Socio-Economic Conditions of Gurung Women (A Case Study of Shiva Nagar VDC of Chitwan District)

Abstract

Nepal is one of the Asian countries, which invests on human development very little amount. Although women are considered to be vital productive workers in the society, their access to productive resources has remained limited. They have not been empowered to participate in social development to full capacity. This study also study about socio economic condition of Gurung womenof Shiva Nagar VDC of Chitwan district there was 9 wards in this VDC. Amongthese 9 wards, only 3 wards have been selected, where mostly Gurung werefound. Total 45 households of Gurung women selected on the random basis,which is 30.60% of the local Gurung households. The selected ward were ward no. 2 (Jaya Nagar) ward no. 4(Surya Nagar) and ward no. 5 (Shiva Nagar). Inthe present study the researcher found that the Gurung were migrated from the Kaligandaki zone of Lamjung, Kaski and Gorkha. The present study with the objective of presenting a socio-economic profile to seek to map-out the socio-economic condition of Gurung women of Shiva Nagar VDC. As the research target of this thesis, this study covered various social, economic and cultural aspects of the respondents in the study area. The objectives of the study are: i. To study the social economic conditions of Gurung women.ii. To describe their roles on occupation of farming, land holding size and households activities.iii. To analyze their role in decision making. Concerning these objectives this study followed different theoretical as well as research documents and methodological procedures of research. The limitation of this study is confined to the particular unit of research area and community people were contacted and the main limitation of this thesis work is to fulfill the master's degree courses. It has its own importance and significance that all the studies and research activities have. The primary data were collected through a fields visit adopting,household survey etc. For household survey, the questionnaire were used the study research study design of this study is analytical and descriptive. The field is analytical and descriptive. The field survey was conducted in Shiva Nagar VDC of Chitwan district. Random sampling was adopted for selecting thehouseholds as its methodological procedures. The questionnaires were provided to the female Gurung like sister in law of the household. For the effective information 45 Female Gurung households, data from the secondary sources as books, Journals, project reports reviews, newspapers and information book lets were collected. The collected data and information were confined through tabulation and percentage distribution; simple statisticaltools as percentage were used where it was necessary. The major findings of the study can be summarized as: the average family household size of Gurung of Shiva Nagar is 5.73 percent. Gurung have the culture of Joint family system. Were 53.33% live in Nuclear and 46.66%live in joint expended family structure but 73.33% prefers joint/extended family structure to live. Maximum male Gurngs are British, Indian, and Nepalese soldiers. So,the work burden is on female for household activities and farming. Literacyr ate among Gurung women is poor. Only 13.33% have passed SLC otherwise they left their education after the secondary level. 8.88%Gurung women of theVDC are totally illiterate of the sample size. 20% Gurung have Kachcha house and 33.33 have Pakka, remaining live on medium size household, but morethan 90% have Pakka Toilet. They were award about health so 80% prefer the doctor for treatment. Uese of contraceptive is less in Gurung. Only 36 used contraceptive for whom needed. Less use of contraceptive is the causes of outmigrate of male also. Female-headed household is also the same causes. So,the decision among the total respondent 53.33% decide own decision forhousehold work. 66% respondents told that these were no need to ask forspending money. But most of the lands are registered on male Gurung name. Registered in women's name was in a miner cases. But in total respondents 890% female were engaged on agriculture is the main occupation. 13% were teacher and6% were done business. The major income sources of family member are working on military asabroad. Among them 60% male were working on this categories only 6% were farmer. Among the respondent 60% have less than 1 Bigha land. So they do not feed whole year by the product of land. Agriculture activities were tradition an this site. They don't know about use of pesticide, insecticide etc. Gurung language is their mother tongue but they don't wear theirtraditional dresses only on the occasion like: 15 th Poush 9 (Lhosar) Bouddha Jaenti: marriage ceremony, they wear these dress. Rodi is their traddion institution Ghanto dance, Sorathi, Chalitra dance,Kaura, Arghau were their tradition and culture. But now a days these cutlturewere disappear in this area. They have modern institution like Gurung community. Gurung mother group as a forward and preserve their culture and tradition. Decentralization program launched by DDC for women and child and saving and credits intuition were found on the field visit. Gurung were Buddhist they follows Buddha religion but the researcher found some family were Christian and some were Hindu. Hindu religion is also follow, with along Buddha religion on this VDC. So, the Gurung religions were affected by the other religion due to urbanization and modernization. To improve the socio-economic condition of Gurung women should beencourage finishing their education. They have not interest and idea about politics. It is also a factor for upliftment. Work burden is higher among them.To reduce work burden by the help of male also recommended for the enlistment of socio-economic condition and cultural preservation of Gurung at Shiva Nagar VDC.