EMPOWERMENT OF TRIBAL WOMEN IN DIGITAL INDIA

Empowerment is multidimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a process that fosters power in people for using their own lives, their communities and in their society, by acting on issues they define as important. The Digital India programme was started with a transformational vision to convert India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Tribal development in India has been a persisting issue in social, political, educational and economic inclusion in the main stream of society. Women in a tribal society play a vital role in their social, cultural, economic and religious ways of life and are considered as an economic asset in their society. But they are still lagging far behind in the various walks of life like education, employment, good health and economic empowerment etc. Empowering may be understood as enabling weaker sections like poor women, especially tribal women to lead their life to acquire and to possess power and resources, in order to make decisions of their own. This paper discusses the problems and issues of tribal women empowerment, their status in present day society and role of Digital India in empowering the status of tribal women.