Women in 2018 Kerala Floods: A Sociological Narrative
Every disaster makes women weaker than what they earlier were. They are primary home makers and are shattered when they find their home destroyed or washed away. The present study is a sociological narrative on how women and girls cope with floods and how
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roduction Every disaster has a story, a story of misfortune, misery, suffering, loss and lessons which are learnt through encounters with the impact of disasters on life, property and loved ones. Disasters always impact the poor and the vulnerable more than the privileged rich. The Nepal Earthquake of 2015 affected 8 million people, almost a third of its population. Cyclone Pam affected more than half the population of Vanuatu, Ebola outbreak in Western Africa killed more than 11,000 people. In all these disasters it is well substantiated how the poor and the vulnerable have borne the price (Nayagan 2018). India too has had her share of disasters on account of its unique geoclimatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been a recurrent phenomenon. About 60% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities, 40 million hectares is prone to floods,
N. Jose (*) Social Enabler, Kottayam, India S. Kunjappan Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India © The Author(s) 2020 A. Singh et al. (eds.), Development in Coastal Zones and Disaster Management, Disaster Research and Management Series on the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4294-7_13
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approximately 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 68% of the area is susceptible to drought (Ministry of Home Affairs 2004). About 5700 kilometres of India’s coastline is exposed to cyclones of severe intensity and magnitude. Kerala shares 10.18% of this sea coast which stretches north-south along a coastline of 580 km with a varying width of 35 to 120 km (Kerala 2018). Kerala has suffered three major disasters in the past, the Great Floods of 1924, Tsunami in 2013 and Ockhi in 2018. The recent Kerala Flood in August 2018 is yet another disaster that has affected the State badly. The present study was undertaken with the following objectives: • To critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of women—during and after the flood. • To identify the issues faced specifically by women in all three stages: Rescue, Relief and Recovery stages during and after the flood. • To understand the concept of freedom and capability in the context of women, specifically during the 2018 floods. • To propose policy perspectives for making women resilient towards disasters. Disasters that have struck any country or state have tremendously affected human lives, be it women, men and children, experiencing their impacts differently. Every disaster affects women quite adversely and their already crumbling developmental indicators sink further to create a developmental trap. The Gender Inequality Index (GII) issued by UNDP every year since 2010 has placed India in the position of 125 in a list of 159 nations (Jahan 2016; Human Development Report 2016). The GII captures three core areas of gender inequality, (1) reproductive health, (2) empowerment (based on parliamentary seats occupied by women and (3) economic status expressed as labour market participation. India however has scored a higher i
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