Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Management; A Case of Reconstruction Works at Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Nepal

Abstract

Nepal government had established National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) for the Reconstruction of Earthquake Affected Structures. Chitwan is one of the least affected districts where Bharatpur Metropolitan City lies. In Bharatpur, there were 711 total victims whose houses were completely destroyed by Earthquake. According to NRA, the Earthquake victims are the beneficiary of 3 lakhs grants for reconstruction of their houses in three installments. In the case study of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, we had conducted research on effect of COVID-19 on labor management for reconstruction works of those victims from 15th September 2019 till 07 th September 2020. The reconstruction activities were halted completely for two and half months in lockdown periods. The major problem for this was due to lack of labors and materials scarcity in local market. As most of the labors working on Bharatpur were found to be from Country Border areas like Bara, Parsa, Siraha, Saptari, Sarlahi, Sunsari, Morang, etc and from India too; lockdown had stopped them to reach their destiny and other problem was the fear of COVID-19 transmission. Local government shall manage labors effectively by producing local masons of its own area rather than depending upon outsiders and provide the local masons with proper trainings and uplift the reconstruction works by following the health protocols as explained by WHO and Health Offices. The study is limited to assess the impact new provision of labour permit system.