Durham E-Theses The impact of the Lamosangu-Jri road on the life experience and reproductive behaviour of women of the Tamang community of Jetthul, Nepal. Molesworth, Kathryn Nicola How to cite: Molesworth, Kathryn Nicola (2001) The impact of the Lamosangu-Jri road on the life experience and reproductive behaviour of women of the Tamang community of Jetthul, Nepal., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3855/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 The impact of the Lamosangu-Jiri road on the life experience and reproductive behaviour of women of the Tamang community of Jetthul, Nepal. Kathryn Nicola Molesworth Department of Anthropology University of Durham A copyright of this thesis r~sts with the author. No quotataon from it should be published without his prior written conse~t and information derived from at should be acknowledged. Submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of PhD March 2001 2 8 APR 2004 Abstract This thesis examines the linkage between road construction, female development and fertility among women of two rural Tamang communities in Jetthul, Nepal. Completion of the all­ weather road between Jetthul and Lamosangu in 1980 created a motorised link with Kathmandu. Taking an integrated approach, aspects of development and female life associated with fertility decline are examined within the limitations of a post hoc study. Using a combination of ethnographic and quantitative survey techniques, links are traced between the advent of the road and changes in female employment, urban and media exposure, education, autonomy in marriage and reproductive behaviour. Investigation reveals women have not become frequent road users. In maintaining subsistenGe activities and childcare, they remain closely bound to family-based, agricultural production within the village sphere. Although female contact with urban centres has increased since the advent of the road, it remains low, relative to that of men, the majority of whom seek waged employment outside Jetthul. Although school attendance has commenced among girls since the inception of road construction, rates of completion of primary school and literacy are very poor. Contact with mass media is low in the village setting, but since the opening of the road, young women have gained access to cinema and video in Kathmandu. Although the incidence of forceful capture marriage has declined since 1980, there is no detectable increase in female autonomy in the nuptial process. While female age at marriage has increased, since road provision, there has been a significant decrease in the time lapse between marriage and first birth. This suggests the road has stimulated social change relating to intimate behaviour. Since completion of the road, little attention has been forthcoming from other development projects. Although the communities have received modest government agricultural and health assistance and have been visited by a mobile sterilisation camp, in-depth investigation at the micro-level has identified the inappropriate approach and subsequent failure of these limited programmes in Jetthul. This thesis demonstrates that in the absence of female-centred project support, girls and women of poor rural communities are not necessarily advantaged during the early stages of development initiatives such as road building. Furthermore, in addressing high fertility among the majority rural population, a more integrated approach is required at the community level, to more fully incorporate women and girls into the national development process and support fertility decline. Acknowledgements I have been overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of kindness I have received throughout the research and production of this thesis. I wish to express my gratitude to His Majesty's Government of Nepal for generously granting me research permission. Professor Matura Shrestha's help was vital in establishing my research and I wish to express my gratitude to him. My heartfelt thanks are due to the people of Jetthul who endured my presence and inquiry and I wish to acknowledge the hard work of field assistants, Iswor Man Bajracharaya, Durga Sakya, Bhesh Kumari Poudel and Mila Tamang. I am also grateful for access to literature at CNAS, APROSC, ICIMOD, Tribhuvan University, UMN, UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA in Kathmandu. Thanks are due to Ngawang Tharchen Bista and his family for their kindness throughout my time in Nepal. I am indebted to Dr. Tom Fricke of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, for generously allowing me use of the TFRP questionnaire. Thanks are due to Catherine Panter-Brick for encouraging me to present this study as a PhD and join Durham University. I am grateful for kind administrative support of the secretarial staff of the Department of Anthropology and I wish to thank Andrea Summerson for assistance with data input and Malcolm Smith for comments on early chapter drafts. Thanks are due to Luisa Elvira Belaunde and Gina Porter for their valuable supervision. I wish to thank Dr. H.P. Maag and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, the London School of Economics, Marie Stopes International, lDS (Sussex), IFRTD and IPPF, and in ZUrich, INFRAS, Helvetas and NADEL for generously granting me access to archives. I am very grateful for the enthusiastic draft reviews and support of Fiona O'Carroll, Mirela Cuculescu, Elena Fernandez Garcia, Hatun Timur and Andrew Russell and to Ben Campbell and Joe McAleer for stimulating discussion. I am indebted to the computing expertise of Albert Bokma and Meka Onyekwere during software hiccups and viral attack. I would also like to express special thanks to Alan Phillips and Stefan Camenzind. I gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of this thesis by the Simon Population Fund, The Radcliffe-Brown Trust Fund and the Department of Anthropology, University of Durham. ii Contents Abstract I Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iii List of Figures VII List of Tables viii List of Plates X Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Development of the roads infrastructure in Nepal 3 1.1.1 Evolution of the Lamosangu-Jiri Road 6 1.2 Gender and transport in Nepal 8 1.3 Social and economic impacts of roads in Nepal 10 1.4 Development, socio-economic change and fertility decline 16 1.4.1 Female education 18 1.4.2 The nature of female employment 20 1.4.3 Exposure to urban life and mass media 23 1.4.4 Female autonomy 24 1.5 Thesis presentation 27 Chapter 2 The villages and communities in Jetthul and their national development context 28 2.1 The country setting 28 2.2 Jetthul as the location of field research 30 2.3 The villages and Tamang communities 33 2.3.1 Demographic profile 33 2.3.2 Jetthul households 34 2.3.3 The villagers 35 2.3.4 Village amenities 37 2.4 The Tamang in Nepalese society 39 2.4.1 Geographical distribution 39 2.4.2 Being Tamang 39 2.4.3 Perceptions of the Tamang within the caste hierarchy 44 2.4.4 Tamang women 46 2.5 Grounding my research within the national context 49 2.5.1 Agriculture 49 2.5.2 Industry 50 2.5.2.1 Women in the wage labour market 54 2.5.2.2 Initiatives to increase female participation in the wider economy 55 2.5.3 The education system and policy 58 2.5.3.1 Girls and women in education 60 2.5.4 Mass media 62 2.5.4.1 Use of mass media in development, family planning and health promotion 64 2.5.5 Autonomy of Nepalese women 65 2.5.6 Fertility and family planning 65 iii Chapter 3 Methodology and treatment of data 68 3.1 My approach to fieldwork 68 3.2 Fieldwork and the evolution of my research 69 3.2.1 The Tamang Family Research Project 71 3.2.2 The study sample 74 3.3 Ethnographic enquiry 77 3.4 Quantitative data collection 78 3.4.1 The formal survey 79 3.5 Data treatment and analyses 80 3.6 Level of confidence in given age 81 Chapter 4 Making a living: labour, employment, commerce and 84 subsistence 4.1 Introduction 84 4.2 Objectives 85 4.3 The Agricultural Situation 85 4.3.1 The farming cycle 91 4.4 Female participation agriculture 93 4.4.1 Unremunerated household subsistence farming 93 4.4.2 Waged agricultural labour 94 4.4.3 Agricultural enterprise: produce sales 97 4.5 Income generation outside the agricultural sphere 99 4.5.1 Female non-agricultural waged labour 99 4.5.2 Female non-agricultural enterprise 105 4.5.3 Male non-agricultural labour and enterprise 107 4.6 Women's cash earnings 109 4.7 Domestic labour 111 4.8 Comparison with the Tamang Family Research Project 115 4.8.1 Agricultural labour and enterprise 116 4.8.2 Non-agricultural labour 117 4.9 Discussion 119 Chapter 5 Experience outside Jetthul: Travel, exposure to 131 urban life and mass media 5.1 Introduction 131 5.2 Objectives 132 5.3 Women's travel to urban centres 133 5.3.1 Frequency of travel 136 5.3.2 Marital status of women travelling to urban centres 138 5.4 Urban residence for a month or longer.