Keywords
Women Empowerment
National Development
Toto Tribal Women
Prisma-Based Study
How to Cite
Abstract
The role of education in empowerment of Toto tribal women in India is explored systematically in the light of socio-economic empowerment, decision making, health awareness and social participation and obstacles that influence the education of women. The study focuses on the scanty and disjointed evidence on the role of education in the meaningful empowerment of the Toto community, one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is performed using Google Scholar and JSTOR, ERIC, and official sources as the search engines, with literature published from 2000 to 2025. 85 records were first identified of which 42 survived initial screening and 18 records were included in the final thematic synthesis. The results show that education has a positive impact in enhancing awareness, aspirations, agency, social participation and access to broader opportunities of tribal women. But it also has an empowering potential, which is influenced by poverty, geographical isolation, language barriers, lack of educational infrastructure, gender based expectations and low institutional support. It also finds that the direct evidence connecting education and women empowerment of the Toto in socio-economic, decision-making, health awareness and social participation are still scarce. The study thus not only emphasises the importance of accessing education, but also of how education is lived and negotiated for meaningful empowerment in the socio-cultural space of the Toto community.
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