Model Question and Answers for APSC | How do you explain the statistics that show that the sex ratio in Tribes in India is more favourable to women than the sex ratio among Scheduled Castes?

Ans: Sex ratio in tribes is more favourable to women than sex ratio among Scheduled caste as according to Census 2011 Sex ratio among scheduled tribes is 990, while for scheduled caste is 945 and overall it is 943.

Reasons for this favourable sex ratio among scheduled tribes are:

• In some places since antiquity, they enjoyed a matriarchal society like in Meghalaya and there is no gender inequality between them.
• Better sex ratio can be attributed to a lack of access to pre- natal diagnostic technologies.
• Tribal does not go for sex determination and female foeticide whereas in schedule caste the discrimination is present.
• Tribal often follow “division of labour” where women are accorded their share of work and autonomy
• There is also no concept of private property in tribal cultures thus women are on equal footing with men
• Many tribal cultures actually worship the fertility of women as the mother goddess

• There is no social bias against women in tribal communities such as what exists among Scheduled Caste especially among landed ones due to the prevalence of the Feudal mindset, especially in Central India states.
• There is no culture of dowry among many tribal groups instead some tribal communities have this prevalence of money paid to girls' families at the time of marriage for instance in North-Eastern states there is hardly any concept of dowry.

Comparatively Scheduled castes follow the mainstream patriarchal culture and are well off than tribal and have private lands all this leads to discrimination against women.