Context : A systematic estimation of the line of sight depth in the disk and bar regions of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds ( LMC and SMC ) using red clump stars is presented .

Aims : We used the red clump stars from the photometric data of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment ( OGLE II ) survey and the Magellanic Cloud Photometric Survey ( MCPS ) for both the Clouds to estimate the depth .

Methods : The observed dispersion in the magnitude and colour distribution of red clump stars is used to estimate the depth , after correcting for population effects , internal reddening within the Clouds and photometric errors .

Results : The observed dispersion due to the line of sight depth ranges from 0.023 mag , to 0.45 mag ( a depth of 500 pc to 10.4 kpc ) for the LMC and , from 0.025 to 0.34 magnitude ( a depth of 670 pc to 9.53 kpc ) for the SMC .
The minimum value corresponds to the dispersion that can be estimated due to errors .
The depth profile of the LMC bar indicates that it is flared .
The average depth in the bar region is 4.0 \pm 1.4 kpc .
The northern disk is found to have depth ( 4.17 \pm 0.97 kpc ) larger than the southern part of the disk ( 2.63 \pm 0.8 kpc ) .
There is no indication of depth variation between the eastern ( 2.8 \pm 0.92 kpc ) and the western ( 3.09 \pm 0.99 kpc ) disk .
The average depth for the disk is 3.44 \pm 1.16 kpc .
The SMC is found to have larger depth than the LMC .
In the case of the SMC , the bar depth ( 4.90 \pm 1.23 kpc ) and the disk depth ( 4.23 \pm 1.48 kpc ) are found to be within the standard deviations .
A prominent feature in the SMC is the increase in depth near the optical center .
The averaged depth profile near the center resembles a structure like a bulge .

Conclusions : The large dispersions estimated in the LMC bar and the northern disk suggest that the LMC either has large depth and/or different stellar population in these regions .
The halo of the LMC ( using RR Lyrae stars ) is found to have larger depth compared to the disk/bar , which supports the existence of an inner halo for the LMC .
On the other hand , the estimated depths for the halo ( RR Lyrae stars ) and disk are found to be similar , for the SMC bar region .
Thus , increased depth and enhanced stellar as well as HI density near the optical center suggests that the SMC may have a bulge .