Information from Displacement Narrators in Shankharapur Municipality in Kathmandu District:
During the final weeks of December, Sumeera Shrestha (from the Women, Violence and Displacement project) sent a range of questions to the three project displacement narrators Meera Magar, Sulochana Bajgain, and Rajin Ray Maghi, and the following responses are based on phone calls and a short meeting at Sumeera’s office. The responses which relate to Shankharapur, an earthquake affected municipality in Nepal in Kathmandu District, are synthesised below under relevant headings:
Brief description about social, economic, geographical, cultural and political as well as health related problems in the community.
Nepal is a multicultural, multi-ethnic based country where there are different types of languages, and various types of religion, customs and traditions are being observed. In a country where religion and customs are deeply rooted, the social customs also vary from place to place. Even today, in the name of religion, various discriminatory practices are still being observed. Among the most discriminated groups, are Women, Dalit groups, Madhesi citizens, Muslim and the Minorities living below the poverty line. These groups have limited reach in accessing services like health and education and their weak economic condition and their geographical setting are the main reasons behind them being impoverished.
Some of the main community level problems noted are as follows:
Economic problems:
- There is no freedom to work according to what you desire, as the transportation system is so poor and especially during the monsoon the situation gets severe.
- There is lack of fair payment for their work, as in the rural setting there is lots of agricultural and construction work but getting fair wages for men and women is a problem.
- People face disrespect if they are not able to do the work. The situation facing females is worst.
Political problems
- Monopoly and nepotism exists in the way work is distributed, which is based on political party affiliation, and these days it is getting more severe since everyone has elected representatives at the local level.
- Various political parties have introduced their own sets of rules as a result of which economic issues arise
Cultural problems
- Caste discrimination leads to lack of involvement in the cultural programs or festivals. Even though the situation is a bit less severe the practice of untouchability is still high.
Health related problems
- Lack of awareness about the importance of timely health checkups leads to people only visiting health posts when they are in a critical state. For example for the c-section birth and other complications there is no treatment at the health post, so people need to be brought all the way to the city in Jorpati, Kathmandu for check-ups.
- Lack of convenient transportation facilities makes the situation even more critical
- Some people can’t afford the facilities due to their economic status
Problems seen and faced after displacement resulting from the destructive earthquake along with examples.
After the great earthquake, citizens of Nepal have been suffering immensely. In rural areas houses are constructed with mud and stones and they are therefore weak, and this has resulted in a massive number of houses being destroyed as a result of the earthquake. Destruction of settlement areas has lead to many homeless people. As a result, people had to live under tarpaulin, and the State provided galvanised iron sheets to construct temporary shelter for the citizens and after that policies for reconstruction were tabled for the earthquake affected people. But in the implementation of those policies, there have been various challenges.
To exercise the rights provided by the state, there is a need for vital registration papers like citizenship, death certificate, property ownership certificate, relationship certificate which it is compulsorily to present. In rural areas, the lack of awareness on the importance of the vital registration papers has led to loss of such papers during the earthquake, and this has led to limiting the reach of the people of rural areas for attaining the relief and other facilities. Hence, they need to be helped in obtaining or making the required papers.
The relief given by the state has been distributed in instalments which has hindered the reconstruction work of the people living in the rural areas. Thus, they are still living in the temporary shelters. There is also a shortage of food supplies despite the help provided by various organisations, as this didn’t last many days
Due to the monsoon and extreme winter, the people especially pregnant and postnatal women, infants, senior citizens living in temporary shelters have been suffering through various health issues.
Whilst living in temporary shelters there is a shortage of clean drinking water, toilets and sanitary facilities, hence large numbers of earthquake survivors have been facing health threats. Many of the main sources of clean water for drinking have dried up.
There is also a problem economic instability among the locals along with the lack of working opportunities. People faced difficulty in continuing the professions they practiced earlier; the priority of the survivors has shifted to building a home for themselves so for example there is a lack of organisation in the community-based fishing profession.
Describe about the violence faced by the women and girls in the society?
Due to excessive consumption of alcohol (particularly among husbands), the male members of community have been thrashing, threatening and throwing the female members of their family out of their homes at midnight, and even denying them meals.
Due to weak economic condition and impoverishment, the women in rural areas have been facing physical and psychological violence. Rude comments are made by in-laws, and women are blamed and falsely accused in front of their son
Lack of employment and educational opportunities have endangered the women folk and led to an increase in the numbers of women and girls being trafficked. Women and children displaced by the earthquake have been facing gender-based violence from their male counterparts.
Girls are looked at with bad intentions, by males who are seeking to take advantage of them
What are the different plans and programs initiated by the various organisations, municipality, community etc.?
There are many good plans in the community including various awareness raising programs on social issues, skill development trainings for local men, personal development trainings, and life skill trainings.
Programmes conducted at the Ward level by a range of different organisations include
- Discussing and addressing problems
- Providing recommendation letters for different legal certificates especially for the displaced earthquake victims and for women facing problems in obtaining vital registration documents.
- Providing legal aid and psycho-social counselling to needy people.
- Support for Income generating programs for poor and vulnerable people at the community level.
- Providing different materials to support reconstruction work in the community. A 50% percent discount is also provided on the price of agricultural tools for the people involved in farming.
- Provision of vitamin capsules and vaccination injections for children under the age of 10 years old.
- Conducting awareness programmes for pre and post pregnancy women.
- Providing scholarship support to needy single women in various communities.
Organisations that have been working in the community include:
- Lutheran World Federation: which helped in the resettlement of the earthquake victims by providing them with secure shelter
- Home net: which provided training such as tailoring and provides supplied essential equipment like sewing machines, equipment etc.
- WHR: which delivered various programs to raise awareness on human rights, train on leadership and personal development and incident reporting etc.
Work led by the Municipality includes:
- Providing different legal documents to people.
- Acting as Quasi-judicial bodies on certain civil cases.
- Support for making roads, bridges and other construction for development of the community.