Introduction / History

Introduction / History

The Mushar community resides in almost every district of province no. 2.  According to the population census 2011, the population of Mushar is 2,34,490 equivalent to 0.8% of total population; are settled in about 31 districts of southern Terai and inner Terrain belt of Nepal.  Sarlahi is one of the underdeveloped district of the province, constituting 14,137 Mushar population, out of which 6,786 are women, 48 % of total Mushar population of the district. They use the local dialects of Maithili, Bhojpuri and Awadhi accordingly to their geographical distribution. Few urban population understands and able to communicate in Nepali language while Nepali language is barrier for rural population. They are one of the socially marginalized, Terai Dalit communities, commonly known as “rat eaters”, and placed at the bottom of hierarchical caste system. The word Mushar is related to Bhojpuri word 'Mush' meaning mouse or rat and 'ahar' means eaters (Chaubey et al. 2007). They smoke into the rat holes in the fields to flush out rats to catch them and consume.

The community prefers to be called as Rishidev, decent of sage Valmiki and claim Dinaram Bhadri as their Great Man. They believe that the generation of Mushar came into existence from the same person Dinaram Bhadri (RDA, 2008). The community is composed of a cluster of about 30 household groups in a single community. Their houses are light and constructed from locally available materials such as bamboo and straw. The house of Mushar is composed of single large central room. In one corner, they keep their livestock; in another they cook their meals. Their houses are prone to stand high against water flow current and usually falls below normal standard of construction with less air circulation, inadequate lighting, open space and low sanitation facilities  of drinking and drainage supply. Usually the community houses are at the backward area of the village

They usually have minimum ancestral land and especially women land ownership is negligible and rare as compared to male population. The main reason behind this might be issue of citizenship,  as cross border marriage relations is seen between to the community living in the border areas as well as lack of awareness to get citizenship and technical difficulties according to existing government rules and  regulations might also be one of the reason behind it. They sustain their livelihood as bonded agricultural labors, daily wages, and domestic helpers in high caste home, fishing and livestock.  Usually they lack in food security, while some manage to buy food, most still have to procure food every day. Many times their wages are paid in crops by their landlords. The unstable financial dependency has raised problem of high interest lending from the affluent family of the society, leading to financial burden of financial crisis to the community and inadequate information related to accessible financial assistance from banking institution. At the same time, the eligible member of the community also enjoys the pension facility given by the government.

The community is deprived of basic facilities of food, housing, health, sanitation, education, and livelihood. Illiteracy, poverty, malnutrition and economic dependency are the features of this community with minimal living standard. Their living standards fall below the poverty line. Extreme poverty, education, health facility, sanitation, early marriage, alcoholism and among male population are the most common problems faced by the community. Beside this superstitious social beliefs and religious practice, social norms and dowry system, social discrimination, prevailing child labor (19.9% in Dalit Community) National  15.30% is also one of the major persistence problems seen in the community. The social problem of early marriage is more common seen in this community, with high risk of infant mortality rate child mortality rate and mother’s health. The misguided views on family planning methods and the use of contraceptive devices is avoided by the community, that would play an vital role in reducing the early birth rate, reducing infant and child mortality rate of  the community.

The unstable stable financial condition of the community has adversely affected schooling of Mushar children, despite the government free schooling policy up to high school and school meal facility for primary grade children. Rarely, the children of this community are enrolled in school, even though, enrolled the according to the data the high school drop rate is found to be almost 54% and lower level low education level estimated 6.9 % (CBS 2011). The reason behind high rate drop out may be due to lack of awareness, low financial condition, early child marriage, matching educated bride and groom respectively, dowry system and financial burden to earn for their livelihood.

Traditionally religious faith are based on Hindu ethnicity, worship their family deity and the village deity. Almost all Mushars live in rural areas, with a mere a living in the city. The Mushar counterparts in India especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also have similar conditions.