Tribal Communities, Their Quality of Life and the Differences: Evidence from an India District

Abstract

The history of quality of life (QoL) of the tribal population in India is mostly oral and not well documented. The only known fact is that they used to live within the forest and struggle for their existence. This study aims to investigate the QoL of the major tribal communities in Alipurduar—a forest endowed district in Eastern India—and analyse the differences in their QoL to provide a comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic issues encountered by tribal communities who have been living in a geographically disadvantageous area endowed with tea plantations and forests. Five tribal communities, namely Mech, Santhal, Oraon, Toto and Rabha, were selected from Alipurduar district, West Bengal, for the study, with a total of 384 samples. The WHOQOL-BREF (1996) questionnaire was used to assess the QoL of the mentioned tribal communities. Factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to analyse the data to find out the difference in QoL among different tribal communities. The study findings indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between the different domains of QoL, including physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environmental conditions. The ANOVA results demonstrate significant differences in QoL among different tribal communities. The results show that the Toto tribe has enjoyed a higher QoL (M = 3.87, SD = 0.763) compared to other tribal groups, while the people of Oraon tribe have reported a lower QoL (M = 3.10, SD =1.065). Therefore, longitudinal studies need be conducted to get a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing their QoL to identify the reasons for the differences. Additionally, the government needs to understand the problems of each tribe and, accordingly, appropriate policies need to be implemented in a timely manner to improve the QoL of different tribal communities and, thus, minimise the differences and bring a balanced way of life.