strengthening their participation in the overall society. Due to modernisation, they are influenced by their neighbouring communities and the role of women is also changing gradually. The aim of this study was to understand the present status of women in the Mech and Rabha societies. The study considered these two tribes for the study because both of them belonged to the same race, named the Bodos. The Rabhas are traditionally matriarchal and the Meches are the most developed tribe of Alipurduar in terms of educational and socio-economic conditions. Data have been collected from some Mech and Rabha-dominated villages of this district and specially from those areas where these two tribes live together. The study aimed to explore the participation of Rabha and Mech women in education, employment, religious practices, politics and the decision-making process within the household as well as in the larger society. For this, focus group discussions were conducted in some schools of the study area and later purposive sampling was followed to gather data through participant observation, semi-structured and unstructured interviews. In addition, all their religious and cultural events were attended to understand the role of women during these events. Transcripts were prepared for each participant including event. Later, Braun and Clarke (2006)’s thematic analysis was applied to analyse data qualitatively.