Disaster Management
Women and girls: Invisible force of resilience
Devastating storm lashed Noakhali villages Wednesday last. Photo: STAR
Bangladesh is a disaster prone country. These disasters range from ravaging tornadoes to devastating floods. But the above story of Bangladeshi women taking the lead to build a disaster-resilient country contrasts vividly with the more familiar images of women as passive and needy victims flashed around the world in the aftermath of every major disaster. Resilience: According to DFID, 'Disaster Resilience is the ability of countries, communities and households to manage change, by maintaining or transforming living standards in the face of shocks or stresses -- such as earthquakes, drought or violent conflict -- without compromising their long term prospects'. Most definitions of resilience share four common elements: context, disturbance, capacity to deal with disturbance and reaction to disturbance. Together these elements form a resilience framework. Impact on women and girls: Women and girls are more than half of the world's population and are among the most affected by disasters. For an example, in 1991, during the cyclone disasters in Bangladesh, of the 140,000 people who died, 90% were women. Existing gender based inequalities interact with social class, race, ethnicity, and age, putting them at high risk in various stages of disaster. Invisible force: Women and girls are portrayed as the victims of disaster, and their central role in response to disaster, relief work and post disaster reconstruction is often overlooked. But there is no doubt they are the invisible force of resilience. According to the IDNDR, 'Women's knowledge of local people and ecosystems, their skills and abilities, social networks and community organizations help communities mitigate hazardous conditions and events, respond effectively to disasters when they do occur, and rebuild in ways that leave people more, not less, resilient to the effects of subsequent disasters.' Role of women and girls: The following are some of the role played by women and girls in Bangladesh to make the country disaster resilience: Avoidance/Prevention:Predicting and preparing for disasters: In the flood-prone areas, women have used their own science and arts to predict floods. Protecting houses and homesteads: Before the flood or cyclone season, women and girls try to make their houses more resilient to disasters by reinforcing walls and roofs with locally available resources, increasing the plinth level of households and elevating the level of cow sheds. Storing essential items: Women and girls preserve fuels, matches, dry food, ropes and medicine at home and prepare portable mud stoves for future use. They often collect firewood to store in dry places for later use. Many of them store cooking utensils, productive assets and other valuables under the soil to protect them from being washed away by cyclones. Educating children: Teaching life-saving skills such as swimming and understanding cyclone signals are examples of how women prepare their children. Management:
Safety of family members: During disasters, women constantly look after children, elderly and disabled family members, and animals to ensure their safety. In flood-prone areas, women prepare elevated platforms for family members. Ensuring food security: When a household faces a food crisis during or after a disaster, women and girls are responsible for adjusting household food consumption by changing the type of food eaten or by consuming less. Household works: Workload distribution within the family disproportionately, however, affects women during a disaster. When male members become unemployed, daily work for women increases even more as they have to manage resources, feed the family and look after the elderly. Migration and alternative employment: In the post disaster period, many women and girls migrate as an adaptation strategy. The major activities that employ women in urban areas include serving as domestic help, brick breaking, sewing, jute bag making, ash selling, fish and vegetable vending, selling rice cakes and working in the RMG industry. All, however, to support family. Recovery:
Rebuilding houses, re-stocking livestock, securing an income, repaying borrowed money, treating affected family members, and restoring other aspects of life such as children's education, are all parts of recovery from disasters. In all of these activities, women and girls are actively involved. Women and girls in resilience: SARC experiences: South Asia is the worst disaster affected sub-continent in the world. Studies carried out in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka on 'Gender issues in disasters' show females are playing a great role in building sustainable and disaster resilient communities. The following are some of the role played by them: Risk managers: Women in South Asian societies play a major role in risk and emergency management. Taking care of the family in emergencies, taking children and animals to safety, and the storage of food and other essential items, are some of the functions carried out entirely by women in such situations. Living with floods: In Bangladesh, women take on the role of preparing and storing food items, which can be the source of energy and nutrition for the family for days when the floods come. Women in Jhang area in Punjab, Pakistan, have mastered the skills to survive floods through generations. Vigilance: Gondennawa in Sri Lanka is an area where people live in constant fear of landslides and rock falls. Women and girls in this area have taken the initiative to form themselves into vigilant groups along with men to keep vigil in the nights, for possible threats of rock fall during the heavy monsoons, so that they can alert the neighbours to run for safety. Surviving drought: In the dry zone of Sri Lanka, people face scarcity of food and water during the long dry periods. Women resort to various mechanisms to survive the difficult conditions. Drought in desert: In Tharparkar desert area in Pakistan, women and girls carry the responsibility of ensuring drinking water needs of the family during the long dry months which last 6- 8 months a year. When disaster hits: A study on floods in Jolpur, Bangladesh observes that the social networks of women provide emergency survival support during floods. They are the first to provide nursing care to the most affected family members, before any official relief work begins. Post disaster rebuilding: Women and girls contribute in a variety of forms, along with their regular chores of preparing food, collecting water and fuel wood. A research conducted in the earthquake hit Gujarat, India in 2001 records the role women played in postquake reconstruction. Recommendations: Women and girls can contribute to make a country disaster resilience in the following three phases, namely: Preparedness phase: Awareness building; building early warning and communication systems; mapping risks, resources and capacities; formulate strategies to increase resilience; skills development; networking and knowledge exchange; capacity building; practice of safety measures; learning about first aid; improving health care and access; preparation and implementation of family and community disaster plans; participation in test disaster plans; learning infrastructure construction skills; securing land, housing and shelters; engaging with institutional actors; maintaining strong partnerships with local and national government; membership in decision-making bodies; organising communities; conserving natural resources; accessing institutional funds. Response phase: Search and rescue; shelter management; maintaining environmental health; identification of needs and available resources; emergency feeding, clothing; provision of first aid; care about vulnerable groups; providing emotional support for community members; addressing needs of relief workers. Recovery phase: Support for the restoration of primary health care service; replanting of crops; resettlement of refugees; making provision for water storage facilities; assisting with reconstruction of damaged infrastructures. Unfortunately, roles of women and girls in overall disaster management are often unrecognised. But their skills and contributions are crucial in this field. The activities presented here prove that females are capable to make a country disaster resilience. So, we should make a change in the approach towards disaster management, where women and girls' contributions are recognised and appropriate space given to utilize their potentiality. Women and girls must be empowered and guaranteed human rights, equality and equity to truly realise their potential for positive change and contributing to sustainable development particularly in the area of environmental and natural resource management, governance, socioeconomic development and urban land use planning which are the four key drivers of disaster management. Surely, this will turn them from 'most vulnerable' to a 'force of resilience'.
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