Socio-Economic Status of Majhi in Yamgha VDC, Palpa

Abstract

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. In this context, some of the castes and ethnic groups are not able to maintain their basic needs. The development programs implemented by the government and non government agencies are not sufficient to improve their economic condition. Majhi is one of the poor ethnic groups in the country. Their major source of income is fishing and boating. But now days, their traditional occupation are in transition due to the construction of dams for hydroelectricity project and bridges in different places. Thus, it has been important to know their socio-economic condition in this changing context. Different types of methods have been used to collect necessary data and information regarding to this problem. Primary as well as secondary data have been collected and both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to find out this problem. It is found that, their traditional occupation has been shifted to wage labor. Most of the economically active people do wage labor for their livelihood. They are compiled to do such type of occupation because they are not trained with any vocational guidance and most of them are illiterate. Although their secondary occupation is agriculture, Traditional pattern of agricultural practices, lack of irrigation facility, fertilizer, hybrid seeds and the limited land are the major cause of low production in the study area so that they cannot produce food for whole year. In the same way they could not develop animal husbandry as professional occupation. Although, some of them have engaged in extra economy generating activities, such as a bamboo work, carpenter etcetera. Since, the skill of these people does not play a significant role to bring change in their economic status. All these reasons have adverse effect on their poor socio-economic condition.