youth and social development

YOUTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO
DHANKUT OF DISTRICT BAHARAICH

Dr. Alok Chantia* & Dr. Preeti Misra**
*Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, Sri J.N.P.G. College, (KKC) Lucknow; E-Mail alokchantia@rediffmail.com; alokchantia@gmail.com
**Lecturer, Dept of Human Rights, School for Legal Studies, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow; E-Mail misra9us@gmail.com;misra9_us@yahoo.com

Keywords- Youth, Social Development, Dhankut

Abstract-
Any culture discusses marriage, family, economy which is nothing but the discussion of role of youth because all these phenomenon depend upon youth .So youth generates space for a group, culture , society, state or country. Social development wants a proper care and attention where we are discussing youth’s role.

Dhankut is an endogamous group of district Baharaich of UP. They are known for their queer characteristic of cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages. Dhankut are not listed in four caste stratification, nor their name is given in SC/ST/OBC no literature is available about them in any official or unofficial record expect in author’s research work. Dhankut with 50 000 population are scattered across the U.P. but in Baharaich 2687 are living I Dhankutty pura. They are fighting for their origin and identity since 1973 but in vain .
More then 60% of its population represent youth .Youth have no option except doing retail work because it is non-agrarian group, only 3 Dhankut are in government jobs and all are IV class employees. Dhankut youth is interested in taking education .Result shows a contrast feature though they are aware about health, still they are alcoholic due to frustration. Result also shows that youth is willing to share their energy for all types of development but due to non recognition of caste and absence of alternatives, social development is meaningless.

Present study is an explorative cum descriptive type of work, 300 respondents above 18 year of age and of both sex were interviewed randomly. Present study was carried out between 2005 to 2007.