Women who lost shops in the August 26 flood seek help to restart

Januka Mijar had run Jasmina Madal Pasal beside Dhobikhola in Bidur Municipality, Nuwakot, for 22 years, building a living from the folk drum known as the madal. On the morning of August 26 she was packing 62 madals for Kathmandu when police loudspeakers warned that the Trishuli was flooding. She left only when a relative shouted at her to run, and watched the building that housed her shop being carried away. Counting the cash and jewellery that went with the stock, she estimates the damage at between Rs1 million and Rs1.5 million or more. Her situation is shared by many women traders in the three districts, according to The Kathmandu Post. The government has announced a Rs15,000 monthly housing allowance for displaced households whose permanent homes were destroyed, if they rent instead of staying in holding centres, but there is no clear provision for people who rented commercial space. In Bidur, Premgeeta Kumari Tharu operated a garage and the Navadurga Motor Parts shop on rented property; she estimates that roughly Rs2.4 million to Rs2.5 million in goods and capital is gone, and says government offices have told her the relief is meant for owners of houses that were swept away. At Devighat, Sanu Nepali Koirala lost her fruit cart, and Renuka Nepali, her sister-in-law, lost a cosmetics and tailoring shop; their home went too. Sanu's family of nine now shelters under tarpaulins close to Chandra Jyoti Secondary School. Both said they want a permanent home on safer land and a way to earn by their own work instead of depending on relief. The scale of business losses is still being counted. The Nuwakot District Administration Office says the disaster directly hit more than 2,000 small traders, shops and home-based enterprises, and about 300 industries, firms and shops have reported damage to the district's Industry, Commerce, Tourism and Transportation Office, which has not separated out women-run businesses. In Rasuwa, enterprise development facilitator Binda Paneru counted around 300 affected small businesses, while officials in Dhading recorded 160 affected shops, hotels and firms and an estimated loss of Rs458.43 million. Prakriti Mainali, who founded Shakti Milan Nepal and runs a business in Nuwakot, said affected women should be counted and supported as entrepreneurs, with data collection, small grants and a chance to reinvest early in the recovery. Speaking for the Bagmati Province chief minister's office, spokesperson Asim Ghising Lama said the province is focused for now on rescue, relief and psychosocial counselling, and will move on to programmes for small entrepreneurship and women's empowerment after that phase.