Issue Attention and Group Mobilization for Caste Rights Following the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake

People in Nepal labeled as low-caste carry the double burden of simultaneous denial of access to resources and to public space in which to discuss caste issues. Following the 2015 earthquake, issues regarding caste were pushed onto the national agenda through various groups seizing the window of opportunity to bring awareness to address issues related to caste rights and discrimination. Positioned in the Focusing Events Theory, we seek to understand how groups may have used the Nepal 2015 earthquake to mobilize to increase issue attention to caste and disaster vulnerability. To identify themes around these areas, we reviewed key news articles that were published in Nepalese and international media in the two-year time frame after the earthquake. We identified issue framing with several major themes: opportunities for lessons learned, outsiders and higher caste as "rescuing" lower caste, and disaster vulnerability linked to caste.