BREAKING BARRIERS, BUILDING BRIDGES: ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS A SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT TOOL OF PVTG WOMEN.

Abstract

The paper will show how English language education can be empowering in the sense of empowering the women who constitute the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India. Since 75 PVTGs represent approximately 2.8 million individuals in 18 states, these communities are characterised by several marginalisations, and women have been impacted in various ways. The literacy levels of PVTGs in the female gender are at a very low critical level of 30-40, as compared to the national average of 70.3. The paper follows a mixed-methodology design, which reviews second-order data, i.e., government reports, NFHS-5 (2019-21), and the latest empirical studies, to discuss how English language proficiency could initiate socio-economic empowerment. The findings demonstrate that English education increases employment by 45 per cent, income by 38 per cent and government program access by 52 per cent. They still face significant issues of language barriers, poor infrastructure, ineffective teachers, and socio-cultural opposition.

The article also addresses other more recent programs, such as PM-JANMAN (2023) and suggests a model of multilingual education that intersects with indigenous language and English language proficiency, as well. Community language centres, use of technology-based learning solutions, culturally sensitive means of instruction, and some of the recommendations. It concludes the study that, in combination with cultural preservation initiatives, strategic English language education has the potential to effectively disrupt intergenerational cycles of poverty and marginalisation within the PVTG women group.