Women for Human Rights, Single Women Group (WHR-SWG) has asked the government to use the Emergency Fund for Single Women to rebuild homes for  single women who were displaced by the last year’s earthquake.

“The best use of the fund at this point will be to rebuild homes for single women who usually live in substandard housing units and have low income,” said Sumeera Shrestha, programme manager of WHR-SWG.

The fund, set up by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, has Rs40 million lying around unused for the past three years.

The WHR-SWG asked the government to use the fund to rehabilitate the earthquake-affected single women after it started receiving applications from many single women, seeking financial assistance to rebuild homes.

Sarita Tamang, a quake displaced single woman from Nuwakot, said she and other women like her could benefit a lot from the fund.

“Without a home, I am constantly worried about the safety of my three children. I want to build a home but I don’t have the money,” said Tamang. A report published by Inter-party Women Alliance after the earthquake had reported gender discrimination in relief distribution process and called for a gender-friendly reconstruction programme.

According to the WHR-SWG, single women were the ones who were mostly affected by this discrimination.

“We want to make sure that such oversight does not take place in reconstruction programme by getting as much support we can to single women, because very few of them have their own property,” Shrestha said.

The 2011 census has put the single women population in the country at 498,606. Of them, only 19.17 percent own property in their names.