Autonomy of tribal women in India Bharati Susmita*, Pal Manoranjan**, Bharati Premananda*** *Sociological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India **Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India ***Biological Anthropology Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India Online published on 13 August, 2013. Abstract Autonomy of tribal women in India is found in this paper through decision making power on purchasing household needs, going to relatives’ house, getting healthcare facilities or getting access to husband's money or even having independent authority to spend their own income. Data from NFHS-3 Survey conducted in 2005–06 have been used for the analysis. Besides getting zone wise variations we have examined whether levels of education, types of occupation, working status of women etc., and other characteristics of the households, like wealth index, sex of head of household etc., can influence the decision making. The results of the analysis clearly show that the degree of women's decision making power increases positively with the age of women, literacy and wealth index. This is also found to be more on female headed households and nuclear families. Women in high professional jobs may have more power in the household decision making on healthcare of members in the family and mobility to go outside, but it may not imply higher economic power. Literacy of women plays an important role in the decision making power of tribal women in India. Top Keywords Decision Making Power, literacy and wealth index, female headed households, Tribal women, India. Top |