An&nbsp;earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale shook Nepal&nbsp;early&nbsp;this morning.

Nepal&#39;s National Centre for Seismology (NCS), a unit of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said the quake occurred at 5:05 am, and at a depth of 10 kilometres, PTI reported.

The NCS located&nbsp;the earthquake&#39;s&nbsp;epicentre at Solukhumbu, near Everest, and around 150 kilometres east of Kathmandu, and recorded its intensity&nbsp;at 5.6.

PTI reports that this was the 475th aftershock above a 4 magnitude of the April 2015 earthquake that devastated Nepal.

Thankfully there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the earthquake, according to PTI, which was also felt in Kathmandu and in other parts of central and Eastern Nepal.

(WION with inputs from agencies)

There have been no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which was felt as far as outside Kathmandu

An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale shook Nepal early this morning. Nepal's National Centre for Seismology (NCS), a unit of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said the quake occurred at 5:05 am, and at a depth of 10 kilometres, PTI reported. The NCS located the earthquake's epicentre at Solukhumbu, near Everest, and around 150 kilometres east of Kathmandu, and recorded its intensity at 5.6. PTI reports that this was the 475th aftershock above a 4 magnitude of the April 2015 earthquake that devastated Nepal. Thankfully there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the earthquake, according to PTI, which was also felt in Kathmandu and in other parts of central and Eastern Nepal. (WION with inputs from agencies)

Nepal hit by 5.5 magnitude earthquake

Hundreds in Nepal who had borrowed money to rebuild their lives after two earthquakes left them homeless are at risk of being trafficked or duped into selling their kidneys to pay off their debts, an international development organisation said. 
 
Nepal received $4.1 billion in pledges from donors for reconstruction after quakes last April and May killed 9,000 people, injured at least 22,000 and damaged or destroyed more than 900,000 houses in the Himalayan nation. 
 
More than a year on, reconstruction has been slow with unrest over a new constitution adding to the delays. Unable to find work, hundreds in Nepal are deep in debt, the Asia Foundation said today.&nbsp;&quot;Their ability to pay is very limited and indebtedness makes them more vulnerable to exploitation,&quot; said Nandita Baruah, Asia Foundation&#39;s deputy country representative in Kathmandu. 
 
&quot;Their desperation makes them take greater risks, such as sending their children away for what they think are better lives, or even selling their kidneys,&quot; she told.&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;re going to see an uptick in people moving out to earn money as their debts become due. Some of them will be trafficked,&quot; Baruah added. 
 
Nepal&#39;s economy is highly dependent on remittances sent back by its migrant workers, which make up about 30 percent of its gross domestic product.&nbsp;Following the earthquakes, hundreds of migrant workers returned to Nepal to help their families. Many are likely to have paid their employers to be allowed to return home, going without wages for several months while spending money on rebuilding, Baruah said. 
 
&quot;These are workers who pay 200,000-500,000 rupees ($1,850-$4,640) to go abroad in the first place and are very likely still paying off that debt,&quot; she said. &quot;The quakes exacerbated their indebtedness,&quot; she added. 
 
Activists say there are signs of an increase in the number of Nepali women and children being trafficked after last year&#39;s disaster. Anti-trafficking charity Maiti Nepal said it stopped 745 women and children, suspected victims of human trafficking, at the Nepal-India border in the three months following the earthquakes. 
 
That compares with 615 such interceptions in the three months before the quakes, their data showed. Nepal is both a source and a destination country for victims of human trafficking with some 8,500 Nepalis trafficked every year, according to the country&#39;s human rights commission. 
 
Women are typically trafficked for sex work, domestic work and forced marriages to India, the Middle East, China and South Korea, while men are made to work in construction, as drivers and in hotels in India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 
 
Some victims are duped into selling their kidneys and brought to India, where a chronic organ shortage has fuelled a black-market trade in illegal transplants, activists say. 
 
Nepal&#39;s economy is forecast by the Asian Development Bank to have grown only about 1.5 percent in the fiscal year to mid-July after reconstruction delays and trade disruptions. A recovery is dependent on the pace of reconstruction, it said. 
 
&quot;Now, the aid will also stop flowing. We&#39;re going to see more migration, more trafficking,&quot; said Baruah. &quot;Those who have taken on debt don&#39;t have options,&quot; she said. 
 
(Reuters) 
&nbsp;

More than a year after the earthquakes, reconstruction has been slow with unrest over a new constitution adding to the delays

Hundreds in Nepal who had borrowed money to rebuild their lives after two earthquakes left them homeless are at risk of being trafficked or duped into selling their kidneys to pay off their debts, an international development organisation said. Nepal received $4.1 billion in pledges from donors for reconstruction after quakes last April and May killed 9,000 people, injured at least 22,000 and damaged or destroyed more than 900,000 houses in the Himalayan nation. More than a year on, reconstruction has been slow with unrest over a new constitution adding to the delays. Unable to find work, hundreds in Nepal are deep in debt, the Asia Foundation said today. "Their ability to pay is very limited and indebtedness makes them more vulnerable to exploitation," said Nandita Baruah, Asia Foundation's deputy country representative in Kathmandu. "Their desperation makes them take greater risks, such as sending their children away for what they think are better lives, or even selling their kidneys," she told. "We're going to see an uptick in people moving out to earn money as their debts become due. Some of them will be trafficked," Baruah added. Nepal's economy is highly dependent on remittances sent back by its migrant workers, which make up about 30 percent of its gross domestic product. Following the earthquakes, hundreds of migrant workers returned to Nepal to help their families. Many are likely to have paid their employers to be allowed to return home, going without wages for several months while spending money on rebuilding, Baruah said. "These are workers who pay 200,000-500,000 rupees ($1,850-$4,640) to go abroad in the first place and are very likely still paying off that debt," she said. "The quakes exacerbated their indebtedness," she added. Activists say there are signs of an increase in the number of Nepali women and children being trafficked after last year's disaster. Anti-trafficking charity Maiti Nepal said it stopped 745 women and children, suspected victims of human trafficking, at the Nepal-India border in the three months following the earthquakes. That compares with 615 such interceptions in the three months before the quakes, their data showed. Nepal is both a source and a destination country for victims of human trafficking with some 8,500 Nepalis trafficked every year, according to the country's human rights commission. Women are typically trafficked for sex work, domestic work and forced marriages to India, the Middle East, China and South Korea, while men are made to work in construction, as drivers and in hotels in India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Some victims are duped into selling their kidneys and brought to India, where a chronic organ shortage has fuelled a black-market trade in illegal transplants, activists say. Nepal's economy is forecast by the Asian Development Bank to have grown only about 1.5 percent in the fiscal year to mid-July after reconstruction delays and trade disruptions. A recovery is dependent on the pace of reconstruction, it said. "Now, the aid will also stop flowing. We're going to see more migration, more trafficking," said Baruah. "Those who have taken on debt don't have options," she said. (Reuters)

Nepal quake survivors struggle with debt, raising trafficking fears

Rani Maya Shrestha was working on a neighbour&#39;s potato farm when the first of Nepal&#39;s two massive earthquakes struck last year. She rushed home to find her husband buried in the ruins of their house northeast of the capital Kathmandu.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;I should have died with him,&quot; said Shrestha inside the tin hovel that has been her home for the last year. &quot;Without my husband, my life has become meaningless.&quot; 
 
The frail looking 45-year-old woman has no documents to prove her rights to her husband&#39;s property in the ancient town of Sankhu. She survives on around 75 cents a day from knitting mufflers and woollen caps. 
 
Twin quakes in April and May 2015 killed some 9,000 people in the Himalayan nation, leaving many women to fend for themselves in a country where widows face hostility, abuse, discrimination and even enslavement. 
 
Mina Adhikari says her life was shattered after she lost her school teacher husband in the disaster. She is now struggling to bring up their two sons alone. 
 
&quot;It drastically changed the way I am treated by society. Society does not accept me as one of them,&quot; the 33-year-old said by phone from the village of Gairigaon close to the 7.8 magnitude quake&#39;s epicenter in west Nepal. 
 
Women for Human Rights (WHR), a Nepali organisation which campaigns for widows&#39; rights, said women who had lost their husbands in the disaster faced a multitude of problems. 
 
&quot;There is superstition and stigmatisation. Widows have no status,&quot; said WHR&#39;s chief Lily Thapa ahead of International Widows&#39; Day on Thursday. 
 
She said many widows lacked documents to claim their dead husband&#39;s property or faced difficulties getting rebuilding grants because their marriage was not registered, as is common in Nepal. 
 
Some widows have also been abandoned when family members moved to new locations following the disaster, she added. 
 
Although Nepal has taken major steps to empower women since the end of its decade-long civil war in 2006, widowhood remains surrounded by taboos in this patriarchal society. 
 
Like other widows, Adhikari said she was no longer allowed to attend religious ceremonies or other celebrations because women who have lost their husbands are seen as inauspicious. 
 
In some places, widows are considered so unlucky that people steer clear of them in the street. 
 
Destitution and enslavement 
 
Nepal has around half a million widows. Many lost their husbands during the war or to HIV. Others were widowed when their husbands died in accidents while working overseas as migrant labourers.&nbsp; 
 
Another factor is child marriage, with girls in Nepal often married off as teenagers to much older men. 
 
When their husbands die many widows are left destitute. If they remain with their in-laws they may be confined to the house and treated like servants, activists say. In some cases the family may even blame the widow for her husband&#39;s death. 
 
The Loomba Foundation, a widows&#39; rights charity, said widows could face hostility because it was sometimes believed their husbands had died as punishment for immoral acts or crimes their wives had committed in a previous life. 
 
&quot;The younger the age of the husbands when they died, the greater the severity of the crime the widows (are believed to have) committed in the past life,&quot; the foundation said in a global report on widows last year. 
 
The charity says widows in Nepal are also regularly accused of killing their husbands deliberately or through neglect - including by passing on HIV. 
 
Traditionally, widows are required to shun merriment. They are banned from wearing red clothes and most jewellery. Many wear only white. 
 
Often forced into virtual seclusion, they are not supposed to remarry or move out of their in-laws&#39; homes, which leaves many open to exploitation. 
 
Most widows in Nepal are illiterate and two thirds are under 35, compounding the risks of abuse, activists say. 
 
In 2008, in recognition of the large number of war widows and popular aversion to widow remarriage, the government put forward a scheme to pay men $460&nbsp;incentive to marry widows. 
 
Widows protested, saying the proposal was open to abuse by traffickers and would turn them into commodities. Nepal&#39;s Supreme Court ordered the government to ditch the initiative. 
 
 
Widow President 
 
However, WHR&#39;s Thapa says things are slowly improving. Some widows have even defied tradition by wearing red during protests against discrimination. 
 
Thapa founded WHR 20 years ago following the death of her husband in the Gulf War while he was working with a peace mission in Iraq. 
 
The organisation, which has more than 2,000 widow groups nationwide, campaigns for better social and cultural rights, and helps widows secure property, economic independence and legal aid. 
 
Thapa says several discriminatory laws and policies have been amended in recent years. For example, a widow who remarries no longer needs to return her deceased husband&#39;s property. 
 
Social protections have also been strengthened, with all widows now entitled to a monthly allowance. 
 
Campaigners say it will likely take many years for old prejudices to die out. 
 
When Nepal&#39;s widowed President Bidhya Devi Bhandari visited a temple in the south last December some locals accused her of desecrating the shrine. 
 
The following day they &quot;cleansed&quot; the temple with holy water, saying her worship there had made it impure. 
 
Rights campaigner Durga Sob said the demeaning incident highlights the entrenched stigma faced by all widows in Nepal. 
 
&quot;This is extremely shameful,&quot; said Sob, head of Sankalpa, a network of women&#39;s groups. &quot;When the country&#39;s president is treated this way, just imagine what treatment the voiceless, uneducated and poor widows may be facing.&quot; 
 
(Reuters)

Women who lose their husbands have to fend for themselves in a country where widows face hostility, abuse, discrimination, even enslavement

Rani Maya Shrestha was working on a neighbour's potato farm when the first of Nepal's two massive earthquakes struck last year. She rushed home to find her husband buried in the ruins of their house northeast of the capital Kathmandu. "I should have died with him," said Shrestha inside the tin hovel that has been her home for the last year. "Without my husband, my life has become meaningless." The frail looking 45-year-old woman has no documents to prove her rights to her husband's property in the ancient town of Sankhu. She survives on around 75 cents a day from knitting mufflers and woollen caps. Twin quakes in April and May 2015 killed some 9,000 people in the Himalayan nation, leaving many women to fend for themselves in a country where widows face hostility, abuse, discrimination and even enslavement. Mina Adhikari says her life was shattered after she lost her school teacher husband in the disaster. She is now struggling to bring up their two sons alone. "It drastically changed the way I am treated by society. Society does not accept me as one of them," the 33-year-old said by phone from the village of Gairigaon close to the 7.8 magnitude quake's epicenter in west Nepal. Women for Human Rights (WHR), a Nepali organisation which campaigns for widows' rights, said women who had lost their husbands in the disaster faced a multitude of problems. "There is superstition and stigmatisation. Widows have no status," said WHR's chief Lily Thapa ahead of International Widows' Day on Thursday. She said many widows lacked documents to claim their dead husband's property or faced difficulties getting rebuilding grants because their marriage was not registered, as is common in Nepal. Some widows have also been abandoned when family members moved to new locations following the disaster, she added. Although Nepal has taken major steps to empower women since the end of its decade-long civil war in 2006, widowhood remains surrounded by taboos in this patriarchal society. Like other widows, Adhikari said she was no longer allowed to attend religious ceremonies or other celebrations because women who have lost their husbands are seen as inauspicious. In some places, widows are considered so unlucky that people steer clear of them in the street. Destitution and enslavement Nepal has around half a million widows. Many lost their husbands during the war or to HIV. Others were widowed when their husbands died in accidents while working overseas as migrant labourers. Another factor is child marriage, with girls in Nepal often married off as teenagers to much older men. When their husbands die many widows are left destitute. If they remain with their in-laws they may be confined to the house and treated like servants, activists say. In some cases the family may even blame the widow for her husband's death. The Loomba Foundation, a widows' rights charity, said widows could face hostility because it was sometimes believed their husbands had died as punishment for immoral acts or crimes their wives had committed in a previous life. "The younger the age of the husbands when they died, the greater the severity of the crime the widows (are believed to have) committed in the past life," the foundation said in a global report on widows last year. The charity says widows in Nepal are also regularly accused of killing their husbands deliberately or through neglect - including by passing on HIV. Traditionally, widows are required to shun merriment. They are banned from wearing red clothes and most jewellery. Many wear only white. Often forced into virtual seclusion, they are not supposed to remarry or move out of their in-laws' homes, which leaves many open to exploitation. Most widows in Nepal are illiterate and two thirds are under 35, compounding the risks of abuse, activists say. In 2008, in recognition of the large number of war widows and popular aversion to widow remarriage, the government put forward a scheme to pay men $460 incentive to marry widows. Widows protested, saying the proposal was open to abuse by traffickers and would turn them into commodities. Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the government to ditch the initiative. Widow President However, WHR's Thapa says things are slowly improving. Some widows have even defied tradition by wearing red during protests against discrimination. Thapa founded WHR 20 years ago following the death of her husband in the Gulf War while he was working with a peace mission in Iraq. The organisation, which has more than 2,000 widow groups nationwide, campaigns for better social and cultural rights, and helps widows secure property, economic independence and legal aid. Thapa says several discriminatory laws and policies have been amended in recent years. For example, a widow who remarries no longer needs to return her deceased husband's property. Social protections have also been strengthened, with all widows now entitled to a monthly allowance. Campaigners say it will likely take many years for old prejudices to die out. When Nepal's widowed President Bidhya Devi Bhandari visited a temple in the south last December some locals accused her of desecrating the shrine. The following day they "cleansed" the temple with holy water, saying her worship there had made it impure. Rights campaigner Durga Sob said the demeaning incident highlights the entrenched stigma faced by all widows in Nepal. "This is extremely shameful," said Sob, head of Sankalpa, a network of women's groups. "When the country's president is treated this way, just imagine what treatment the voiceless, uneducated and poor widows may be facing." (Reuters)

'I should have died too', Nepal's quake widows struggle to survive