Socio – Economic Status in Dalit Community( A Case Study of Dalits Halawar VDC of Dang District)

Abstract

Abstract The present thesis entitled "SOCIO-ECONOMIC STUDY OF DALITS: A Case Study of Dalits of HalawarVDC of Dang District" is the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in RuralDevelopment. The general objective of the study is to find out the socio-economic condition ofDalits ofthestudy area. The caste system exists in every country around the world, maybe not like in Nepal but in one way oranother. The existence of superiority and inferiority due to skin color, religion, economic status, and socialstatus is seen all over the world. The caste system was not created by some person like a king, but rather itdeveloped out of a practice of a society over several thousands of years. Dalits are found in all the seventy-five districts of Nepal and their population is 2,341,030. Dalits arereligiously discarded, socially oppressed, economically exploited, politically suppressed and educationallydeprived. Due to all these reason, they remain backward and far from modern development initiatives. The study is based on both descriptive and exploratory methods. Both primary and secondary data have been used in the study. Primary data have been collected using households survey, interview, observationand focus group discussion. Ward number one and two are purposively selected for the study and 50%households of Dalits have been selected as the sample for the study. The selection of the study householdshas been done by using random sampling. After analyzing the data, poverty, education, culture, self-consciousness, leadership quality, discriminatorypractice and gender balance are concluded as the socio-economic issues of the Dalits in the study area. Dalits does not have proper knowledge about their health and sanitation due to the lack of education andawareness. They still have old beliefs, tradition, values and go blindly with superstition. Literacy rate is verypoor among the Dalits population. They do not know the importance of education. They utilize theirindigenous skill and knowledge to fulfill their domestic requirements since the skill of these people do notplay significant role to bring change in their economic status. The Nepalese society is deeply influenced by the caste discrimination and untouchability.Dalits are suffering from this tradition in Halawar VDC also. The development activitiesand motivation activities to them and awareness increasing programme to Dalits areplaying vital role to change their attitudes and concept. The caste discrimination isgradually decreasing after the restoration of democracy. Finally, it can be concluded that the socio-economic condition of Dalits is not satisfactory because of illiteracy, poverty, low level of awareness, lack of self consciousness, discrimination and lack of leadership quality. However, awareness level is increasing among the Dalits.