Earthquake Induced Displacement and Livelihoods: the Case Of Severely Affected Districts of Nepal

Abstract

The overall objective of the study is to understand and examine how humans react to a disaster situation like earthquake (EQ) and how they cope with the situation that prevailed in the 2015 Nepal earthquake induced displacement and followed by several subsequent aftershocks. The specific objectives were to study the processes of earthquake induced displacement and forced mobility and examine the shift in livelihood patterns due to the earthquake. For this study, the sampling involved three stages. In the first stage, the two heavily affected districts i.e. Sindhupalchok and Rasuwa from central mountain of Nepal were purposively selected. In the second stage, the relocated settlements of the earthquake induced displaced households were selected. Finally, in the third stage, individual households were selected using a systematic sampling procedure, and the total of 735 households were interviewed for this study. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data using the structured survey questionnaire and qualitative information collection tools. The key finding of the study revealed that displaced households were already deprived and from socially disadvantaged groups. And still, they are vulnerable. The study examined that the root cause of displacement was the earthquake, but still they are prone to secondary disasters such as landslides, floods, and crake. The study concludes that earthquake generates a stream of displacement at the intra and inter-district and inter-intra Rural Municipality/ Municipality levels temporarily and permanently. There is clear evidence of livelihood shifts from better to the worsen situation. In an earthquake situation, there have been significant changes in livelihood capital assets namely - natural capital, human capital, physical capital, and social capital but not seemed significant change is evident in financial capital. The significant change in social capital is due to the loss of social networking at the new place of residence and a reduction in social and cultural rituals and participation. Significant changes in physical capital assets appear as loss of household assets these are used in daily livelihoods. In the case of human capital assets, there were significant changes after the earthquake and in some cases; positive changes were evident as some members of the affected households learn vocational skills and earthquake preparedness training, showing the fact that disasters may not always have negative impacts on livelihoods.