Tharu Tribe : In News
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) homes bring smiles to women of the Tharu tribe in the Kheri district near the Indo-Nepal border.
- Tharu Tribe is one of the indigenous groups living in the Terai plain on the Indo-Nepal border.
- They live in both India and Nepal.
- In the Indian terai, they live mostly in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
- In 1967, this tribe was documented as a Scheduled Tribe by the Government of India.
- They have their own language called Tharu or Tharuhati, a language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European family.
- Most Tharu practice agriculture, raise cattle, hunt, fish, and collect forest products.
- Most of their food involves rice, lentils, and vegetables.
- They build their homes from bamboo and mud.
- Despite their patrilineal social system, women have property rightsgreatly exceeding those recognized in Hindu society.
- Tharu marriages are patrilocal within the tribe.
- A common feature of the Tharu community is the joint family system of living in long houses.
- Tharus live in compact villages, usually in the middle of a forest clearing. Each village is governed by a council and a headman.