Original Socio-Economic Status of Women on Tharu ’ s Community in Nepalese Society

Nepalese society has multi ethnic cultural variations so that the socio-economic status of Tharus’ communities has also poor for comparison of other communities. In Nepali society, women are also left behind. The condition of women in that community living within this structure is even more deplorable. It is very difficult to find a woman as a head of household in this community. Since the head of household makes all the decisions, so that most of the men are the head of household. Similarly, women are suffering from poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, illness and household activities in Nepal. The burning issues of women empowerment on national integration are to expose in economic development. It can help on household condition likewise decision making process is very poor in the whole of south Asia, especially in Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The analysis focuses upon the status of women in terms of their socio-economic status, income pattern and household decision making power in comparison to their male counterparts. The economic contribution of Tharus’ women has poor and traditional. The condition of Woman has lead to family and decision making process has been also backwardness factors. They want easy to access fortheir health facility, education, social participation, income increase, confidence buildup of decision making and policy forming on human rights of family.


Introduction
Especially the Tharu's caste are living in the western Terai of Nepal belongs to the indigenous people there. Compared to other castes, the social-economic and cultural behaviors of those are very different.
Their greatest social feature is to see a population of four or five generations under one of roof of house. 22 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sshsr Social Science, Humanities and Sustainability Research Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 The oldest person in the house lives as a head of family. The head assigns the responsibility of daily work to all of the other members. It is the basic duty and responsibility of all to fulfill the responsibilities given to them. Due to the social culture of preferring to live in a joint family, their home looks very long. As the number of households increases, so does the size of the house. No matter how long the house is, there is only one main entrance. After entering from there, the house according to each generation can be seen.
Maghi is considered as the biggest festival of this community. The government of Nepal has banned the Halipratha so they were celebrating one's independence on 1 st Magh and going to work at the homes of various people from the next day. Sunsari in the east and Dag, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur in the west are predominantly Tharu. Despite this, the role of women in this community is very poor. They have not been able to play a major role in the economic, socialand education sectors.
The half of the population of the world has Women but their equal participation in any development activities is not only desirable. In the development of a nation the women play vital role, however male The status of Nepalese women has been deeply affected by various religious and traditional ill customs.
Social norms and ill practices have seriously affected the role and status of Nepali women. According to Nepali belief, birth of girl is the birth of bad luck. If a boy is born, the family rejoices, but if a girl is born the family laments. There is a general belief that if a man is not blessed with a son, the door to the heaven will not be opened to him. There is a saying that "let it take time but let a son born" (Ghimire, 2009). The economic factors are found as the most important which directly and indirectly affect the decision making process of women in market economy, it tends to raise their strength in decision making power as 23 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sshsr Social Science, Humanities and Sustainability Research Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 an important factor. The convincement of women to the domestic and subsistence sectors automatically implies a low status that lessens their economic decision making power. Equality between men and women in such a situation can't be dreamt for, when half of the population is deprived of the basics right of life, it will be impossible to achieve the aim of prosperity and development.
There is very little freedom in social and economical movement for women in Terai communities.
Women have low degree of opportunities for their education and have hardly any access to employment.
There is lack of women participation in decision making from house to the executive levels. There is no positive attitude towards women's health and, women do not get appropriate nutrition even in the period of pregnancy. Women get married early and are considered as child-bearing machines. Due to early age of delivery, there is high maternal mortality rate in Nepal. Higher rate of maternal and child mortality shows the lower social status of women. Women have lack of economic power and also have lack of decision making role on her family (Singh, 2004). Women's economic independence and awareness of their rights must be taught and forcibly implemented so those women may be able to exercise their right.

Statement of the Problems
The key area of current development thrust is enhancing female participation on decision making process in different spheres of life. The people of woman are improving economic condition and decision making process will be so critical on Tharus' communities. So, this study attempted to explore answering the following research questions.
 What are the socio-economic statuses of Tharus' women in community?
 What are the roles of Tharus' women in household activities?
 Should Tharus' woman play vital role formaking decision?

Objectives of the Study
Nepal has multi ethnic and cultural society. Tharu is one of the most important ethnic groups of society in Nepal. The study has coverage to the socio-economic status of women, especially with Tharus' community. It attempt to find out the role of women for making household's decision. Thus, the objective of the present study is to explore and describe the Tharus' women participation in economic activities and making household's decision. The objectives of the study are: • To explore the status of women in community.
• To describe the economic activities generate by women.
• To identify the role of women for making decision in household.

Review of Literature
In traditionally women's responsibilities have been restricted to the home, cooking, cleaning, child-caring and looking after the house. They are considered to be weak, vulnerable and dependent on men but there should not be any discrimination between men and women. Gender inequality still exists in Nepali's women life lag far behind the men's in economically, socially and politically position. Women's traditionally disadvantages status in the areas of education, health and on economic participation has restricted their mobility and divided them the basic needs or necessary for political participation. A girl, in Nepal is not a desired child and so she does not get chance to education, bears a low social and moral values in the society, performs the most arduous jobs throughout her life and, often posses a lower self image than her male counterparts.
The fact is that women are immensely oppressed and suppressed in Nepalese society. They are discriminated in all sectors of decision making and are not considered as main parts of development activities. Though men and women have equal right to live but there is social injustice due to which, women have weak decision making power. The status of women is low which reflects the weak decision making power in house hold as well as in the society. Women are still excluded from the active role of decision making. Men have major role of decision making inside the household as well as outside. Men ask women only for formality and their decision has not prominent part in any activities in household and in the society. Only few women get opportunity to be leading decision maker (Mazumdar & vina, 1982).
The women of south Asian countries of India and Nepal had different social problems on their way for gaining freedom. Indian and Nepalese women had to gain freedom, at first from social evils like sati system, child marriage, polygamy and prohibition of widow remarriage before gaining political freedom. In this regard Indian government and reformists had taken up steps towards eradicating the social evils earlier than in Nepal but the steps towards abolishing sati system and rising marriageable age of girls were taken only in the present century (Thapa, 2004).
The steps towards providing education for girls were taken in Nepal later than in India. Even those steps which had been taken in Nepal towards removing the social evils were not successful; only the steps towards abolishing sati system were successful in Nepal. Child wasmarriage and polygamy was not wiped out by the reformative steps which had been taken towards this direction process of life.
Many others social evils and economic dependency which were harmful to the freedom of Nepalese women were not abolished till 1960.
The movement to secure equal rights for women has developed historically along major fronts, political, of their daily working time in the productive area. But, we again given that women work has increase more hour than men's participation. Men have about seven hours of free time while boys of 10-14 age groups put in about 5 hours of works per day and girls of same age groups have almost full work in a day (Acharya, 1981, p. 127).
Marital status makes women totally dependent upon her husband because her rights upon the family property are only through husband. Women have equal right upon family property. Regarding the property, Bennett wrote that "men are endowed with the right to property by virtue of the biological fact of birth". Women's right to property depend almost entirely upon the social fact of marriage (i.e., on their role as a wife). Therefore women's economic security is entirely dependent on their adherence to strict social norms of proper marital behavior (Bennett, 1980, p. 89 To recognize the gendered challenges in post-conflict reconstruction and to promote women's participation in the public sphere, there has been some reconstructions program in Nepal. The 2015 Constitution extends affirmative action and the rights of women, Dalits, indigenous and other minorities. Independent constitutional commissions are provided for women and the Dalit, Janjati, Madhesi, Tharu and Muslim communities. The Human Rights Commission has been given the mandate to recommend reforms to laws, policies and practices to end discrimination (Mahat, 2015). Government and non-governmental agencies have worked to ensure the participation of women from various caste groups in electoral processes and in government through a variety of program (Dahal & Bhatta, 2008;Ramnarain, 2015). There is no positive attitude towards women's health and they do not get appropriate nutrition even in the period of pregnancy (UNICEF, 1996).
The participation of women in decision making will be great steps towards ensuring women of their right to voluntary motherhood and in turn improve her status. The women high caste group (Brahmin and Chhetri) the authority structure is male dominated, women can't make their own decision and they have 28 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sshsr Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 no independent source of income and property. Among the women for Baraga, Loharung Rai and Kham Magar, they have liberal social structure, which permit in the accumulation of property. Likewise, the Newar, the Tamang and the Tharus women can have their own independent source of property. Out of that, among the Newar of Kirtipur women cannot make her own independent decision to take her sick baby even to the hospital, without prior permission of the senior adult male of the family (Shrestha, 1997).

Methods and Materials
For the study, it is necessary to take the data and explain it with a focus. The data has been collected in the form of information through face-to-face meetings, observations and questionnaires within the stipulated time. The collected data is analyzed using general statistical method. The details of the procedure adapted for the present research study describes the research design, summarizes the operational definition and operational measures of selected variables. It will be also provide the details of the nature and source of data, sampling procedures, techniques of data collection, analysis and interpretation of information by the purpose of study.
The main objectives of the present study are to describe the status of tharu's women for their society to making decision power. The study of itscommunity women at micro level who are settling from Dang and Kailali district among the other living community has been selected. This study has presented both primary and secondary sources of information for the brief analyzing. It has used both of primary and secondary sources of data that were collected from by the field works. Primary data were collected from the sample respondents getting key informants. The secondary data are taken from the published and unpublished literature such as books, journals, articles, research reports and other different sources.
Structured interview schedule is prepared on the basis of research objectives before going to field for data collection. On the basis of that schedule, interview is performed with the respondent of sampled household to collect the required information. The Observation method will be used to collect the observable information such as women's participation in day-to-day activities, their role in household activities, and their relationship with family. The data are analyzed and interpreted presenting in table as far as possible and necessary, simple statistical tools like average and percentage are also used during the analysis.

Discussion and Analysis
The Dang district lies on Lumbini province on the mid western part of Nepal. It is located in the west The origin of Tharus claims that they become migrants from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India.
Others say that these are descendants of the children that were born out of the liaisons between the Rajput women and their servants who fled the Muslim invaders (Chandra, 2018). After living without their spouses in these areas for long periods they ultimately cohabited with their servants thus giving birth to the breed known as the Tharus. The Tharus are a mixed tribe whose ancestors had migrated into this area seems relevant to the Rajput women and servants migration aspect. But in spite of so much trouble taken in trying to associate the above theories with the presence of the Tharus people in the Terai and Duns of Nepal, none of them seem to be able to hold the picture as they profess to be a bit too farfetched, though highly romantic; There is one theory that seems to explain the presence andpedigree of these people who are considered the aborigines of the areas lying within the Inner  Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 The occupation of Tharus' has agriculture firstly and then livestock rearing. The women catch fish in small rivers, streams and pools using nets. They made distil alcohol at home by using wheat, barley and rice. They are seen to practice an ancient form of sustainable agriculture with the breeding of animals on one side while cultivating the land on the other side. They have two to four cows and same amount of goats, sheep, oxen, pigs and a whole lot of chickens. They say must be present for their various feasts and festivals where the demand for blood sacrifices of a variety of animals is essential.
The marriages of children are quite young when a boy has age of thirty to fourteen years and will be married to a girl age of seventeen to eighteen years were common. This sort of unbalanced age of marriage has claims because of their practical belief that an extra worker is made available by this union. Another reason offered is that the girls' sexual appetite increase as she grows older and the boy will be able to accommodate her as he will also be growing proportionally and thus, the balancing of this sexual high is possible. This also serves as a buffer to control the desire for extra material sex is supposed to satiate this unfulfilled craving.
Hinduism is the main religion of the Tharu's community. But nowadays, their belief and practice is gradually changing because of the education as well as interaction with Hindus and the houses are in traditional types. But some houses are built in modern style because of the developing of village-market. They are very poor opportunities of health, sanitation, education, family planning situation and employment situation for Tharu's community women.
The most important element of human development is education which affects every aspects of human's life. Like income, living standard, occupation, etc. The education attainment level of population is an important indicator of social development. It plays vital role for the development of people, national economy as a whole. It is principal mechanism or agent for fulfilling the awareness and change of the people. Education of the sample respondents was measured in terms of literacy status.
Those who were not even able to read and write were considered as "illiterate" and those who were able to read and write without any formal education were considered as non-formal schooling. Those who had received formal education were graded as Primary, Lower secondary, secondary educations have completed but the majorities 80% of Tharu women are illiterate.
The status of occupation of an individual plays an important role of her social identity, so all are known by their working status. The working status of the people is also determined the fertility behavior. In view of this, occupation of respondent has been taken as an important characteristic into consideration.
Out of total respondent, 62% respondents were engaged in agriculture, 32% were involved in household work and 32% respondents were not earned any income from outside. The service holder respondents were two percent and 4% respondents were other work like wage labor or servant.
Family is one of the social institution, concerns mainly with love, affection, sexual relationship, reproduction, child bearing, child care and socialization belongs to a family either by birth or by affinity. The activities of an individual revolve around his or her family. By comparison of decision making process of income, 35% of the women kept their income with themselves and 45% of the women decided for utilizing the income by husband. Likewise, the decisions regarding the utilizing the income of 7.5% of the women was in the hand of mother in law. In the same way 12.5% of the women had the authority to utilize their income by father in law. Similarly, 12.5% percent of women are save their income and 87.5% of women can't save their income. They spend their income in food. Out of total respondent, only 17.5% of the women spend their income in family health and 12.5% were in their child education.
Agriculture is major economic sources of Tharu's people. They have engaging into agriculture long a time of the year for living and In addition the major occupation is also concerned. In agriculture practices, male and female both are engaged cultivation by the same time and period they have different roles for practices according to their capacity to access. The decision making process of female were inferior to male but the situation has been changed due to various factors. The female is 32

Conclusion
The government of Nepal has improvement of women role and responsibility for main streams to making change of social, political and economic activities of Nation. The Nepal's government has already draft and assign of Constitution of Nepal that give women equally participation by the rule and legal system. The government has signed international agreements to promising implementation of policies that help to women empowerment. The relationship between women's education and their role on decision making process had more important and illiterate women have poor role on decision making process for household and community. The women are literate then they get to make decision for household family and community. Beside it, illiterate women don't have access on the decision making process for household and every community.
It was also conclude that females have low socio-economic status and thus lag behind men in household decision making. So it is essential to improve their ability and capacity to participate to economic improvement process. The female have to work more than the men in household but having less making decision power have the another issue of society. Although they have responsibility to complete the work but they haven't chance to decide itself for it selling and purchasing of goods. If there is any difficulty to complete the work, they can't decide at that moment and they have to ask for it.
The Tharus women are basically guided by their traditional rules and regulations.
The traditional Tharu's communities are concerned with the low prerogative social position in society.
It is not possible only from the backwardness society has opposition group like female members. When www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sshsr Social Science, Humanities and Sustainability Research Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 well as social status to support from other institution. It was easier to reach on their destination of women for its community.