HOPELESSNESS AMONG TRIBAL WIDOWS-A STUDY

Abstract

Background:India is a country with the highest numberof widows in the world (4.65 crores)and they are invisible and marginalised. It is assumed that the widows in the tribal community are highly marginalised which may lead to a state of despair and lack of hope. Objectives: To assess the hopelessness and its correlates with the background characteristics of the tribal widows and to identify the significant predictors of the hopelessness of the respondents.Method: A sample of 305 out of 487 tribal widows in the Idukki district in Kerala State were selected using a simple random sampling technique. The hopelessness of the tribal widows was measured using the hopelessness scale developed by Beck et al. (1974).

Result: The findings revealed that a little less than half (46%) of the respondents scored mild hopelessness. The respondents who scored moderate, high and within the range of hopelessness constitute 35 per cent, 16 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.The regression analysis revealed that the current age (11.8%), education (7.5%) and family income (5.3%) became the principal predictors of hopelessness among tribal widows.

Conclusion: Findings reveal that there is a need for providing counselling to the tribal widows to cope up with daily life.