The Quality of Life among Tribal Communities Living in Western Ghats: An Exploratory Research

Abstract

The Western Ghats (WG), also called Sahyadri, are a mountain range that covers 140,000 square kilometres and extends parallel to the western coast of the Indian Peninsula. The WG have been home to over fifty distinct tribes. The tribal community residing in the WG faces a multitude of obstacles, such as economic instability, low literacy rates, poor living conditions, limited political influence, and health-related issues. Quality of life (QOL) describes the well-being of a human’s life. This study aimed to investigate the QOL of tribal communities living in WG. The data were collected from the tribal settlement in the Ranni, Konni and Attapday forest division. This study was qualitative in nature and adopted exploratory research design and sampling design was purposive. The data collected for the study was through the single focus group discussions. 15 single focus group discussion were conducted. Each focus groups consisted with 12 participants, of which 6 were males and 6 were females. The data were analysed by thematic content analysis. This study proposed a model of quality of life; the model includes eight factors such as Social Relationship, Health, Work, Financial and Material Wellbeing, Belonging, Personal Safety, Quality of Environment, Emotional Wellbeing.