Traditional Occupation of Damai People and Recent Changes. (A Case Study of Baglung Municipality, Baglung District)

Abstract

This dissertation is related to the traditional occupation and recent changes among damai community of baglung municipality ward no.6 of baglung district. In the recent decades,there are rapid changes in human society because of social , culture, political and economical changes at large.Nepal is rich country in term of caste, language, culture,tradition and natural resources; although ethnic groups and occupational caste groups are changing their tradtitional occupation due to various reasons. Kami, Damai, Sarki, Gaineetc. are some of the occupational caste groups. These occupational caste groups have marganilized from various social and economic opportunities. These group still has to face various social discrimination,torture and harassment.On this context, an effort has been made to study, what are the traditional occupation of damia people, recent changesand present occupation for survival in this community ? The objective of this study is to trace out the traditional occupation of damai people and to asses the factors that fostered shifted in their occupation. Also to examine the alternative strategies adopted by damai for better livelihood. The study was carried out among the damai people of ward no.6 of baglung municipality . The data for this study were collected by interviewing 45 respondents of 45 households of damai community ofstudy area. This study has adopted both; explorative and descriptive research design. The methodology to gather field information were analyzed documents, interviewed people,observed the community . For data management, the perceptions from youth and old aged people were analyzed. In general, primary data are collected by directly going in the field, for instances: questionnaire, interview etc. On the other hand, secondary data are collected from the published and unpublished sources, such as journals, articles,magazines,newspapers and the data collected from the different offices such population statistics data of balung municipality. The quantitative data gained from this study are analyzed through various tables, pie chart or bar diagram whereas quantative data are analyzed in descriptive ways.This study showed The new generations are transferring from their traditional occupation into other non-traditional occupation like employment,business, foreign employment, services etc. The main occupation of respondent household is foreign employment which is 44.5%.Most of the respondents do not have

access on land .About 27 % of the respondents experiences caste discrimination in society in different ways. There is negative perception about the traditional occupation among damai people .The damai people who are engaged in non-traditional occupation found themselves better adapted in the society .According to them in non traditional occupation there is more prestige, more earning,better opportunity and more exposure.26.7 % of the damai people feel discriminated and 22% of the respondents feel dominated in the society .Damai community is lagging for behind in various shperes of life, for instance educational, economic, cultural, political etc. People of this community do not have access to natural resources.Most of the damai in the study site are landless .Study shows 33.4% of the respondents are landless and 55.5 percent of them have land less than one ropani. They are less literate. Only 6.42 % in the study site has gained higher level education.There are varriou problems in Traditional occupation.For example no food in time, notime limit, fighting, no regular job,enchrochment andcastism in playing baja and poverty,competition, lack of skill and modernization in tailoring.The main reason for change in their traditional occupation are poverty,castism, foreign employment,competition,modernization ,and institutionalization.After diversifying the occupation, many household benefitted socially and economically as well.Altogether the thesis contains six chapters. First chapter covers back ground,statement of the problem,objectives,significance, limitation, definition and organization of study. The second chapter gives describes the various literatures that were reviewed and referred to this study ,where as third chapter gives the methodology. Fourth chapter is about socio-economic and demographic background .Fifth chapter is about current situation of occupation,recent occupational change and its cause. The sixth chapter include summary findings conclusion and recommendations.