Socio-Economic Condition of Magar: A Case Study of Toli V.D.C, Dailekh District

Abstract

This study deals with the socio-economic Condition of Magar of Toli VDC of Dailekh district. The general objective of the study is to find out the 'socio economic condition of Magar people in Toli VDC of Dailekh District, whereas the specific objectives are to find out the economic condition of Magar People, occupational structure of Magar community in Toli VDC and to identify the peculiarities of Magar culture and tradition of study area. For the study, the extensive field visit was conducted in Toli VDC of Dailekh district. Before selecting a topic, a brief review of the literature related to the condition study of Magar community has been studied. Primary as well as secondary data have been used in this study. In this VDC, there were 617 households. In the study area there were 90 households of Magars. 60 households have been taken as sampled households out of 90 households. Simple random sampling technique has been used to select sample. In this study data were collected from field survey by applying household survey questionnaire, field note focus group discussion and observation method. The economic condition of Toli VDC is low. The people live in miserable condition. The study found that only ten household produced adequate quantity of food grains for one year and 13.33% have food production sufficient for 3 months only. The main occupation is agriculture of Toli VDC. Beside farming major people of Toli VDC to certain workers which might be additional source of income. They engage in service, wage labor etc. since they do not play significant role to bring change in their economy status. The magar people of Toli VDC had their own ways of performing birth marriage and death ceremonies. But the basic concept of performing lifecycle ceremonies was according to Hindu rites. The study shows that in case of insufficiency of food grains of the total households 10% gets additional support from different services eg. Teacher, Indian and Nepalese Army. There is 36.67% people get from pension drawing 6.66% from business in small shop and 20% from livestock eg. goat and sheep. Every household have to depend upon more than one sources of additional resources during insufficiency of food grain. This study found that majority of the households (90%) out of total interviewed reported that they had adopted agriculture as a main occupation. Average family size of the sampled household was 5.18 per household. About 22.87 percent Magars out of total interviewed were literate whereas 77.13 percent were illiterate.