Title: Human well-being after 2015 Nepal earthquake: micro-evidence from one of the hardest hit rural villages

Authors: Jeet Bahadur Sapkota

Addresses: School of International Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan

Abstract: This study assesses the human well-being in one of the most affected rural villages of Nepal, ten months after the 2015 earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. Through a survey of 399 households, we found that the earthquake increased the poverty and out-of-school children by 9% and 7% respectively. It also killed 17 people and injured 53 people seriously. Results also revealed that both objective as well as subjective human well-being is significantly associated with the degree of destruction, access to physical and social infrastructure, and the sociocultural identity of the respondents. These results have clear policy implications for the disaster risk reduction and sustainable reconstruction of the ruined rural areas.

Keywords: human well-being; natural disasters; 2015 Nepal earthquake; reconstruction; access to infrastructure; micro-evidence; household survey; sustainable rural development; Ramche; Sindhupalchok.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2018.100825

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2018 Vol.21 No.1/2/3/4, pp.54 - 74

Accepted: 29 Nov 2018
Published online: 18 Jul 2019 *

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