ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the research focus by familiarising readers with key contexts for assessing women’s wellbeing and empowerment in the hills of Tamil Nadu. This includes the political party system and the historical role of the Dravidian movement in British colonial India which has advanced a degree of empowerment for marginalised people. This includes the midday meal scheme implemented across rural areas that has improved the nutrition, health and education achievements of the poorest people. Yet, social inequality persists in higher levels of education, as a later chapter takes up. This chapter identifies the sample populations in this research: women who self-identify as either 1) Scheduled Caste (Dalit); 2) Sri Lankan Repatriates; 3) Scheduled Tribe (Adivasi); or 4) none of these. The problem being focused on is that minoritised women are denied access to education, healthcare, human rights claims, voice and opportunities to jobs. In part, literacy disparities account for their meagre work opportunities. But even when rural women achieve well educationally, they struggle to avoid being cast as casual farm labour candidates. This chapter shows the kind of jobs available for the general population in the key district in this study. More than a third of people are farm labourers who work seasonally on another person’s land for cash or kind / share of the crop. An additional 35% of people are broadly classified as factory or plantation or construction workers, or miners. When these job categories including more than two-thirds of the population are disaggregated by sex, it is shown that employment inequalities represent acute problems for women marginalised by social class and race. This chapter then presents the resulting research goals where the guiding image is that wellbeing is strengthened when it intersects with empowerment. The significance of the research focus for global and Indian agendas is discussed. This includes the contribution to the 2030 Global Agenda for Sustainable Development, and particularly, the targets in Goal 5 for achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
