The fact women and children accounted for almost 90 per cent of those killed was reflective of the social norms and cultural restrictions in remote villages where men impose restrictions on women.

That’s according to senior UN Development Programme (UNDP) official in the country, Stephen Rodriques, who said many men were outside farming or working across the border while women and children stayed at home.

From Kabul, he told UN News’s Vibhu Mishra what he had seen for himself when he visited the deadly quake zone.