Empowerment of indigenous women in recovery of post-earthquake 2015 in Nepal: a feminist perspective

Abstract

Discrimination against gender and caste can be overwhelming issue to a person or a group who faces it. Similarly, indigenous women of Nepal have been facing impediments in regard to unequal power relations caused by gender, identity, as well as disaster. With the conceptualization of Feminist Political Ecology, this paper analyzes the subjectivities of a feminist perspective that highlights the lives of indigenous women pre-earthquake and their experiences on how they are affected by power relations in political ecology of Nepal. Along with the findings of the indigenous women’s lives and their experiences amid the earthquake 2015 have also been analyzed with the notion of empowerment in Nepal. In addition, the analysis on the notion of empowerment is made on political, socio-cultural, environmental governance, and economical aspects, as these dimensions are interconnected and intertwined that have consequences on indigenous women in terms of power imbalance, disaster sensitivity, and their empowerment. So, this paper finds it important to explore on such subjectivities to enlighten the stakeholder on the differences that a woman based on gender and caste is facing different forms of impediments on their lives and experiences during a disaster. Likewise, the paper is based on qualitative research with the interview of a focus group on research site named Sankhu/Shankarapur in Kathmandu district (hard-hit area by earthquake 2015), and as well on one-on-one interview with key informants, along with secondary sources for analysis. Hence, this research has been an emphasis on the dynamics of indigenous women’s lives pre-earthquake and their experiences during the earthquake 2015, with the notion of empowerment through the lens of Feminist Political Ecology.