Chains to Change: Economic Empowerment of Pakhtoon Tribal Women. A Case Study of Ganderbal District, Kashmir

Abstract

Economic empowerment of tribal women in Kashmir, particularly among Pakhtoon communities, is shaped by complex interactions between gender, work, and socio-cultural structures. Tribal women in India who lack Scheduled Tribe (ST) recognition occupy a doubly marginal position, excluded both by gender and by policy invisibility. The purpose of this study is to investigate the socio-economic profile, livelihood patterns, cultural constraints, and welfare-scheme access of Pakhtoon women in Ganderbal district, Jammu and Kashmir, over a case study of 120 households in the villages of Gutlibagh and Babawayil, between field seasons in 2024 and 2025. The results show that Pakhtoon women remain overwhelmingly confined to unpaid, home-based work (99% housewives, 95% engaged in Aari embroidery), that 65% report no say in major household decisions, and that awareness of six major government welfare schemes never exceeded 25%. A comparative analysis with the Scheduled Tribe-recognized Gujjar and Bakerwal community shows that Pakhtoon women fare worse on every measured dimension of welfare access, despite facing broadly comparable cultural constraints—isolating ST non-recognition, rather than cultural practice alone, as the community’s central structural barrier. These findings indicate a pressing requirement for policy recognition and a more culturally grounded strategy to close the gap between official welfare architecture and non-ST tribal minorities in low- and middle-income regions such as Jammu and Kashmir.