Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
lender system in Upper Humla - become consolidated and tightened in time of
crisis. Households with access to political and/or trading networks rely heavily
on these, while households that lack access to networks outside their village
typically borrow food and/or money from fellow villagers as their main coping
strategy, thereby further constraining the possibilities of diversifying their
livelihoods. The result is a deepening of the dependency and inequity between
those who have access to networks and those who do not.
However, even if power relations produce and reinforce vulnerability in food-
insecure households, these relations are not static. There are indications that in
some cases traditional power relations are being challenged and new livelihood
opportunities created. Discrimination against Dalits in Hindu societies and
social exclusion and marginalization of certain groups, including women,
have been practised for centuries in Nepal (Levine 1987; Bista 1994; Cameron
1995; DFID and the World Bank 2006; Khadka 2009). Such oppression and
marginalization have been historically linked with practices of social hierarchies
and land distribution in rural western Nepal, but have also been challenged
through recent political changes and movements, not least the ten-year Maoist
insurgency that called for abolition of the caste system. Several informants were
of the opinion that systematic oppression, in particular of Dalits, is less of a
problem today than it used to be. As one elderly Dalit woman put it 'We are
still very poor but at least they [Thakuri] cannot threaten us anymore' - or as a
Thakuri informant put it furiously when his
lagi
[Dalit]
did not come to work:
'
Mero lagi
[Dalit]
Thulo Maanche baisakyo
' ('My [Dalit]
lagi
has become a Big Man
now').
As the local economy has become monetized and more diversified, and as the
uncertainty of rain has led small farmers to diversify their livelihood strategies,
more households turn to small trade as a source of income to access food.
Indeed, while the traditional trading system in the region, the salt trade with
Tibet, used to be dominated by a few powerful traders (von Fürer-Haimendorf
1988; Bishop 1990), informants say that trading systems today are more
diversified (mostly with NTFP) and involve more small traders. This shift has
occurred mainly in the course of the past decade or so, and may have challenged
some traditional power relations as more households now have cash incomes.
However, it also appears that the relatively better-off households have benefited
the most from these new opportunities.
Conclusions: implications for adaptation and challenging
'development as usual'
This chapter, based on case studies from north-western Nepal, has shown that
understanding the dynamics of local social and political processes is essential
for explaining differential vulnerability among households. While local power
structures enable some people and/or groups to adapt better to stresses like
climate change by creating and/or exploiting political and social opportunities,
Search WWH ::
Custom Search