nepal
NEPAL APC STUDY AT A GLANCE RESEARCH PARTNER – YUWALAYA, NEPAL
Crisis context The massive Gorkha Earthquake on April 25, 2015 affected 14 districts of Nepal. Landslides in the Himalayas and aftershocks followed it for days. 8,980 people died, whereas 195 are missing and 22,303 were injured; 202,157 houses were fully damaged and 214,202 houses were partially damaged. The earthquake affected the livelihoods of over 2.28 million households and 8 million people. Nepal is a small and poor country where a majority of the population lives in rural areas. The destruction of lives, livelihoods and property was a major setback undoing many developmental gains made over the past many years. For example, Nepal had seen an 80% decline in maternal mortality between 1991 and 2011. However, 41% of children under 5 years are stunted, 11% are wasted, and 29% are underweight. The earthquake severely damaged healthcare infrastructure in the 14 most affected districts particularly putting pregnant women and young children at risk. Following the earthquake, women and children in Nepal are also at a greater risk for violence, sexual abuse and trafficking. The Nepal research for IPA’s Access to Play in Crisis (APC) was conducted in two villages, Bhumlutar in Kavre disctrict and Kunchowk in Sindupalchowk district. Most of the earthquake victims are still in the temporary shelters and also in their old damaged houses. The government of Nepal had committed support of 200,000 NRs to rebuild their homes in three installments along with another 300,000 NRs as soft loan. But the process of getting the money is lengthy and complex. A few aid-providing organizations committed support to rebuilding the homes and schools, but due to political instability and financial mismanagement the reconstruction work is being delayed. Homes are being rebuilt by the affected people using the skills they have (along with new skills from different trainings) and materials purchased in the open market and also by re-using the materials salvaged from their broken homes.
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I PA W O R L D . O R G
Impact on the right to play The awareness of the right to play is currently missing in both the children and adult duty bearers. Consequently, the interventions for children at village level have not prioritized provision of space and resources for play nor sensitized the community for removing the social barriers to children’s play in ordinary times as well as in the rebuilding efforts after the earthquake. Immediately after the earthquake no children played as they were too shocked and in grief over the loss of loved ones and their homes. However, as the rebuilding process started, younger children were sent out to play, but were asked to stay away from unsafe places, including the open spaces which were near fully or partially damaged buildings and steep slopes. However, people used many of these open spaces, such as playgrounds and school premises, as sites for temporary shelters they built themselves with any available and salvaged materials. So, children mostly played on the roads, which were not safe due to movement of people and materials in the aftermath of the earthquake. In Sindupalchowk, there were still some open spaces that were safe for playing. But in Kavre, whose terrain had steep slopes and forest areas there were no safe spaces for playing. Barriers to playing • After the earthquake and the aftershocks that followed, the destruction around the children traumatized them and prevented even small children from playing. • As children were asked to go play in safe places while parents worked, lack of adequate playable open spaces in the villages or spacious playgrounds in schools prevented many types of play. • For girls above 11 years in age, permission to play is typically withheld as girls are expected to help with household chores or do homework while at home. However, when permission to play is given to girls after finishing all assigned tasks, they prefer to stay indoors and play games on their mobile phones. The habit of playing outside gradually erodes away. • Older adolescent girls (15-18 years) are considered grown-ups and not only do they have no social permission to play, they also do not want to play at home and in the neighbourhood.
