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Social Exclusion, Vulnerability and Deprivation Among Plan Nepal Program Areas [Unedited Version]

Technical Report · December 2005 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17728.99841

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SOCIAL EXCLUSION

VULNERABILITY AND DEPRIVATION

Among Plan Nepal Program Areas [Unedited Version]

Yogendra B Gurung Govind Subedi

Plan Nepal Nepal Country Office Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur

December 2005 Acknowledgements

The study team would like to express sincere gratitude to all the respondents and stakeholders who have given their valuable time and shared their experiences on programs. Their experiences and opinion were valuable not only to understand our inquiries but also to have an insight for the future direction for the inclusive policy and strategy of Plan Nepal development program. This made possible us to accomplish this study within a given time with sufficient evidence. Ms. Minty Pandey, Mr. Hem Poudel and Mr. Uddhav Rai, Plan Country Office, deserves a high level of acknowledgement for commissioning this study to us and their devotion in arrangement and regular inputs for quality product. It will not be enough to say in words for such a heartfelt help from Mr. Kalbhan Rai, Mr. Prem Syambu, Mr. Jujubhai Maharjan, and Mr. Om Shrestha from Makwanpur PU, Dr. Chandra Kumar Sen, Netra Upadhaya, Kanhaiya Pokhrel from Bara/Rautahat PU, and Mr. Badri Shrestha and Mr. Sonaj Tulachan from Banke PU for their encouragement and advice to collect valid information during the field survey. Other concerned staff from all three Plan PUs are also equally thankful without whom field survey of this study was not possible. The study team wishes to thank Mr. Keshav Yadav, Ms. Sushma Tiwari, and Ms. Salita Gurung for field work and Ms. Biddhya Shrestha for data management.

Yogendra Gurung

i Contents Pages

Acknowledgements ...... i Contents ...... ii List of Tables ...... iii Acronyms ...... iv Executive Summary ...... vi Chapter I: Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Background...... 1 1.2 Research Objectives ...... 1 1.3 Defining Vulnerability, Deprivation and Social Exclusion ...... 1 1.4 Research Methods ...... 5 Chapter II: Context of Vulnerability and Deprivation ...... 9 2.1 Economic Aspects of Deprivation and Vulnerability ...... 9 2.2 Human Capital ...... 14 2.3 Formal and Informal Safety Nets as Means for Mitigating Vulnerability ...... 21 2.4 Natural calamities and seasonal vulnerability ...... 23 Chapter III: State of Exclusion ...... 24 3.1 Introduction ...... 24 3.2 Nature and Extent of the Exclusion ...... 24 3.3 Dimensions of the Exclusion ...... 33 3.4 Causes of Exclusion from Plan Program ...... 36 Chapter IV: Conclusion and Recommendations ...... 42 Reference Cited ...... 45 Annex I: Respondent's Profile ...... 46 Annex II: Summary Key Indicators of Vulnerability and Deprivation ...... 47 Annex III: Case Studies ...... 48

ii List of Tables

Table 1.1: Basis for selection of Tarai PUs ...... 6 Table 2.1: Percentage of households with no land, and with a Kachhi house ...... 10 Table 2.2: Household livestock holding status and livestock's population ...... 11 Table 2.3: Employment status outside agriculture by Plan PUs and caste and ethnicity ...... 12 Table 2.4: Household deprivation in access to drinking water and toilet facilities ...... 15 Table 2.5: Sample population with chronic sickness/disability by age groups ...... 16 Table 2.6: Percentage distribution of children aged 5-14 years not attending schools ...... 17 Table 2.7: Dependency ratios of the sample population by Plan PU and caste/ethnicity ...... 19 Table 2.8: Sample population by family structure and Plan PU ...... 20 Table 2.9: Percentage of households involving in saving and credit groups ...... 22 Table 2.10: Percentage of households who were involved in saving and credit groups ...... 23 Table 3.1: Respondents who have children aged 5-14 not going to school ...... 25 Table 3.2: Respondents not visited Health Post during the year preceding the survey ...... 26 Table 3.3: Respondents who have at least one child under five with not birth certificate ...... 28 Table 3.4: Respondents who have no citizenship ...... 29 Table 3.5: Respondents who are not getting old-age allowance ...... 30 Table 3.6: Respondents who are not participated in saving and credit programs ...... 31 Table 3.7: Participation in Plan development program ...... 32

iii Acronyms

BO Plan Nepal Branch Office CBOs Community Based Organizations CBS Central Bureau of Statistics COSAN Community Support Association of Nepal CEAPRED Centre for Agriculture Policy Research Extension and Development DDC District Development Committee DFID UK Department for International Development DU Plan Nepal Development Unit ECCD Early Child Care Development FGD Focus Group Discussion FORWARD Forum for Rural Welfare and Agriculture Reform for Development HDC Human Development Centre (Pakistan) HDI Human Development Index HDM Human Deprivation Measure HMG His Majesty Government (Nepal) INGOs International Non-Governmental Organizations KII Key Informant Interviews NGO Non-Governmental Organization NPC National Planning Commission NPLAP Nepal Participatory Learning and Advisory Project PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal PU Plan Nepal Program Unit PV Plan Volunteer SC Sponsored Children UNDP United Nations Development Program VDC Village Development Committee WDR World Development Report NDC National Dalit Commission NFDIN National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities NWC National Women Commission

iv Glossary

Abadhi Abadhi is a regional language, a branch of Indo-Aryan linguistic group, spoken by Madhesis in Far-Western Tarai. Aran Aran is equipment used by black-smiths for making iron weapons such as ploughs, knives, Khukuris, Kodalo etc. Band Band refers to strikes usually used by political parties and its sister organizations for the movement against government. Bhojpuri Bhojpuri is a regional language, a branch of Indo-Aryan linguistic group, spoken by Madhesis in central and western Tarai. Bigah Bigah is a measurement unit of land used in the Tarai. It is equivalent to 0.6773 hectare. Dalit Dalit is the term used to indicate group of people for the purpose of targeting to mainstreaming in social and economic development. They are religiously, culturally, socially, economically, and politically suppressed, oppressed, and depressed due to being as untouchables under the Hindu caste system. Gaundari It is a traditional occupation of Chamar men in which Gaundari collects the dead bodies of livestock and disposes them. He also works as security guard of the village. Gaundari's wife works as a traditional birth attendant and also serves maternal mother for 12 days of her delivery. In turn, Gaundari's household gets some paddy on annual basis from his servicing. Guthi Guthi is an ethnic and traditional organization where people from the same community organized for religious, cultural, social, and economic cooperation within them. Janajati Janajati, also known as "Indigenous Nationalities", is a group of people who have different religion, culture, and language other than Hindus. They have horizontal social relation within and among them in contrast of hierarchical caste system in Hindus. The government of Nepal has identified 59 different such Janajatis in Nepal. They are spread all over the country. Kachhi A house with outer walls made of either wood or branches of timber and roof is straw/thatch. Kattha Kattha is smaller unit of Bigah for the measurement of land. One Bigah consists of 20 Kattha, which is equivalent to 0.0339 hectare. Madhesi The term 'Madhesi' has been used by the Tarai origin people whose mother tongue is basically Maithali, Bhojpuri and Abadhi in their social movements in order to distinguish them from hill origin people. Maithali Maithali is a regional language, a branch of Indo-Aryan linguistic group, spoken by Madhesis in parts of central and eastern Tarai. Pakki A house with walls made of cement, rods, and bonded bricks or stones. Ropani Ropani is a measurement unit of land used in most of the hill and mountain regions. It is equivalent to 0.0509 hectare. Semi-Pakki A house with outer walls made of mud bonded bricks/stones. Single Women The term 'single woman' used in this study to refer to 'widow' in respected manner. Feminists in Nepal recently have started using 'single woman' instead of widow in order to promote, respect, and change the lives of 'widows'. Tarai Tarai is an ecological belt referring to plain area with relatively tropical climate, which is situated at southern part of Nepal.

v Executive Summary

Plan Nepal realized that, despite several efforts, many families even within the program areas are still left out from the program benefits. In order to understand why these families have not been reached by the program, Plan Nepal has envisaged carrying out a study that provides detail understanding of social exclusion for its development program. The domain of exclusion is quite wider and its implication expands to the vulnerability and deprivation. Therefore, this study provides an understanding of social exclusion along with vulnerability and deprivation. For this purpose, study was designed primarily based on the field survey in three Plan Nepal Program Units (PUs) representing hill, east and west Tarai by Makwanpur, Bara/Rautahat, and Banke respectively. It is basically qualitative study. Focus group discussion (FGD), key informant interview, case studies, and seasonal calendar were used to generate qualitative information. In addition, a brief structured interview was conducted with the participants of FGD. The target population was Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis and extreme poor.

Vulnerability and Deprivation The chapter two looks at the context of vulnerability and deprivation – household physical assets, the human capital and the nature of social capital and formal safety nets. Phenomena of vulnerability and deprivation are interwoven which cannot be disentangled explicitly in every context. In one context, a single phenomenon appears to be the cause of both vulnerability and deprivation while in other context, vulnerability leads deprivation.

Economic Aspects of Vulnerability and Deprivation The household physical assets are the prime means of mitigating risk or vulnerability. Land, housing condition, and livestock are the main indicators for economic aspects of vulnerability and deprivation. More than one-fourth of the households are found to be landless and remaining households have meager land as a means for their survival. Forty four percent of the total holdings have Kachhi houses with a highest proportion among Tarai Dalits. More than two-thirds of the households do not have cattle, 77 percent do not have buffalo, 48 percent do not have goats and 61 percent do not have poultry. Most Dalits from both hill and Tarai do not have livestock except a few pigs. Landlessness and marginal land, poor housing conditions, and not having livestock are the factors that lead households to deprivation from getting public utility services including other development program interventions. A fundamental mechanism of mitigating vulnerability is the extent of households' income diversification from off-farm sectors. Most households lack diverse income sources from non-agriculture sectors and mostly they are Tarai Dalits and Muslims. Unfair and exploitative labour relations in agriculture sector is another cause of households' enduring deprivation. Forty to forty-five percent of the Madhesi Dalit households are dependent on local money lenders, usually rich farmers, for their survival. At this cost, they are semi-bondage to money lenders.

Human Capital Adult literacy appears to be very low with nearly 2 of 10 adult women are literate; even though the proportion of children aged 5-14 going school is remarkable.

vi However, drop-out rate increases as the level of education increases. For instance, 40-45 percent Dalit children drop out from school after attaining primary level education. Early Child Care Development (ECCD) has yet to cover the needy groups and its policy tends to exclude needy groups as it requires at least 25 children in a location in order to run the classes. In terms of health, immunization of children under 5-years appears to be universal with few exceptions among Tarai Dalits. About 6 percent of the sample population is chronically sick and disabled persons, being highest among women and elderly populations. Most case histories suggest that sickness of breadwinner or housewife is associated with households' falling into vulnerability and deprivation situation, especially among children and women.

Household Relations Dysfunctional household relations due to the death of breadwinner or housewives, polygamy, migration or disappearance of breadwinner have been linked to the situation of falling into vulnerability and deprivation especially of children, women and elderly. Sample populations have large family size (average household 6.7) and high child dependency ratio (91 per 100 adult members). This phenomenon is associated with the low participation of household members in the development programs. Single woman and de-jure woman headed households including households in abject deprivation are unlikely to participate in the development programs, because of lack of confidence and some partners do not target such populations.

Gender Dimensions of Vulnerability and Deprivation Gender appears to be a distinct sociological category in analyzing the vulnerability and deprivation. There has been feminization of agricultural labourers in Tarai, for few women get opportunity to work outside of the villages in off-farm sectors. In case of hills, there has been feminization of agriculture, because agriculture is low productive and low-paid, where mostly women are involved.

Social Capital and Safety Nets Access to formal and informal safety nets is one of the mechanisms for security of the poor households. There lacks informal safety nets in the sampling areas. However, Dalits in Bhimphedi have an NGO aiming to provide emergency support in the event of deaths, accidents, and marriage. Other social capitals are birth registration, citizenship, old age allowance, and involvement in the saving-credit group. Seven out of 10 households were involved in saving and credit group. Among those who are involved, 28 percent did not have any saving with highest proportion in Bara/Rautahat (43%), then in Banke (19%) and Makwanpur (15%).

Natural Calamities and Seasonal Vulnerability Natural calamities also lead vulnerability in many places of our sampling areas. The notable natural calamity reported was flood in Ambhanjyang. About 300 households were displaced due to flood during the last two and three years. It has affected leased-based farming that rent of land increased to Rs. 2,500 per Kattha and it is difficult to pay off the rent of land by the leased-based farmers.

State of Exclusion The chapter three is devoted to investigation of why some families within Plan communities are excluded from the development programs. It tries to explore extent

vii of exclusion, its dimensions, and process and causes in terms of access to participation in the programs.

Exclusion from Basic Social Services and Security Many families from the Plan community are excluded from the basic social services such as education and health. About 24 percent of the respondents reported that they have at least one child who does not go to school. This is considerably high in Banke (29.7%) and Bara/Rautahat (25.7%). Exclusion from education is mainly due to not understanding the language because the teachers are Nepali speakers and students are mostly Janajatis and Madhesis who are non-Nepali speakers. Other reasons are unawareness about education, work load, and geographical isolation. In case of health, service seeking behaviour is found to be very poor. The extent is even higher among Madhesis compared to Dalits and Janajatis. Exclusion from basic social security was found to be high throughout the survey sites. Indicators for the social security are land, birth certificate, citizenship, old age allowance, and access to social institution. The percentage of landless is highest in Bara/Rautahat (38.6%) and lowest in Makwanpur (5.5%). However, those who have land are more than 50 percent in Banke and Bara/Rautahat and 78 percent in Makwanpur having less than one Bigah. Of the total, 30 percent of the respondents who have at least one child under 5 with no birth certificate, being higher among Madhesis. Almost 51 percent have at least one family member of 16 years and above who does not have citizenship certificate. The issue of citizenship among Madhesis is much pronounced because of i) higher proportion of landless in Tarai and ii) cross-border marriage. Out of the total 33 respondents whose family has elderly population, 79 percent did not have elderly allowance with highest among Madhesis due to no citizenship and unknown about it. Overwhelming majority of the respondents (84%) do not have any 'social institution' through out the survey sites.

Exclusion from Plan Development Programs Sponsored children (SC) is the basis of Plan development program for the rural poor. Participation in this program is vital. It has been reported many people have been left out from being SC family. Out of the 28 Dalit participants in Bhimphedi, only 9 respondents were from the SC family. Registered SC families are also dropped out from the program. Five SC children were dropped out from the program in Tistung, because they had to leave the village for work. Exclusion of families from the saving-credit program is pervasive. Out of 189 respondents throughout the survey sites, 30 percent of the families are still excluded from the participation in Plan supported saving-credit program, with the highest in Makwanpur. Similarly, 66 percent did not involve in vegetable program, being the highest among Madhesis especially in Bara/Rautahat. Besides, people involved in livestock, forest and agriculture, fishery, and skill training are very few.

Dimensions of the Exclusion The major dimensions of the exclusion from the Plan development program are caste and ethnicity, gender, language, geographical isolation, and extreme poverty. Dalits, Janajatis and some Madhesi groups are excluded from the Plan programs despite several efforts made. The extent is high among Dalits in all survey sites due to caste based discrimination. Male domination and over burden for women are the main gender issues. The extent is equal but the nature of issue is slightly different among Madhesis, because their society is relatively closed one. Plan and partners

viii and the staff mostly use Nepali and English, materials they produce are in Nepali and English, whereas most of the beneficiaries understand neither Nepali nor English properly. Consequently, non-Nepali speaker populations are excluded from development activities due to the language. Due to geographical distance, children are excluded from the education. Some remote areas are excluded from the program due to distance and remoteness. In present context, distance and remoteness are also associated with current violent political conflict, due to which Plan program has been withdrawn from many rural areas. Extreme poor who are busy in managing everyday hand-to-mouth problem have no time to involve in any development programs. Issue of migration is also associated with extreme poverty that poor people are mobile for looking for wage labourer and that ultimately has excluded people from the programs.

Process and Causes of Exclusion from Plan Program Plan Nepal development program is based on "empowerment approach". There are a number of rights based issues from which people are deprived and excluded and which the empowerment approach can not address properly. They are land, river, and forest; right to birth registration and citizenship; right to utilize resource allocated by the government for Dalits; and right against bonded labour. Most of the families were reported to be excluded from these rights. Recently, Plan has disintegrated saving-credit from agriculture for specialization of the programs. The effect of this disintegration is further marginalization of poor and landless families from agriculture and vegetable program. Because supports are available only for those who have land and are able to grow vegetables for sale. In addition, there are a number of criteria to become eligible for the program. For instance, being a SC family is the prerequisite for most activities, but families with no girl children of under 18 years or with only boy children or with only elderly member or with only single member are not eligible to be SC family. Citizenship is required for entering into the saving and credit group. Many women are excluded from being into group because they do not have citizenship. Families without female member are also excluded from the saving and credit program because it requires females in the group. Tendency of dropping out from group or program is also high. Saving-credit group is the main activity of Plan program in which the drop-out rate is prevalent. Extreme poverty, death of woman member in the family, multiple-marriage of women, criteria for loan distribution and repayment of loan, regularity in saving, and mobility of the member are found to be main reasons for drop-out. Non-local partner and Plan staff are not so accountable to the local communities, which contributes exclusion of some families. Many families were excluded because they did not report as poor during the selection. Some families do not participate in the program because they do not understand well about Plan program, some are in confusion and some have wrong information about the program due to lack of good and proper communication from project staff. Some program activities are not compatible to the need of people, such as lease-hold in Ambhanjyang and pigeon raising in Paurahi. Quota system and limitation of the program supports, such as toilet, have made some families unhappy because of not getting those supports. Families who did not get supports are likely to be excluded from the program in the future.

ix Conclusions and Recommendations There is a cycled relationship between deprivation, vulnerability and social exclusion. A considerable proportion of families are excluded from their basic social services and security. They are Dalits, Madhesis, Janajatis, and some extremely poor caste group. This cycle will be continued until and unless these groups are uplifted from such poverty. Rights-based approach to development is an appropriate framework to uplift those families from the cycle of exclusion that Plan Nepal requires to adopt for its development program. Organization is the social capital to provide social security. It is also a strength of right based approach through which collective efforts to plead and acquire basic human rights and to development is possible. Makwanpur PU program is a prominent example where Plan communities have women' cooperatives, a strong organization and networking up to the district level, where about 12,000 women are organized. This organization is social as well as political security and power to provide safety nets against exclusion, vulnerability, and deprivation that can be useful for the Plan approach to development. Therefore, this approach is suggested to strengthen further and also to replicate other Plan program areas. Developing criteria to manage the program implementation, particularly saving and credit program are not poor friendly. Due to criteria, extreme poor have been excluded from and deprived of benefit from the program. So, the criteria should be poor friendly with a minimum interest for loan, no compulsory in purchasing share, and loan should be granted to everyone. Communication is vital to maintain transparency, good governance, and accountability to motivate people for the programs. This confirms inclusive and sustainable development. Communication is not so good between partners and target population. Cultural insensitivity among staff, mode of language the staff used, non-local staff, weak social mobilization, and weak monitoring and supervision are the factors for weak communication and that contributes exclusion. Majority of the field staffs are from privileged caste and ethnic groups, whereas people from target families are marginalized and disadvantaged who belong to Madhesis, Dalits, and Janajatis. The culture and language of the field staff and community are different. Local people do not properly understand language (Nepali) spoken by field staff. When language is different, communication is weaker. Partner organizations and the field staff are non-local who are less accountable to the community. Plan Nepal and its partner organizations should be inclusive in hiring staff and should prioritize and strengthen the local CBOs, especially of Dalits, Janajatis, or women, rather than outsider NGOs. Weak social mobilization is another factor for weak communication. There is only the Plan Volunteer (PV) in the community to deal with people. Partner staff are mostly technical and they are not responsible for social mobilization. So, there is no social mobilizer who could communicate well about the program. Plan partners must have social mobilizers for the program. Finally, close monitoring and supervision from Plan staff as well as from its partner organizations is necessary for the effective program implementation and achieving its goals. It minimizes the misuse of program activities and contributes effective inclusion of the families in the program by increasing realization of the field situation and commitment of field staff and encouraging community people towards the program.

x Chapter I Introduction

1.1 Background Plan Nepal has been working in Nepal since 1978. Currently, it supports more than 40,000 sponsored children’s families in six districts of Nepal - Banke, Makwanpur, Rautahat, Bara, Sunsari and Morang districts through four Program Units (PUs), and its outreach through Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) partners. Plan is a child centered community development organization, making long- term commitments to children and families living in poverty. It works with families that have less than six months’ food security. Such families are landless or have very little agricultural land. Plan Nepal implements food security, skill development and micro finance program under its livelihood domain for the last four years through partnership with NGOs and CBOs. While implementing the multidisciplinary activities, it was found that some members of the community could not or did not participate in the activities initiated in the communities. The reasons of non-participation could be many but some of the noticed ones are geographical isolation, social deprivation, heavy workload and low self-esteem. This has excluded some needy members from the mainstream of the development that Plan facilitates to achieve. This study, therefore, aims to look into the details of the exclusion of communities linking with vulnerability, marginalization and deprivation.

1.2 Research Objectives The main objective of the study is to investigate vulnerability and exclusion in the Plan communities so that the research would feed back Plan's program development and management for future course of action. The specific objectives of the study are:  to assess and analyze vulnerability and deprivation in terms of social class, geographical location, time and social situation across Plan communities;  to analyze the nature, processes, dimensions, and causes of exclusions of Plan communities from Plan interventions and other development efforts; and  to recommend practical solutions for increasing Plan communities participation in the development.

1.3 Defining Vulnerability, Deprivation and Social Exclusion 1.3.1 Exclusion Social exclusion may be defined as 'the process through which individuals or groups are [sic] wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society in which they live' (European Foundation, 1995: 4). Social exclusion is a useful concept for two main reasons (cited in Thomas, 2000). Firstly, it points out the multidimensional characters of deprivation in that exclusion can have various causes such as

1 unemployment, gender, ethnicity, disability or ill health, and lack of opportunities for participation as well as low income. Secondly, it focuses on processes on the mechanisms and institutions that exclude people. This implies that exclusion is not simply an attribute of particular people but that different societies have their own ways of defining people out. UNDP (2004a) views the exclusion is much focused on cultural exclusion in recent days and outlines two forms of cultural exclusion – living mode exclusion and participation exclusion. Living mode exclusion occurs when the State or social custom denigrates or suppresses a group's culture, including its language, religion or traditional customs or lifestyles. Participation exclusion refers to discrimination or disadvantage based on cultural identity such as ethnicity, language or religion. The dimensions of participation exclusion are social, economic, and political. Such exclusions operate through: discriminatory policies from the state (such as education in single language); past discrimination that has not been remedied (such as 'untouchables under the caste system'); and social practice (such as less access in the media to a cultural group’s point of view, discrimination in job interviews, etc.). The government of Nepal has realized that social exclusion is one of the obstacles of social and economic development of the country. The Tenth Plan (2002–2007) identifies the dimension of social exclusion by caste and ethnicity, gender, and geographical locations and has set inclusive policy to address the social exclusion. It has given special attention on very poor, deprived communities and backward regions to mainstreaming in the development. The government has identified Dalits, Janajatis, and women as the deprived communities. In line with this concept, the government has created National Dalit Commission (NDC), National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN) under the Ministry of Local Development and National Women Commission (NWC) under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare in order to monitor the targeted programs for deprived communities. Plan Nepal has been working with the most deprived and excluded communities. However, many Plan communities are still excluded from the Plan development programs. In order to address this issue Plan Nepal seeks to understand the reasons why some families are excluded from its program, even though the Plan's focus is the most deprived and excluded community. In order to answer this question, this study uses the concept stated above to understand exclusion from the development program but limited to the Plan program area.

1.3.2 Vulnerability This study conceptualizes vulnerability regarding livelihood. Accordingly, concept of vulnerability is one of the dimensions of poverty, emerged especially after 1980s. Vulnerability counterpart notion is security, and it tries to understand the seasonality and of the impact of shocks. This points out to the importance of assets as buffers and also to social relations such as moral economy and social capital. It leads to the new work on coping strategies. The WDR (2000/01) emphasizes the poverty reduction strategy based on three interrelated, but not hierarchical strategies: promoting opportunity through economic growth; facilitating empowerment by developing pro-poor institutions and removing the social and institutional barriers; and enhancing security or reducing vulnerability to economic shocks, natural disasters, ill health, disability, and violence.

2 Most rural famine and food security research have fundamentally challenged the concept of income or consumption poverty and introduced concept of vulnerabilities and capabilities, which focuses on assets and entitlements. Work of Sen (1981) in Famine and Entitlements in this regard is the pioneering one. Sen highlighted entitlement in land, production and exchange to overcome famine or vulnerability. Moser (1998) in analyzing the vulnerability of urban poor in five communities in four countries Zambia, Ecuador, the Philippines, and Hungary highlighted the importance of considering the following issues while analyzing vulnerability:

Difference Between Poverty and Vulnerability The concept of vulnerability is not the same as of poverty. Poverty measures are generally fixed in time and it is essentially a static concept, whereas vulnerability is more dynamic and better captures processes as 'people move in and out of poverty'. Although poor are usually among the most vulnerable, not all vulnerable people are poor. Initially, vulnerability analysis was carried out in disaster management, epidemiology and food security. Over the years, the meaning of vulnerability has been expanded to include:  elements and situation of livelihood security;  exposure to risk, hazards, shocks and stress; and  linked to new assets.

Relating Vulnerability to Asset Ownership Analyzing vulnerability involves identifying not only the threats but also the resilience or responsiveness in exploiting opportunities from the negative effects of changing environment. This means of resistance are the assets and entitlements that individuals or households or communities can mobilize and manage in the face of hardship. Vulnerability is, therefore, closely linked to assets ownership. The more assets people have, the less vulnerable they are, and the greater the erosion of people's assets, the greater their insecurity. Swift (1989) analyzes vulnerability and security as a function of assets, which he classifies into four groups: human investment in education and health; physical investment in housing, equipment and land; stores (food, money or valuable jewelry); claims on others for assistance (including friendship, kinship, networks, Govt/INGOs). Moser (1998) analyzed households' responses or strategies to deteriorating economic situations in terms of the 'asset vulnerability framework' considering the five types of assets vulnerability of the urban poor: labour, human capital, housing, land and infrastructure, household relations and social capital. WDR outlines the indicators of vulnerability as that make it possible to assess a household's risk exposure beforehand – information both on the household assets and on its links to informal networks and formal safety nets. Vulnerability as a cause of poor access to assets:  Physical assets: A household physical asset – those that can be sold to compensate for temporary loss of income, not only the total value of assets, but also the liquidity.  Human capital: Households with limited education tend to be more subject to income fluctuation or less able to manage risk.  Income diversification: The extent of diversification of income has often been used to assess vulnerability. In rural settings, non farm income is one of the indicators, which tend to be less fluctuating than farm income.

3  Links to networks: Family based networks, mutual labour exchange, rotating saving and credit groups.  Participation in the formal safety net: A household's vulnerability is reduced if it is entitled to social assistance, unemployment insurance, pensions etc. So information on such programs and their rules of eligibility is also important in assessing vulnerability and risk exposure.  Access to credit market: A household vulnerability is reduced if it has access to credit for consumption smoothing.

In order to analyze vulnerability, one should understand the different sources of risk faced by households and their relative importance. It is also essential to understand how risk affects assets, incomes and entitlements. Policies to reduce vulnerability will include standard poverty reduction strategies but will need to be supplemented with policies focusing on risk and on fluctuation on well-being, such as related to reasonability. One study for DFID by Dercon (2001) showed how risk affects assets, income and well-being. Notable risks that affect assets (i.e. human capital/labour, physical/financial capital, public goods and social capital) include: a) loss of skills due to health or unemployment, b) land tenure insecurity; c) asset damage due to climate, water and disaster; d) lack of access to public goods; e) violation of commitment and trust and; and f) loss of value of financial assets. Similarly, transformation of assets into income or well-being may be affected by: a) output risks due to climate shocks; b) risk of exclusion from safety net; c) lack of information and knowledge about opportunities; d) meager prices for services and goods; e) price risk in basic necessities in market; and f) uncertain quality of public provision in health and education. WDR 2000/01 categorized main sources of risk into six nature of events and three level at which they occur: i) natural (rainfall, landslide, flood and drought); ii) health (illness, injury, disability, old age, and death); iii) social (crime, domestic violence, terrorism etc.); iv) economic (unemployment, harvest failure and inflation etc.); v) political (political constraints on social programs); and vi) environmental (pollution and deforestation). These risks occur at three levels: micro level (households and individuals), meso (communities) and macro level (national/regional). In practice, many risks and shocks have both idiosyncratic and covariant parts, though many research indicated that the idiosyncratic part of income risk is large. Another fundamental cause of vulnerability is the inability of the State or community to develop mechanisms to reduce or mitigate the risk that poor people face (i.e. irrigation, infrastructure, public health interventions, public work schemes, micro credit, and social networks). Poor people also are exposed to risk beyond their community – those affecting the economy, the environment, and the society in which they live. Conflict also affects poor disproportionably. Therefore, measuring and analyzing vulnerability requires data on household assets - physical capital, human capital, social capital including formal safety nets, and the functioning of markets, economic policies that determine the household's opportunity. WDR 2000/01 suggested generating data related to vulnerability through i) cross sectional (data on household assets, links with networks, perceptions of sources of emergency assistance, and participation in formal safety nets) and ii) panel data (following the same households over the years).

4 1.3.3 Deprivation Deprivation refers to poverty but it extends to classical meaning of poverty – i.e. income or material poverty to human dimensions. Thus, the concept of deprivation may be taken as the opposite of development: ill health or malnourishment, illiteracy, income poverty, drudgery work for women including the extent of social crime and violence. Townsend (1987) defined deprivation as ' people can be said to be deprived if they lack the types of diet, clothing, housing, household facilities, and environmental, educational, working and social condition, activities and facilities that are customary in poverty if they lack the resources to escape deprivation'. Townsend categorized deprivation into two groups: a) social deprivation – also called social exclusion and b) material deprivation. In line with the concept of exclusion, vulnerability and deprivation, HMG/Nepal has clearly defined the marginalized communities in its Tenth Plan and bringing such groups into the mainstream of development is one of the four pillars of the poverty reduction strategies of the Tenth Plan (NPC, 2003). Marginalized groups include Dalits, Janajati and Madhesi groups. Therefore, the study will contribute to understanding nature and extent of vulnerability and deprivation among marginalized or excluded groups. This would help developing inclusive plans that helps to develop the programs that directly address the need of marginalized groups.

1.4 Research Methods 1.4.1 Research Design This study is an exploratory in nature, which attempts to find out the reasons for the low participation of Plan communities in Plan Nepal development program. The research will focus on the communities that have the least participation, and how and why such communities are excluded from the development program that Plan aims to facilitate. Therefore, it helps how such communities can be brought into the mainstreaming development programs.

1.4.2 Sampling Three steps of sampling procedure were involved to reach the target communities for the field survey.

Step I. Selection of PUs: Three Plan Program Units (PUs) were selected purposively for the field survey – Makwanpur, Bara/Rautahat, and Banke. Primary criteria were set up in consultation with concerned personnel from Plan Nepal for the selection of these PUs. The criteria include geographical, caste and ethnic groups and program coverage of Plan Nepal. Along with these criteria, our purpose was to select most deprived PUs in terms of social status. The Plan Nepal is working in only one hill district, Makwanpur. So, Makwanpur PU was selected to represent hill area. In case of Tarai, there are three Plan PUs, Morang, Bara/Rautahat, and Banke that are scattered from east to mid- western development region. One PU from Tarai may not be representative for the

5 scattered Tarai communities. On the other hand, selecting all three PUs is not so practical considering time and resources available for the research. In order to make it relatively representative as well as practical, selection of two PUs may be much better. In order to select two PUs, criteria were made based on proportion of the population of Madhesis and Dalits (CBS, 2002) and Human Development Index (HDI) (UNDPb, 2004). These criteria were found to be relatively plausible to select most deprived two districts. For instance, Bara/Rautahat and Banke have higher proportion of Madhesi and Dalit population and lower level of HDI than Morang does (Table 1.1). Accordingly, these two PUs from Tarai were selected because they are much deprived compared to Morang, based on district level indicators.

Table 1.1: Basis for selection of Tarai PUs Categories Morang Bara/Rautahat Banke Madhesis 41.00 67.22 41.66 Dalits (both hill and Tarai) 9.84 13.63 10.34 HDI 0.531 0.437 0.479 Note: HDI for Bara/Rautahat is average of Bara (0.465) and Rautahat (0.409).

Step II. Selection of VDCs: At least two working VDCs of each selected Plan PUs were to select purposively considering the communities which has the least participation in the Plan development program and where Dalit, Janajati and Madhesi group are concentrated. The consultation of PUs staff was also made while selecting these VDCs. However, field survey was carried out in 11 VDCs in three Plan PUs. The VDCs selected are: Tistung, Bhimphedi, and Ambhanjyang from Makwanpur PU; Uttar Jhitkaya, Sano Dohari, Santapur and Paurahi from Bara/Rautahat PU; and Hirminiya, Bhawaniyapur, Kohalpur, and Basudevpur from Banke PU. Visiting more VDCs than targeted was because – field survey was intended to cover as much diverse as possible to capture the issues raised in the objectives of the study. For this purpose, it was necessary to visit as much cluster as possible. To visit more clusters, It was better to visit more VDCs than only two from each Plan PU.

Step III. Selection of Clusters: Considering the criteria for social groups, field survey mainly focused the community where Dalits, Janajati, Madhesi and extreme poor reside. In this way, 8 clusters were visited in Makwanpur PU, 10 in Bara/Rautahat, and 6 in Banke PU.

1.4.3 Informants This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative information. In order to generate both type of information, the informants were selected only among the families from Plan communities. As discussed above, the selected families or households were from Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, and extreme poor. Groups were organized in a way of representation of both males and females from each PU. Another criterion for selecting informants in a group was the extent of participation in Plan programs. These informants were for both group discussion and structured interview. Informants for the key informant interview (KII) were from the concerned Plan PU staff, Plan field staff (BO, DU, and PV), Plan partners (such as FORWARD, Nirdhan, SAHAMATI, CPREAD, etc.), social workers, and teachers.

6 1.4.4 Survey Instruments This research is based on primary data generated from the field survey. Semi- structured interview was carried out for the collection of the required data: focus group discussion, case study and key informant interviews.

Focus group discussion Altogether, 24 FGDs were conducted for the field survey – 8 from Makwanpur, 10 from Bara/Rautahat, and 6 from Banke PUs. Focus group discussion was carried out among women and men separately and combined somewhere consisting of 10 to 20 participants. The major issues discussed in the FGD are: i) background characteristics such as age, education, family size and composition, caste and ethnic groups and geographical location and household assets; ii) social exclusion and its reasons; iii) livelihood strategies of the households in dry and peak agricultural seasons. Seasonal calendar, one of the PRA tools, was also used to capture this issue. Identifying the livelihood strategies of the marginalized groups is important to examine the causal relationship between vulnerability and livelihood strategies that is how people cope with during vulnerability? Or how people act on poverty? iv) types, nature and reason for vulnerability; and v) participation of vulnerable families in Plan.

Additionally, a short structured interview was also conducted among the FGD participants in all survey areas. Altogether, structured interview covered 189 families.

Caste Study Altogether 19 case studies were carried out from the field survey. While conducting case studies, ethnicity, economic and geographical considerations were taken into account within the sample area. The focus of the case studies was made to capture most deprived and vulnerable and some best practices so as to reflect and substantiate social exclusion, vulnerability and deprivation.

1.4.5 Triangulation This study involved basically open ended and flexible nature of data collection methods. Therefore, it is essential to triangulate the information. Triangulation is an iterative process of data collection and analysis. The following procedure was employed to increase the reliability and validity of data:  research team members themselves involved in the research process;  the same issues were discussed with different informants;  preliminary results from the community were shared with Plan PU staff in three Plan PUs.  an issue was analyzed by the same group of informants using different methods that is issues in the individual interview was discussed in the FGD or case study.

7 1.4.6 Ethical Issues Interaction with the informants was a way of maintained ethical values of respondents. The researcher tried to explain the objective of the study and ensured that the information about respondent's personal life be kept confidential. Researchers tried to maintain their privacy. Respondents who did not want to provide information were not forced for the interview.

1.4.7 Analysis and Interpretation Data were analyzed using simple descriptive measures such as frequency distribution in case of quantitative data. In case of qualitative data, data were transcribed from Nepali or Bhojpuri and Abadhi into English, and reviewed, categorized and analyzed.

1.4.8 Organization of the Report This report is organized into four chapters. Chapter one sets the context of the study including research methods. Second chapter deals about the context and extent of vulnerability and deprivation across the Plan communities. Chapter three analyzes the nature, processes, dimensions and causes of exclusions of Plan communities from Plan interventions. The final chapter concludes the findings and provides recommendations in order to make Plan program more inclusive and poor friendly.

8 Chapter II Context of Vulnerability and Deprivation

This chapter deals with the context of vulnerability and deprivation. We have not dealt with vulnerability and deprivation separately, for explicit distinction between these two terms is problematic and ambiguous. We understand that the phenomena of vulnerability and deprivation are interwoven which cannot be disentangled explicitly in every context. In some context, a single phenomenon appears to be the cause of both vulnerability and deprivation. Landlessness is the economic deprivation of the households, for example, which leads to risky livelihood strategies of the households (Case 1). In other context, for example, breakdown of family relations due to death or sickness of the breadwinner leads to indebtedness, drop out of children from school and heavy workload for women (Case 3 and 4). This chapter is divided into three sections. Section one examines the households' physical assets such as land, housing and livestock and livelihood strategies such as extent of income diversification, labour relations and emerging threats of livelihood. The second section assesses households' social endowments (i.e., the human capital), education, health, household relations and gender dimensions of vulnerability and deprivation. The third section deals with the nature of social capital and formal safety nets, for which key indicators considered implicate status of birth registration, citizenship certificates, old age security systems and extent of effective participation in saving and credit groups.

2.1 Economic Aspects of Deprivation and Vulnerability 2.1.1 Landless or Marginal Land Holdings One of the fundamental indicators of economic endowment of household is land holding in rural Nepal. In agrarian society, it is most important endowment. In our sample population, we have asked the informants whether they have own land or not and the results are summarized according to Plan PUs and caste and ethnic groups in Table 2.1. More than one-fourth of the households in our sample were landless, being highest proportion in Bara/Rautahat (39%), followed by Banke (31%) and Makwanpur (6%). Caste and ethnicity stands as one of the fundamental sociological categories for analyzing landlessness in rural Nepal. More Tarai Dalits such as Chamar, Mushar, Pasawan and Chidimar and Hill Dalits are landless (Case 1) as compared to other groups considered here1.

1 Note that the relatively higher proportion of landlessness among Madhesi caste groups as compared to other socially deprived groups (i.e. Hill Dalits, Praja and Tamang) may be due to the inclusion of households affected by flood in our sample at Paurahi, Rautahat. At Paurahi, about 300 flood victim-households were resettled by HMG/Nepal in collaboration with Thai Government in 1994/95. There are about 210 households from hill origin people and 90 households from Madhesis origin people.

9 Access to land is most problematic for Madhesi2 Dalits. Most households do not have their own land for construction of toilets and sties, and are, therefore, deprived of getting such services, and those who get such services are at high risk of health hazardous. For example, in Santapur -2, Mushar are so poor that they are forced to build sties in front of their doors – close to 3 to 5 feet. This will have greater adverse health consequences, particularly to children (Case 1). Another important economic endowment of rural households is the type of house in which people live. This not only reflects the household assets but is also associated with access to public utility services such as electricity. A Kachi house is not legally electrified because of the danger of sparking. In rural Nepal, houses can be divided into Pakki (outer walls - cement bonded bricks/stones and concrete), semi-pakki (outer walls - mud bonded bricks/stones) and Kachhi house with outer walls made of either wood or branches and roof is straw/thatch3. Seven of 10 households in Bara/Rautahat in our sample were with Kachi houses. Houses belonging to Muslims, Madhesi Dalits and caste groups including hill ethnic groups (except Tamang and Praja) have Kachi houses.

Table 2.1: Percentage of households with no land, and with a Kachhi house Plan PUs % of households % of households with no land with Kachhi house Plan PUs Banke 31.3 37.5 Makwanpur 5.5 20.0 Bara/Rautahat 38.6 70.0 Social groups Tamang 2.4 22.0 Praja 9.1 9.1 Hill ethnic groups (except Tamang and Praja) 27.6 41.4 Hill caste groups 21.4 28.6 Hill Dalits 27.3 27.3 Madhesi caste group 43.3 56.7 Madhesi Dalits 42.9 85.7 Muslims 30.8 92.3 Others 42.1 42.1 Total 26.5 44.4 Source: Field Survey 2005.

Besides, productivity of land is low in most of our sampling areas because of the lack of access to irrigation facility. This has hampered in leased-based and gardening farming in case of Plan intervention community. In case of Tarai districts, rower pumps were provided for the irrigation although the cost for such pumps is burdensome for poor people while in Makwanpur irrigation is most acute in order to increase the productivity of marginal farmers to bring them into professional vegetable farmers.

2 The term 'Madhesis' has been used by the Tarai origin people whose mother tongue is basically Maithali, Bhojpuri and Abadhi in their social movements in order to distinguish them from hill origin people. 3 Nepal Living Standard Survey, 2003/04 shows that 18.5% of the total households had wood/branches as construction materials of outer walls, and 32.3% of the total houses have roof with construction materials of straw/thatch in Nepal (CBS, 2004: 34-35).

10 2.1.2 Lack of Household Assets: Livestock Another important physical asset to mitigate or reduce the vulnerability situation in rural Nepal is the number of livestock owned by the households. In our sample, majority of the households do not have livestock. For example, more than two-thirds of the households do not have cattle, 77 percent do not have buffalo, 48 percent do not have goats and 61 percent do not have poultry. Livestock's population is also very low averaging out 2.2, 1.4, 5.1, 2.1 and 5.6 cattle, buffalo, goats, pigs and poultry per household, respectively, among the holdings raising livestock (Table 2.2). Most Dalits holdings– Madhesis and Hills – do not have livestock except few pigs.

Table 2.2: Household livestock holding status and livestock's population Districts Livestock Cattle Buffalo Goats Pigs Poultry Banke % of households with no livestock 68.8 84.4 64.1 92.2 85.9 Population of livestock 39 17 54 7 32 No. of livestock/per household (among households with at least one livestock) 2.0 1.7 2.3 1.4 3.6 Makwanpur % of households with no livestock 38.2 72.7 5.5 98.2 9.1 Population of livestock 46 25 383 7 317 No. of livestock/per household (among households with at least one livestock) 2.5 1.7 7.4 7.0 6.3 Bara/Rautahat % of households with no livestock 90.0 74.3 67.1 85.7 78.6 Number of livestock 8 20 60 19 67 No. of livestock/per household (among households with at least one livestock) 1.1 1.1 2.6 1.9 4.5 All districts % of households with no livestock 67.7 77.2 48.1 91.5 60.8 Population of livestock 133 62 497 33 416 No. of livestock/per household (among households with at least one livestock) 2.2 1.4 5.1 2.1 5.6 Note: cattle include cows/oxen and calf; and buffalo includes buffalo, he-buffalo and buffalo calf. Source: Field Survey 2005.

2.1.3 Low Wages in Agriculture and Lack of Diverse Income Sources in Non-agriculture Sectors Another indictor of assessing vulnerability of the households in rural Nepal is the extent to which income is diversified, that is, whether households have stable non- farm income or not. This is especially critical in case of landless and marginal farmers. Overall, nearly one fourth of the adult sample population aged 15-59 years was involved in off-farm economic activities for their livelihood. This proportion varies with respect to Plan PUs and social groups considered in our study, being lowest in Bara/Rautahat and among Madhesi Dalits.

11 At the household level, two-fifth of the total households had none of the adult members aged 15-59 involved in off-farm income, with more than half among Madhesi Dalits and Muslims (Table 2.3).

Table 2.3: Employment status outside agriculture by Plan PUs and caste and ethnic groups Plan PUs % of households No. of % of adult Total adult with none of the persons population (15-59 sample family members working years) who are population working outside working outside (15-59 yrs) agriculture of agriculture Plan PUs Banke 20.3 51 32.9 210 Makwanpur 41.8 32 22.1 199 Bara/Rautahat 57.1 30 16.7 227 Social groups Tamang 41.5 24 23.2 155 Praja 36.4 11 26.8 41 Hill ethnic groups 41.4 (except Tamang and Praja) 17 26.8 82 Hill caste groups 21.4 7 18.9 37 Hill Dalits 36.4 7 25.9 27 Madhesi caste groups 43.3 17 26.0 96 Madhesi Dalits 52.4 10 18.7 75 Muslims 53.8 6 19.5 41 Others 26.3 14 25.6 82 Total 40.2 (72) N 189 113 23.7 636 Source: Field Survey 2005.

FGDs (seasonal calendar) and key informant interviews from our sampling areas indicate that the nature of work that people do is highly low paid, seasonal (2-3 man-months per year), and unsecured. As most of the families do not have education or skills, they are subject to involve in low-paid labours, and lack of education or skills coupled with lack of money for mobility makes them seeking work around their villages, which is mostly seasonal such as construction of houses, agricultural labourers in Chitawan from Bara and in Kathmandu valley from Makwanpur during plantation and harvesting of rice. Their work is also unsecured in the sense that they work in unorganized sectors. Several examples can be cited for low paid work in our sampling areas. In Tistung, although there are some young and adult men working in transport sector, it is mostly transport-labourers such as helpers and drivers but not the transport owners. We were also reported that there were few persons from Bara/Rautahat among Dalits and other marginal farmers who were involved in carpentering, tailoring and other skilled labourers. Few Muslim young men in Uttar Jhitkaya were reported to involve in tailoring in some urban areas of Nepal and in India. Foreign employment even in low-paid countries such as Malaysia and Gulf countries is mostly lacking among Dalits and landless or marginal farmers because of both lack of money to be paid for going aboard and lack of knowledge about availability of employment and assistance. At the national level, Government has a policy to encourage Dalits and ethnic groups for foreign skilled employment through National Dalit Commission and Janajati Pratisthan, respectively. There is some provision of providing free skill-

12 training and non-collateral loan up to one hundred thousand for foreign employment. Unfortunately, a few had knowledge on it. In some areas of Bara/Rautahat, selling of fuel-wood is the prime livelihood strategy for Madhesi Dalits and other families. Although it is much profitable than Plan interventions4 such as leased-based and gardening farming, it is reported to be much time consuming, laborious because of distance to go to bring and sell fuel- wood and it is also challengeable for security reason (Case 1).

2.1.4 Labour Relations: High Dependence on Local Money Lenders or Rich Farmers Existing labour market also increases the vulnerability of people, and is also one of the fundamental reasons why poor and deprived groups do not take active participation in any development program. This is most common among Madhesi Dalits as the case of Kalawati's family (Case 2). There exists semi-bonded agricultural labour market regime, which is exclusively different from normal labour market. In normal agricultural labour market, labourers are paid for their work, labourers work for their daily livelihood and are free to work whenever they like. Whereas in semi-bonded agricultural labour market regime, labourers work in order to pay off the interest of loans, and are subject to work for lenders until they pay their loans off. Wages in agriculture is so low that debtors are unable to pay the loans off, and the cycle of semi-bondedness continues for long time and sometimes generation to generation (Case 1, 2 and 18). We found that wages in agriculture range from four to five Kg. rice, equaling to Rs. 40-45 per day per person. Although there is no scientific data to what percentage of the poor and deprived groups are in such regime, our discussion with key informants, community people and social activists suggest to conclude that two-fifth of the total poor and deprived holdings, particularly of Madhesi Dalits, are in such regime in Bara/Rautahat and Banke districts.

2.1.5 Emerging Threats to Livelihood Current violent political conflict in the country has also increased the vulnerability of poor and deprived groups in our sampling areas, as their means of livelihood has been at stake due to security reason. For example, at Paurahi in Rautahat district, Shahani (Madhesi caste) affected by flood in different places are resettled in the river banks of the Bagati. Shahani males are involved in fishing and females are involved in stone quarrying for their livelihood. They reported that it is very difficult for fishing because of security reason, and even sometimes they have to provide fish on free- basis to the security forces and to the Maoists. Similarly, survival of some families in Basudevpur (Banke) depends on collecting Sal leaves from the jungle sale in Nepalgunj market. But, security force in Highway along with jungle has been threat to their leaves collection. It was because, as she reported, about half a dozen of girls have already been raped by the security personnel in that jungle (Case 19). Frequent bands (strikes) and longer duration of economic blockades called by Maoist have also affected the survival of poor and deprived groups. Pasawan at Santapur were not able to feed their pigs, consequently some of the households

4 Plan interventions/Plan supports refer to the interventions carried out by Plan Nepal and its concerned partner organizations through out the text.

13 were forced to sell their pigs. They also reported that they could not buy pigs' fodder for longer duration, and the prices of fodder also increased (Case 1). At the time of bands/economic blockades, they have to cycle up to 15 Km. for brining pigs' fodder. Similarly, in Bhimphedi, supply of poultry's fodder was disturbed, and the persons involving in poultry farming were in deficit. Discussion with the hill Dalit activists and commoners in Bhimphedi revealed that some Dalits from Bhimphedi closed their tailoring and shoe-making shops in Hetauda bazaar because frequent Bands and economic blockades made them unable to pay the house-rent off. Moreover, traditional occupation of hill Dalits, a major source of livelihood, has been at the stage of collapse. This is because they lack skilled training and capital for producing good finishing and quality products. Their products such as sewing of clothes and shoe-making have, therefore, been increasingly replaced by machine-made shoes and well-designed clothes even in rural areas in Nepal. In case of black-smith, their arans5 are still highly-labour intensive, low-productive, time-consuming and health hazardous. Lack of access to electricity (for example 82 percent of hill Dalits in our sample do not have access to electricity) and lack of modern equipments make black-smiths much vulnerable for their survival.

2.2 Human Capital Another dimension of vulnerability is related to the lack of human capital, education and health. Households lacking skilled, educated and healthy family members are less likely to mitigate vulnerability. According to Amartya Sen, education has both intrinsic and instrumental values, intrinsic in the sense that a person to be educated is his/her fundamental rights and instrumental value in the sense that education is a means for earning and it is also a means for empowerment. Similarly, a healthy person even if poor may be better off than that a person sick/disabled but with some wealth.

2.2.1 Health In order to examine health status of the sample population, we have asked a series of question related sanitation, child immunization and number of persons chronically sick and disable in the households. Data reveal that three of ten sample households do not have safe-drinking water within the residence6 (Table 2.4), with more than two-thirds for Hill Dalit households. Access to toilet facility appears to be poor although Plan has contributed to construction of toilets in Plan communities. Proportion of households with no toilet facility varies with respect to Plan PUs and caste and ethnic groups considered in our study. An overwhelmingly majority of respondents from Banke did not have toilet facility (89%)7. In terms of social groups, except Praja at Kafalchour of Bhimphedi VDC, all caste and ethnic groups lack access to toilet facility, being

5 Aran is equipment used for making iron weapons such as ploughs, knives, Khukuris, Kodalo etc. 6 This proportion is very high as compared to national figure. Forty four percent of total dwellings in Nepal had safe-drinking water (both piped to house and piped outside house) (CBS, 2004). This may be due to the Plan interventions in safe-drinking water in our sampling areas. 7 Nepal Living Standard Survey, 2003/04 estimated that there were 39 percent of the total households of Nepal with toilet facility.

14 highest for Hill Dalits (91%), hill ethnic groups (except Tamang and Praja) and Madhesi Dalits (Case 1, 5 and 15).

Table 2.4: Household deprivation in access to drinking water and toilet facilities Plan PUs % of households with % of households no water within the with no toilet facility residence Plan PUs Banke 37.5 89.1 Makwanpur 23.6 58.2 Bara/Rautahat 30.0 58.6 Social groups Tamang 31.7 61.0 Praja 0.0 36.4 Hill ethnic groups (except Tamang & Praja) 31.0 86.2 Hill caste groups 28.6 64.3 Hill Dalits 63.6 90.9 Madhesi caste groups 36.7 66.7 Madhesi Dalits 33.3 71.4 Muslims 30.8 46.2 Madhesi others 15.8 84.2 Total 30.7 68.8 Source: Field Survey 2005.

As noted in section one, some of the households, particularly of Madhesi Dalits are so poor that they do not have land for the construction of toilets. In Tistung bazaar also, some of the Tamang households missed their opportunity to construct toilets supported by Plan because of lack of their own land, stones and sand closed to their houses. It is also revealed that they were unable to contribute to their labour for toilet construction because of their rampant poverty and lack of motivation on their part. Child immunization has been universal in the sample areas. Health seeking behaviour among women has also satisfactory among Hill groups. Another way of measuring the health deprivation of households/individuals is to examine the number of persons chronically sick/disabled. In our sample, a total of 73 out of 1,264 sample populations were reported to be in such condition. Half of the sick/disabled persons were in the age group of 15-59 years - the economically active age group (Table 2.5). Most of the sick persons in this age group were women, mainly with reproductive health problem such as the case of Maili Tamang (Case 3). She was so sick that she had to stay about two months in hospital. For her treatment, her husband had to sell his land. Almost half of the total elderly population was also reported to be chronically sick/disabled persons (Table 2.6). Tuishing's wife who has been in bed for the last six months (Case 4) and husband of Tili is sick since last 4 years (Case 19). Tuishing's family has fallen into much vulnerability and deprivation. For the treatment of his wife, Tuishing has taken loans on high interest rate (i.e. 36% per annum), and he has also spent all the income from vegetables. In order to pay the loans off, Tuishing's both sons had to drop out from school. One son ploughs the field while another son is involved in labour in road construction. Tuishing himself was the ward chairperson of the last VDC council and was active in the development work. Now, Tuishing has no time to participate in any development work.

15 Table 2.5: Sample population with chronic sickness/disability by age groups, according to Plan PUs Plan PU Age groups of sick/disabled persons Under 5 5-14 15-59 60 and Total years years years more Banke Number of sick persons 0 1 5 9 15 % of sick persons to the sample population of the group 0.0 0.8 2.4 56.3 3.6 Sample population 70 123 210 16 419 Makwanpur Number of sick persons 2 1 5 5 13 % of sick persons to the sample population of the group 4.3 1.1 2.5 62.5 3.8 Sample population 46 89 199 8 342 Bara/Rautahat Number of sick persons 2 4 28 11 45 % of sick persons to the sample population of the group 2.0 2.6 12.3 42.3 8.9 Sample population 98 152 227 26 503 All districts Number of sick persons 4 6 38 25 73 % of sick persons to the sample population of the group 1.9 1.6 6.0 50.0 5.8 Sample population 214 364 636 50 1264 Source: Field Survey 2005.

2.2.2 Education Another component of human capital is education. In our sample, more than three- fourths of the women respondents were illiterate (not shown in Table). Quantitative data shows that one in five children aged 6-14 years miss schooling, with being highest in Banke (30%), followed by Makwanpur (16%), and Bara/Rautahat (14%). Among caste/ethnic groups, the highest proportion of Madhesi others group children were not attending school, followed by Madhesi caste (Table 2.6). Surprisingly, relatively higher proportion of girls over boys were reported to be attending school. This may be due to the fact that in Madhesi community there is no system of girl children sending to work outside of the house while, in case of boys, there is no restriction of going out to work. Further, Plan's sponsored children are girls under 18 years of age, who are mostly found to be attending school. Note that caution must be born while interpreting schooling status of children, however. First, there is a tendency of parents to over reporting schooling of their children as parents would think that they would not get any supports if their children were reported to be not going school. Second, discussion with school teachers and community people revealed that there is high drop out among Dalit children after primary education in both hill (Case 4) and Tarai districts (Case 1). It is reported that 40-45 percent of Madhesi Dalit children still miss schooling opportunity. There may be several reasons for high drop-out rates among poor and deprived group children. Among others, we found five factors to be most important ones: a) lack of knowledge of parents on long term benefit from educating children – as there are few role models from poor/deprived groups; b) parents' inability to afford books, dress and

16 admission fee; c) low wages/earnings of parents forced children to work for family survival; d) language constrains among those who do not have Nepali mother tongue at least at the primary level; and e) distance to school – young children and girls miss schooling. Physical access to schooling is also problematic in some of the sampling areas. This is particularly important for young children and girls. Even in Tarai districts, parents do not want to send their daughters to school if school is too far. In other cases, physical access to schooling does not matter for the abject poor such as the case of Maila Tamang (Case 5). Maila's house is just two minutes distance from the High School of Tistung but none of his eight children have attended school. Poverty, heavy workload and his traditional beliefs on Lamaism prevent his children from schooling. Although Early Child Care Development (ECCD) has been lunched in Plan communities, this has yet to cover the needy groups on the one hand, and on the other hand, ECCD policy tends to exclude needy groups as it requires at least 25 children in a location in order to run the classes such as in some areas of Ambhanjyang VDC (Makwanpur). In the geographically isolated hilly areas, this provision needs to be revised. This is most essential in hill areas.

Table 2.6: Percentage distribution of children aged 5-14 years who are not attending schools by sex, according to selected characteristics of the households Characteristics Boys Girls Both sex % not Total % not Total % not Total attending number attending number attending number school school school Plan PUs Banke 31.0 71 26.9 52 29.3 123 Makwanpur 14.0 43 17.4 46 15.7 89 Bara/Rautahat 18.7 75 9.1 77 13.8 152 Social groups Tamang 15.4 26 20.0 35 18.0 61 Praja 14.3 14 12.5 8 13.6 22 Hill ethnic groups 3.8 26 12.0 25 7.8 51 Hill caste groups 28.6 21 15.4 13 23.5 34 Hill Dalits 20.0 10 0.0 1 18.2 11 Madhesi caste 32.4 37 28.0 25 30.6 62 Madhesi Dalits 30.4 23 11.1 27 20.0 50 Muslims 6.7 15 8.7 23 7.9 38 Others 41.2 17 22.2 18 31.4 35 Total 22.2 189 16.6 175 19.5 364 Source: Field Survey 2005.

2.2.3 Household Relations Dysfunctional household relations have been identified as a major type of vulnerability in different vulnerability and deprivation studies (Moser, 1998). Household relations may be examined through analyzing the family structure, (nuclear, joined and extended families), family size, and dependency ratios. During the time of vulnerability, household relations may be changed or breaking off family due to death/sickness of breadwinner, domestic violence, polygamy or migration of

17 adult members may also lead to vulnerability of individual family members, especially of children, women and elderly. In our study, some of the families are much vulnerable due to large number of children and few workers (Case 3, 5 and 7)), families with multiple marriages, with single woman8 (Case 6), and with the death/sickness of breadwinner (Case 8, 18 and 19). Women headed households particularly de-jure households (i.e. households headed by single woman) were found to be much deprived and vulnerable at the time of economic crisis. They largely lack access to citizenship certificates (mostly among Madhesi groups), land, and diverse income sources. These women were found to be reluctant to involve in livelihood programs such as leased-based farming, fishery, and raising of goats, piggery and poultry. One of the examples of single woman who dropped out from saving and credit group in Tistung- 4, Makwanpur district is the case of Thuli Maya (Case 6). Her problem is that she has no confidence that involving in saving and credit group would benefit her. She is also excluded from the Government's single woman allowance of Rs. 100 per month as she has no knowledge where to go to get the allowance. In the context where all the development work except some Plan Nepal interventions has been collapsed at Tistung like other rural areas of Nepal due to the violent conflict, involving in saving and credit group would also help Thuli Maya raising her voice to get single woman allowances. There is also case of Lakhi Chan (Case 7) who has been dropped out from leased-based farming. Quantitative data also shows that our sample population consists of large number of dependent population: children under 15 years and elderly aged 60 years and above. This can be seen from the dependency ratios. While overall dependency ratio in the sampling area is estimated to be 99, the comparable figure for the national average was 89 in 2003/04 (CBS, 2004:19). These ratios are much higher than that of national average in Bara/Rautahat (122) and Banke (99) sampling areas, except in sampling areas of Makwanpur district. With regard to caste and ethnic groups, dependency ratios are much higher among Muslims (158), hill caste groups (124), Madhesi caste groups (123) and Madhesi Dalits (120) than that of national average (Table 2.7). In our case history, Lakhi Chan has nuclear family with large number of dependent children (Case 7). Although Lakhi Chan has no own land, his major means of livelihood is his Gaudhari9 in the village. He participated in the livelihood programs of Plan Nepal twice i.e. leased-based farming and piggery but he dropped out from both programs. Among others, the main reason for his drop out reported is the large number of dependent children and no persons to work including his traditional occupation of Gaudhari. Because of the large number of dependent children, Lakhi Chan could not afford for schooling of his children. Two of his daughters were married at the age under 15 years and two of her other daughters under 17 years have involved in child labour - selling of fuel-wood.

8 We have used the terminologies of 'single woman' for referring to 'widow' in respected manner. Feminists in Nepal recently have started using 'single woman' instead of widow in order to promote, respect, and change the lives of 'windows'. 9 Gaundari is the traditional occupation of Chamar men in which Gaundari collects the dead bodies of livestock and disposes them. He also works as security guard of the village. Gaundari's wife works as a traditional birth attendant and also serves maternal mother for 12 days of her delivery. In turn, Gaundari's household gets some paddy on annual basis from his servicing. The quantity of paddy depends upon the land of his servicing households. He is allowed to harvest paddy equal to the one side of the terrace.

18 Families also tend to fall into vulnerability due to the death of breadwinner as of the case of Dhan Kumari (Case 8). In case of Dhan Kumari's family, the severity of vulnerability and deprivation tends to increase because of the large number of dependent children, infertile land and indebtedness. For Dhan Kumari family it is difficult to educate children and pay off the loans taken by her husband.

Table 2.7: Dependency ratios of the sample population, according to Plan PU and caste/ethnic groups Characteristics Child dependency Old Overall dependency ratio dependency ratio ratio Plan PUs Banke 92.9 7.6 99.5 Makwanpur 67.8 5.9 71.9 Bara/Rautahat 110.1 10.4 121.6 Social groups Tamang 61.9 3.9 65.8 Hill caste groups 114.6 9.8 124.4 Hill ethnic groups 98.8 2.4 101.2 Praja 89.2 5.4 94.6 Hill Dalits 77.8 3.7 81.5 Madhesi caste 111.5 11.5 122.9 Madhesi Dalits 105.3 14.7 120.0 Muslims 139.0 19.5 158.5 Madhesi others 69.5 6.1 75.6 Total 90.9 7.9 98.7 Note: Figures in parentheses indicate std. deviation. Source: Field Survey 2005.

With regard to family structure, 54 percent (102) of the total households were nuclear, 44 percent (83) were joint and 13 percent (4) were extended families. During the time of economic and other crisis, it is believed that one of the mechanisms of mitigating risk is the reliance of households on joint/extended family. The overall average family size is estimated to be 6.7, which is 1.3 family members higher than that of national average10. Among the sampling areas, average family size is much higher in Bara/Rautahat (7.2), followed by Banke (6.5) and least for Makwanpur (6.2). The family size sharply differs according to the structure of family, being highest in extended family (13.3), followed by joint (8.0) and nuclear (5.3). This pattern holds by sampling areas and caste and ethnic. All the caste and ethnic groups except Hill Dalits have higher average family size than that of national average. Large family size was reported among Muslims (8.2), Madhesi Dalits (7.9), and Madhesi other groups (7.6) and among Madhesi caste groups (7.0) (Table 2.8).

10 The average household size of Nepal was 5.4, according to Population Census of Nepal, 2001 (CBS, 2003).

19

Table 2.8: Sample population by family structure and Plan PU Characteristics Nuclear Joined Extended Total Plan PUs Banke Total population 196 218 - 414 (47.3) (52.7) (100.0) No. of households 37 27 - 64 Average household size 5.3 8.1 - 6.5 Makwanpur Total population 142 200 - 342 (41.5) (58.5) (100.0) No. of households 28 27 - 55 Average household size 5.1 7.4 6.2 Bara/Rautahat Total population 205 245 53 503 (40.8) (48.7) (10.5) (100.0) No. of households 37 29 4 70 Average household size 5.5 8.4 13.3 7.2 All districts Total population 543 663 53 1259 No. of households 102 83 4 189 Average household size 5.3 8.0 13.3 6.7 Note: Figures in parentheses indicate row percentages. Source: Field Survey 2005.

2.2.4 Gender Dimensions of Deprivation and Vulnerability Previous discussion revealed that most households in the Plan communities are highly vulnerable because they are deprived of private and public endowments and entitlements. It is also important to assess the distinct aspects of vulnerability among girls and women as within the poor and deprived families gender inequality exists in Nepal. In most of the sampling areas including among hill ethnic groups such as Tamang of Makwanpur, there were few women working outside of their home or villages. This suggests the fact that there has been feminization of agriculture, agricultural wage-labourers, and hence feminization of vulnerability and deprivation. This is most pronounced among Madhesi groups irrespective of caste and ethnicity. There is a strong public-private dichotomy between men and women. Women are restricted to household chores and agriculture labourers within the villages while men are the prime breadwinners, who earn income from non- agriculture sector too. Women's restriction to work outside is contingent upon cultural norms and values (derived from Hindu and Muslims religions), where there is little practice of women working outside of their houses/villages. Yet much research is needed to understand the dynamics of this phenomenon, at this stage we can say that women's subordination is associated with the notion of purity of women, practices of son preferences, early female child marriage, including deep-rooted dowry system, especially among Madhesi groups.

20 2.3 Formal and Informal Safety Nets as Means for Mitigating Vulnerability Social capital is the social ties within communities and households, which helps reduce risk of the households through reciprocity and labour exchange. Guthi, cooperatives, formal and informal groups, clubs, and traditional caste and ethnic based welfare organizations are some of the classical examples of social capital in rural Nepal. Access to social capital is the important means of poor households to increase security and, hence, to reduce the state of vulnerability. In the sampling areas, we did not find any informal groups except a Dalit organization in Bhimphedi. It is the organization that aims to provide help to Dalit families in the event of deaths, serious sickness and other events. In order to be a member of the formal safety nets, there are some pre- requisites to be full-filled. For example, in order to be eligible members of Nirdhan bank, one needs to have citizenship certificate (Case 2). Similarly, birth registration is the prerequisite for the admission of children in school and getting education support (Case 5), as well. Therefore, before dealing with the state of households in the formal safety nets, it is essential to deal to status of birth registration and availability of citizenship certificates of the sample populations. The issue of birth registration, citizenship certificates and old age security system is dealt with in chapter three (section 3.2.2) in detail, as these issues are closed related with reasons for exclusion of community from the development programs.

2.3.1 Micro-Finance One of the vital sources of safety nets is the extent to which poor people are involved in saving and credit groups, which may be taken as an important group-based informal mechanism of mitigating risk or vulnerability. As our data come from the Plan intervention areas, seven in ten households were found to be involved in saving and credit groups, ranging from 62 percent in the sampling areas of Makwanpur district to 66 percent in Banke and 80 percent in Bara/Rautahat districts. In terms of caste and ethnic groups, all households of the Praja residing in Kafalchaur of Bhimphedi VDC were involved in saving and credit group, followed by Muslims (92%), Madhesi Dalits (91%), and Madhesi others (84%) (Table 2.9). Among those who have some saving, the average saving amount was estimated to be Rs. 1,087, being highest in Bara/Rautahat (Rs. 1,520/saver), followed by Makwanpur (Rs. 1,124/saver) and Rs. 647/saver in Banke. Madhesi Hindu caste had the highest saving amount per saver (Rs. 2621), followed by hill caste groups (Rs. 1,128 per saver). Regular involvement of saving and credit groups including in other Plan interventions has changed the lives of many poor people. Some of the women and/or women's groups have become independent of the mobilization of loans and they have also formed Women's Cooperatives. FGD discussion with the women groups and Women's cooperative executives suggest us to conclude that saving and credit mobilization is one of the effective mechanisms of approaching to the dispossessed groups, and is also one of the important mechanisms of mitigating vulnerability. A number of advantages of involving in saving and credit groups were reported. The major ones implicate: a) easy access to loans, i.e. low interest rate, no requirement

21 of collateral of land or other household assets; b) commercialization of vegetables production; and c) maintaining household expenditure.

Table 2.9: Percentage of households involving in any saving and credit groups and average saving amount Characteristics Total sampled % of sampled Average saving to households households those who have participating in a some saving (in saving and credit Rs.) group Plan PUs Banke 64 65.6 647 Makwanpur 55 61.8 1,124 Bara/Rautahat 70 80.0 1,520 Social groups Tamang 41 48.8 842 Praja 11 100.0 885 Hill ethnic groups 29 79.3 687 Hill caste groups 14 50.0 1,198 Hill Dalits 11 63.6 1,056 Madhesi caste groups 30 56.7 2,621 Madhesi Dalits 21 90.5 514 Muslims 13 92.3 848 Madhesi others 19 84.2 921 Total 189 69.8 1,087 N 132 Note: figures in parentheses indicate that number of persons who have some saving amount. Source: Field Survey 2005.

There are also some successful cases reported in each of our sampling areas. One of the examples is of Basmati Chaudhari from Sano Dohari-2, Bara district who has continually involved in Plan interventions for the last 7-8 years. She is now involved in piggery. Her continuous participation in Plan interventions made her family escaping out of deprivation and vulnerability (Case 9). We have also asked the respondents whether they have mobilized any loans from groups and/or cooperative or Banks, the results of which are presented in Table 2.11. It is revealed that of the total households (189), 132 (70%) were involved in saving and credit groups. Among those who were involved in the saving and credit group, 43 or 32.6 percent of the households reported that they were not mobilized any loan from groups, cooperative, or banks. Among those who mobilized loans, average loan was estimated to be Rs. 4,809 with the highest in Bara/Rautahat (Rs. 6,827) followed by Banke and Makwanpur. Loans mobilization varies according to caste and ethnic groups considered in the study. Although much has yet to be worked out how to effectively mobilize the loans, there are some examples of effective mobilization of loans. One notable example is of Som Maya from Tistung-2 (Case 10). With taking loans from the group, she has been able to diversify her income from different sources – raising buffalos and goats, growing seasonal vegetables and producing home made alcohol. Consequently, she is able to send her children to school, and is also intending to collect some Rupees for the release of her husband from Jail. However, her heavy workload may have adverse health consequence in her old age.

22 Therefore, our finding suggests that saving and credit group is the most important safety net for mitigating vulnerability for the poor and deprived groups in rural Nepal.

Table 2.10: Percentage of households who were involved in any saving and credit groups by mobilization of loans from groups/cooperatives/Banks Characteristics No. of % of total households Average households who who involved in loans to those have involved in saving and credit who have any saving and groups with no loans taken loans credit groups from groups/Banks (in Rs.) Plan PUs Banke 42 25.6 4,093 Makwanpur 34 41.9 2,371 Bara/Rautahat 56 32.6 6,827 Social groups Tamang 20 50.0 2,000 Praja 7 45.5 3,691 Hill ethnic groups 23 26.1 4,643 Hill caste groups 11 28.6 7,286 Hill Dalits 7 42.9 2,786 Madhesi caste groups 17 41.2 2,976 Madhesi Dalits 19 21.1 5,911 Muslims 12 25.0 9,583 Madhesi others 16 18.8 6,188 Total 132 32.6 4,809 Source: Field Survey 2005.

2.4 Natural calamities and seasonal vulnerability Natural calamities also lead vulnerability in many places of our sampling areas. The notable natural calamity reported was flood in Ambhanjyang. It is reported that about 300 households were displaced due to flood during the last two and three years. It has also affected the leased-based farming as the rent of the land increased to Rs. 2,500 per Kattha, and it is difficult to pay the land rent off by the renters. At Solobhanjyang and Kafalchour of Bhimphedi, farmers dropped out peanuts farming due to heavy hailstone and fogs. Goats in Kafalchour are prone to be affected by foot-and-mouth disease. At Kafalchour, where Praja settled, goats farming is the most profitable if the diseases of goats are controlled. In Tarai area, drought was the most problematic in order to grow vegetables. This chapter has dealt with the extent, nature and processes of vulnerability and deprivation across Plan communities. The findings suggest that state of vulnerability and deprivation is pervasive and wide-spread, which is closely linked to the state of EXCLUSION. This dimension is dealt with in greater length in the following chapter.

23 Chapter III State of Exclusion

3.1 Introduction Social exclusion, a common phenomenon in the policy discourse in recent days, is multidimensional related to the notion of poverty, deprivation, and marginalization. It is the result of State policy and social process through which some individuals, groups of population, region, or society as a whole are excluded from the main stream development. As conceptualized in the first chapter, this chapter attempts to analyze level of participation of families in the development program within the social exclusion framework. Thus, this study focuses on only participation exclusion. Such exclusions operate through discriminatory policies from the State such as education in single language, discriminatory caste system and social practices such as untouchability, patriarchal norms and value. Dimensions of exclusion in Nepal identified by the Tenth Plan (2002–2007) consist of caste and ethnicity, gender, geographical locations, and extreme poverty. Accordingly, the HMG/Nepal recognized Dalits, Janajatis, women, and extreme poor as the excluded populations from the social and economic development processes. This chapter first highlights exclusion from basic social services and security in general. Analyzing exclusion from basic social services and security helps to understand foundation of the exclusion processes that lead to the exclusion from development programs. And then, this chapter focuses on exclusion from Plan development programs. It specifically seeks to understand to what extent, on what basis and how and why such exclusion exists among some needy members from the community for which Plan has been working. Reasons for less and/or non- participation of Dalits, Janajatis, women and extreme poor among the Plan community are the main indicators to analyze exclusion.

3.2 Nature and Extent of the Exclusion This study deals with nature and extent of exclusion in terms of non-participation of targeted families in social and economic development process. The analysis is divided into three sections: i) exclusion from basic social services - education and health; ii) exclusion from basic social security - citizenship, birth certificate, old-age security, and social institution; and iii) participation in Plan development programs.

3.2.1 Exclusion from Social Services

Education The study found that there has been encouraging improvement in school enrollment of children under 15 years throughout the Plan program areas although adult literacy is very low. It is mainly due to attraction of Plan supports, especially in income generation (vegetables, livestock, and other skill oriented activities) and sponsor children (registration fee, books, school uniforms, etc.). Most of the participants reported that their children go to school.

24 However, as the respondents reported, there are still many children among Plan community who do not go to school. Out of 189, 150 respondents have children aged 5-14 years in their household and, of which, 23.8 percent have at least one child who do not go to school (Table 3.1). The extent is high among Hill caste group (35.7%), but the number of cases is very few. This is closely followed by Madhesis (35%) and even though the proportion is far less it is significant among Muslims (23.5%) (see also Case 1). Hill ethnic (14.9%) has the lowest percentage who reported at least one of their children do not go to school. Higher percentage of Madhesis who have at least one child not going to school is considerably high in Banke (29.7%) and Bara/Rautahat (25.7%), in which there is high concentration of Madhesis. Extreme cases are of Lakhi Chan in Bara (Case 7) and Tistung in Makwanpur. Many of non-Nepali speakers such as Janajatis and Madhesis children do not go to school with a number of reasons. In addition to poverty, unfriendly curricula, mode of language, and teachers speaking Nepali language are the main reasons why many children have been excluded from the right to education. Books are in Nepali language, teachers in school are from Nepali speakers and the language used in the class is Nepali. Children from non-Nepali speaking communities such as Tamangs in Tistung and Madhesis in Bara/Rautahat and Banke districts are found reluctant to go school due to the language barrier.

Table 3.1: Respondents who have children aged 5-14 and at least one not going to school Categories % Total N Social Group Hill Caste 35.7 14 Hill Ethnics 14.9 74 Hill Dalits 16.7 24 Madhesis 35.0 60 Muslims 23.5 17 Plan PUs Banke 29.7 64 Makwanpur 14.5 55 Bara/Rautahat 25.7 70 Total 23.8 189 Source: Field Survey 2005.

Trust in the school education is also an equally important for the exclusion from education. This may also be due to the unfriendly and impractical curricula. Rural people have deeply rooted concept that persons who have education should work in the office not in the field as other illiterate people do. A Tamang old man in Tistung said, "those who have some education are also working in the village as other non-educated, then, why should we send our children to school?" In this way, people have some negative feeling about education, by which they have been excluded from it. It is also reported that in Banke and Bara/Rautahat if the teachers are from Hill origin (non-Dalits), they usually use dominating and inferior words to Madhesi children in the school. It also applies to Dalits. Hill origin schoolmates follow the same dominating behaviour. In addition, even among those who are enrolled in the school, school participation rates, repetition and drop outs, are also high among Plan communities. It has been reported during the discussions that some people send their children to

25 the school expecting support from Plan. If support is not available in time they pull their children out of school. In many instances, attendance of children in school is very much seasonal. Seasonality of schooling is related to seasonal agriculture wage labour and migration for employment. Children have to work on the field either in own field or for wage to support family livelihood in the agriculture pick season. During this period they are absent from the school. This is much pronounced among Madhesi communities, such as Khatik and Mangta in Hirminiya and Kawadiya in Bhawaniyapur VDC in Banke. Mangta community has even different story. They are mobile community. During the paddy harvesting season, they seal their house and all family members leave for collecting left out food grains (especially paddy) in the field of others. Their home is the paddy field wherever they reach. In this season, children are absent in the school (Case 15). Geographical isolation is also equally important for exclusion from education, especially in hill areas. For instance, in Tistung (Makwanpur), it takes more than 4 hours walk ups and down from Ward 9 and 7 to school and there is no hostel in the school. Due to which children are less likely to go to school.

Health Survey collected little information on the exclusion from health services. Information on immunization and visit to health post closer to the village was obtained any way. Immunization shows very much encouraging in health situation throughout the survey sites that children from almost all families have been immunized. However, information on visit to the health post shows that there is still about 5.3 percent who have not visited health post during the last year, being highest among Hill caste (14.3%) (Table 3.2). However, the number of cases of Hill caste in the interviews is considerably low. On the other hand, Madhesis have the highest percentage (6.7%) and no Muslims were found who have not visited health post during last year. High percentage of respondents among Madhesis is consistent while looking at this percentage according to Plan PUs. For instance, this percentage is the highest in Banke (9.4%). Result is indicative except for Hill caste.

Table 3.2: Respondents not visited Health Post during the year preceding the survey Category % Total N Social Group Hill Caste 14.3 14 Hill Ethnics 4.1 74 Hill Dalits 4.2 24 Madhesis 6.7 60 Muslims 0.0 17 Plan PUs Banke 9.4 64 Makwanpur 3.6 55 Bara/Rautahat 2.9 70 Total 5.3 189 Source: Field Survey 2005.

Respondents reported that, even though the percentage of those who have not visited health post during the last year is very small, practice of health facilities and health seeking behaviour is very poor among the communities in our sample. They go to health post only for immunization and usually do not prefer to go while

26 they get sick. The reason why they reported is no medicine in health post, whatever medicines they need are to be purchased from the market. Madhesis in Banke and Bara/Rautahat reported the reason why they are reluctant to go to health post is that health personnel are mostly hill origin, even there is Madhesi they are from elite, and their behaviour with poor people is dominating and discriminatory ones. Health personnel also discriminates poor SC families and teases by saying, "you are of Plan, Plan will manage for your treatment, why do you come here while we can not provide you free medicine as Plan does". This kind of misbehaviour of health personnel is also one of the reasons for Madhesis to be excluded from the health services.

3.2.2 Exclusion from Social Security

Land Land is basic endowment of individuals and households in Nepal. Development of individuals or households solely depends on how much land and its production they have. The land has multiple relationships. It is related to livelihood, poverty, citizenship, and much other prosperity. ILO Convention 169 protects the land as the right of Indigenous people. It is because the word indigenous directly refers to the natural territory on the basis of which life style and culture of indigenous people have emerged. As found by the study, many Plan families are excluded from the land. For instance, 31, 39, 6 percent of families are landless in Banke, Bara/Rautahat and Makwanpur, respectively (see Cases 1, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19). It seems majority of them have land and the proportion of it in Makwanpur is overwhelming. However, more than 50 percent of those who have land have less than one bigah in Banke and Bara/Rautahat and about 78 percent of those who have land have less than one bigah in Makwanpur. Another thing, the land most of them have Aileni (unregistered), which was found in Kafalchaur (Bhimphedi), Alanagar, Masurikhet, and Mangta tole in Banke. Saying explicitly, no one has land that is sufficient for their survival around the year throughout the survey sites.

Natural Resources The survey collected a little information on access to natural resources through the group discussion. These resources are traditional and cultural occupation of indigenous people and Dalits that are for their livelihood and continue since their ancestors. The survey found exclusion also from some of these resources. For instance, fishing is the indigenous occupation of Shahani in Paurahi, Rautahat in which their livelihood depends. But these days, fishing in river is under the control of District Development Committee (DDC) and the DDC announces the bidding for contractors for fishing. The Shahani are not able to bid the contract. In this way they are denied of fishing in the river. In Banke, collecting fodder among Ghasiyar is at stake due to deforestation and fragmentation of land. Similarly, hunting bird among Chidimar is also in problem due to unavailability of forest.

Birth Certificate Birth certificate is a prerequisite of school enrollment and citizenship that are directly related to personal development and asset ownership such as house and

27 landholding. Thus, birth certificate is necessary and it is one of the indicators of basic social security. Plan is a child centered organization and has been working for building awareness on birth registration in its program area. Field survey found that there has been much improvement in birth registration. As a result, Rajhena VDC in Banke won the first prize in birth registration throughout the country some years ago. However, there are still many families within Plan community who are excluded from birth registration. Table 3.3 shows that, out of 189, 30.2 percent of households have at least one child under 5 who does not have birth certificate. The percentage is highest among Hill caste group (45.5%) in this case. However, the number of cases of Hill caste group is very few to generalize the result (11). Besides, Madhesis have the highest percentage of those who have at least child but not having birth certificate (33.3%). The percentage is high also among others too, that is 27.1 for Hill ethnics and 26.3 for Hill Dalits, but relatively lower. This indicates that the extent of exclusion in terms of birth registration is high for all groups but much higher among Madhesis. Exclusion of Madhesis is justified also by the findings that Banke has higher percentage of those who have children under five with no birth certificate.

Table 3.3: Respondents who have at least one child under five with not birth certificate Categories % Total N Social Group Hill Caste 45.5 11 Hill Ethnics 27.1 48 Hill Dalits 26.3 19 Madhesis 33.3 48 Muslims 23.1 13 Plan PUs Banke 40.8 49 Makwanpur 26.5 34 Bara/Rautahat 23.2 56 Total 30.2 139 Source: Field Survey 2005.

Citizenship Citizenship is the identity of nationality for every person. It is necessary for acquiring assets and employment and any service and security provided by the State. Citizenship certificate is a social security and having it is the right of every citizen. Therefore, a person who is denied of getting citizenship or not able to have it indicates the exclusion of that person from basic social security. Table 3.4 shows that out of the total respondents throughout the survey sites almost 51 percent have at least one family member of 16 years and above who do not have citizenship certificate. This means half of the respondents are excluded from the citizenship right. Even though the variation is observed, the percentage is considerably high among all social groups. And, this is more prominent in Bara/Rautahat and Banke (Case 2) as compared to Makwanpur.

28 Table 3.4: Respondents who have at least one family member of 16 years who does not have citizenship Categories % Total N Social Group Hill Caste 71.4 14 Hill Ethnics 40.5 74 Hill Dalits 50.0 24 Madhesis 61.7 60 Muslims 41.2 17 Plan PUs Banke 54.7 64 Makwanpur 29.1 55 Bara/Rautahat 64.3 70 Total 50.8 189 Source: Field Survey 2005.

FGD found that the issue of citizenship among Hill community is not much problem. The main reasons for not having citizenship among them are: due to not availability of VDC secretary in the office due to threat of conflict; no time to go to district headquarter due to heavy work; lack of money to afford for making citizenship; or it is under the process. However, the issue of citizenship among Madhesi community is much pronounced. One of the main agendas of Sadbhavana Party is citizenship of Madhesi people and it has been also the issue of central politics several times. As found from the discussion, there are two main reasons behind it. i) Many Madhesi people are landless in Tarai. Some of their ancestors came from India for cultivating barren land of landlords of Tarai and some are indigenous to Tarai. They have been working for landlords since their ancestors and they never owned land. Due to not owning land they never become eligible for citizenship and, on the other way round, due to not having citizenship they were never eligible for owning land. In this way, these people have been excluded in two ways at the same time – land and citizenship. ii) Another thing is that trans-border marriage is common among Madhesi community. Some women were participants of the group discussion in Banke and Bara/Rautahat whose natal house is in India who do not have Nepali citizenship. This created complication, in turn, in getting birth certificate of their children as well.

Old Age Allowance HMG, Nepal formulated policy related to senior citizens and single woman during the Ninth Plan period. One of the policies for social security for senior citizens and single woman was to provide allowance of Rs. 100 per month. For the allowance purposes, senior citizens are defined as those who are aged 75 and above and a single woman is entitled to get allowances if she is 60 and above years of age. The allowance is provided through VDC offices. However, due to the violent political conflict in the country, most of the VDC offices have been destroyed and closed down. VDC secretaries are deployed in districts' headquarters. This situation was also prevalent in our sampling areas, which has interrupted the regular distribution allowances for senior citizens and single woman. This has increased the vulnerability of elderly and single woman. Even though the amount of allowance is minimal, this is considered to be a significant indicator of social security (Case 18).

29 Table 3.5: Respondents who have at least one elderly member not getting old-age allowance Categories % Total N Social Group Hill Caste 100.0 2 Hill Ethnics 54.5 11 Hill Dalits 100.0 3 Madhesis 91.7 12 Muslims 80.0 5 Plan PUs Banke 71.4 14 Makwanpur 66.7 9 Bara/Rautahat 100.0 10 Total 78.8 33 Source: Field Survey 2005.

Information on elderly allowance was collected from the field survey. The result shows, out of the total 33 respondents whose family has elderly population, 79 percent did not get elderly allowance (Table 3.5). The main reasons for not getting allowance are no citizenship and unknown about it. Even though the number of cases is very small, the result is indicative that overwhelming majority of the people are excluded from the social security. The extent is even higher among Madhesis because it requires citizenship and majority of them do not have citizenship certificate (Case 6).

Social Institutions Social institutions such as ethnic organizations traditionally and culturally built up are also one of the indicators of social security, which provides support to the community people during emergency, rituals, and ceremonies. This institution is kind of communal organization formed within a single community. Traditionally, this has been proven to be an important social security system in Nepalese society. Even though many communities do not have such institutions, they involve in helping each other. However, finding shows that overwhelming majority of the respondents (83.6%) reported that they do not have such institution throughout the survey sites. One example was found in Bhimphedi that Dalits have recently established an organization "Utpidit Dalit Jatiya Sahayog Samity". The main objective, as they reported, is to provide collective support especially during the social, cultural and ritual ceremony and occasion. They also aim to provide immediate economic support for fellow members in some emergency events.

3.2.3 Exclusion from Development Programs Development program considered here is the Plan development programs. Analysis of exclusion is focused on major components of Plan development programs. They are sponsored children program, saving and credit program, and livelihood programs that are directly related to livelihood and development of poor people and all other programs are around these components. Extent of non-participation in these program components is believed to help understand exclusion from the Plan development programs.

30 Sponsored Children Program Sponsored children (SC) program is the basis of Plan development program for the rural poor. All other programs are around the SC program. Therefore, participation in this program is explicitly important to understand exclusion of people from the Plan development program. However, no quantitative information on participation of sponsored children program was collected in the survey. The discussion is based on qualitative information only. The survey found that the main concern of people in the Plan development program is to be SC family. The program of Plan begins with making SC in the community. It has been reported during the discussion, however, that many people have been left out from being SC family. For instance, out of the 28 Dalit participants in the discussion in Bhimphedi, only 9 respondents were from the SC family and out of 62 households in Masurikhet (Banke) only 17 families were from SC. This indicates considerably high proportion of families in Plan community is excluded from being SC family. Even, once registered SC families have also dropped out from the program. Example is the case of Thuli Maya in Tistung (see Case 6). It has been reported that 5 SC children were dropped out from the program in ward no. 9 in Tistung, because they had to leave the village for work.

Saving and Credit Program Cooperative is also such institution to become people together and help each other. Plan has been working in such scheme for the development of rural poor. This sort of institution has been formed primarily for the purpose of saving and credit scheme in the community. In recent days, there is a number of NGOs and INGOs involved in such activities. Survey found there are up to 5 organizations forming groups of people and working for saving and credit in Basudevpur VDC, Banke. Some members of the group discussion are involved in all five groups run by different five organizations. NIRDHAN is one of them as Plan partner working in Banke and Bara/Rautahat and SAHAMATI in Makwanpur. Survey found that exclusion of families from saving and credit program within Plan communities is pervasive. Out of 189 respondents throughout the survey sites, 30 percent of the families are still excluded from the participation in Plan supported saving and credit programs (Table 3.6). The extent of exclusion in terms of participation in cooperatives is high among Hill origin people and in Hill, Makwanpur, compared to Madhesi people in Tarai. For instance, Rama reported that there are only 78 out of 91 families in saving and credit program in ward 6, Tistung.

Table 3.6: Respondents who are not participated in saving and credit programs Categories % Total N Social Group Hill Caste 50.0 14 Hill Ethnics 35.1 74 Hill Dalits 37.5 24 Madhesis 23.3 60 Muslims 5.9 17 Plan PUs Banke 34.4 64 Makwanpur 38.2 55 Bara/Rautahat 20.0 70 Total 30.2 189 Source: Field Survey 2005.

31

Livelihood Programs Finding shows that only 34 percent of the total respondents through out the survey sites reported that they are benefited from the Plan supported vegetable program (Table 3.7). The program has not been reached to the remaining two-third of the families within Plan communities. Participation varies from one social group to other and one area to other. It seems to be high among Madhesis especially in Bara/Rautahat, moderate among Hill ethnics in Makwanpur and low among Hill caste and Dalits. FORWARD reported that 30 to 35 percent of the families within Plan communities are still left to include in the livelihood program. Unlike vegetable farming, people involved in livestock, forest and agriculture, fishery, and skill training are very few. Only 11 percent reported that they are involved in livestock, 7 percent in forest and agriculture, 4.2 percent in fishery and 9 percent in skill training out of the total respondents enumerated throughout the survey sites (Table 3.7). Relatively more families from Madhesis are involved in livestock, fishery, and skill training, especially in Bara/Rautahat (Case 1), whereas relatively more Hill ethnic families are involved in forest and agriculture, especially in Makwanpur. People not involved in those programs do not mean that they are excluded from the livelihood program. It is because these programs are run only in some areas where it is feasible and not all the households involve in all programs. Families who have land with possibility of irrigation are involved in vegetable farming and forest and agriculture. Families, who have jungle near the village or who can provide fodder, are involved in livestock, and who have land and sufficient source of water are involved in fishery. An example for vegetable farming is that there is no vegetable program in ward no. 7 in Tistung, located at the top of the hill, where people have to rely on either rain water or they have to walk 2 hours down to the water source for drinking water. However, the result still indicates that the exclusion of families from the livelihood program within Plan communities appears to be high.

Table 3.7: Participation in Plan development program Forest Vege- Live- and Skill Categories Fishery Total N table stock agricul- training ture Social Groups Hill Caste 21.4 7.1 7.1 0.0 7.1 14 Hill Ethnics 32.4 9.5 10.8 1.4 6.8 74 Hill Dalits 25.0 - 8.3 0.0 4.2 24 Madhesis 38.3 18.3 1.5 11.7 11.7 60 Muslims 47.1 11.8 5.9 0.0 17.6 17 Districts Banke 9.4 3.1 6.3 0.0 3.1 64 Makwanpur 38.2 5.5 12.7 1.8 9.1 55 Bara/Rautahat 52.9 22.9 2.9 10.0 14.3 70 Total 33.9 11.1 6.9 4.2 9.0 189 Source: Field Survey 2005.

32 3.3 Dimensions of the Exclusion This section discusses the dimensions of exclusion from the Plan development program. These are the bases of discrimination by which exclusion prevails. It establishes which part of the society or who are the ones that have been excluded from the program among the families within the Plan communities.

3.3.1 Caste and Ethnicity It has been identified that some of the caste and ethnic groups are excluded from the mainstreaming development. They are Dalits, Janajatis and some Madhesi groups including Muslims. The survey found that these groups have been excluded from the Plan programs despite several efforts being made by Plan to target these groups. In all three Plan PUs, Dalits have been excluded in a relatively higher extent as compared to others. This is partially because of their ignorance on the program in the community and partially because of caste based discrimination. As the Dalit respondents in Bhimphedi reported, they are dominated and discriminated by so- called high caste people in each and every instance. "High" caste people know first whatever programs come to the village. Sometimes, programs reach to the Dalits only after other people being accommodated. Wrongly use of scholarship for Dalit students in Bhimphedi School is one of its examples. Even if the program is already there in Dalit community, they have been facing problem. Mangtas in Hirminiya (Banke) reported that they are very much humiliated and discriminated by the hill people. Participants of the discussion complained that some rings (for toilet) were looted by some hill origin fellow villagers (Chhetris). Discussion with hill group also demonstrated the reality of discrimination. Participants from hill group are even not happy with Mangtas having Plan programs. They argue that it is not necessary to have any program for such a beggar community, because Mangtas are very much mobile like nomads and they stay in their house only about 4 months in a year (Case 19). In some areas such as Paurahi, Rautahat some hill people have been well- participating in the program but not Madhesi people. The main reason for it is Madhesi people are humiliated by the hill origin and they are reluctant to involve in the program with hill people. Before, there was a cooperative group made of Tamangs and Dalits in Tistung-1. Group was almost non-functional because there was no good communication between Tamang and Dalit members. The main reason was that Dalits were reported to be humiliated by Tamangs all the time. So, all the Dalits dropped out from the group. Dalits in Bhimphedi reported that they are denied of drinking water supported by Plan that is installed in the non-Dalit village due to caste based discrimination. In this way, Madhesis and Dalits have been excluded from the development programs in some areas due to caste and ethnic discrimination.

3.3.2 Gender Gender issue is also found to be pertinent for the exclusion from the program. Male domination and over burden for women are the main issues found by the field survey. The extent is equally high among both Madhesi and hill communities. But the nature of issue is slightly different.

33 Women participants in Tistung reported that especially those who are in the group executives are facing problems with their husbands. Due to Plan supported activities, they are overloaded that they have to spend time for up to 15 meetings in a month and they have less time to give for household chore (Case 10). So, husbands are not so happy with these women. On the other hand, some women reported that there is quarrel between husband and wife when wife comes late from the meeting. Husband suspects and blames his wife that she might have affair with other man. Such domination from husbands was also reported in Bhimphedi and Ambhanjyang. The nature is slightly different among Madhesi communities. Madhesis are relatively closed society. Women in this community are not allowed to interact with outsiders, especially men. They even rarely go out of home for work. In this situation, tendency of women to participate in saving and credit group is less. Plan volunteer (PV) in Bhawaniyapur and Monikapur in Banke share their experience that they have been very difficult to convince Madhesi women to form groups and about 35 percent are still not in the group. It has been reported that the extent is even higher in Bara/Rautahat, especially in non-Dalit Madhesi community. Women are the focal point of any development program. Most of the development agencies mobilize women to implement their programs. The main target of most of the development programs is women. Women are the ones who have been involved in most of the development activities, which is likely to increase the burden to women who were already overloaded from the household work. For instance, In Basudevpur (Banke) survey found some participants involving in 5 saving and credit programs at the same time, run by different organizations. 3.3.3 Language Language has been the most contributing factor for exclusion in Nepal. According to Census 2001, mother tongue of more than half of the population of Nepal is non- Nepali, but the lingua-franca is Nepali. The official mode of language for education, communication, and information is Nepali, which does not address 51.4 percent of population (only data from CBS, 2002). As a result, a mass population from non- Nepali speakers are deprived of and excluded from the mainstream development, especially from education. Indra Syangtan (Tistung) reported that the reason why his one son and a daughter do not want to go to school is, "my son and daughter do not understand Nepali; most of the teachers in school are non-Tamang who speak Nepali only; and Nepali speaking teachers even tease Tamang children being non- Nepali speakers". There are hundreds of national and international non-governmental organizations working for poor and disadvantaged groups in Nepal. Poor and disadvantaged groups are Janajatis, Dalits, and Madhesis. Except hill Dalits, Janajatis and Madhesis are non-Nepali speakers. Within the Plan PUs, non-Nepali speakers are 42 percent in Morang, 40 percent in Makwanpur, and 39 percent in Banke (CBS, 2002). Instead, the project personnel are overwhelmingly Nepali speakers. Languages they mostly use are Nepali and English, the materials they make are in Nepali and English, but majority of the beneficiaries understand properly neither Nepali nor English. Consequently, one of the main reasons why non-Nepali speaker populations have been excluded even from the non-governmental development activities or why the programs are not so successful in mainstreaming non-Nepali speakers is mode of language they use.

34 3.3.4 Geographical Isolation Geographical remoteness is another factor on what basis social exclusion exists in Nepal. About 77 percent of the total land is covered by mountain and hill where about 52 percent of the total population resides. Due to remoteness, the distance is also equally important for it. The effect of remoteness is more prevalent in hill district such as Makwanpur Plan PU program district. For instance, children are excluded from the education in ward 7, 8, 9 of Tistung due to school is about 2 hours far from the school and ward 9 is still not covered by the Plan program. Similarly, people from some wards of Ambhanjyang are left from development programs due to distance and remoteness.

3.3.5 Conflict Current violent political conflict has also lead to vulnerability and social exclusion, which is pervasive mostly in rural areas. Remote areas are even more affected by the conflict. Due to conflict, program has not been reached to needy groups, such as in ward 7 and 9 of Tistung, ward 4 and 7 in Ambhanjyang, Mahespur in Bara. At Barwa of Mahespur, Bara, although there is fishery groups and some 40 families are organized on it. People complain that they are denied from getting loans from NIRDHAN in one hand, and NIRDHAN staff do not want to invest there because of fear of Maoist on the other. People complained, "we tried to ensure NIRDHAN staff that we would collect required installment by ourselves in the community and would bring to NIRDHAN office at Kalaiya regularly, but NIRDHAN staff did not listen to us". It is also found that Plan program has been withdrawn from many rural areas due to conflict. Even if it is not withdrawn, program has been stopped and no new programs were implemented further such as in Rapti area. The example is from Banke PU. All the BO and DU offices are concentrated around the Nepalgunj city. In this way, many families have been excluded from the program due to conflict.

3.3.6 Extreme Poverty Extreme poverty is one of the dimensions of exclusion. In addition to Janajatis, Dalits, and Madhesis, some extreme poor among Hindu "high" caste are also excluded from the social services and security and development activities (Table 3.1 to 3.7). They have less opportunity to involve in social safety nets such as NIRDHAN, Gramin Bikas Bank, and other cooperatives. As they are very poor who are to be busy in managing everyday hand-to-mouth problem, they cannot involve in saving and credit program. Even if they are involved, drop out from the program is highly likely, because they cannot collect money and buy share. They cannot involve in agriculture and vegetable production because they cannot wait for 3 to 4 months until they get returns from the program. It is natural that extreme poor people are underprivileged in terms of literacy, information, and communication as well. Due to which, they have lack of awareness and thereby they do not want usually to involve in new interventions. Local elite can influence them easily with a number of wrong information against development programs. As reported in Basudevpur (Banke), some poor families were convinced that the NIRDHAN collects your money and run away.

35 Seasonal migration is one of the survival strategies of poor families. They have to be mobile for looking for wage labourer. Due mobility, they are excluded from the development programs (Case 16). People from Masurikhet in Kohalpur go to Dehradoon, Simra, and Delhi, people from Alanagar (Basudevpur) go to Bihar and Delhi, and Mangtas from Hirminiya go to Dehradoon, Delhi, and Bombay (Case 19); people from Uttar Jhitkaya go to Delhi to look for their livelihood. To some extent, there is also seasonal internal migration, especially among male adult members.

3.4 Causes of Exclusion from Plan Program Answer to the questions on why people are excluded from the basic social services and security in general has already been discussed in previous section. This section is devoted to answer why some families have been excluded from various levels of activities of the Plan program. The discussion is made under two broad headings, Plan policy and strategy and program implementation level.

3.4.1 Plan Policy and Strategy There are some components of the Plan policy and strategy that may stand as hindrance for exclusion of some families from the program even within the Plan communities, which is discussed in the section.

Plan Approach for the Development Program Plan aims to mainstream the excluded, deprived, and extreme poor part of society through its development programs. In order to address the issues of exclusion and deprivation, right based approach to development is fundamental. However, Plan program is based on less "right-based approach" and much "empowerment approach". There are a number of right based issues of deprived and excluded communities. They are right to resources such as land, river, and forest; right to birth registration and citizenship; right to utilize resources allocated by the government for Dalits; right against bonded labour; etc. These issues, however, have been overlooked under the Plan development program. Scholarship and other related supports for schooling of Dalit and Janajati children have been allocated by the government. However, due to unawareness among the target community and no Dalit and Janajati sensitive service providers, the resources have not been reached to the target groups. It is rather misused. For instance, in a secondary school in Bhimphedi, there were 4 scholarships for Dalit children. The school management committee (there is no Dalit member in the school management) allocated only two scholarships for Dalit children and the remaining two for salary of helpers (Peon and guard). Another example is that many of the Madhesi marginal farmers in Tarai are still in semi-bonded regime (Case I, 2 and 18). It is related to land and livelihood and occurred in two instances: i) when land is rented in from landlords for sharecropping; and ii) when loan is taken from money lenders. The first case was found to be most prevalent in Banke and second in Bara/Rautahat. The above two instances are against basic human rights. If Plan program was based on right-based approach, these issues might have address well by creating awareness about rights, pressure to the state, and lobbying state to provide rights to the people. Therefore, exclusion through such evidences being occurred can be

36 seen as because Plan development program is not based explicitly on right-based approach.

Changing Policy and Strategy Recently, Plan has changed its policy on cooperatives and agriculture. It was integrated before and all the Plan supported activities were run through the cooperatives. From the discussion, it came to know that cooperatives have been changed into saving and credit group and focused only on saving and credits. Agriculture, vegetables, and livestock are run separately for specialization of the programs. The partner is also different for two activities. The objective of agriculture unit is to form groups of people who will be able to produce vegetables and other agriculture products and sell in business point of view. In line with this view, the concerned partners is forming agriculture units and sub- units in the program areas and providing technical and other supports such as seeds, fertilizer, etc. On the one hand, this would contribute to commercialization of agriculture and vegetable production in the communities and would also reduce the misuse of resources. On the other hand, this tends to exclude families who have very small piece of land or who are landless. Families not in the units are not entitled to get any support related agriculture from Plan. In this way, relatively non-poor are likely to be organized in the "Agriculture Unit and sub-Unit" but not the ultra poor. Laxmi in Ambhanjyang says, "Plan program has become only for rich people after changing cooperative into saving and credit and forming agriculture unit separately". Therefore, findings indicate that change in policy and strategy has created room for exclusion of some marginal families from the Plan development programs.

Criteria Policy for Eligibility There are a number of criteria at policy level to become eligible for entering into the Plan program. Some of the criteria were set by Plan itself, some by partner organizations, and some by community people themselves. Setting criterion is to enhance management efficiency, through which program activities are run appropriately. However, such a single set of criteria may not be inclusive for all parts of the society. People who are fit into the criteria would be highly benefited and those who are unfit into would be excluded from the benefit. Criteria for entry into different program activities are different. Being a SC family is the prerequisite for most of the activities in Plan program. Families with no girl children of under 18 years, with only boy children, with only elderly member, and with only single member are excluded from the program, even though they are extremely poor. Rama (cooperative manager) in Tistung reported that there are about 6 families in ultra poverty state in ward no. 4 who are not in the SC family due to reasons that some of them are only couple, some are elderly only, and one is single member family. As she reported these families are even not involved in other program activities. Saving and credit program also requires female members of about 20-40 in a group. First and foremost prerequisite for entering into the group is citizenship certificate. Women with no citizenship can not be the member in saving and credit group. It is because group has to go through legal process for registration and loan transaction. Other criteria are families that have female member and those who are able to collect money regularly in the group and buy some share. In this way, member in the group as well as partner organizations are more concerned about who are to include and who are not to include in the group on the basis of ability to

37 collect money and buying share. The tendency of not including such extreme poor seems to be higher in Tarai areas such as in Banke. Tendency of dropping out from group or program is found to be high in all survey sites due to criteria for loan distribution and repayment of loan, and regularity in saving. Wife of Indra Syangtan (Tistung) left the group with other 3 members 3 years ago, because she was not able to collect money in the group regularly (see also Case 19). Due to recommendation not given by the fellow members for loan, two members were dropped out from the saving and credit group, because they were extremely poor and fellow members did not trust the loan will be paid. The above evidences clearly indicate that policy regarding criteria for eligibility work not always to enhance efficiency in management. It also plays role for exclusion of some parts of the society that are not fit in the given criteria.

3.4.2 Plan Program Implementation Non-Local Partner Some Plan field staff and respondents are in the opinion that selection of the partner is crucial and may be one of the reasons why people are excluded from the targeted programs. Most of the partners like NIRDHAN, FORWARD, SAHAMATI, CEAPRED, COSAN, etc. are not the local ones. The partners seem to be accountable to Plan and their field staff are accountable to their organization (partner), but not to the community. It is because Plan partners are not local to the community as the CBOs are. Being the CBOs local, they are much more accountable to local people because the place where they work is theirs. Commitment and efficiency are not equal among all the project field staff of partners. It has been reported that the technical staff for agriculture and livestock in Bhimphedi has never been visited to some parts of the VDC. They have already lost their goats and vegetables once due to insects and diseases and the technical staff was not available for the treatment. Due to this reason, people are in the opinion that they will not involve in goat keeping and vegetable growing in Kafalchaur and poultry farming in Bhimphedi. With this reason, they are going to be excluded from the livestock and vegetable farming in the future. Such cases were also reported in Uttar Jhitkaya and Santapur by leased based farmers.

Selection of Target Household Respondents in the field survey throughout the sites consistently reported that one of the major points from where many families being excluded from the programs is due to the process of selection of target households in Baseline Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). Some Plan staff also accepted it. The main reasons according to respondents are misreporting by community in one hand, and erroneous recording by survey staff during ranking of social well-being in the baseline. During the discussion with community people, it came to know that there was exaggeration in reporting of wellbeing of some families due to the tendency of people not to be seen as poor. The survey staff recorded what the community people reported without having proper triangulation of the information. At the result, families who reported to be rich during the baseline were excluded from the program even though they were actually poor. The extent of such error the survey found is higher in Tistung in Makwanpur (as reported by Ashok Lama, ex-VDC chair) and Bhawaniyapur in Banke (FGD participants). Moreover, in many places women

38 reported that their participation in PRA was minimum as they were not well-aware of the program at that time. This has led women specific exclusion issues being overlooked while selecting the households for Plan family. In this way, not addressing possible error in the process of selection of families and overlooking of particular issues are also the reason for exclusion from plan development program.

Lack of Good Communication Good communication is the most important in any development programs that bridges live-link between community and Plan Nepal with an intermediate role of partner organizations. The survey found that, due to lack of proper communication with the community, people have a number of wrong information about the programs and project staff as well. This situation was resulted from non-transparency of the programs, false promises, and influence of local elites in the community. During the survey, only a very few community people were aware on Plan programs and its objectives and goals. This clarity is found relatively better in Makwanpur whereas worse in Tarai areas. Another non-transparency is lack of sharing budget of particular program with beneficiaries. It was also found that project staff and trainers have made a number of false promises to the community participants. The NIRDHAN staff in Bara/Rautahat told the participants that they would get up to Rs. 50,000.00 for construction of house if they take 5,000.0 and repay on time, but later it was not given. Similarly, MADE Nepal promised community people to provide Rs. 700.0 for pigeonhole, but they were given only Rs. 500.0. These are only some examples on false promises collected during the field survey. Influence of local elites is also equally prevalent especially among communities in Bara/Rautahat and Banke and in some places of hill such as Ambhanjyang (Makwanpur). Due to not include in the program, local elites are reported to be against of Plan program and they make rumors against the program to influence its beneficiaries. Some of such rumors are – Yo paisa hamro bachchaharuko photo bideshma bechera lyaeko ho (this money is brought here by selling our children's photo in foreign countries); Iniharu hamro bikas garnu hoina aafno jagir pachaunu aaeka hoon (project staff have come here just for their job not for our development). Such non-transparency, false promises, and rumors affect people's motivation towards programs and people will leave or will not participate in the program and, ultimately, exclude from such programs. Another important aspect of lack of appropriate communication between project and community is language. Most disadvantaged and deprived communities are the target of the Plan development program. They are Janajatis and Dalits from both hill and Madhesi origin. All Madhesis and hill Janajatis are non-Nepali speakers. Instead, project staff from both Plan and its partner organizations are mostly Nepali speakers. Some Plan staff themselves realize that they use even advanced words of Nepali, technical and many English words while speaking with community people. Even Nepali speaker community people reported that they do not understand properly the language spoken by project staff. It is even not possible to understand for non-Nepali speakers. Implication of not understanding language is less communication or communication gap between community and project staff about the program activities. As for example, during the field survey participants throughout the survey sites were asked about whether they received any training related to program activities, but overwhelming majority replied, "NO". When we asked field staff (PV) or group chief, did they really not receive any training? The field staff replied, "NO", and

39 explained them about the list of training received. We again asked to participants, "Why are you saying that you have not received training, while the project provided such and such trainings"? They replied, "we do not understand whatever things taught in the training and there is no difference between who received and not received training", so, we say, "there is no training we received". In this way, even if the community people received training and if the language is not communicable, people would not be benefited by the program that is one of the aspects of exclusion.

Appropriateness of Program Field experience suggests that sustainability of the program also depends on the compatibility of program to need of people that is relevant to a particular area. If it is not practical, the tendency of drop-out would be high and ultimately exclusion from the program would be prevalent. A pertinent example was found in the case of "lease-hold" in Ambhanjyang. Thirty landless families started to grow vegetables on lease-hold basis. In the second year, 10 families were dropped-out. It is running in the third year and there are only 20 families now. Plan staff expects there will be about 10 families at the end of the forth-year cycle. Even if it comes true, the drop- out rate would be about 67 percent, which is considerably high. There are mainly four reasons for this high drop-out. Firstly, as they are extreme poor, they have to be busy in managing everyday hand to mouth problem. Waiting time for the income from vegetable production, that takes at least three months, is almost impossible for them. Secondly, Income from the vegetable production is not sufficient for the survival of their family. They must rely on other sources too. Thirdly, the rent for lease land is considerably high in Ambhanjyang, due to which it has less possibility of making profit for their livelihood from that land. Finally, there is no guarantee from the side of landlord to provide lease land for a long time, because land is scarce in Ambhanjyang. These facts indicates the lease-hold program in Ambhanjyang is not appropriate to the need of community people for this particular area, which has remained as a main reasons for growing exclusion from lease-hold program. Pigeon keeping is another example of program incompatibility in Paurahi of in Rautahat PU. Women are involved in stone quarry and men in fishing, but they were given pigeon. After some days, all of the pigeons flew away from the hole and left nothing (see Case 12). In this way, program incompatibility also contributes drop-out from the program and, ultimately, exclusion from the Plan development programs.

Rules and Regulations There are certain rules and regulations as a "code of conduct" made by the partner organizations as well as community people for the process of program implementation in a disciplined way. Meeting cost, short duration for loan repayment, rate of interest, fine for belated repayment, etc. are the major rules and regulations for implementing saving and credit schemes made by NIRDHAN and SAHAMATI and beneficiaries. In some instances, however, these rules have been resulted into difficulty in process of access to loans. Due to this reason, new comers are reluctant to be entered into saving and credit group and there is also tendency of dropping out from the program among older members (Case 5 and 6). This sort of problem was found mostly in Bara/Rautahat and Banke. Another reason is the profit motive of saving and credit scheme. NIRDHAN does not want extremely poor people to be included in the program. Similarly, fellow members also do not want to make a member in the group who can not collect money, buy share, and repay loan on time. It is because the all the members of a

40 group are the collateral for any member to take loan. Even if there are some extremely poor members already in the group, fellow members do not recommend her for loan because they do not believe she can repay loan. In this way, evidences suggest that rules and regulations established for implementation of the program activities are also remained as the factors for exclusion of people from plan development programs.

Limitation in Supports Quota system and limitation of the program support also seem to be one of the reasons for dissatisfaction and frustration among community people against Plan programs. About six families in ward no. 1 and 3 in Tistung were excluded from the program due to quota system of toilet. The problem due to quota of toilets is found to be even worse in Ambhanjyang. Some local elites were threatening DO while she was accompanying researchers for the field survey. Respondents in Tistung reported that it is very difficult to find subsidized seeds due to quota system. Members who have money at hand buy seed first. But poor people do not have money at hand and it takes time to look for money. When they go to buy it, seeds are already finished. The problem of hand pump is similar that prevails in Tarai. In this way, people have been excluded from the target programs due to limitation of supports or quota system even if they are really needy groups.

41 Chapter IV Conclusion and Recommendations

There is a cycle of relationship among deprivation, vulnerability and social exclusion. Exclusion comes from discriminatory policies and programs based on caste and ethnicity, gender, and geographical locations. Findings suggest that considerable proportion of families have been excluded from their basic social services and security. It is even more than half who have been excluded from saving-credit and vegetable programs that are basics to Plan development programs. These families belong to the excluded groups as identified by the government of Nepal, such as Janajatis, Dalits, Madhesis, and some extremely poor caste group. Such a state of exclusion leads households/individuals vulnerable to be deprived of social services, security, and development. Enduring state of deprivation leads households/individual falling into much vulnerability, which in turn, leads exclusion from development interventions. In order to demonstrate the cycle of relationship between social exclusion, vulnerability, and deprivation, some pertinent findings are presented as follows:  Landlessness and/or marginal holdings lead to some households' exclusions from Plan interventions.  Caste system is, partially but not exclusively, associated with the state of landless/marginal holdings. Partially in the sense that not all Hindu "high" caste groups have adequate land holdings.  Poor housing condition leads to household further deprivation from public utility services.  Households have few options of income diversification because of lack of work and lack of skilled labour force - resulting unfair and exploitive labour relations in agriculture sector, semi bonded labour regime, especially in Tarai. This, in turn, leads to household's exclusion from access to schooling of children, health, awareness of availability of employment opportunities and development interventions.  Dysfunctional household relations due to death of breadwinners of housewives, polygamy, migration or disappearance of breadwinners are linked to the situation of falling into state of vulnerability of children and women. Single woman and de- jure women headed households are less likely to participate in the development efforts due not to headship itself but due to lack of endowments and entitlements on their part.  There lacks informal safety nets as a means of mitigating or coping with vulnerability state. Formal safety nets, viz., saving and credit groups, have emerged as important catalytic force for households escaping out of deprivation. It is also the process of inclusions of deprived and poor households in the development efforts and raising the voice of the voiceless.  Lack of citizenship, especially among Tarai Dalits, leads to exclusion from formal banking system and cooperatives.

In order to address the cycle of social exclusion, vulnerability, and deprivation, Plan Nepal is required to adopt inclusive policy and to make effort to diversify income of the households from non-agriculture sectors. It is needed to provide skilled training not only to women but also to men. Further, there is need to provide

42 knowledge on the safe-migration, availability of foreign employment and provision of Government supports in skilled training and foreign employment in case of Dalits and Janajatis. Plan Nepal is required to have right-based approach for its development program to address the issue of exclusion. People are excluded because they are denied of their basic rights on resources, basic social services, social security, and development. Rights-based approach ensures not only basic human rights, but also socio-economic and cultural rights. It teaches people to be self-sustained and to construct a just society without any discrimination. It helps to build and strengthen the voices of poor for their overreaching rights of utilization of local resources. And, it makes people to be right-holders as well as duty-bearer, which itself is an initiation of empowerment and participation. Therefore, rights-based approach is an appropriate framework that Plan is required to adopt for inclusive development program. Makwanpur PU program is found to be effective in community mobilization and development. One of the reasons behind it is that it has separate "women's empowerment project". This project contributed two things to be effective for community mobilization and development. Firstly, as Plan Nepal envisaged an integrated approach to community development, most of the development activities were run either through or with women's cooperatives. Empowerment of women in such a degree and self-sustaining vegetable production in some areas of the district could be the best example of such integrated program. However, Plan has introduced recently different strategy. Now, cooperatives have been limited to single purposed that is saving and credit only. The programs for agriculture and vegetables are run separately by forming "agriculture production unit". This change was made to minimize the misuse of subsidies supported to the farmers in one hand and to strengthen efficiency in both saving and credit and agriculture and vegetable programs. However, from this specialization, marginal and landless families have been marginalized further, because they are excluded from the technical support for agriculture, livestock, and vegetables. To address this issue, Plan Nepal is required to make further effort to have special strategy for the marginal and landless families regarding their livelihood. Secondly, it established an effective networking through women's cooperatives up to the district level. It is a strong women's organization established from the very grass-root levels. Strong organization is the basic foundation of the right-based approach to make people stronger to raise voice for rights. This organization is a social institution and power that provides necessary safety nets for inclusion in all social services and security and development. Therefore, Building and strengthening such organizations should be the prime concern of Plan Nepal. Such approach of learning and experiences can also be replicated to other Plan program areas such as Morang, Bara/Rautahat and Banke. There are a number of criteria and rules to manage the program implementation, particularly saving and credit program. Mostly they are not poor friendly and stand as an obstacle for inclusive development of extreme poor. Some pertinent examples are – high rate of interest, compulsory meeting fee, compulsory purchase of optional share, etc. Somewhere, rate of interest is even more than that the moneylender charges. Fee for meeting and compulsory purchase of optional share are like penalty for those who have everyday hand-to-mouth problem. Poor friendly as well as inclusive criteria for the implementation of the program are required to adopt by both target group and partner organizations. Appropriate communication system is the primary concern for inclusive development program. It helps to maintain transparency, good governance, and

43 accountability to win the trust and then to motivate people towards development programs. However, communication is found to be not so good in the Plan program, especially between partners and target population, throughout the survey sites. To this weakness, five things were observed from the study – cultural insensitivity among staff, mode of language the staff, non-local staff, weak social mobilization, and weak monitoring and supervision. Cultural insensitivity in the sense is that caste and ethnicity of majority of the field staffs is different from that of Plan target community. They are mostly from privileged caste and ethnic group, such as Brahmin and Chhetri, which itself is a non-inclusive composition of staff, whereas people from target community are mostly from disadvantaged groups such as Madhesis, Dalits, and Janajatis. The culture and language of field staff are different from the community. Mother tongue of Brahmin and Chhetri is Nepali, whereas Madhesis and Janajatis speak different language. When the language is different, communication is weak. Even if educated non-Nepali speaker speaks Nepali and Nepali speaker staff speak local language, the illiterate people do not understand properly the language spoken by educated staff. Non-local field staff is also a factor for weak communication. Non-local staff are not accountable to local community. Even though they are from the same cultural background, they do not understand the community well and can not speak same language as spoken by local community. In order to establish good communication between field staff and community, Plan Nepal and its partner organizations should be inclusive in hiring staff, especially for the field. The field staff should be local who can speak local language and are culturally compatible to the community. For this purpose, It is better to strengthen local CBOs. Focus should be given to the CBOs formed by Dalits, Janajatis, and Madhesis, which helps strengthening the accountability of projects, developing role models in the community, and increasing sustainability of the interventions. Weak social mobilization is another factor for weak communication existing between program implementer and target community. Throughout the Plan program areas, there is only Plan Volunteer (PV) in the village. PV is very low level staff having low level of education and knowledge and is also lowly paid. Only PV is in the community responsible for dealing with people, but s/he does not have training for social mobilization. Other partner staffs are mostly technical and they are not responsible for social mobilization. In this way, there is no social mobilizer, who could communicate well about the program to mobilize the community. Therefore, Plan must ask its partners to have required number of social mobilizers for program implementation when project is commissioned. But, attention should be given to that social mobilizers must be from the local people. Finally, close monitoring and supervision from Plan staff as well as from its partner organizations is necessary for the effective program implementation and achieving its goals. Due to not close monitoring and supervision, some program activities have been unsuccessful in some areas. For instance, toilets were misused among Mangtas in Hirminiya, vegetables growing and goats keeping were unsuccessful in Kafalchaur, and pigeons were flown away in Paurahi. In addition, many families from the communities are left out from the program due to fully dependant on field staff. Close monitoring and supervision would minimize the misuse of program activities and contribute effective inclusion of the families in the program. It increases commitment of the field staff, encourages community people to be mobilized, increases realization of the field situation, and ultimately increases good governance of the project.

44 Reference Cited

CBS (2004). Nepal Living Standard Survey 2003/04. Statistical Report Volume One. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, HMG/Nepal. ______. (2004). Nepal Living Standard Survey 2003/04. Statistical Report Volume Two. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, HMG/Nepal. ______. (2003). Population Monograph of Nepal, Vol. II. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, HMG/Nepal. ______. (2002). Population of Nepal 2001: Population Census 2001 – Selected Tables on Caste/Ethnicity, Mother Tongue and Religion. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics, HMG/Nepal. Dercon, Stefan. (2001). Assessing Vulnerability to Poverty. CASE, Oxford University, mimeo. http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/members/stefan.dercon/. European Foundation. (1995). Public Welfare Services and Social Exclusion: the Development of Consumer Oriented Initiated in the European Union. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condition. Moser, Caroline. (1998). "Asset Vulnerability Framework: Reassessing Urban Poverty Reduction Strategies", World Development, Vol. 26, No. 1. National Planning Commission. (2003). The Tenth Plan (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) 2002-2007. Kathmandu: National Planning Commission, HMG/Nepal. Sen, Amartya. (1981). Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press). Swift. J. (1989). "Why are Rural People Vulnerable to Famine?" IDS Bulletin, Vol. 20 No 2: 8-15. The Institute of Economic Affairs. Thomas, Alan. (2000). "Poverty and the End of Development", in T. Allen and Alan Thomas (eds.) Poverty and Development into the 21st Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Townsend, Peter. (1987). "Deprivation", Journal of Social Policy, 16:125-146. UNDP. (2004a). Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ______. (2004b). Nepal Human Development Report 2004: Empowerment and Poverty Reduction. Kathmandu: United Nations Development Program. World Bank. (2000/01). World Development Report 2000/01. Washington DC: World Bank.

45 Annex I: Respondent's Profile Table A1: Distribution of respondents according to selected characteristics Characteristics N Percent Plan PU Banke 64 33.9 Makwanpur 55 29.1 Bara/Rautahat 70 37.0 Age groups 15-29 72 38.1 30-49 88 46.6 50 and more years 29 15.3 Sex Female 155 82.0 Male 34 18.0 Literacy status Literate 55 29.1 Illiterate 134 70.9 Sex of the household head Female headed 49 25.9 Male headed 140 74.1 Caste/ethnic groups Hill ethnic groups 81 42.8 Tamang 41 21.7 Praja 11 5.8 Other hill ethnic groups 29 15.3 Hill caste groups 14 7.4 Hill Dalits 11 5.8 Total Hill origin 106 56.0 Tarai Hindu caste groups 30 15.9 Tarai Dalits 21 11.1 Muslims 13 6.9 Unidentified Tarai others 19 10.1 Total Tarai origin groups 83 44.0 Total 189 100.0 Source: Field Survey 2005.

Table A2: Age and sex composition of the sample population Categories Banke Makwanpur Bara/Rautahat Percent Total Sex Male 49.4 51.5 49.9 50.2 634 Female 50.6 48.5 50.1 49.8 630 Age groups Under 5 years 16.7 13.5 19.5 16.9 214 5-14 years 29.4 26.0 30.2 28.8 364 15-59 50.1 58.2 45.1 50.3 636 60 and more years 3.8 2.3 5.2 4.0 50 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 419 342 503 1264 Source: Field Survey 2005.

46 Annex II Summary Key Indicators of Vulnerability and Deprivation

SN Indicators Figures Households' physical assets 1 % of sampled households with no land 26.5 2 % of sampled households with Kachhi house 44.4 3 % of sampled households with no livestock Cattle 67.7 Buffalo 77.2 Goats 48.1 Extent of income diversification 4 % of adult population (15-59) who are working outside agriculture 23.7 5 % of households with none of the family members working outside 40.2 agriculture 6 % of households dependent on local money lenders/rich farmers 40-45 (information based on key informant interview – only in Tarai sampled areas) Extent of public utility services 7 % of households with no electricity 66.7 8 % of households with no safe-water supply within the residence 30.7 9 % of households with no toilet facility 68.8 Human capital 10 % of chronic sick/disabled persons to the total sample populations 5.8 11 % of children aged 5-14 not attending school 22.2 Family relations 12 Overall dependency ratio 98.7 Child dependency ratio 90.9 Old age dependency ratio 7.9 13 Average household size 6.7 of nuclear family structure 5.3 of joined family structure 8.0 of extended family structure 13.3 Social capital and social safety nets 14 % of children under 5-years not birth registered 30.4 15 % of households with at least one family members with no citizenship 50.8 certificate 16 % of senior/single woman not receiving Government allowance during 78.8 the 12 months 17 % of households not participating in a saving and credit groups 30.2 18 % of households who have involved in saving and credit groups with 28.0 no saving amount 19 Average saving amount among those who have saving amount (in 1,087 Rs.) 20 % of total households who have involved in saving and credit groups 32.6 with no loans mobilizations from banks/groups 21 Average loan amount among those who have mobilized loans (in Rs.) 4,806 Source: Field Survey 2005.

47 Annex III Case Studies

Case 1: Landlessness Among Mushar And Their Risky Livelihood Strategy There are 24 Mushar households including one Chamar household in Santapur-9, Rautahat district. These people settled here since 1964/65 yet their land has not been registered on their names. All houses are straw/thatch roofed and bonded by branches, and the area of land covered by a hut ranges from 100 to 150 square feet. There are three tube-wells and three toilets constructed with the support of Plan Nepal. Unfortunately, none of the toilets were being used. We found Mushar has mostly nuclear family structure but with large number of children. The family size ranges from 5 to 12. A few adults were using contraceptive methods in order to limit or postpone births. Although school is 15 minutes walk from Mushar community, 40-45 percent of Mushar children miss schooling. Mushar are in the semi-bonded regime from generation to generation, for their major means of survival is wage-labour in agriculture. The mechanism of semi-bonded regime is as follows: as households do not have any alternative means of support, they are forced to take support from the local farmers/money lenders for daily needs and at the time of emergency, debtor families are subject to work to the lenders houses until they pay off the loan. As the households do not have other income sources, they cannot pay the loan off on time, and it continues for a long time. Other means of livelihood is the seasonable labour in construction, mostly in the months of March to June. The average wages for male range from Rs. 70 to 100 while for females it ranges from Rs. 60 to 80. Some of Mushar families are also involved in collection of fire-wood in order to sell it in nearby bazaar. One of the old Mushar men said "it is very difficult to collect firewood as there is sometimes curfew in the forest. We do not know what will happen when we are in the forest. Those who collect firewood earn Rs. 200-300 per week ". In the beginning of 2005, Nirdhan NGO has given piggery raising training to six Mushar households. It is also said that they will be provided a pig kid on the free basis. Sties are being constructed with the support of Plan Nepal. However, another 18 households in the Mushar community could not participate in the piggery raising program. The reasons for their non-participation reported were a) no land for the construction of sties b) high cost of pig fodder, c) no money to buy pig fodder until it can be sold or it can reproduce. Even those families who participated in the piggery program were constructing sties in front of their doors, which might have severe health consequences to them and their children.

Case 2: Kalawati's Family In Semi-Bonded Labour Regime Kalawati Devi Chamar, 35, is from Utter Jhitkaya-9 Majhauliya. All of the adult family members are illiterate. Her family possesses few household endowments i.e. only 10 Dhur11 of land and a Kachhi house. Her family has no livestock. Her house is not electrified, and there is no own tube-well as a source of drinking water within her residence. She has a joined family structure with family size of 13. Among them, 7 are under 15 years of age and 2 are 60 and above years of age. Recently her husband's younger brother died because of that whole family members were in sorrow. Her eldest son, aged 18 years recently joined in Nepal Police. She is the member of Shree Ram Vegetable Group and has been involved in leased- based farming for the last 2-years. The size of the leased-based farming is 1.5 Kattha, in which she plants different varieties of vegetables depending upon the seasons. She said "I have maintained some household expenditure and school fee for my children from leased based farming but I do not have any saving amount in my group. I want loan from Nirdhan

11 1 Bigha = 270 * 270 square feet = 20 Katha = 400 Dhur.

48 Bank as do my group members in the village, but I am denied because I do not have citizenship certificate". Her family depends upon agricultural wage labour, which is very low i.e. 4-5 Kg. of Paddy/person per day. Kalawati says "we have Rs. 10,000 loan from local money lender. In order to pay the interest off, we have been working for the lender for the last three years. But we have not paid the single penny of principal amount off during the period. There is a system of working for the lenders by the debtors in our village unless the debtors pay the loans off. But the lenders provide wages for the work although it is low".

Case 3: Reproductive Health Problem Leads Maili Tamang's Family Selling Of Irrigated Land Maili Tamang, 39, is from Tistung-1, Makwanpur district. She is the de-facto head of the household as her husband is a driver of a Water Tank in Kathmandu. She has got altogether nine pregnancies, and now she has seven living children (five daughters and 2 sons). Three of her youngest children were attending primary school in the village. In 1998, her husband bought some land in the village. Unfortunately, Maili had severe delivery problem in her ninth pregnancy and she was brought to a hospital in Kathmandu, and hospitalized for two months. Maili says "I was unconscious in hospital for 11 days. I do not know how I am alive now. My husband told me that he sold the land bought in 1998 at Rs. 60,000. I do not know how much money he spent on my treatment but he said that there is no money". Maili has never participated in Plan interventions and has never been the member of saving and credit group. She says "as my husband has been a driver for 15/16 years in Kathmandu, I have to take whole responsibility of bringing up children, tell me Sir, when I get time to attend in the meeting and participate in the saving and credit group".

Case 4: Sickness Of Tuishing's Wife Leads His Sons Dropping Out From School, Involving In Child Labour And Less Participation In Development Efforts Tuishing Syngtan, 65, is from Tistung-1, Makwanpur district. He owns eight Ropani12 lands where he grows maize, potato and millet. His house's outer walls are bonded by mud and stone, and roof is of stone. Other household assets of Tuishing are 5 goats and 2 rented in cattle (Adhiya). His two sons have already separated. Now his family consists of five members: his wife (61 years old), his second last son (18 years old), and the last son (15 years), and grand-son from his daughter (11 years old). His wife has been a chronic patient of gynecological problem since 10/12 years. Last year, she became very serious and was brought to Kathmandu for her treatment. For her treatment, Tuishing took loan of Rs. 3,000 from the local money lenders and spent all his earning from potato selling of about Rs. 5,000. Yet Tuishing's wife has been in bed for the last 6 months in his house. His second last son dropped out at his grade 3 and last son dropped at his grade 2. Tuishing says "as there were no persons to work in the farm, and without work, there is no survival, my sons dropped out from school and they involved in household chores and ploughing of field. Now, my second last son is at home, who ploughs land and last son works as a labourer in Banepa road. He sent me Rs. 500 for his mother treatment after one month of his work. Tuishing had also been the elected ward member in the last VDC council. Tuishing says "his wife was involved in a saving and credit group in the village three or four years ago. Unfortunately, the group was dissolved due to the local politics: some claimed UML, other NC and others RPP. Besides, there was also geographical divide among us as there was only one group from the whole ward. It was difficult to conduct meeting as neither did people in up-hills want to climb down nor people in low-hills want to climb up for meeting". Tuishing was very much hopeful when we approached to him for his wife's treatment. Unfortunately, we told him that Plan Nepal has no provision of medical treatment of chronic patient from non-Sponsored Children (SC) families. Tuishing has not been involved in

12 1 Ropani = 74 * 74 square feet = 16 Anna = 64 Paisa.

49 primary school management committee in his village and rarely appears in any public programs in the village due to his wife's health problem and heavy workload.

Case 5: Maila Tamang's None Of The Eight Children Attended In School Maila Tamang, 59, is from Naukahnde, Tistung VDC of Makwanpur district. He is a junior Lama in Tamang community. His family consists of 11 members. He has six Ropani un- irrigated lands and a Kachhi one-storied house with no toilet and electricity facilities. In the place of his house, there is no land for the construction of a toilet and goats' hut (Khor). He keeps his goats inside his house where he also cooks food. Maila married with three women, but not at the same time. His first wife died long ago and the second wife eloped with another man 20-22 years ago. Now, from third wife, he has altogether 9 children (5 daughters and 4 sons). Among them, one is under 5 years of age and 7 are in the age range of 5-14 years. So, he has three adult family members in the family and eight dependent children. None of the eight children have been admitted in school although the distance between his house and Tistung High School is not more than one minute. He said "some years ago, I wanted to admit my children to school but at that time I did not have money. Now I want to admit children in school but I heard that without birth registration children can not be admitted in school. As VDC secretary left VDC office and runs his office from Hetauda, where should I go for birth registration. I do not have money to go Hetauda for children's birth registration. He further said "I am also afraid of not being able to pay off the donation of Rs. 200 for school construction. VDC chairperson told me that if I could not pay I would not get any opportunity in school". At the beginning of Plan Program at Tistung, his wife was involved in saving and credit group and stayed two years. She left S/C in 2055 BS (1998/99). He told us that she left S/C because they did not have time to attend monthly meeting and money to deposit in the group. They used to deposit Rs. 10 per month. He said we could not deposit money three-four months in the group. After four months, we had to deposit Rs. 40 Rupees. We did not have so much of money. Because of that we dropped out from S/C. He also complains that "Plan Nepal had toilet construction project in our village. Plan staff instructed us constructing a single toilet in each household. For toilet construction, Plan was to provide us cement, galvanized sheet and sand. We had to contribute labour and stone. But as we have to bring stone from very far and as we did not have land to construct toilet, we said that we will build one toilet for two households but Plan staff did not agree on it and the project was withdrawn". Second daughter of Maila Tamang, who is 15 years of age left home six months ago and now she is in a carpet factory in Kathmandu. Maila Tamang says, "I do not know where she is. I know only that she is in Kathmandu as my neighbour told so. She has not returned yet and not sent any money." Maila Tamang first daughter collects Kafal (a type of wild fruit grown in the up-hills during March to May) from March to May. She has to go very far in the dense forest to collect it. On the average, she earns Rs. 20-30 per day. Maila Tamang livelihood also comes from Lama. In Tamang community, a Lama performs all the death rituals. He serves about 150 households from which he collects one Pathi of maize (equal to 4 Kg.) per household. So, annually he collects about 100-150 Pathis maize from his Lamaism.

Case 6: Single Woman Drop Out From Saving And Credit Group Thuli Maya Lama, 61, is a resident of Tistung - 4. She is the single-headed household for the last 15 years. She refused to tell us about her family history, whether or not she has sons/ daughters. Her house is along the highway of Naubise – Tistung – Hetauda. She owns 5 Ropani of land in which she cultivates maize, millet and some vegetables. She has altogether 7 goats and a semi-pakka house. She has no own drinking water facility and house is not electrified.

50 She was the member of Dachhin Kali Women Group formed in Ashadh, 2057 BS. Now, there are 21 members in the group. Thuli Maya dropped out from the group in early 2060 BS. She says "I dropped out from the S/C group because I could not deposit Rs. 20 monthly. When I was in the group, I took loan of Rs. 500 from the group, I paid it off. I had also taken back my saving money of Rs. 40 from the group. As I do not have people working in the farm in the house and as I am also old, I have to employ labourers to farm maize, potato and millet. We do not have paddy land in our village as there is no irrigation facility. I dropped out because I do not have money even to employ labourers in the farm. She further says "I cannot deposit money in winter season as there is no product to sell but I can deposit money at summer as I can sell some vegetables in the summer". She also complains "I have not yet received single woman allowances of Rs. 100 from VDC. I do not know where the VDC secretary lives. I do not know where to go to receive the allowance".

Case 7: Lakhi Chan Dropped Out From Plan Livelihood Program: Large Number Of Dependent Children And No Persons To Work Lakhi Chan Ram, 51, lives in Santapur-9 of Rautahat district. He is landless, with no other household endowments except a Kachhi house and three buffalos in Adhiya. In the village of Lakhi Chan, there are 28-30 Mushar households, all of which are landless and are settled in Aileni land (Government owned, not private land) with covering a tinny area of land. Lakhi Chan has altogether 10 children and a wife. He married his two daughters at the age of 14 and 15 years of age. Now, he has 10 family members (eight children: one daughter under 5 years and 5 children under 15 years, one son and one daughter aged in the age range of 15 to 16). Of the 10 children, two children (one aged 6 and other 7) were attending school while other eight children had never been in school. His first son, aged 16 years, is disabled person as he fell down from a tree three years ago. Lakhi Chan was involved in leased based farming of 1.5 Kattha land in 2059/60 BS. He cultivated it for one-year and dropped out. The rent for land was Rs. 1,000 per Katha. He hardly paid the rent off. According to Lakhi Chan, he left it because a) it was far from his home b) as it was far from his home, he was unable to work regularly c) his vegetable was also stolen from the field, d) he could not work as he has only children. Lakhi Chan was again provided 50 chickens for raising from Plan support in Paush/Magh 2061. He raised them up to three months. Of the 50 chickens, 2 died. Lakhi Chan told that he could not feed chickens as the cost for fodder was too high, and it was also difficult to buy fodder because of frequent Bands/economic blockade. Consequently, he had to sell all the chickens at a low price. He told us that he spent about Rs. 5,000 for fodder for chickens for three months and got Rs. 4000-4200 from selling of chickens.

Case 8: Falling into Vulnerability Due to Death of Husband Dhan Kumari Praja, 26, is from Kafalchour of Bhimphedi VDC at Makwanpur district. Kafalchour is up-hills, where there are 11 houses of Praja and 2 houses of Tamang. It is a walk of one and half hours from Bhimphedi bazaar. Land in Kafalchour is unfertile and highly sloppy. Although Praja and Tamang in Kafalchour have settled from generation to generation, land has not been registered to their names. The main crops at Kafalchour are maize and millet. People plant maize in the month of Phalgun (March) and they harvest it in Aswain (September) – a 7-8 month period to harvest maize. Similarly, millet is planted in the months of Ashadh/Shrawan (July) and is harvested in Mangshir (December). People also raise goats. There is no school in Kafalchour. Children have to walk half an hour for primary education. It is very difficult to go school in rainy season as children have to cross a stream and forest as well. All the Praja families are involved in saving and credit group – called Nabadurga women's group, which was formed in 2054 BS (1998). The group mobilized Rs. 9,600 by May, 2005. Praja village is not electrified, but has access to toilets and water supply with the support of Plan Nepal. Dhan Kumari's family is one of the Praja families at Kafalchour. Her family consists of 10 members - all are children under 14 years of age except Dhan Kumari and her two co-

51 wives. Dhan Kumari's husband died two years ago due to swelling. Her family possesses 12 Ropani land (three Hal Bari), a semi-pakka house and four cattle, five goats and few number of chickens. Dhan Kumari says "we have food deficiency during two months at rainy season". Dhan Kumari says "we have loan of about 20-22 thousands from a shop keeper at Bhimphedi taken by my husband in order to buy seeds, fertilizers, clothes, salt and oil. We are not able to pay it off. We have also some loans taken for the treatment of our husband. We do not know how to pay it off but we hope we will be able to pay it off by raising goats".

Case 9: Basmati's Family Escaping Out Of Deprivation Through Continuous Participation In Plan Interventions Basmati Choudhary, 36, lives in Sano Dohari-2, Bara district. She has six family members with two sons and two daughters. Her first son aged 16 years recently dropped out from grade eight and now working in a factory in Birgunj with his father. She has some household endowments: one Kattha land, a semi-Kachha house (roofed by Tali), a milking buffalo, three goats and one male-pig. Basmati is the president of Piggery Group at Sano Dohari-2, and had also been the elected ward member in the last Sano Dohari VDC council. There were 22 households (mostly Pasawan, some Tharus and one Dhanuk household) in the village which have raised pigs supported by Plan Nepal. Basmati with education of grade three keeps account of her group and conduct meeting regularly. Basmati has been involving in Plan interventions for the last 7-8 years. She said 'being in the Piggery group, I have been well-maintaining my household expenditure and even I am doing well. Before the intervention, I and my husband had to work in agricultural as labour, in which we used to get four Kg. of paddy/person per day. It was also very difficult time to get loans if needed. At that time, if there was no work, we had to go hungry. Even if there was work, we were never able to take nutrient food and maintain other household expenditure. I have been able to send my younger children to school now". She provided us her successful story as follows. In 2059 BS, she took loan of Rs. 6,000 from Nirdhan Bank. Of it, she bought a pig kid in Rs. 1,500, a tailoring machine in Rs. 4000, pig's fodder in Rs. 500. After 9 months of buying the kid pig, the pig gave births of four kids which were sold in Rs. 6,000. She also sold the mother pig at Rs. 9,000. In turn, she bought male-pig in Rs. 6,000 in Mangsir 2061 BS for fertilization purpose. She has maintained a register in which she has kept the date, name of person to which female-pig was fertilized, and Rupees received from the fertilization. She told us that she charges Rs. 750 per female pig for fertilization. By now her register shows that there were 13 female pigs which were fertilized during the 17 months (Mangsir 2061 - Baisakh, 2062 BS). She has also received sewing training in Kalaiya bazaar for three-months and has also been involved in sewing clothes in the village. She said she earns Rs. 800-1,000 per month from sewing. She is very happy being involved in Plan interventions and would like to continue. She has also been helping and educating other women to actively participate in the Plan interventions.

Case 10: Coping In Vulnerability Situation: Som Maya Effectively Mobilized Loans Som Maya Bal (Tamang), 38, lives in Tistung VDC of Makwanpur district. She is the head of the household with two sons and one daughter as her husband has been in imprisonment for last eight years. Her first son, who is 20 years old, studies at Intermediate Level in Kathmandu. Her daughter, who is 14 years old, studies at grade six in the village (SC child) and the last son, who is 11 years old, also studies in village at grade three. She has eight Ropani land and a stone roofed house as affinal property. Her house is electrified and a toilet is constructed with the support of Plan Nepal. Som Maya says "when my husband was imprisoned in a false case, I was shocked. I had to bear the whole responsibility of bringing my children up. I did not have any alternatives. I was about to go mad. At that time, I came to contact with Plan Nepal at Tistung and was encouraged to involve in a saving and credit group. Since then, I have been

52 the treasurer of Nabajagaran women group in my village. I am also the member of Women's cooperative in Tistung. I have also some saving in the women group and Women's cooperative". Som Maya believes that her life has changed due to her participation in the saving and credit group. She is able to manage her family well. Her successful case history follows. Five year ago, she took loan of Rs. 10,000 from the Women's cooperative, from which she bought a milking buffalo at Rs. 18,500 (she collected Rs. 8,500 from her own resources). She used to sell six manas13 of milk at Rs. 72. She was able to pay off the loan during the one year. In the second year, the buffalo gave a birth – a calf, which is after one year, she sold at Rs. 9,100. The buffalo had again given third and fourth calf – which cost around Rs. 6,000 now. The milking buffalo is still there which costs around Rs. 20,000, and she is still selling milk about six manas per day. Som Maya also grows potato, cauliflower, radish and other seasonal vegetables. In the last year, she sold potato at Rs. 23,000, cauliflower at Rs. 1,100 and radish Rs. 1,200. She also raises goats. In the last year, she said she sold four goats at Rs. 11,300. She also sometimes produces home made alcohol, and the cut (disposable corns) of which is used for buffalo fodder. She also earns Rs. 500-600 from alcohol production per month.

Heavy Workload Som Maya says that she gets up at around 3 AM early in the morning, serves fodder for buffaloes and goats, then she milks the buffalo at 4 AM, she goes to sell it to Naukhande bazaar at 5 AM – a 10-minute distance from her house. She cuts grass on the way to home and brings one doko (basket) grass by 8 AM. Her daughter, who is 14, cooks rice at home and the family takes food by 8:30 AM. Her daughter cleans cooking pots by nine O'clock and goes to school. While Som Maya works in her farm from 9 AM -11 AM. By 12 noon, she again serves fodder to her buffalos and goats. She again works in the farm up to 5-6 PM (planting, irrigating and harvesting of different verities of vegetables and maize). She again cuts grass and fodder for goats and buffalos and comes back to home by evening 7 PM. She milks buffalo at around 7:30-8 PM. Her daughter cooks food for night and Som Maya goes to bed by 9 PM. In this way, Som Maya spends her life by working around 18 hours per day. With her hard labour, Som Maya has been able to afford her sons and daughters' education. Now, she spends around Rs. 2,000/month for her first son, who is studying at Intermediate Level in Kathmandu. She says "I have to collect at least Rs. 75,000 to deposit money in order to release my husband from Jail. If I would able to deposit the money, he will be released after 30 months. So, I am working so hard.

Case 11: Chamar Of Utter Jhitkaya And Leased Based Farming There are about 150 Chamar households of ward numbers six in Utter Jhitkaya, Bara district. Among the 150 Chamar households, 60 are landless. Only 10-12 households were reported to have food sufficiency around the year. More than 90 per cent of Chamar houses are Kachhi (i.e. roofed by straw/thatch and outer walls bonded by branches). Plan Nepal has been working in this community for the last 7-8 years. There are seven toilets and some tube-wells in the village constructed with the support of Plan Nepal. Saving and credit groups have been formed. Two of the toilets were not being used and two tube-wells were closed down as there was no land for the drainage. For the last two years, Plan Nepal has initiated leased based farming in which 20 landless families have been included. The total area of land covered by the leased-based farming is 1.5 bigah, with 1.5 Katha per household. Among them, 17 families have taken loans from Nirdhan Bank. Hari Ram - the staff of Made Nepal and also the local residence - says "among the 20 families involved in leased based farming, three families have not paid the rent of land yet

13 1 Mana = about 0.5 liters.

53 of the first year (25% of the total land rent). The rent for the land per Katha is Rs. 1000 per year. He further says "we are trying our best to include the landless families in the leased based farming and have also conducted meeting several times, but people are still not welling to participate on it. According to Hari Ram, the reasons for the low participation of Chamar in the leased- based farming include: a) most landless families have rented in land and are also in the semi-bonded labour regime, b) leased based farming may not provide full-employment of the family as the land size of farming is too small in size, c) it is difficult for the poor to wait until they get returns from the leased-based farming and d) for some families, selling of firewood is much profitable than that of leased based farming.

Case 12: No Compatibility Of Intervention Among Shahani At Paurahi, Rautahat There are about 300 flood-victim households at Mangalpur of Paurahi VDC, Rautahat district. These households were resettled in 1994/95 by HMG/Nepal in collaboration with Thai Government. According to the rules of housing scheme, nobody is allowed to sell or donate or provide dowry or change the design of the house till 25 years. Houses are concrete with galvanized roofs. One house is separated for two families. There are also toilet, electricity and water supply facilities. However, except houses these families have on land. Of the 300 households, there are about 90 Madhesi households – Shahani people. Male Shahani are involved in fishing at the Bagmati River while women and children are involved in stone quarrying. They earn on the average Rs. 30-35 per person from stone quarrying. Shahani men say "in the north of the highway, it is difficult to fishing because of the fear of Maoist while in the south of the highway; there is fear of security forces too. Fishing is around the year. However, the peak fishing months are August 15 to the end of October while the slack season is June to August 15. On the average, we earn Rs. 150-200 per day". Made Nepal, one of the Plan Partner organizations, provided pigeon-raising training to 25 Sahani households in February, 2004 and each household was given two pigeons and financial support to build a pigeon-hole. After one year of pigeon-raising, there were only three houses with pigeons while in the remaining 22 households, pigeons flew away. Discussion with Shahani people revealed that they do not like to participate in such interventions. Rather they would like to participate in the interventions that would directly match up with their occupation – fishing for men and stone quarrying for women.

Case 13: Incentive Against Early Child Marriage Program: Drop Out From Program In Uttar Jhitkaya, ward no. 8 of Bara district, Plan Nepal initiated incentive against early child marriage program in 2000/01 in which five girls under 18 years were included - four Muslim girls and one Yadav girl. The incentive against early child marriage scheme intends to increase the age at marriage of girls at least 18 years. It provides some incentives to the girl who is under the scheme. The amount of the incentive depends upon the age of the girl at which they are registered in the program. The younger the girl at the time of registration the higher would be the incentive amount. In the FGD among the participants of Shree Chand Vegetable group, we found that two of the girls registered for the incentives were married at their ages of 16 years. Taphija Miya's daughter was registered in the scheme at her age of 13 in which Rs. 8,000 was deposited by Plan Nepal. Taphija also deposited Rs. 1,250 in two installments for her daughter. He says "I was intending to marry my daughter after 18 years, but I could not wait. We found the wealthy bridegroom family for marriage of our daughter. They made pressure to marry immediately otherwise they would not wait. In order to get the stated scheme, we have to wait one year and four months."

54 Case 14: Single Information Base Makes Nirmaya Exclusion from Leased-Based Farming Nirmaya BK lives in Ambhanjyang -3, Makwanpur district. She is 40 years old with three living children. Her eldest daughter was married at her age of 17 years two years ago. Now, Nirmaya has two sons, one aged 17 years and another aged 11 years. She has rented in some land for her survival and she works as wage labourer in agriculture. She told us that she was abandoned by her husband 10 years ago. He married with another woman. Nirmaya is living in her natal village where she was given a house by her brother for residing purpose. Her eldest son studied up to grade four and dropped out three years ago as she could not afford for education. Then, he left home and has not returned yet. Nirmaya says "my neighbour told me that my son is in Kathmandu, but I do not know where he is and what he is doing. He has never returned here when he left home". Her youngest son was promoted to grade five in this academic year but she says "classes have already started in school, I am unable to afford admission fee for his education. My son asks me daily why he has not been admitted in school. He feels shame not being admitted in school. I have to pay Rs. 100 for his admission. I do not have that some of money. What can I do? I am waiting whether I will get some help from school. I heard Dalit children will get support from school. But the school Head Master told me that one has to be admitted in school in order to entitle for the support". She has been involving in saving and credit group since 2054 BS (1998), and has some deposits. She told us "I am excluded from leased-based farming here as I have one house given by my brother, which is partially roofed by galvanized sheet". She also complains "there is women's cooperative but we are not included in it. There is also provision of taking loans from it but one has to buy shares from it. Rich people can buy large number of shares and they take large amount of loans from it. Sir, you ask me to tell my life history, how can I tell you my life story in few minutes, even if I told my life history what can you do for me? Several people like you came to me to ask about my living condition, but they just write and never come again."

Case 15: Mahawot (Mangta = Beggar): Living of Begging Mangta Tole is located at Ward no. 2 of Hirminiya VDC, about 5 Km. south, of Nepalgunj City in Banke district. The Tole has more than 100 households from the same community, Mahawot – a Tarai Dalit. Literal meaning of Mahawot is elephant keeper, their ancestors used to keep and drive elephant. In due course of time, along with deforestation, elephant keeping disappeared and then they became beggar, Mangta in Awadhi and Magne or Magi Khane in Nepali. Begging is their traditional and inherited job. Mangtas are almost landless and living in a small piece of unregistered land in a small hut made of mud and thatched roof, which might be flown away even by a simple hurricane that is usually occurred during Chaitra - Baisakh. No households have toilet even though Plan has supported. They use open toilet in the land field. It has been reported that some of them have used cement rings distributed for the toilet for feeding cows and buffaloes, some have used for keeping food grains, and some have sold. As their main source of livelihood is begging, they are highly mobile. They live in their house in the village only 3–4 months in a year. Their children go to school only during the period when they are in the house. For the remaining months of the year, they are out from the village. To leave their house, they seal their house by mud and some thatches. There is no specific destination for their mobility. They go wherever they want and they need. During the harvesting season, they collect left out paddy grains in other's field. Wherever they reach, they build a small tent and stay there sometimes for a week, sometimes for a month and sometimes for a few days, depending upon their need. During the stay, some go for begging and some for collecting left out grains (paddy). Particularly, women, children, and elderly go for begging and young for collecting grains. These are the seasonal jobs they do. Sometimes, women and children of the family go outside the district and even outside the country for more than six months. Many families are involved in such movement. As they reported, sometimes they go to Kathmandu and build tents in riversides or barren

55 field. Sometimes, they go up to Dehradoon, Simla, Delhi, Panjab, etc. They reported that they do not have to pay tax for train in India, because India government allows free transportation in train for beggars and saints. Mangtas do not know any partner, only know about Plan. They are wrongly informed about Plan Nepal program. They think that Plan is the money distributor or similar kind of organization; duty of Plan is to provide whatever they need. In the previous year, some families of the Mangtas were provided support for pig raising, even though some of them have already had pigs. What had happened at the end is that Plan provided pigs died of malnourished and disease, but not their own. It is because they took care of their own pig very sincerely, but did not take care of Plan provided pig. They have very high expectation from Plan. Their current demand is house for every family. Wall of the house should be built by brick and cement, and roof by galbonized tin.

Case 16: Seasonal Migration As a Source of Livelihood Masurikhet (Kohalpur – 4, Banke) is located at about 3 Km East of Kohalpur chok and about one Km. north of the East-West Highway. It is closed to Jungle. There are about 62 households in Masurikhet. All are migrants came from Jajarkot, Rukum, and Surkhet. This is mixed community with a majority of Dalits. Dalits are 34 households, Bahun/Chhetris are 18, and Magars are 10 households. Masurikhet is newly settled and the lands occupied by them are Aileni (unregistered to their name). Registration process was started during the government of Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist). But, it is suspended after the change of government. They have occupied one to ten Katthas of land per family. There is no possibility of irrigation in land, even though Duduwa Khola (small river) passes through the village. This Khola is Khahare (depends on rain) and, during the rainy season, it becomes problematic due to uncontrolled flood. They produce only millet, beans, maize, and pulses. However, they are sufferer of wild pig, because jungle is closer. Actually, the land is only for house to live and kitchen garden for women to pass the time, not for family livelihood. In case of development program, there are three saving and credit groups run by Poverty Elevation Program (DDC), NPLAP, and Seto Gurans. There is one ECCD class supported by Plan Banke. Out of 62, there are only 17 SC families. DDC has provided support of cows, buffaloes and vegetables to the community. Poverty Elevation program is reportedly the most effective in this area. It has contributed partially for their household expenses by selling milk and vegetables. Seasonal migration of men contributes to most part of the family livelihood. Men from more than 75 percent of the households go to India for wage labour. In one season, they earn from Rs. 5,000.0 to 15,000.0, which is not possible in Nepal. Most destinations in India are Delhi, Panjab, Mumbai, and Himanchal Pradesh. They leave Nepal from Jesth to Shrawan and back during Tihar (Kartik); after Tihar (Kartik and Mangsir) they again leave home and back in Chaite Dashain (Chitra and Baisakh). Those who go to Himanchal Pradesh return to home during icefall in winter season. However, most vulnerability is that when able-bodied men fell in sick and were not able to go to India family has to live with hunger. Their basic need they report is the irrigation. If they would have irrigation facility, they would grow vegetables and sell in Kohalpur and Nepalgunj to contribute livelihood of the family. Dhiki pump is the best option they find. They expect it from Plan. However, they are not in the position to invest Rs. 2,000 to 2,500 that need to be spent while installing pump. In addition, skill training especially focusing to women is also needed by the villagers. The most possible skill trainings are candle making and mushroom growing.

Case 17: No Time to Work, Not Allowed to Work to support for Livelihood Rabiya Kabadiya, 30, lives in Kawadiya Tole, Bhawaniyapur, Banke. Her husband is of 40 and she has three sons of 8, 5 and 4 years and two daughters of 10 and 1 year. Altogether 7 members live in a family in a small hut made of mud and thatch. They do not have single piece of land, the house is made in other's land.

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The main source of their livelihood is wage labour and vegetable business and her husband is alone responsible to feed all the family members. During the season, he goes to buy vegetables early in the morning and goes to sell it in the day. This business is not satisfactory because, as he reported, capital is so small on the one hand and he is illiterate on the other. Wage labour is much better, given amount of income from which is guaranteed. However, wage labour is not available all the time. Consequently, most of the times they have to live with single meal for a whole day and sometimes with hunger. When we asked her that, why do not you go for work in the daytime that could help partially to your livelihood? She replied, "I have no time to work because I am busy in taking care of my children and household chore". She added, "even if I am free, I am not allowed to go outside for work. Going out for work in our society is looked down and it is insult of my husband. So, until and unless my husband is alive and able to work, I should not go for earning income."

Case 18: Vulnerable Due to Husband's TB and Semi-bonded Labourer Kailasha Kanwar, 40, is resident of Basudevpur–4, Surjegaon (Banke). She is illiterate. She lives with 7 family members in the house – widowed mother (65), father-in-laws (70), husband, and three kids. Her kids have joined ECCD class, but not registered yet as SC. Even if her family does not have land owned, the main source of livelihood is Bataiya, agriculture sharecropping. She does not have any family member to work in the field for agriculture. Her husband has Tuberculosis and is in bed since last 3 years. He is taking medicine but no improve has been observed. He cannot work at all. Mother and father-in-laws are very old and cannot work. She is the only one who has to do everything for their living. She has to manage agriculture farming. She also has to manage to work for landlord. It is compulsory for tenants to work in the field of landlord at a very low wage at the cost of sharecropping. However, she is somehow happy that she is a member in Nirdhan saving and credit group. She is managing saving of Rs. 20 regularly. She has taken Rs. 1,500 as loan from the group that has helped her to manage household expenses. Contribution of old-age allowance of her mother is also important to support her family.

Case 19: Life is Vulnerable Due to Threat of Security Force and Hunger Tili Nepali, 40, is resident of Alanagar, Basudevpur (Banke). She is illiterate. She has 7 members in the family and only 2 Kattha of Aileni land to feed them. One son of 18 years has been living in Uttar Kasi (India) since last 5 years. He is trying to be Indian Army and earning nothing. Another son of 14 is in Mansuri (India) since last 2 years. He was cheated by a broker who gave false promise to give Indian Rs. 80 per day in a stone quarry. However, he had come to home in last Kartik, but did not take single penny. Husband is of 55 years. He is sick since last four years. She has no money to afford for his medicine. Due to no income, she has been dropped-out from Nirdhan saving and credit program. The main source of her livelihood is collecting Sal leaves from the jungle and selling in Nepalgunj bazaar. One she goes to jungle, which is quite far, with fellow villagers and next day she goes to Nepalgunj bazaar with her leaves. She earns about Rs. 100 in two days to support her family. However, security force in Highway along with jungle has been threat to them while going to jungle. As she reported, about half a dozen girls have already been raped by the security personnel in that jungle. Living with hunger is common for her family. She says, "wage labour is much better, but it is hard to find it".

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