Dr.

Roopa K V
Assistant Professor
Department of Political science
Government First grade College
Udayapura
Hassan district
Karnataka state
Ph :8105672040
roopa.roopgiri@gmail.com

Gender mainstreaming & disaster management- Challenges

Abstract

Natural disasters affect women and men differently. The socio economic conditions of Indian
society along with its diverse cultural background and traditional beliefs accelerate the
impact of natural disasters on women more dearly. This disproportion in disasters impact
often causes heavy fatalities which are augmented irrespective of technological
advancement. It is often seen that loss of life , slow recovery , psychological imbalances
during disasters and after disasters is more in women as they are the most vulnerable sections
of society . Loss of livelihood , loss of productive assets and increased gender violence
during disasters and after disasters is also impact this disproportion . Inequitable access to
disaster management mechanism is one of the primary causes of increased proportion of
disaster risks. Women lack access to disaster management resources. Besides , lack of
identifying women’s potentialities experiences and accumulate skills in times of natural
disasters & catastrophes also influences this disproportion. Hence, an effective gender
sensitive disaster risk reduction strategy needs to be evolved. An effective gender sensitive
disaster risk reduction strategy needs to highlight women’s potential to prepare, face and
recuperate from disasters more effectively.

Key words: Women, Disasters Risks, Gender Sensitive Issues

Introduction:

Vulnerability factors – Generally Women lack exposure to disaster risks because following
factors hinder their access to disaster risk reduction awareness

1. Socio- religious restrictions

 2. Gender constraints
3. Ethnic surroundings
4. Racial distinctiveness
5. Age factor
6. Cultural ceiling

Gender Vulnerability levels - Gender Vulnerability levels varies according to

1. Levels of poverty
2. Levels of literacy
3. Levels of primary understanding about disasters
4. Levels of preparedness towards coping with disasters
5. Levels of emotional resistance to post disaster issues
6. Levels of recovery post disaster

Gender vulnerability - Disasters bring suffering as well as mental agony. Vulnerability

among women often causes physical and psychological problems which can be grouped as
Post Disaster Stress Syndrome (PDSS) . The listed emotions are more often reported
( women from states of Orissa , west Bengal , Andhra Pradesh , Tamil nad, which often suffer
from natural disasters report )

1. Isolation from family / group /clan / village community

2. Insecurity due to loss of family members
3. Defencelessness caused due to trauma of disasters
4. Psychological Shock and mental stress due to traumatic experiences
5. Uncertainty caused due to permanent loss of livelihood means
6. Feeling of segregation caused due to Loss of dear ones

Causes-

1. Limited access to disaster management mechanism- Limited access to disaster

management mechanism is one of the primary causes of increased proportion of
disaster risks. Women lack access to resources. Lack awareness or lack preparedness
to manage disasters
2. Lack Of Identifying Women’s Potentialities Besides lack of identifying women’s
potentialities experiences and accumulate skills in times of natural disasters &
catastrophes also influences this disproportion.
 3. Women participation in disaster decision making process -Women participation in
disaster risk reduction decision making process is almost negligible. International
projects often call for effective gender sensitive disaster risk reduction strategy needs
to be evolved to include higher women participation in disaster management . An
effective gender sensitive disaster risk reduction strategy needs to highlight women’s
potential to prepare, face and recuperate from disasters more effectively.
International projects often call for effective gender sensitive disaster risk reduction
strategy needs to be evolved to include higher women participation in disaster
management . An effective gender sensitive disaster risk reduction strategy needs to
highlight women’s potential to prepare, face and recuperate from disasters more
effectively.

The projects evolved through of Inter National community -

The Inter National community has recognized the need to highlight gender equality measures
and gender empowerment to face the challenges of DRR. Sendai frame work was adopted by
the UN member states in 2015 This presupposed stronger role of women in building
resilience. Inter National policies often point to countries to evolve mechanisms to include
more gender sensitive disaster management policies.

Gender main streaming disaster risk reduction efforts -

1. Increasing women’s All the government and private agency

participation and sponsored women empowerment initiatives
promotion of better needs to be linked with evaluating vulnerability
recognition of their levels in emergency situations and primarily
specific needs and roles. disaster situations.
2. Designing in regional / Regional authorities can be given autonomy to
national policies and take decisions
strategies to reduce local
populations’
vulnerability
3. Capacity building for Exposing women towards technological
women advancements & helping them to get prior
information about disasters through mobiles.
4. Extending disaster through curriculum at primary education level or
management education though adult education forums . Media can be
used cleverly to cover gender issues and
challenges in disaster management
5. Creating general public through public private participation where street
 awareness plays, group meeting , self help groups meetings,
festive occasions,
6. Advocacy of disaster Women empowerment and gender equality
preparedness and needs to go hand in hand .
prevention
7. Efforts to focus on Through including expert knowledge sharing
encouraging more and by NGOs working in volcanoes, landslides ,
more gender balanced earth quakes , floods management etc
representation within
Inter National / regional
networks of experts

Women have poor awareness about disaster as the diagram below shows

1. Women fail to anticipate disasters

2. Women fail to cope up with disasters
3. Women fail to resist the impact of disasters
4. Women fail to recover after disasters

ti cip
n
A g ati
n
R e
v rin g
co o p
C g
in
si sti
e
R n g

1 Securing assistance from Women often lack knowledge about securing

emergency authorities assistance from emergency authorities
2 Meeting the immediate Women fail to meet immediate survival needs of
survival needs of the the family
 family
3 Attending to health needs Women fail to attend to health needs of the family
of the family members members
4 Managing temporary re- Women find it very difficult to managing issues
location of the family relating to temporary re- location of the family to
rehabilitation centres
5 Supporting the family Women fail to get support towards food needs of the
with food needs family specially elderly and children
6 Managing migration Women often fail to adjust to migration crisis to a
crisis to a provisional provisional location of the entire family or male
location counterparts

Inadequate access -It is often observed that training towards disaster preparedness and
resilience building among vulnerable sections of the community often lack complete access
to anticipating, coping, resisting, and recovering.

Poor representation in policy designing process- It is also observed that women as an

individual and as a group need to be represented on all these policy formulations reflecting
on the above mentioned four factors.

Poor awareness projects -Women need to be given awareness about disasters, they have to
be trained to enhance their capacities to resist disasters and their capacity building to resist
disasters and they have to be supported with recuperation measures to recover after disasters.

Women need supportive measures to climate science and policy making processes because
they need to become ensured that they have access to weather and climate information and
they play a vital role in climate mitigation and adaptation. Mainstreaming gender into
weather and climate services so that women across the globe can make appropriate decisions
linking food security ,livelihood shifts, shuffling life, disaster risk reduction, water resources
management, health care management and hygiene practices. Recommendations of the
various disaster management and disaster risk reduction policies have to be amalgamated to
become a single strong all inclusive mechanism to empower women with changing facets of
hydrology , meteorology, climate science, engineering technology, and weather science
technology.

Conclusion- International projects often call for effective gender sensitive disaster risk
reduction strategy to include higher women participation in disaster management . An
effective gender sensitive disaster risk reduction strategy needs to highlight women’s
potential to prepare, face and recuperate from disasters more effectively. Women need to be
given awareness about disasters, they have to be trained to enhance their capacities to resist
disasters and their capacity building to resist disasters and they have to be supported with
recuperation measures to recover after disasters. Gender inequality between men and women
in social , economic and political sphere have to be attended even before formulating any
policies of women empowerment.

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