Women’s Agency in Relation to Population and Environment in Rural Nepal Narayani Tiwari Promotor Prof. Dr. A. Niehof Hoogleraar Sociologie van Consumenten en Huishoudens Co-promotor Dr. L.L. Price Universitair hoofddocent leerstoelgroep Sociologie van Consumenten en Huishoudens Promotiecommissie Prof. Dr. L.E. Visser Wageningen Universiteit Prof. Dr. I. Hutter Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Prof. Dr. D.R. Dahal Tri-bhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal Dr. Ir. M.Z. Zwarteveen Wageningen Universiteit Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd binnen de onderzoeksschool Mansholt Graduate School of Social Science Women’s Agency in Relation to Population and Environment in Rural Nepal Narayani Tiwari Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor op gezag van de rector magnificus van Wageningen Universiteit, Prof. Dr. M.J. Kropff, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 4 oktober 2007, des ochtends om 11.00 uur in de Aula Women’s agency in relation to population and environment in rural Nepal / Narayani Tiwari. PhD Thesis, Wageningen University (2007). With references – With summaries in English and Dutch ISBN 978-90-8504-696-7 Subject headings: women, agency, population, environment, livelihood, food security, Gurung, Nepal. Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to the institutions and individuals who contributed to the successful completion of this research. I would like to thank Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) for granting me a Sandwich PhD fellowship that enabled me to embark on the PhD track. I would also like to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Neys-Van Hoogstraten Foundation (NHF) for the fieldwork and the thesis editing. Without the support of NHF the research could not have been carried out. Thanks also go to the Mansholt Graduate School for Social Sciences for their technical support of my studies. I am grateful to the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS) of Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, for providing me with working space as an affiliated research fellow and to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for additional financial support relating to my fieldwork. I am grateful to the Foundation for Sharing Responsibility for Students (FSRS), now Anne van den Ban Stichting, for enabling me to prolong my stay in Wageningen to finalise this thesis. My sincere gratitude goes to my academic supervisor promoter, Prof. Dr. Anke Niehof of Wageningen University, for her intellectual stimulation, professional guidance and encouragement throughout the study period. I am also deeply indebted to my co-promoter, Dr. Lisa Price, for her academic guidance and constructive comments on drafts of the thesis. I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Dilliram Dahal of Tribhuvan University, Nepal, who always encouraged and motivated me by providing valuable ideas and suggestions during the setting-up of the fieldwork, the data analysis and the preparation of the thesis draft. I would also like to thank my respondents in the study area and all the Gurung women in Bhoteodar, Udipur, and Bhujung who answered my questions and told me about their lives. Without their help and suggestions this thesis could not have been completed. In particular, I would like to thank Liladhar Sapkota in Bhoteodar, Devi Gurung, his second wife Durga Maya, and his mother Ganga Maya in Nayagaun for their hospitality and for the valuable information they provided. I am thankful to the members of the mothers’ group (Amasmuaha ) and to the local people in the research area villages for their co-operation and for help given to my research team. I am also indebted to all the men and women who participated in the Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and to those who were key informants. Without the contribution of their local knowledge and the valuable information that they wanted to share with me, my work would have been very difficult. Special thanks go to the six women who told me their interesting life stories. Thanks are due as well to the enumerators Dilmaya, Kalpana, Luna, Mina, Ranjana, and Ratna, for their work in collecting the data, and to Manju, Maya, Rupa and Bhudhamaya for the way they used their local contacts to facilitate the fieldwork. I want to express my sincere thanks to Maniram Banjade for his help in the survey and field work, especially at the time of the FGDs and the PRA. My heartfelt thanks go to Balaram Parajuli for preparing the survey questionnaire in Nepali. I would like to thank Bidhan Acharya, Tara Kafle, Ajit Acharya, Prava Kaini, Maniram Banjade, Amizaman Talukdar, Shesh Kanta Khanal and Akhanda Khanal for their help in presenting the paper in the workshop that was organised in Kathmandu after I had finished the fieldwork. I also owe thanks to friends from the Population Women and Environmental Development Organisation (PWEDO). i who helped to organise the workshop. Thank you Rasmi, Sharada and Ram Krishna from PWEDO for your support during my field study. I also appreciate the assistance of my close friends Bharat Ban New Era, Dr. Arun and Jamuna Shayami, and Dr. Balkrishna Ranjit of UNFPA for their help in organising and processing the data. I thank Dr. Ramhari Aryal, Dr. Yagya Bahadur Karki, Dr. Gajananda Agrawal, and Dr. Ishwor Prasad Upadhyaya for their suggestions and help during the fieldwork. I should not forget my previous supervisor, Dr. John Holland at Massey University, New Zealand, who provided me with a room and a computer so that I could work on the literature review while waiting to go into field. John, thank you for your kindness and for the inspiring e-mail communication. I am also grateful to Dr. Adrian Hayes of the Australian National University for his inspiration to complete this work. I also wish to thank my English editors, Donna Devine and Kumar Jamdagni, for correcting the respective chapters in this thesis, and Dr. Hester Moerbeek for her statistical assistance. A lot of thanks are due to Dinie Verbeek for all the work she put into the formatting of the thesis. I would like to thank my friends from the chair group and the department in Wageningen for their kindness: Hedy Munro, always there when I needed help; Margaret, always cheerful; Prof. Kees for his friendly greeting “Dag”; and the friendship of Julie, Ali, Titiek, Emy, Riet, Diana Carja, Bea, Juanwen, Marian, Esther, Monica, Carolyne, Mariam, Faith, Regina and Ekaete. When I felt tired, I could go to Dr. Gerda’s home to relax. With my Nepalese friends in Wageningen I could share our country’s food and culture but also the concerns about the stressful political situation in Nepal. Thank you, Krishna, for looking after my house in Nepal and for giving me the time to concentrate on my studies from the time that I went abroad in 1996 until now. My sincere thanks to Dibya Kala Shrestha (EDO), who always made me feel happy and encouraged me when I felt frustrated. Thank you, Bodo Zeschke, Wendy May, Gabrielle Donovan, Robyn, Manohar and Deepak in Australia, and Tony, Jenine, and Mohammad in New Zealand for your words of inspiration to complete the thesis. I am grateful to Dr. Yamamoto Hiroshi of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Sciences, Japan, who helped me during my stay in Japan at the beginning of 2003 and 2004. Thank you, Francis, Jan, Marloes, Ella, Harmie and William, Clemans and Nardi, for inviting me to your homes during my stay in the Netherlands. I want to thank Dr. Roy Jordaan for his careful proof reading. This work could not have been accomplished without the love and inspiration of my grand- mother, Khila Kumari Panta, who brought me up and who sadly passed away at the end of my fieldwork. My parents, Gyanu Kumari and Moha Nidhi Tiwari, my uncle Bhupa Nidhi Panta, and my aunt Dil Kumari Panta, and Kesher Kumari Silwal always encouraged me. My elder sister Bhawani, my brothers Chitrakrishana, Kedar, Suresh and Ramkrishna and their wives and children were always a source of encouragement and provided relaxation from work. Chandika’s important help and assistance at home enabled me to concentrate on the writing. My family-in-law also encouraged me and made no demands whatsoever. I owe them all my heartfelt gratitude. This research was carried out and the thesis was completed at a time of great political turmoil in my country. In summary, I would like to commemorate the more than 15,000 innocent people who died during the conflict. I am deeply grateful to my son, Shreejan, for helping me in different ways to complete this work and for making me happy all the time. Without your love I would not have been able to accomplish this work. Last but not least I owe my gratitude to my husband, Dr. Tara ii Nath Pandey, for his unceasing moral support and help. It was not easy to spend more than five years apart. His support from afar always encouraged me to finish what I had set out to do. This thesis is dedicated to my father, who could not witness the finalisation of my PhD studies because he sadly passed away on the 15 th of July 2007. iii iv Table of Contents Chapter 1 General Introduction 1 1.1 General background 1 1.2 Population, environment and gender in Nepal 3 1.3 Direct and indirect relationship between fertility and environment 5 1.4 Research objectives 8 1.5 Significance of the study 8 1.6 Outline of the thesis 9 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Conceptual Framework 11 2.1 Theoretical perspectives on fertility 11 2.2 Women’s agency 15 2.3 Gender theory 16 2.4 Household 18 2.5 Environment 19 2.6 Food and livelihood security