Lived Experiences of Displacement

This section provides testimony on women’s experience of displacement and their coping mechanisms for surviving in the temporary camps.

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In the first months after the earthquake, women stayed with their relatives in temporary camps. After four months of living in a tent, Shova, a young mother in her late twenties whose house completely collapsed, narrated how she had embarked on an exhausting routine.

I work more now than before the earthquake. Finding a place to cook and to fetch water is difficult in a new place. I now walk 40 minutes to bring water to cook and drink, and the same distance to wash clothes. My daughter is only 6 years old. I always take her along. I have to be more careful, because my daughter does not know this place as well as she knew our house. I am scared she might get lost and people don’t know her so well. The extra caring and household tasks is a big problem. My husband does not help me, he always goes out with his friends. He has no work since the earthquake, because the wood carving shop that employed him collapsed as well. He doesn’t help me and only comes to the camp when the food is ready. We survive because my mother and brother gave us utensils, blankets, some money and food. We also borrowed money from our relatives. I am looking for work, any type of work like maid or daily labour. I have no choice but to take the responsibility. (August).

The story of Shova and her husband was quite general. For women, their responsibilities of care continue at a more complicated level in the context of displacement. Their husbands, on the other hand, have less continuity in their responsibilities, with much employment halted after the earthquake. Nonetheless, they maintained the pre-established gender division of labour.

Nitu, a breast-feeding mother shared how she managed displacement in the first weeks after the quake, together with her daughter, in the absence of her husband:

Due to the earthquake the water taps in my area broke, now I walk around 30 minutes daily to fetch water for cooking, and to wash my clothes. My husband is stuck somewhere else due to the earthquake, as the roads are blocked in our village. I have a 6-month old daughter, so I must carry her along with the heavy clothes and water jar. Living in a temporary camp with a small child is tough. My daughter keeps crying in the night, and then I must change her diaper and feed her quickly, because some people don’t like the noise of children. (May).

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Nitu, like Shova, is solely responsible for caring for a child in the household, in her case because of the absence of her husband who is stuck in a distant village. For marginalised women, the situation was even more precarious. A migrant woman, Kiran, shared her story of displacement:

My husband went for foreign employment to Saudi Arabia, and I am alone with my 8-year old son. I lived in a rented house, that collapsed in the earthquake. So, I had no place anymore to live. My husband’s brother who is in the village does not talk to me because of my caste. I am Tharu (indigenous group) and my husband is Chettri (upper caste). For the first 6 weeks I made a tent of bedsheets. But nobody knows me here. After six weeks, the landowner asked me to move from his land. Now I am living in another temporary tent, and I don’t know what will happen next. Maybe I can stay here or maybe I have to move to another place. (July).

Kiran’s migrant identity created social isolation, made complete by the absence of her husband and disregard of her husband’s family. Her narrative demonstrates the working of intersectionality, where gender intersects with caste and her history with migration (Rampurawa and Humpuries 2004; Perara-Mubarak 2013). While women tried to cope with their displacement in the first months after the earthquake, two themes recurred often in their stories: a sense of insecurity, and the issue of psychological stress.

6.6.1 Insecurity During Displacement

Issues of insecurity in the temporary shelters frequently figured in the stories of the women. The women lived in tents made from plastic or cloth, and without a door or window anybody could get access. Sheltering in open camps created threats during the night, when strangers could enter the sites. Several women told about groups of people around their camps that consumed excessive alcohol, used abusive language or engaged in gang-fighting, leaving the empty bottles around the camp. Sarawati shared the following incident:

One evening, a group of strange boys entered the camp, when they notice there are only women and small children. I and other women started to shout out loud, until the boys ran away. (May).

Apart from their personal security, women especially feared theft. They found some security, however, in the presence of other women – and men – that were close by, so they could deal with intruders.

145 6.6.2 Psychological Stress

Women, unsurprisingly, often talked about the psychological duress they felt from the quake, their losses, the challenges of displacement and their worries about the future.

Ganga, a migrant mother of three children shared her story:

My son (6 years old), broke his hand when he was locked inside the house and my other two kids were also heavily injured on their legs and body. My children are traumatised. I lost everything in the earthquake, so now I must buy many things that I lost but I don’t have income and my husband also lost his job. I have to pay rent. My relatives are also very poor and face the same situation like me. I am always worried (September).

Sanu shared her emotional stress from the earthquake as follows:

After my husband and father-in law died in the earthquake, it I did not sleep for two months. I see horrible dreams, until now I did not dare to go inside my house, it feels like a graveyard. I just left my belongings there and will never use them anymore. It will give me pain to see them and remember my loved ones. (August).

Bimala described her situation thus:

The earthquake made me weaker and weaker, day by day. I was admitted in the hospital for 10 days and went through head surgery. Now I cannot work like before. I am also worried how to reconstruct the house and pay our debt. My parents are also poor and cannot help me (September).

The emotional effects related to the accumulation of issues, starting with the loss of the people in the traumatic event of the earthquake. Save the Children (2016) found that a high number of women and girls in Nepal developed post-traumatic syndrome (PTSD) during the earthquake. The stories of the participants in this research reveal that the source of their trauma continues well into the aftermath of the disaster. These are the worries of displacement, as well as – as we shall discuss below - the challenges of recovery and especially their outstanding debts.

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