Tharu Women's Participation in The Management Ofcommunity Forest: (A Case Study of Kumroj Community Forest UsersGroup of KumrojVDC, Chitwan District)

Abstract

Community forestry was introduced in Nepal in 1978. The community forestryapproach has been highly successful in the protection of forests in the Terai of Nepal.Women are playing an important role in sustainable development of communityforests. However, their role is neither properly identified nor explored. So, the studyfocuses to the Tharu women's participation in community forest management ofKumroj Community Forest User's Group. To explore the target issues, some general and specific objectives are made. Thegeneral objective of the study is to find the women's participation in community forestuser group's activities whereas the specific objectives of the study are:  To find out the level of Tharu women's participation in Community Forest(CF) activities through CFUG's activities.  To determine Tharu women’s participation in decision making process ofCFUG. KCFUG of Chitwan district is selected for the present study. The reason for theselection of the site is convenient for the researcher, which is held on the basis ofexploratory and descriptive research method. The study is based on primary andsecondary data and the nature of data is qualitative. Among the total households, only138 households are chosen by caste or ethnicity for the study. Female respondentswere selected for interview and male as well as female were selected according to theconvenience for household survey. Key informants and focus group discussion alsoused to collect information. According to the field survey, Female literacy rate is 57.89percent and only 36.96percent household heads are female. In forest resource collection, femalesinvolvement in firewood collection is 56.25 percent, in grass cutting is 44.20 percentand low participation in timber cutting and collection because hired workers also hasbeen used. Participation in grass and firewoodcollection of female is higher than therest. Participation of women in general meeting of KCFUG is only 26.81 percent andparticipation of males are 73.19percent. Participation of female in attending meeting was like audience is high. Taking part actively in general meeting, sharing indecision-making and discussion is very low. According to the government policyminimum 1/3 of the committee members must be female but in KCFUG committeethere are just 2 female members among 15 members of the total committee and onlyone Tharu women in the Kumroj Community Forest Committee (annex-IV). According to the field study, there are so many obstacles for women to participatecommunity forest activities, such as; traditional male dominated culture, householdwork load, lack of knowledge about community forestry, poor economic condition,lack of permission to attend meeting, lack of empowerment, feeling of womenneedless to participate in public concern, less chance to view for women in everysector of development activities, illiteracy etc.