In this short article, by Drishti Upreti, Basu Subedi and Bishnu Raj Upreti (from NCCR), the authors give us an account of the initial survey work done in Nepal in 2018 for the ‘Women, Violence and Displacement’ project which explores the experience of women who have been displaced due to an environmental disaster.
Using quantitative and qualitative tools the project looks in particular at violence and how this is experienced by women who have been displaced in different parts of Nepal and Myanmar. This project is led by University of Portsmouth in UK, and NCCR is the main partner leading the survey work in Nepal. The quantitative survey in Nepal has now been conducted by NCCR, and as we await the results of the analysis, the authors (from NCCR) have sought to capture some initial insights and lessons learned through the field work and research activity.
Location and Context
The major earthquake of April 25, 2015 with a 7.8 magnitude Richter scale racked Nepal affecting approximately 8 million people leading to 8,900 deaths and at least 22,000 injured. It was estimated that around 2.8 million people were displaced by the earthquake. The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) had included a list of municipalities including Shankarapur of Kathmandu to retrofit houses damaged by the devastating earthquake. Similarly, in another disastrous event of sustained, heavy rainfall that began in the second week of August 2017 caused major flooding across 35 of the country’s 75 districts. According to the office of the UN Resident Coordinator Nepal, 80 percent of land in the southern terai region was inundated by flood waters. Almost 65,000 houses were destroyed leaving 460,000 people displaced and more than 19,000 people living in informal displacement sites including schools. According to the situation report of Rural Reconstruction Nepal, 2017, 8,349 households of Morang district had been affected by the flood causing 373 houses fully damaged and 4032 houses partially damaged.
Considering the two major disastrous events that occurred in Nepal, two geographical locations were identified for the survey study. One area, Shankharapur Municipality of Kathmandu district was selected where there were households displaced from the earthquake of April 2015. The second location was in the Eastern ‘Terai’ region of the country situated in Morang District. Biratnagar Metropolitan City and Katahari Village Council were the study sites in the Terai where there were households displaced from the flooding that took place in July and August 2017.
More specifically, in Kathmandu district, two clusters were taken for the survey: Nangle (taken as the displaced site) and Palubaari (taken as the controlled site). The settlements in the Kathmandu study area were a mix of ethnic groups including Tamang, Brahmin, Chhetri, Newar and Dalit communities. In Morang, two specific clusters namely Kadam Gachhiya of Katahari Village Council and Khap Tole of Biratnagar Metropolitan City had been surveyed. The Musahar or Rishidev and Sataar (Dalit community) and other common caste such as Rajbanshi, Shah, Mandal, and Mahat were the inhabitants of the study area in Morang district. Due to the flood of August 2017, the locals had to live in a poor condition as their huts were swept away. Most of the households of both Kadam Gachhiya and Khap Tole were built on a government land (ailaani). This means that the people of these settlements do not have property of their own. Due to the flood, people had to shift to temporary settlements in nearby schools.
| Overview of quantitative survey on “Women, Violence and Displacement”
The table that follows provides a high-level overview of the survey showing the breakdown of the research team, the numbers of households surveyed and the dates when the survey was conducted: |
|||
| Description | Kathmandu District | Morang District | |
| Survey Date | 15th to 27th April 2018 | 4th to 16th May 2018 | |
| Total Household Surveyed (913) | 457 | 446 | |
| Total researchers
involved |
Field researcher (♂ ) | 3 | 1 |
| Field researcher (♀ ) | 4 | 4 | |
| Supervisors (♂ ) | 2 | 2 | |
Adopted Sampling Strategy
The households for survey were selected using a sampling strategy illustrated below:
The diagram illustrates how the clusters in Kathmandu and Morang were selected and having made these selections the census has been used to identify all the households in the clusters for the survey to focus on. The total number of households to be surveyed at each district was finalized at 440. However, considering the number of enumerators for Kathmandu district, the number of total households surveyed reached 457 households there compared to a final number of 446 households in Morang district. The surveyed area of Nanglebhare (rural site) of Kathmandu district comprised the majority of Tamang community whereas Paalubaari (urban site) included majority of Jaisi Brahmins. On the other hand, Dalits and Janjatis were the dominant groups settled of Morang districts.
Lessons Learned
Following the field visits, with this experience fresh in the minds of the researchers, a range of lessons were captured, which are shared below:
Use of terms: field researchers need to understand and be able to explain specific terms.
- Most of the women of Kathmandu district seemed aware about the term “violence against women (mahila himsa)” except for a few women from the Tamang community who needed to have this concept explained to them using simple terms such as being beaten by the husband or being badly mistreated badly. In the case of Morang district initially, more respondents were unable to understand the term “violence against women”. Hence, time was taken to help them understand the term
- Situation of violence against women: The early findings suggest that the majority of Dalit female respondents interviewed were in one way or another suffering from a certain degree of domestic violence in Morang district. In Kathmandu this situation is less prevalent, and it was only in the Tamang settlement of Naglebhare where some incidents were reported. However, displacement did not have any effect upon the nature of violence in both the districts.
Language issue: We had a fear that language barriers would constrain interviews with members of specific ethnic communities in the Morang district who often spoke their own language. But once the researchers started working with them, language was not an issue and communication was smooth. Some respondents preferred to speak in their native language, but field researchers understood the meaning and vice versa.
Sharing personal experiences:
- In Kathmandu, whilst women were aware about violence against women (mahila himsa), they remained hesitant to talk openly about their personal violence of such violence. They preferred to talk about the violence that they have witnessed in their neighbor’s household or in nearby villages.
- In Morang, women interviewed, were more open to directly share their personal experiences of violence
Time and seasonality of survey: In Kathmandu, most of the respondents were busy working in the fields harvesting potatoes. Furthermore, local festivals (e.g., mother’s day = aamako mukh herne aausi, literally translated as ‘coming to see the mothers face’) were also affecting the survey. Thus, the field researchers had to interview most of the women who were going to their potato harvesting fields, either in the morning before they go to the field or after they return from the field in the early evening. This highlights the need to be aware of seasonal factors and holidays, when arranging survey activities.