Before we travelled to Gorkha Bazaar in early August 2015, the headquarters of the district that was the epicentre of the 25 April earthquake, we knew people were already accusing earthquake victims of being insincere about the aid they had received.
In late June, a friend posted on Facebook details of a meeting his friend had with a Village Development Committee (VDC) secretary, the government's representative at the village level. The secretary was tasked with creating a list of earthquake-affected families in his VDC and distributing identity cards to earthquake victims, which would entitle them to relief material. The official claimed that the public turned out to be bigger 'swindlers' than politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and other VDC secretaries themselves. He was referring to what he thought was the locals' tendency to report themselves as victims of the earthquake even when their houses seemed relatively fine.
The government decided to provide the victims NPR 15,000 in immediate relief, among other things. The objective was to help those who lost their houses to buy corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) sheets and build temporary shelters before the onset of monsoon. Soon the rain started pouring; as did the news of delays in disbursement of the cash. The most cited explanation behind the delay was that the number of households registering themselves for the ID cards surpassed the total household estimates based on the 2011 census and other surveys. Before we left for Gorkha, we had received a written clarification on the holdup from the Dolakha wing of VDC Secretaries Welfare and Protection Centre. One of its points read: "the delay was due to the public's tendency to lie to get the victim ID card."
In Gorkha Bazaar, this trend of blaming the victims continued. Most people we encountered in the Bazaar criticised earthquake victims for acting greedy, for not being satisfied with the aid they were receiving, and for thinking that aid was their right and not their need. A radio station manager said people in Gorkha had started naming villages based on the kinds of institutions that provided aid – an INGO village, an NGO village and a sarkaari (government) village. No one liked being in a sarkaari village, he said, because the government only handed households NPR 15,000 each. Other organisations, on the other hand, provided a little extra, like a hygiene kit with a bucket and a bar of soap. "Even then, they are not satisfied. The victims have started complaining that they received toothbrushes in aid but not toothpaste," he said. "They might have enough sacks of rice to last a year, but they will never say this to a surveyor."