Social Science Journal for Advanced Research

1. Introduction

In Indian society, empowering women means their economic security, skill formation, capacity building and equal participation in decision making process. Empowerment provides women with equal opportunities in all sectors where gender equality plays an important role in uplifting them (Das, 2016). In order to know about women’s empowerment among the tribes, the study considered the Rabhas and Meches because traditionally the Rabhas followed matriarchy but now they are experiencing a transition towards patriarchy. Whereas the Meches are considered the most developed tribe in terms of education and socio-economic condition in Dooars and they always followed patriarchy till now (Datta, 2018). This study will shed light on the empowerment of Rabha and Mech women living in Dooars while Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar are the primary districts of this region. These two tribes are among the major tribes of Alipurduar. Roy (2017) stated that 70% of Rabhas living in West Bengal are settled in Alipurduar. At the same time, Datta (2018) found that Meches mainly live in Alipurduar and they are the most developed tribe in this region. Therefore, this study has limited itself to Alipurduar only. The Rabha and Mech tribes are one of Indo-Mongoloid, Tibeto-Burman origin communities living mostly in Assam and the Dooars of West Bengal. The Bodos migrated from Patkoi Hills between India and Myanmar and gradually settled in entire Assam, North Bengal and Bangladesh. They were further subdivided into four groups: Mech, Rabha, Koch and Garo. So, they all belong to the same race called the Bodos (Sanyal, 1973). However, those who are identified as Meches in North Bengal are recognized as Bodos in North-East.

Traditionally, Rabha women holds the highest position in the family as well as society, they weave, do fishing, cultivate, collect fuel wood from nearby forest and takes major economic decisions independently (Chowdhury, 2021). Mongolians were one of the first communities who used to do spinning and weaving, so the Rabhas and Meches were not exceptional. The Rabha women used to plant and grow cotton and made cotton thread out of it to make their cloths. They proudly wear Lufun (self-made and hand-woven cloths) such as Kambang, Fakchek and even sell these products outside (Biswas, 2014; Roy, 2017; Datta et al., 2022).

Fishing is more of a fun to them than food. For this, they use Jekri, a split bamboo conical-shaped artefact along with Kobai, a split bamboo pot to keep fish (Basumatary, 2013; Bhuyan et al., 2021).

Rabha households were originally followed matriarchal system of inheritance and the younger daughter gets the major share of the property and the single daughter gets the lion’s share of the property. Now they are transitioning towards patriarchy, which is not a new phenomenon, M. K. Raha mentioned this transition in 1989. So, women are only getting properties such as ornaments, household materials and weaving implements, nothing else and men who are not shifting to their in-law’s houses, are getting the right over land (Narzary, 2014; Chowdhury, 2021). In forest villages, the youngest daughter used to get movable properties of her mother while the immovable properties like land and house were owned by the forest department. But now private lands of tribes including Rabhas are awarded to men as per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006 (Datta et al., 2022). In Andu Bana Basti, near Chilapata, Rabhas are now getting patta for their lands. However, lands belong to women, but government officials are mentioning names of males on paper due to their lack of awareness and Rabhas are also not correcting them due to their transformation towards patriarchy (Chowdhury, 2021). On the other hand, the Meches follow patriarchy from the beginning which is why only the son had the inheritance right over his father’s land and daughters had no right (Sarkar, 2022). If a man had no son, his entire property was passed on to his nearest male relative (Sarkar, 2017; Mandal, 2018; Roy, 2022).

Now, political and social awareness among the Rabha women has improved that increased their participation from household decision-making to legal rights awareness. However, their involvement in community-level governance and larger politics is restricted due to traditional gender norms (Chowdhury, 2021; Datta et al., 2022; Parvin & Guha, 2025). In recent years, Rabha women have begun to be elected in Garm Panchayet alongside men in forest villages (Datta et al., 2022). Mech women played a crucial role in the political sector from the beginning. When the ‘All Bodo Students Union’ was demanding a separate state for Bodos during the 1970s.

Dance and music play an important role in Rabha and Mech society like other tribal communities. Most Rabha women of all ages wholeheartedly participate in both singing and dancing (Biswas, 2014; Datta et al., 2022). Women from both the communities dominate folk dances completely while the men mainly play traditional musical instruments. The famous dance forms of Rabhas like fishing dance, cultivation dance and war dance are performed by women during cultural events, what are supposed to be performed by male dancers, indicating women’s power in Rabha society (Roy, 2017; Roy et. al., 2018; Datta et al., 2022). Although Bharigan is a famous performing art of Assam-based Rabhas but women cannot perform there. Only men can perform there as Sutradhar (the lead singer) or ojha or any other funny character (Bhuyan et al., 2024). In case of Meches, women dance and sing with the group in an open space during festivals, conferences, ceremonies or to welcome guests. Bagurumba is their most popular and attractive dance form (Basumatary, 2013).

The Rabhas mostly live near forest areas, so often they cannot attend schools due to the fear of wild animals such as elephant, leopard, bison etc. The government schools mainly follow Bengali and private schools follow English and, in both cases, Rabha students are not getting the opportunity to study in their mother tongue. In addition, Rabha girls are discouraged to attend schools in most families rather they are engaged in household activities. They are also married at a very young age (Das & Roy, 2024). In contrast female literacy among the Mech people was always higher than that of other tribes living in the Dooars (Datta, 2018). It is quite visible in their lifestyle, family size and concern about their children’s education (Basumatary, 2013). Bhattacharyya (2019) explored two different Mech villages: agriculture (Mahakalguri) and forest-based (Mech Basti in Apalchand forest) to know about the present condition of Mech women. In the forest village, it was found that the nearest schools and hospital are far away from them. The students often face wild animals as the road to school passes through an elephant corridor. They are mostly first-generation learners and their mothers are involved in agriculture, rearing, selling home-made liquors, collecting salh leaves from forest and make different items from it.

Earlier, Rabhas were not interested in education at all. They were happy with their forest-based lifestyle and parents were also not aware about their children’s academic performance. Now parents are sending them to school but they are not as aware as Mech parents. If five boys and five girls from the Rabha community took admission in the 5^th standard, only one boy along with all the girls will complete their school education. On the other hand, I have seen that Mech students are most developed in this religion from the tribal community, none of the other communities can beat them. Girls from both the communities are more serious about education than boys specially the Rabha boys.

Case 2: In Rajabhatkhawa Junior High School, it was found that Rabha students mostly get passing marks in the secondary exam and very few of them got above 45% means second division.

It was also found that girls from Mech and Rabha both communities, are more sincere compared to boys regarding their career. For example, researcher met a Rabha boy of the 10^th standard at Nimtijhora High School who was reluctant to be something in life. He was saying multiple times that he wants to be nothing, even to his teachers with a shy smile. Girls on the other hand, attend classes regularly, whereas boys hardly come to school and leave before school hours. In most schools, the ratio between boys and girls was very poor. For example, there were ten girls and two boys from the secondary level in Mendabari High School from the Mech community in Mendabari. Whereas there were six Rabha girls and no Rabha boys from secondary level in Rajabhatkhawa Junior High School during the focus group discussion. The Teacher-In-Charge of the school said in this regard:

I have seen that Rabha boys are not much serious about studies, they don’t come to school on a regular basis and are very addicted to mobile phones nowadays. Girls, on the other hand, are very innocent, clam and soft-spoken. They are very sincere specially the Christian ones. However, most Rabha parents marry off girls at a very young age, even before completing their studies and after marriage, they don’t continue their studies. In many cases, I meet the parents and scare them that I will inform the police if they marry off their daughters before they turn eighteen. Although girls sometimes ran away so I cannot blame parents always.

Now both the communities have evolved politically so the elected Pradhan and Panchayet take that responsibility. However, the Mech women were active in politics from a long time but the participation of Rabha women is started in recent years due to women’s seat reservation.

Case 1: In Dakshin Poro, the researcher met an ex-Panchayet named Priyanka Rabha. She shared her experience:

I am actually from Barobisha and came here to Poro after my marriage. After some years of my marriage, I became the Panchayet. I had no idea about politics. My father-in-law was active in politics and some members of his party told him to nominate me as I was more educated than local Rabha women and the seat was reserved for scheduled tribe women at that time. So, I nominated and won (smiled). I have attended some meetings and that’s it. Now the seat is reserved for scheduled caste people so the present panchayet is not from our community.

Case 2: Birendra Nath Katham was the first MP of the Jalpaiguri district, which was reserved for scheduled tribes (Mandal, 2006). It shows Meches actively participated in modern politics from the beginning so did the women of the community. Biman Narjinary, a Mech journalist from Satali said in this regard:

Meches were the rulers of this region. So naturally they have leadership qualities. There are many Mech women involved in politics, who worked as Pradhan, Panchayet even you may hear of Snigdha Saiba, the Sabhadhipati of Alipurduar, who was elected in 2023. She was my school friend and was working as a school teacher. There is also Chandra Narjinary, Pradhan of Mendabari Gram Panchayet. They both are from the ‘Rai’ family of the Mech community, who were the traditional administrators of the Mech communities in different areas.

Case 3: Jyoti Suba, a panchayet member of Mendabari Gram Panchayet, shared her experience in politics:

In 2013, first time I became a member and now it’s my 3^rd tenure. At that time, women didn’t want to be involved in politics. But now there are nine women out of eleven members in the panchayet while five of them are Meches and there is also one Rabha woman.

The same thing was noticed multiple times during field visits in Rabha Basti, Mendabari. For example, if there was one man in an agricultural field, there were twenty women engaged in the same work.

Case 4: Many Rabha women are still practicing handloom in Rabha Basti near Mendabari while the researcher found very few aged Mech women from Khoyardanga, who are involved in handloom. They came from Assam, where Mech women still learn handloom and later, they married in Bengal. So, they continued the legacy but their children find it less profitable so they don’t learn these traditional practices anymore. A Rabha handloom worker in Mendabari said:

Many women from our village do handicrafts, they purchase raw materials from Jaygaon (a nearby town) and sell the products. The young girls are still learning handicraft from their mothers if their mother knows handicraft and continues it till now. Otherwise, they don’t, but some of them learn from their neighbours if they are interested.

Case 5: In Mendabari, a few Rabha women recently started honey cultivation for which they got a 25000/- subsidy under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) scheme, a central government initiative. Biman Narjinary, a Mech journalist from Satali, who helped women to get this subsidy, said:

We try to raise awareness among the women about various government schemes to empower them. Earlier, we have also helped sixteen women to get their handloom machine and tried to export these products outside as well. I have seen women keep their words compare to men, who always have excuses and cannot meet their goals on time.

The Meches always prioritized education for which many of them including women are working as teachers in primary and high school. They used to live in agricultural villages whereas Rabhas preferred forest villages more where they used to work in forest based unorganized sectors like fishing, forest labourers etc. During filed visits, it was also seen that many Mech and Rabha women are working as traditional healers, owns small shops and sell rice beer to support the family. It was always found that they spend their earnings on their children’s educational expenditure.

The event was attended on 14 February 2026 at Andu Basti near Chilapata forest, which started around 7 am. First, some Rabha men collected bamboo from the nearest village and then one of them prepares some beautiful bamboo items for the puja while women cleaned the Rungtuk temple premise along with the outer area where they worship their traditional deities in four small temples. The women cut fruits and vegetables and prepared Chakot (homemade liquor), together while men prepared the khichuri and sabji as prashads. It was noticed that there were two male priests and two aged females helped them during the rituals. All the women wore their traditional attire although they modified it. After completing the rituals, only the women offer Chakot, dhup-dhuna and chrnamrito to the deities. They all have Chakot, dance together, men played dhol, flute and kartal while singing one ofs their traditional songs. A few aged women were also smoking bidis but men didn’t.

Figure 1: Rabha women are dancing during Rungtuk puja in Andu Basti, Chilapata

Figure 2: Mech women worshiping at Rupmoni Bathou temple, Satali

We support patriarchy. Earlier, men used to stay at home and they didn’t go outside much. But if they cannot work outside, then the family cannot grow financially (here, they meant to say that in other communities, men mainly work outside, so they developed. Therefore, Rabha men need to work outside and then only they can be developed as women cannot go far away from their village).

Case 3: In case of decision-making, they all said:

Long ago, the Rabha women used to make all the major decisions on their own but now we consider men’s opinions as well and make decisions after consulting with our husbands.

Case 4: The same thing was noticed in Mech households as well specially in backward areas, where children irrespective of their gender learn household activities such as cooking, washing and cleaning from a very young age. Because in these areas, both parents had to leave home early morning to work outside. For example, in Rajabhatkawa School, all the Rabha students said that their mothers are more involved in agriculture, they mainly bring fuels from the nearby village and cook for us. Fathers work as daily laboures, so they have to leave home at an early morning to work in the Alipurduar town area.

Case 5: In Mendabari, research met a poor Hindu Mech family who had only one male child and the father said the reason:

Due to poverty, my wife and I have decided that we will not have any more children.

It shows how much he considers his wife’s opinion. In most of the Mech houses, it was found that, husband and wife both sat together and freely shared their opinion on different issues. The Mech women were very opinionated, irrespective of their educational qualifications. Whereas the aged Rabha women were more confident than the young women who were very shy and less interactive.

Sub-Theme 3.2: Parents Priorities in Education

Case 1: In Rabha families of Mendabari, it was noticed that they send their male child to English medium private or government schools, they prefer to send their daughters to government schools. When a Rabha woman of Rabha Basti, Mendabari was asked about it, she replied:

It was also noticed that boys from both communities studying in government schools, cannot clear the secondary board exam and move to other states to join odd sectors such as construction sites, hotels, garages etc. Therefore, both teachers and parents tend to have higher expectations for girls than for boys.

5. Conclusion

Despite many obstacles, these tribal women have come a long way and with good educational support they can be empowered in each field. The problem with the present system is that it is not empowering people. The boys are not completing their education and they migrate to other states while the women specially the Rabhas are marrying at a very early age. The Mech girls were more ambitious than the Rabha girls, but the economic opportunity is very limited. The present education system needs to be bilingual in tribal dominated areas because language is the main constraint and the system needs to include their traditional informal education system such as ayurveda, agriculture, handicrafts etc. in the school curriculum as per the recommendations of NEP 2020. It will not only empower women economically, but also ensure their ethnicity as well. Moreover, when women are educated, the entire community will be developed, as a mother is the first teacher of the child.

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