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Abstract

Using phenomenological design, we purposively selected 10 children of tribal unwed mothers for in-depth interview to explore children’s social identity in the context of non-legitimate origin, aspects of psychosocial disability, and exclusion. We analyzed data through open coding, progressive focusing, coding frame, summarizing, and interpreting the findings. The results reveal that tribal communities actively, though indirectly, engage in social system maintenance. The children of unwed mothers explicitly deviate and breach traditional tribal boundaries, thus victimized by socially ascribing disabling social identity of non-legitimate origin, in addition to their poorly valued social identity as tribals. As a result, non-legitimate children experience conflicts in social relationships, poor social integration, reduced support, poor peer acceptance, and exclusion that characterized everyday communal and school life. To conclude, these children internalized negative social (also non-legitimate) identities, psychosocial disabilities, and exclusion at neighborhood and schools.

Keywords

unwed mothers non-legitimate identity psychosocial disability exclusion

Introduction

Premarital and extramarital sexual relationships, resultant pregnancies, and childbearing are universally ostracized through familial and social regulations, male monitoring of women’s sexuality and insertion of social pressure on women’s social interactions, and physical mobility in public spaces across cultures (Handy, Kassam, & Contact, 2004; Jose, Varghese, Renjith, & George, 2012; Kabeer & Mahmud, 2004) for social system maintenance (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011). Although, severity may vary from culture to culture and society to society (Jose, Varghese, & Sultana, 2013) such individuals and groups are pushed out of the social norms and punishments are meted out in the forms of stigmatization, discrimination, and social distancing (Major & O’Brien, 2005). Stigmatization of such expelled individuals or groups is based on social morals and value systems that discredit and reduce targets into tainted subhumans (Goffman, 1963); which help in maintaining social practices and institutions as traditionally valued (Jose et al., 2012). Similarly, women who give birth of children outside wedlock relationships and their “so-called illegitimate” children are often treated as tainted, discounted, and devalued subhumans! This is evident when unwed motherhood is discredited and devalued (Jose et al., 2009), which in turn produced a series of psychosocial impact on the life of unwed mothers (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011) and on their children (Praveen, 2012; Sabu, Rotele, & Yemman, 2012).

The causes, process, and consequences of unwed motherhood in tribal communities of Kerala in south India from systemic perspective are available (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011; Jose et al., 2012; Praveen, 2012). Nonetheless, we know little about the psychological and social life of the children of tribal unwed mothers. Neither have we had conclusive estimates of the size of unwed mothers nor about their children. Furthermore, issues of unwed tribal mothers occasionally capture the media attention that facilitate administrative attentions in the state (Jose et al., 2009) while the issues of their children are often ignored and under-discoursed in social mainstream of Kerala (Sabu et al., 2012). It is imperative to examine the how do these children develop and form their social identity in the background of their illegitimacy and how this social identity shapes psychosocial disability and exclusion of these children in their everyday communal and school life are critical in three important ways.

First, tribals are marginalized and excluded communities in Indian society. The complex interactions of structural, communal and personal factors, their marginality and exclusion have been constituted to persist even after decades of state-planned development interventions (Aerthayil, 2008). Evidently, tribal children dropout and considerably abstain from schools and are least likely to complete their elementary education (Jose, 2016; Menon, 2013; Paul, 2014). Tribal identity or being a member of tribe or affiliation with tribal group is associated with stigma and discrimination at schools. Adults and children from the dominant social groups shape and structure the school milieu which is exclusionary in nature to tribal children due to their tribal identity (Jose, 2016). Children of tribal unwed mothers face multiple identities such as being a tribal and of non-legitimate origin, which double the risk of stigmatization and discrimination at school and other predominant social milieu where these children are exposed. Inclusive education is being a national priority (National Policy on Education, 1986, 2016); addressing the issues of non-legitimacy of tribal children who are already vulnerable due to tribal origin is critical for generating systematic knowledge on the issues of these children. Such level of knowledge generation would enable teachers and educational policy practitioners deepen their understanding on the issues of tribal children in general and children of unwed mothers in particular.

Tribal Communities in Kerala

Tribals constitute 1.4% of the state population (Government of Kerala, 2011) and Wayanad has the highest tribal concentration in Kerala. Tribal population constituted 17.43% of the total district population. Major tribal communities in the district are Paniyan (44.77%), Mullu Kuruman (17.51%), Kurichian (17.38%), Kattunaickan (9.93%), Adiyan (7.10%), and Urali Kuruman (2.69%). Tribal population was 484,839, out of which male and female population were 238,203 and 246,636, respectively. Among them, 433,092 persons live in rural areas and 51,747 persons live in urban areas. Growth rate of tribal population during 2001 to 2011 showed a change of 4.71% and state has 4.91% (Government of Kerala, 2011). Tribes in the district can be classified as three group viz., agricultural laborers, marginal famers, and forest dependents (Government of Kerala, 2011).

There is an increasing rate of inequalities, discrimination, and marginality across different tribes, thus there is a considerable amount of development disparities across different tribal groups in the state. Paul (2014) found that Paniyan, Adiyan, Urali, Kattunayaka, Muthuva, and Irula tribes live in extremely poor conditions in comparison with Malayarayan, Kuruma, and Kuruchya tribes. Accumulation of social deficits in tribal life is in terms of poverty, illiteracy, harsh living environment, high rates of smoking and alcohol use, and poor access to health care (National Human Development Report, 2002; Subramanian, Nandy, Irving, Gordon, & Smith, 2005, 2006) coupled with high levels of discrimination, displacement, and alienation from their land and livelihoods (National Tribal Policy, 2004). Gender relations were egalitarian compared with other social groups but gender biases stepped in as they are getting more integrated into mainstream society (Jose et al., 2012; Maharatna, 2000; Xaxa, 2004). Tribal women’s subordinate positions to men and society have resulted in their under performance in education, health, employment, and control over resources.

As a result, tribes in state have continued to remain most marginalized and socially excluded outlier community with residual disabilities in the areas of human development (Human Development Report, 2005). The structural inequalities are explicit in terms of poverty, illiteracy, land alienation, excessive dependence on primary sector for employment, poor health, poor school participation, high rate of school dropouts, and school absenteeism (Economic Review, 2011; Jose, 2016; Joy & Srihari, 2014; Menon, 2013; Nithya, 2013). Furthermore, ever increasing gender divide alongside increasing detribalization (Jose et al., 2012; Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011), increased concentration in agriculture-related manual labor (IIM-Kozhikode, 2006), poor representation in organized sector employment, including public sector jobs (Jose, 2016; Paul, 2014) reveal their limited presence in mainstream societal life. The inequalities, discrimination, and marginality are increasing across different tribes (Paul, 2014).

Given these increasing sociocultural marginalities of tribals in general, the women and girl children are especially at risk of sexual exploitation, sexual violence, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and child rearing, which resulted in single-parent women (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011). Tribal welfare department of the government of Kerala estimated 308 unwed mothers in the year 2012 (Praveen, 2012). Recently, the state government addressed the issues of unwed mothers through welfare measures to rehabilitate them with their children. Nonetheless, such interventions are far less than the requirements (Jose et al., 2009; Praveen, 2012), since they are faced with psychosocial disability and exclusion in social life. In this backdrop, this study explored how these children form identity and its influence on psychosocial disability and social exclusion.

Concise Overview of Literature

Available studies examined these children’s problems in the domains of social, emotional and educational adjustments (Praveen, 2012), social life viz., housing, finance, education, relationship with parents, family members, sibling, relatives and peers, and psychological well-being, including satisfaction with life (Sabu et al., 2012). Children of unwed mothers reported high level of difficulties in emotional, social, and educational adjustments in comparison with tribal children from intact families. They also reported high level of social adjustment problems in terms of submissiveness and they developed a sense of retiring when confronted with problem-solving situations and further faced substantial adjustment problems in education. When children’s psychological well-being was matched with children of intact tribal families, result evidenced that children of unwed mothers reported less sense of control, less happiness, poor social involvement and participation, low self-esteem, low level of mental balance, and low level of sociability than children from intact families (Sabu et al., 2012).

In comparison with tribal children from intact families, children of unwed mothers reported increased difficulties and dissatisfaction in present housing facilities. These children were often under maternal grand-parental care wherein grandparents were aged and economically inactive, resulting inadequate income to support families (Praveen, 2012; Sabu et al., 2012). These children therefore experienced extreme grand-parental discord, resulting reduced family support. Many children worked for supplementary income for households at the cost of their education, leading to early school dropouts. Some of them were distressed due to the financial hardships when they wished for their fathers’ support. Unwed mothers viewed educations of their children as only way out of their distress in long run. Therefore, they take outmost care to continue their children’s education (Sabu et al., 2012).

There were no significant relationship difficulties and dissatisfaction between unwed mothers and their children. Furthermore, there was no significant difference on perceived child–mother relationship difficulties between children of unwed mothers and of intact tribal families. Nonetheless, increasing age was associated to increasing relationship difficulties and dissatisfaction between unwed mothers and their children (Sabu et al., 2012). It is because when these children age, they tend to internalize their illegitimacy. It has a negative influence on their psychological and social development as healthy individuals especially on their life satisfaction and psychological well-being. Sibling relationships were warmth and supportive; however, studies reported strained peer relationships. Peers often tease and subject them to shame and discredit due to their illegitimate origin. Therefore, their peer interactions characterize by quarrels and fights, leading to peer-group isolation (Sabu et al., 2012). The sociodemographic variables significantly influenced children’s satisfaction with life. Age showed an inverse relationship with life satisfaction with a direction that as the age increases children’s satisfaction with life decreases. Age was inversely associated with children’s happiness, sociability, mental balance, self-esteem, and social involvement (Sabu et al., 2012). Evidently, when children age, they tend to internalize their illegitimacy which has a negative influence on their psychological and social development as healthy individuals. Therefore, increasing age was the single most predictor of life satisfaction and psychological well-being of these children (Jose et al., 2012; Praveen, 2012).

Children’s satisfaction with life was inversely related with difficulties and dissatisfaction in present housing facilities, family finance, education, and relationship difficulties with parents. Children with higher difficulties and dissatisfaction in education, relationships difficulties with parents, problems with friends, and relationships difficulties with relatives significantly had reduced psychological well-being and life satisfaction (Sabu et al., 2012). Evidently, the relationships with parents, family members, relatives, and peers form the significant social milieu where children of unwed mothers develop their self-identity within the interactional milieus. Such social constructions of self are expected to induce a range of psychosocial dynamics like internalization of illegitimate origin and self-image leading to self-imposed psychological and social disability and social exclusion. Hence, this study examined how children of unwed mothers internalized their illegitimate origin and its effect on psychosocial disability and exclusion.

Method

As Giorgi (2009) and Moustakas (1994) direct, we used a phenomenological study in which we explored tribal children’s lived experiences surrounding their birth in tribal community and of an outside of the wedlock relationships (as non-legitimate child) and related psychosocial disability and exclusion as these children experienced. We assumed the existence of multiple realties, which are socially constructed, allowing thick description of the lived experience of the children of tribal unwed mothers (i.e., Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Moustakas, 1994). Apart from lived experiences of being tribal child at school in the first place, the study explored children’s experiences at diverse social milieus such as home, neighborhood, and at schools. We were constantly aware of and placed away our own worldviews, personal biases, beliefs, philosophical and theoretical orientations from affecting the process of reconstructing tribal children’s lived experiences (e.g., Mouton, 1996; Nieswiadomy, 1993), which helped us to initiate an interactive process with study participants by seeing, hearing, and reading (Rallis & Rossman, 1998).

Considering ourselves as the key tool for data collection, we actively engaged, observed, and explored tribal identity, non-legitimate origin, psychosocial disability, and social exclusion in this enquiry (Miller & Crabtree, 1999). As Morse (1994) guides, we developed the following pivotal questions: Do children of tribal unwed mothers internalize non-legitimate origin? If so, does it influence children’s identity construction, psychosocial disability, and social exclusion? To address this, we raised four sub-questions: (a) How children of unwed mothers perceive self-image and socially construct their self-identity, (ii) How children of unwed mothers internalize non-legitimate origin? (iii) What are psychosocial disabilities experienced in terms of social integration, social support, peer acceptance, and quality of social relations; and finally, what is nature of social exclusion experienced by the children of unwed mothers. The phenomenological approach helped to describe the data from a holistic perspective (Creswell, 1994) in view of the complexity studied (Rallis & Rossman, 1998).

Data Collection

Hammersley (1992) suggested we ensure that the data collection is naturally occurring as part of the informal but interviewer-directed conversation, using semi-structured topic guide. This study conducted such 10 in-depth interviews, which helped to achieve data saturation (De Vos, 1998). The samples for open-ended questions asked are as follows:

What are the ways in which children of your neighbourhood and school talk and behave with you?

Probe for students’ attitude and behaviours with examples.

After obtaining informed oral consent from each study participant, first author conducted all in-depth interviews, audio-recorded and transcribed. Furthermore, she transcribed the interviews in local language (i.e., Malayalam) and then translated into English.

Data Analysis

The second author conducted data analysis. First, we organized data by coding, when we observed the descriptions of behavior, statements, feelings, thoughts and then identified and coded, using context codes and process codes. The analysis had two components: first was a phenomenological attempt to understand the study participants and second was to understand how they make sense of their experiences. It recognizes negotiation between the researchers and study participants to produce data on participants’ perspectives (Baillie, Smith, Hewison, & Mason, 2000). Third, we performed data analysis through stages of open coding, progressive focusing, applying the coding frame, and summarizing and interpreting the findings (Hycner, 1985). Finally, inference was made based on categories of meaning to identify aspects of identity formation, psychosocial disability, and exclusion.

Findings

The findings are organized under major two three themes viz., profile characteristics, identities in milieus, psychosocial disability and exclusion. First, identities in milieus provide children’s position of self within school and community milieus, formation of tribal identity, and sub-identity of non-legitimate origin. Second, psychosocial disability consists of six subparts viz., social integration, social support, peer acceptance, relationship, and exclusion.

Participants’ Characteristics

Out of 10 study participants, six of them were girls and four of them were boys. They were in the age group of 14 to 17 years. Seven of them were from Paniya tribe and three were from Kattunaika tribe. Nine of them were students and one study participant was a school dropout who engages in manual labor at neighborhood.

Exposure to School Milieu

Tribal children are for the first time exposed to intercommunity social interactions and engagement that bring both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity is that tribal child relates self and identifies self with other children from his or her own community, a point that formation social identity. The challenge is that the tribal children often need considerable amount of coping resources to effectively cope up with adversities of intercultural exposure in school milieu, where familial and community values enjoy little importance and privilege. This is because; they engage in social interactions with non-tribal children, which are inherently inequitable and biased as tribal children are positioned at the lower ladder of the social hierarchy within school milieu. Non-tribal children enjoy dominant social positions within school milieu. Inequitable social interactions which regularly occur at school milieu disable tribal children from intimately engaging with non-tribal children. It is mainly because of the perceived social distance between tribal and non-tribal communities and interactions characterized by social dominances. Invariably, tribal children reported that they have friends from non-tribal social groups; nonetheless, all of their intimate friends are from their own tribes. Furthermore, tribal children anticipated undesirable outcomes on getting intimate with children of non-tribal groups. Tribal children are further fearful to become an object of shame and dishonor based on their tribal social origin if they associate intimately with non-tribal students at schools:

A 17-year-old Paniya girl said,

I have many friends in school. Everyone is my friend. But a few are close to me. I talk with them and we used to have fun! [But] all my close friends are from my community! Though, I have friends from other communities, I am bit afraid of getting close to them! I don’t know, but in previous school where I have completed till 10th standard, my friends used to tease me when they get angry on me or in some matters . . .

A 15-year-old Paniya girl said,

I have many friends in my school. They are from both my tribe and other tribes. I have good relations with them. But my neighbourhood friends are my close one. I share all my family matters with them only. I am a bit afraid of talking about my family matters to my school friends [non-tribal]. I do not know how they would take [me] and there are no much special things to share also . . .

Tribal Identity: “Us vs. Others” in School Milieu

Tribal children develop a sense of “us” (i.e., tribal) versus “others” (non-tribal dominant rural). At the school milieu, especially the leisure hours induce interactions between tribal and non-tribal students. Nonetheless, these interactions do occur on an inequitable basis, where students from dominant non-tribal groups have significant influence. Tribal children often become the subject of blame and neglect where they are made to compromise and sacrifice when disputes arises between tribal and non-tribal children even with teacher sanction. Tribal children have developed a sense of identity that is equally valued when they attach importance and pride, and develop a shared value to the way they live in a challenging forest environment, which indicates self-assertion of tribal identity by these children.

A 17-year-old Paniya boy said,

. . . we [tribals] are not slaves! I do not understand what people [non-tribal rural] are thinking about us . . . Sometimes, I think that we [tribals] are good enough like other people. That’s why we are born to forest and live in such good situations . . .

Non-legitimate origin

Unwed mother and her would-child face desertion and associated social and emotional problems even if father is from the same tribe of the mother. However, community responses in terms of stigmatization, discrimination, and exclusionary practices are relatively minimal. Nonetheless, in many cases, fathers of these non-legitimate children are either from other tribe or from non-tribal rural communities. In such situations, the respective communities are reluctant to accept such mother and child, who are susceptible to get community victimization, violence, and stigmatization as punishments for engaging in marital relationship with members of other tribe men or non-tribe men. Unwed mothers and their children are viewed deviant members of their tribal groups, thus devalued, neglected, and socially excluded in community life, including religious rituals and ceremonies. Those individuals and families explicitly deviate from and breach the traditional boundaries of community life are victimized through socially ascribing negative and disabling social identities as unwed mothers and non-legitimate children.

A 17-year-old Paniya boy said,

In our community, if anyone marries to an outsider [non-tribe], we have to face many consequences! We faced a lot [such consequences], especially my mother. My neighbours and relatives neglect us . . . they neither talk to us not invite [us] for any functions. My mother always remains at home [and] she never go to neighbours’ homes or outside . . .

Non-legitimate identity in community milieu

It predominantly stages when they are in their homogeneous tribal community milieu where children interact with peers and adults at neighborhood, especially during leisure hours. Non-legitimate origin is used as a tool to disgrace and dishonor playmates especially when disputes arise during leisure activities. Children of unwed mothers face teasing and blame. They are sometimes considered as contagious, therefore deserved to be distanced socially and morally excluded. Invariably, neighboring adults also sometimes discriminate and distance these children. Neighbors often intrude into the personal and private sphere of the life of these children and families by spreading rumors and indecent stories that disgrace and dishonor the children and their families.

A paniya girl (14-year-old) said,

. . . We play with friends in our neighbourhood, I won’t talk with everyone, and I do talk with some people that I feel comfort to do so. When we play, sometimes we get quarrel with some of the friends and they used to tease me on my father’s matter. They blame on my character, as I am coming from this family that’s why “you are like this and all . . . ” Sometimes, neighbours also blame and tease me [but], not everyone [but] some of them only.

A paniya boy (17-year-old) said,

. . . I am happy in my life, but as I told you I can’t adjust with anyone. My neighbours are good, but sometimes they interfere with other’s problem. I really like to be the part of a community, but I am not satisfied with the people, maybe it’s my problem . . .

A Paniya girl (17-year-old) said,

. . . They [mother and grandmother] say since I am a girl, I should have the discipline and girls [should] never go outside without their parents. Actually, that is not the reason . . . (After that she didn’t say anything, she kept silent) . . .

Mother told, his [father’s] home is far away from here and his family was not supported for their relationship, that’s why we are not going there . . .

Nevertheless, these children gradually develop poor identity perceptions and low self-esteem, which is likely to diminish their participation and integration.

For instance, a Paniya boy [elder in the family] reported that

My sisters won’t go outside of the home. If they do not have school they stay at home. I never allow them to go outside and mingle with neighbourhood children; but other children (two, three) are coming to my home and they do some play and spend time with them.

This evidently indicates opinion and attitude of these children about themselves since they experience several problems from community, school, and in peer groups due to their social identity as the children of non-legitimate origin or identity. Thus, they develop a negative identity, which may makes them inferior and less participating in different spheres of the society. Furthermore, these children perceive and self-exclude exclusion anticipating stigma and discrimination.

Psychosocial Disability

Conflicts in social relationships, poor social integration, reduced social support, poor peer acceptance, and high level of conflicts in social relationships are the characteristics of the life of non-legitimate tribal children, evidently indicating different aspects of psychosocial disability. The following section discusses these topic areas individually.

Social integration

Irrespective of gender, boys’ and girls’ social relationships are characterized by blame, neglect, teasing, shame, and dishonor. Children experience frequent conflicts in everyday social interactions and relationships. They began to perceive and anticipate discrimination and social distancing at social interactions and engagement. These children are emotionally disturbed and showed depressive features such as “no one knows me really,” “I am alone in this world,” “excessively concerned about others” attitude to them’, “crying spells” and “I have nobody in my life.” These children engaged in comparison of their own family with intact families, began to feel lost, depressed, and felt lonely. They reported this loneliness everywhere even at schools, neighborhood, and in families, thus they wished to go away from [current house] to distant place and restart again a life where no one knows about their non-legitimate origin or being children of unwed mothers.

A Paniya girl (14-year-old) said,

When I sit alone I often think of my father, I feel that no one understands me. I think it’s because I am not a good girl, I often cried while thinking of all my sorrows and people’s [own community and other community people] attitude towards me. Whenever I feel sad I used to cry alone. When mother scolds [me] I used to think no one is there for me in the world.

A Kattunaika boy (16-year-old) said,

Sometimes I feel that no one is there for me in the world. People are good here [own community] but I don’t know often I feel sad and always my mood changes. Sometimes, when being with friends, I feel that I am alone, especially when they talk about their family.

A Paniya girl (14-year-old) said,

Actually we don’t have any one in the world, though we have relatives we are not in a good relation with all of them.

Children of unwed mothers perceived self-imposed and society-imposed isolation, differential treatment, and perceived and actual social distancing. Families of unwed mothers are isolated in their respective communities in many respects. In some instances, immediate family members distanced these families. Relatives neither visit nor entertain unwed mothers and their children. This is often due to the fear of stigma since they anticipate probable stigmatization by the tribal community, if they entertain these families. Furthermore, family members engage in fights and frequent quarrels with unwed mothers in public places. Present study reveals that neighbors were to an extent supportive to unwed mothers and to their children. They actively engaged in distancing unwed mothers and their children.

Unwed mothers and elder siblings impose isolation on younger one, especially on girls. Mothers including grandmothers actively engaged in inculcating gender-specific formation and socialization to girl children. It occurs in the premises that they want to avoid any exploitative relationship/companionship with men outside family that may occur when girl children are grown up. To achieve that, elder male siblings and parents exercise control over girl children’s physical mobility and monitor social interactions. The children were socially distanced, restricted, and disconnected. Hence, these children were poorly integrated communally and with schools.

A Kattunaika boy (17-year-old) said,

We have many relatives and some of them are staying in our community. Remaining people are staying with other communities. They used to come here but not at home. Many of them don’t like us. I don’t know what we have done wrong with them, but they never come to our home, especially my mother’s elder sister. She never comes to my home and she never invites us if there any functions in her home . . .

A Kattunaika boy (17-year-old) said,

Though my neighbours are good, sometimes I don’t like them, they interfere with all of our matters. I simply maintain the relationship with them. I have number of friends in my neighbourhood.

A Kattunaika boy (16-year-old) said,

My sisters won’t go outside of the home. If they don’t have school they stay at home. I never allow them to go outside and mingle with neighbourhood children. But other children [two, three] are coming to my home and they do some play and spend time with them.

Social Support

Children of unwed mothers enjoy poor support from friends, relatives, and families. Social support from family and friends showed a mixed picture. In most cases, immediate families and relatives were supportive to unwed mothers and their children. In some cases, children reported that though their relatives were poor, they supported them when they were in need and they felt lucky that they were born to their respective families so that they got such a supportive family members. However, in some other cases, family members and other immediate relatives were not only unsupportive but also engaged as active agents of stigmatization and discrimination. In such family members, especially siblings of their mothers remain abusive and aggressive to their mothers, blaming for disgracing family. Social support from friends further provided a mixed picture. We frequently found that friends and peers engaged in teasing and dishonoring the children. However, there were friends who supported these children and shared their emotional burden.

A Paniya girl (15-year-old) said,

I feel so lucky that I have got this life and I born in my family. My brothers (amma’s sister’s sons) are there for my each matter. I feel very comfortable and good to think about them.

A Paniya girl (15-year-old) said,

All my relatives are good; they are very loving and supportive. Since they are also from poor family they can’t do any kind of help for us. We are living through my mother’s earning, if she did not get work we suffer for daily lives. My aunties are good they come to our home; we also go there.

A Paniya girl (17-year-old) said,

I have many friends in my school; I can make lots of friends. We talk whenever we get free hours. I really like my school, my friends, my teachers; they are very supportive and co-operative. My teacher advised me that I will get good opportunities if I go outside, but I can’t go without my mother and afraid to go also since I am not having such travelling experience . . .

A Paniya girl (16-year-old) said,

My friends go outside with their father; but my mother never gets time to do the same after her work. But I don’t feel bad because I have to understand her situation. I do help to my brother in all his wishes, I never allow him to feel loneliness.

Peer Acceptance

Need for intimacy is an innate psychological need for belonging. Invariably, children of unwed mothers aspire for having intimate friendships but they found it difficult to initiate and maintain intimate friendships with peers, especially those who belong to out-groups or non-tribal groups. Some of these children maintain working relations with friends at schools. Others have friends, who were exclusively from their own communities. They perceived fear to intimately associate with children of non-tribal community since they do not receive equitable treatment and acceptance within relationships. They have a fear of revealing their non-legitimate origin if associated with friends intimately and control information about non-legitimate origin since they anticipate stigmatized attitude of peers and are fearful of the resultant discrimination. The children aspire for intimate friendship and association with others, perceived as well as anticipated stigma, which discouraged them from initiating and maintaining peer relationships. They confined themselves to their family, where they experienced safety and security from stigmatized treatments. They face teasing, gossips, and indecent talks in their everyday communal life.

Nonetheless, children with sense of control and autonomy were influential to control discriminating and stigmatizing advances by peers. They used two coping strategies to deal with stigma inducing social situations. First, they frequently used to ignore and reject discriminatory attitude and stigmatizing approaches altogether. They resorted to aggression and violence, where those who invoke stigma face aggression and violence as response to active stigmatization. Such coping strategies were relatively less frequent while it did not provide evidence for how far such responses were helpful to reduce stigma and discrimination.

A Kattunaika boy (17-year-old) said,

None of my friends teased me yet! It is because I never allow them to do so. I never quarrel with them [but] people used to say that I am a calm and quiet person. So my friends like me very much. Once, we were playing cricket and had quarrel with friends. We tried to solve it but it has gone beyond. One of them called another as, you are a “bastard”,’ that why you are doing like this. He is also like me, he doesn’t have a father. I got angry, he also felt very bad. We had a fight and finally the issue [was taken into] homes. Then the problems were continued between the elder people.

A Paniya girl (17-year-old) said,

I wanted to be having many friends, but I don’t have. In my community, also I never go with my friends. Just like a casual relationship I am maintaining.

A Paniya girl (15-year-old) said,

I have so many friends here (school). My close friends are here in my neighbourhood.

A Paniya girl (14-year-old) said,

I will go only two to three neighbour’s homes. Yah! I have friends, but not much. I would like to have many friends, but I don’t know, I have only few friends.

Relationships With Family Members

Children’s relationships with mother, siblings, and fathers are conflict ridden. Their social relationship was characterized through frequent teasing, blame, shame, and neglect at communal and school milieu. Their relationships with relatives and neighbors are often abusive and conflict ridden. Children’s social relationships are evidently conflict ridden; therefore, they enjoy poor quality of social relationships in everyday life.

A Paniya girl (14-year-old) said,

I have only few friends in school, I don’t feel comfort to make friendship with everyone. I think I have some starting problem, but my friends are very good. I really enjoy being with them. A few students make problems to me. They tell some stupid stories to teacher [about my family]. But my teacher is good, she knows me, she never scolded [me] instead she is very supportive.

A Paniya boy (17-year-old) said,

I don’t have many friends here [community], only two, three friends I have. I talk to them, and we go here and there! I am a very short-tempered person. So everyone get afraid to make me friend. But I don’t have any problems. This is my character if anyone can’t adjust with me, let them go, I don’t have any worries about it.

Exclusion

Exclusion of unwed mothers’ children showed a mixture picture. It is not directly visible as these children experience exclusion in different aspects of the society due to their identity. One of the children responded that all his family members and neighbors are supportive and cooperative. They interact with them and they invite for their familial functions and ceremonies. In contrast, some of the children face exclusion in their everyday lives.

A Paniya girl (14-year-old) said,

We have relatives, but not near to my home. All of them are away. Mother has sisters and brothers. They are living separately. One of my mother’s brother comes home. He likes us very much. He gives chocolates and money whenever he comes. [But] I don’t know, mother’s sisters don’t like us. We never go to their houses. They never invite us if any functions/programme at their home.

A Kattunaika boy (16-year-old) said,

People [non-tribals] will say that Adivasi’s have many advantages that they are getting benefits from government and so on. In fact, we are not getting anything. See my home condition is very poor [and] have you seen any Adivasi a good home like outsiders? We are struggling for basic needs but no one is doing anything for us!

Discussion

The children of unwed mothers explicitly deviated and breached traditional ethnic boundaries of tribal communal life, thus the children are victimized by socially ascribing disabling social identity of non-legitimate origin in addition to their poorly valued social identity as tribals. Non-legitimate children experience conflicts in their social relationships, poorly socially integrated, reduced support, poor peer acceptance, and exclusion that characterize everyday communal and school life. Evidently, therefore, these children internalized negative social (also non-legitimate) identities, psychosocial disabilities, and exclusion at community as well as school milieus.

There is a compelling body of evidence to suggest that tribal communities are located at the outliers of Kerala society; therefore being a member of tribe group itself forms the basis for social marginality. If that member is a girl/woman, the risk of marginality doubles. When such women are victimized through sexual exploitation, false promise of marriage, and when their men belong to other tribe or non-tribal communities, the severity of social marginality and exclusion multiplies (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011). In fact, irrespective of tribal and non-tribal communities, children outside of wedlock relationships are heavily stigmatized, thus mothers who give birth to a child outside wedlock relationship face stigma, discrimination, social distancing, and exclusion (Jose et al., 2012). The participants of this study are from Paniya and Kattunayka tribes, who are most underdeveloped though they are numerically significant in the state (Paul, 2014). They do not engage in marital relationship with other tribes or with non-tribes, thus when men of other tribes or non-tribes impregnate girls/women, stigma and exclusionary practices aggravate at the social milieu (Jose, Varghese, & Sabu, 2011).

Intercaste and cultural exposures and mixing of different tribal and non-tribal groups considerably challenge the conventional boundaries of ethnic minorities, including tribes. This has cumulatively disposed ethnic tribals to experience identity threats, system imbalance and perceived probable decay unless systematically intervened (Jose, 2014; Varghese, 2011). As a measure of social system maintenance, these tribal groups are actively engaging in (either consciously or not-consciously) stigmatizing, discrimination, and exclusionary practices as punishments inflicted upon unwed mothers and their children. The social groups use system definition and justification as the strategies to system strengthening and maintenance (Jose, 2014) where the efforts of group members are to maintain and protect group contours from intergroup and intercultural mixing through conjugal relationships and formation of intergroup social institutions such as marriage and family (Jose, 2014; p. 12).

As a measure of strengthening social system, where people belong to, they tend to define group members’ identity in a superior and distinct ways that help ego strengthening, increased group affiliation, and collective social identity (Phinney, 1989). In line with this, we found that tribal children developed a sense of “us” (i.e., tribal) versus “others” (non-tribal, dominant, rural). Consequently, tribal children have developed a sense of identity that is equally valued when they attach importance and pride, and develop a shared value to the way they live in a challenging forest environment. The successful survival in remote forest terrains evidently attributed as an evidence for successful survival in challenging environment. It implies that tribals are next to no one in their social position, thereby a collective assertion of equitable social positioning of group within the given social hierarchy. This would serve many positive psychological outcomes to the group as a whole and to its members (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999; Varghese, 2011).

Identities are not only the sources of well-being but also serve as a source of ill-being (Phinney, 1991; Verkuyten, 2001). When identities are positively internalized and collectively well represented (Jose et al., 2013; Major & O’Brien, 2005; Tajfel, 1978), it would yield positive benefits. Nonetheless, individuals often have multiple identities (Jose, 2014; Jose, Cherayi, & Sadath, 2014), which are negatively constructed and socially represented. Such identities service as a source of disempowerment and psychosocial disability (Jose & Cherayi, 2014). Invariably, tribal social identity and study participants’ non-legitimate identities are negatively constructed therefore act as source of disempowerment. Evidently, tribal children develop a sense of “us” (i.e., tribal) versus “others” (non-tribal dominant rural) at school milieu. Interactions between tribal and non-tribal students do regularly occur at school milieu are often on inequitable basis, where students from dominant groups have significant influence and even control the milieu. In addition to devalued tribal social identity, children out of the wedlock relationships develop sub-identity of non-legitimacy and associated punishment because of social system threat perceptions intensify psychosocial disability in tribal children (Jose, Cherayi, & Sadath, 2016).

Psychosocial Disability

Social integration signifies the extent to which an individual perceives and experiences being the part of his or her community and is free from apprehension of being alone and lonely, and socially participating and indiscriminately enjoying communal resources (Cherayi, 2014; Jose & Cherayi, 2016; O’Brien, Wortman, Kessler, & Joseph, 1993). We found that irrespective of gender, both boys’ and girls’ social relationships suffered from blame, shame, neglect, teasing, and devaluing. Their social relationships are conflict ridden with peers, relatives, community members, and even with their own mothers. As a result, they perceive and anticipate discrimination and distancing at school and communal interactions and engagement, evidencing poor social integration. These children further experience considerable amount of psychological and emotional problems, resulting in sense of loneness and isolation. Consistently, existing studies suggest that children of unwed mothers experienced difficulties in emotional, social, and educational adjustments. They developed submissiveness, sense of retiring when confronted with problem-solving situations and adjustment problems in education (Praveen, 2012; Sabu et al., 2012). Hence, it is evident that poor social integration within critical social milieus such as schools and communities may generate consequences of social well-being, academic performance, and overall mental health.

Unwed mothers are stigmatized and discriminated within families, immediate neighborhood, and in societies (Jose et al., 2012) while their children also are subjected to extended stigma due to their non-legitimacy as children of unwed mothers (Cherayi, 2014; Praveen, 2012; Sabu et al., 2012). Invariably, the findings indicted that the children of unwed mothers enjoyed poor support from friends, relatives, and families, though in a few instances, friends and families were supportive. Nonetheless, the larger family and neighborhood continued to socially distance and discriminate children of unwed mothers. Some families and neighbors acted as agents of stigmatization and discrimination. Evidently, social support in general was not intact disposing the children vulnerable to psychosocial disabilities.

Children of unwed mothers faced with stigma and discrimination at school and communal milieus, thus enjoy poor peer acceptance and support (Cherayi, 2014). Invariably, these children aspired to have intimate friendships but they found it difficult to initiate and maintain intimate friendships with peers, especially those who belong to out-groups or non-tribal groups. In addition, they perceive fear of being intimately association with non-tribal children, as they need to confide their identity as non-legitimate; thereby free self from stigmatization and discrimination at school milieu.

Nonetheless, children with sense of control and autonomy were influential to control discriminating and stigmatizing advances by peers through ignoring and reject discriminatory attitude and stigmatizing approaches altogether. Furthermore, they resorted to aggression and violence to overcome discriminatory treatment. Further research should examine the outcomes of using aggression and violence as a coping strategy to manage school and communal interactions and exchanges in terms of children’s academic performance and mental health.

Consistent with previous literature (Cherayi, 2014; Praveen, 2012; Sabu et al., 2012), children of unwed mothers reported conflict-ridden interpersonal relationship with siblings, parents, and other relatives. Similarly, these children faced problems in peer relationships in schools and in community neighborhood, evidently suggesting poor quality of social relationships. Besides, most cases, children of unwed mothers face some form of distance within family and in neighborhood due to their non-legitimate identity.

Conclusion

The results provide new insights on how unwed mothers’ children perceive and internalize their non-legitimate identity and consequent psychosocial disabilities and exclusion. Corroborating a detailed phenomenological analysis on these children, they experienced psychological, social, economic, and adjustment problems. The social integration, social support, peer acceptance, and quality of social relationship showed mixed response. For instance, in most cases, immediate families and relatives were supportive to unwed mothers and their children. However, in some other cases, family members and other immediate relatives remained not only unsupportive but also engaged as active agent of stigmatization and discrimination. Hence, these findings suggest need for policy interventions to strengthen unwed mothers and their children that reduce the issues and help them to lead a quality life.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge National Child Rights Research Team (2013-14) at child Rights and You (CRY) for the great support provided throughout the study period.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was a part of National Child Rights Research Fellowship (NCRRF-VII), funded by Child Rights and You (CRY), New Delhi, India.

Author Biographies

Shanuga Cherayi is a research associate at Dharmagiri Jeevas Social Centre, Kerala. Her area of research interest includes marginality and inclusion of historically marginalized such as dalits, tribes, women and children.

Justin P. Jose is a director-research at Dharmagiri Jeevas Social Centre, Kerala. His area of research interests are psychology of social marginality and health among historically neglected populations in India.

Sreejith Sudhakar is a project fellow at Dharmagiri Jeevas Social Centre, Kerala. His area of interest is mental health and well-being of marginalized populations.

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Children of Tribal Unwed Mothers and Their Non-Legitimate Origin: A Social Exclusion Perspective

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Tribal Communities in Kerala

Concise Overview of Literature

Method

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Findings

Participants’ Characteristics

Exposure to School Milieu

Tribal Identity: “Us vs. Others” in School Milieu

Non-legitimate origin

Non-legitimate identity in community milieu

Psychosocial Disability

Social integration

Social Support

Peer Acceptance

Relationships With Family Members

Exclusion

Discussion

Psychosocial Disability

Conclusion

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

Author Biographies

References