SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF SCHEDULED CASTES WOMEN : A STUDY OF PANCHAYAT RAJWAL OF JAMMU DISTRICT

Abstract

The paper deals with the socio-economic status of scheduled castes women in panchayat Rajwal of Jammu district. This Panchayat is located in tehsil Jourian of Jammu district. It is situated 45 Km towards west from district head quarters Jammu and 17 Km distant from Akhnoor town. The main source of livelihood of the inhabitants is agriculture. Caste plays a dominate role in our Indian society and leads to the inequality among the human beings on the bases of social, economic and educational aspects of the community under study. Inequality leads to discrimination in all walks of life. The problems of the scheduled castes women vary from one stratum to another. Scheduled castes women are the most disadvantaged section among the socio-economic groups. They are triple burdened in terms of caste, class and gender. First, they are women, second they belongs to the scheduled castes and thirdly they are living in male dominated society. Scheduled castes women are socially and economically backward,they belongs to weaker sex being born a girl and are subjected to exploitation. It has been observed that the position of the scheduled caste women in caste hierarchy is low and more exploitative. This study reveals that despite such efforts, only slight improvement can be seen in the socio-economic life of the Scheduled castes women. For all that, majority of them are still staggering under the burden of acute poverty. The objective of this paper is try to explore the Socio-Economic status ofScheduled Castes Women. The objective of this research is to examine how occupational status has impacted socio-cultural and economic standard of the section under study.