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Paper short abstract:

During the pandemic in India, COVID has directly affected economically higher sections of society. On the other hand, the marginalised sections belonging to the economically deprived groups and socially backward communities have been indirectly affected due to the additional burden due to COVID.

Paper long abstract:

COVID 19 was an not only challenge for the economically higher sections of society, but also, had affected the livelihood chances of majority of the marginalised population in India. While, the economically higher sections of Indian society were affected mainly due to comorbidities and other forms of concern like loss of jobs, inadequate medical facilities, livelihood challenges, complete change in structure of social life. The lives of marginalised population were affected indirectly with the challenges that were led by the pandemic. The loss of employment opportunities in the urban regions, sudden announcement of lockdown, forced migration as a result of complete lockdown, repressive measures of the local and regional governments to curb the spread of the disease and so on and so forth. Many such problems have been identified by various scholars in different forms of research works. However, the impact of pandemic on the women belonging to the marginalised section is even more difficult and harsh given the challenges that they had to face with their daily lives.

In the present paper, I am keen to look at the impact of the pandemic on the socio-economic challenges that women of the tribal communities have faced during the pandemic. Not only the women had to cope up with the fact that the male population have lost their jobs, but also, the pandemic increased instances of sexual harrassment, rapes and increase of various other forms of domestic violence in the tribal households. The scenario was not different in many other households, however, when such households like those of the tribal people are already under economic deprivation, the pandemic has further increased the chances of exploitation. The paper aims at analyisng and understanding with the help of various reports and anecdotes through secondary data records of the impact of the pandemic on the living condition of the tribal women in India.