3th WCSET-2014 at Nepal
Civil Engineering / Environmental / Architecture / Planning Session:
Title:
Influence of Roads on Socio-Economic Aspects of Rural
People - A case study of selected VDCs of Dailekh
district
Authors:
Gayatri Paudel
Abstract: Road
infrastructures play an important role in the
socio-economic and cultural development of any region.
Despite a general consensus that the interventions in
the form of transport infrastructures has wide potential
to reach and enhance that sector of rural population
which has been persistently marginalized from the
benefits of aggregate economic growth, methodological
constraints and data limitation have made it difficult
to measure how these impacts occur and what their
determinants are. This study attempts to address the
void and disentangle the degree of those impacts. The
study was carried out through a comprehensive field trip
to Toli and Bhawani VDCs of Dailekh district during the
first week of June to collect ground-reality
information. It focuses primarily and deeply on selected
case study areas, considering multifaceted impacts that
determine how rural roads influence livelihood
constraints of poor people. The study methodology was
carefully designed to maximize the use of both
qualitative and quantitative information available. A
structured questionnaire survey was conducted to focus
on data collection to fill the key information gaps
through random sampling method. The data were tabulated
and analysed through SPSS tool. Study revealed that
local residents have been exposed to new and dynamic
flow of opportunities that enhanced their livelihood due
to better access to education, medical facilities and
markets through roads. Based on this, the study
concludes that reduction in physical isolation through
widespread transport network is essential to raise a
major portion of population above threshold of poverty.
Keywords: Socio-Economic,
Rural Roads, Poverty, Questionnaire, Survey,
Infrastructure, Empowerment, Transport
Pages:
263-266