Local level socio-economic impacts and responses to the earthquakes-2015: A case of Kirtipur Municipality

Abstract

The series of earthquakes and aftershocks affect Nepal in 2015. However, very few studies were carried out to assess and analyze the local-level impacts and responses. The present study focuses on impacts and responses to earthquakes in the Kirtipur Municipality based on secondary data and primary information generated from the open-ended questions to the purposively selected samples. Higher number of human casualties was observed among the elderly and children, but no such difference in terms of gender. The wards in core areas, particularly in Panga and Chovar, were affected the most because of century old houses without any disaster resistant technologies. The social bonding and cohesion were strongly observed during rescue and relief phases. The separated families united during the first two phases whereas the united families separated to nuclear families in recovery and reconstruction phases. The major reasons were main political transition, lack of financial resources and social factors.