The Musahar community, in Northern India, is socially and economically one of the most marginalized communities in India and they are poorest amongst poor. The Musahar community falls under the category of the Scheduled Caste.

Although the practice of untouchability is a crime in Indian law the Musahar community is not allowed to enjoy ordinary social life with the mainstream society and to share common amenities in the village.

People from the Musahar community are deprived of owning property, means of livelihood, and education. For their survival they work as laborers in the agricultural fields or do some other hard physical labour. The remuneration for such work is given in kind, mostly discarded food or grains. Due to this they do not have any savings that they could use during times of need. This forces them into starvation at times when they have no regular work.

 In such a situation Musahar community largely depends upon the Public Distribution System (PDS) to get food grains at subsidised rate for their survival. But due to corruption in the bureaucracy and due to an almost defunct judiciary, often weaker sections of society are denied of the food grains in the villages because the PDS licensee can easily escape from their criminal offences and malpractices.

Musahars are estimated between 5 lakhs to 7 lakhs in Uttar Pradesh and concentrated in eastern belt of Uttar Pradesh in districts Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Deoria and are also found in Siddharthnagar, Mau, Jaunpur, Chandouli, Gazipur, Mirzapur and Varanasi districts. Exact figures are not available as they are included in SC category in the state but were not counted separately in last census. They are estimated to be closer to 3 millions in Bihar.

For the purpose of the present study villages Dhuriyaghat, Karmaini and Doghra from block Kasaya in district Kushinagar, villages Ledhi and Ramnagar Badiya from block Nichllol in dist Maharajganj and village Ranipur from block Katiya in dist Gopalganj were visited.