Patterns of Internal Displacement in Nepal

Abstract

The patterns of internal displacement in Nepal must be read against the backdrop of the profile of IDPs in Nepal. Firstly, people displaced due to conflict, primarily Maoist insurgency. Significant to this IDP population is the fact that the vast majorities are from the Brahmin/Chettri ethnic group, which has long dominated landholding, government service and political power in Nepal (more than 90% of government servants were of Brahmin/Chettri ethnicity prior to 1990, and the percentage increased during the rule of the 'democratically-elected' parties).The displacement of people of Brahmin/Chettri ethnicity is reflected in the ethnicities of the children investigated in this study. The second and largest group of internally displaced persons are the collateral victims of the armed conflict, primarily poor villagers who have fled their home land due to general insecurity, degradation of the local economy and services, food scarcity, fear of abduction by the Maoists, or fear of harassment and violence by either the Maoists or the government's security forces (including the national police, Armed Police Force and Nepalese Army). This group includes a wide range of rural castes and ethnicities. The internal displacement of villagers has not been chaotic and random, however. These IDPs have generally followed routes already established by rural-to-urban labour migration, settling in destinations and finding employment with the assistance of already-migrated family and community members. The third groups of IDPs due to the armed conflict are youth, primarily boys and young men above the age of 12. These youth have fled due to fear of abduction and recruitment by Maoist forces or fear of harassment and violence by Maoists or security forces (or both). While many