Empowerment of Tribal Women, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India

A tribe is an indigenous, homogenous unit, speaking a common language, claiming ancestry, living in a particular geographical area, backward in technology and pre-literate, loyally observing social and political customs based on kinship. They belonged to different races with diverse cultural characteristics, speaking varied languages, following a variety of religions and spread across various ecological zones. The tribes in India, though a numerically small minority; represent an enormous diversity of groups. They vary among themselves in respect of language and linguistic traits, ecological settings in which they live, physical features, size of the population, the extent of acculturation, dominant modes of making a livelihood, level of development and social stratification. Because of the nature of tribal communities habitations in forests and hilly tracts, and this population as remained beyond the realm of general development process, resulting in widening gaps in infrastructure and development facilities. Government of India recognized this chunk of population as a historically disadvantaged population.