THESIS ABSTRACT

Abstract

The 7.8 magnitude (in Richter scale) earthquake has occurred in Nepal on April 25, 2015 A.D. and severely affected many sectors of nation claiming lives of nearly nine thousand people and causing loss of million dollars. Private building is one of the most affected sectors by the earthquake. For safer reconstruction of the private buildings, trainings on earthquake resistant construction techniques were given to the masons and those trained masons were mainly involved in the “housing reconstruction program”. Now, there are large numbers of trained masons in the country. In the context of country’s reconstruction process reaching towards completion, this study has assessed the occupational condition, the socio- economic changes occurred and possible sustainability aspects of the trained masons in the Makwanpur district, Bagmati province, Nepal. The objectives of this study were achieved through two approaches viz. i) Review of literatures about occupational condition, socio-economic changes and sustainability aspect of the trained masons and ii) A valid questionnaire that was obtained from the trained masons, local government representatives and NRA focal engineers. SPSS tool and Microsoft Excel-2013 were used to analyze the collected data. The study found that the occupational condition of trained masons were as follows: i) low level of confidence to perform their work if not been supervised by engineers, ii) many trained masons were found left the construction sector job, as of now 48% of the trained masons are working in construction sector of the district, iii) the trained women masons are in assisting role to lead trained men masons and the 89% of the trained women masons found paid not equal to that of men for the same work iv) the knowledge scores of masons calculated based on normal distribution and independent t-test showed that there is no significant difference in knowledge scores between short term training (seven days training) and vocational trainings (fifty days training). Also, it is found that there was huge discrimination in payment of wages between male and female trained masons for the same nature of work. The gender biasness practiced in vi the payment mainly causing hinders in socio-economic transformation of the female trained mason’s lives as well as sustainability of the occupation. Nepal government has invested financial resources substantially in trainings (seven days training and fifty days training) because of the construction of buildings is ongoing process and proper implementation of Nepal National Building Code will ensure earthquake resistant construction of buildings. Therefore, retention of the trained masons in construction sector is highly important for future. It’s recommended for enhancing the skills of trained masons through re-freshen training to boost up their confidence for work performance. Also, initiation of actions to ensure that women’s access to equal payment for same nature of work. Use the rights as per local government operation act 2074 B.S. (2017 A.D.) and enforce the Nepal National Building Codes which will increase sustainability of trained mason in the district.

Keywords

Occupational Condition, Socio- economic changes, Trained Mason, Sustainability, Gorkha Earthquake 2015, National Building Code