The present study is an attempt to examine the disparities in women empowerment between tribal and non-tribal communities in India based on NFHS-5 (2019–2021) data. Principal component analysis (PCA) has been applied to construct different dimensional and composite indices of women empowerment. Apart from this, independent samples t-test and Sopher’s disparity index have been applied to measure inter-community disparity, whereas hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) with Ward’s method has been adopted to group the relatively homogeneous Indian states/UTs in terms of women empowerment. The constructed composite index reveals that the tribal women of north-east India (i.e., Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim) and North India (i.e., Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand) are more empowered in comparison to the other parts of the country. Similarly, non-tribal women are comparatively more empowered in North India (i.e., Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab), north-east India (i.e., Assam, Mizoram, Sikkim) and east-central India (i.e., Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh). The least performing states in both the communities are from the southern part of India (i.e., Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh). Independent sample t-test result discloses that disparities are significantly present in most of the selected indicators and every dimension (i.e., decision-making, freedom of movement, attitude towards wife beating, gender neutrality) of women empowerment. The inter-community gap largely prevails in the ‘decision-making index’, ‘gender neutrality index’, ‘freedom of movement’ and composite index. This study reveals that the empowerment level of tribal women is not the same as compared to that of non-tribal women, and they remained in the trap of backwardness.
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