Owing to its geographical location, Bangladesh sits among the nations most susceptible to natural calamities. She is frequently visited by floods, cyclones, heavy rainfall, drought, etc, across her varying landscapes each year resulting in loss of lives and resources. In general, women, children, the elderly, and specially-abled are the most vulnerable groups. Notwithstanding that, the gendered dimension is often neglected in disaster management programs which demand some gender-specific action plans for inclusive and effective disaster management.
Men and women experience natural disasters equally, but suffer a varying nature and degree of consequences. The differences are attributed to the physiology of men and women as well as the socio-economic structure they live in.
A report by Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum revealed at least 340 deaths due to lightning in Bangladesh from April 2022 to May 2023. Among the dead, 239 are men which amounts to 70% of the deaths by lightning. Such a high percentage is attributed to men being outside to earn livelihoods such as agricultural fields, fishing, etc.
Men usually receive hazard warning signals from their peers in the workplace and bazaars. In several events, men received cyclone warning signals at the eleventh hour when they did not have time to evacuate their families. As a result, more men evacuated themselves while many women died in their houses without even having the time for evacuation.
Eric Neumayer, professor of Environment and Development, and Thomas Plumpert, professor of Quantitative Social Research, pointed out in a study three main reasons why mortality and vulnerability differ between the genders:
- To start, quick response and action are of the essence in disaster management which women lack substantially. Men are physically better equipped to run in the event of sudden onset of hazard whereas women are on average slower in mobility due to their biological structure as well as traditional clothes which are deterrents for fast mobility. Hazards hit pregnant and lactating mothers more severely as they are burdened with the gift of an additional life.
- Furthermore, the two genders have various propensity to die from diseases. Men are more prone to die from infectious and parasitic diseases. Empirically it is evident that more men die during and immediately after a disaster compared to women.
An intriguing exception is the event of drought and famine which are manifested by acute shortage of food. Research finds that in such situations, women can better cope with food crises due to their lower nutritional requirements and higher body fat. Then again, in some famines, the number of female children who died is recorded higher than the male counterpart. The study suggests this is the outcome of uneven distribution of food among children with biased attitudes against daughters. During a crisis, households often find themselves making the hardest choice of whom to let live with a scarce food supply. - And finally, government funds for disaster events get squeezed into very basic human needs such as food, medicine, and shelter. Women’s obstetrics hygiene and sanitary needs are often overlooked which results in an increase of miscarriages and child mortalities.
Many more similar studies conform to such findings. Policy frameworks for the national disaster management of Bangladesh hardly recognize and address the gendered dimensions. Keeping the existing disaster management programs as they are, some remedial measures to address and augment the adverse impacts of both gender dimensions should be taken.
For instance, disaster risk reduction (DRR) training for women is a must. In the event of hazards, due to a lack of leadership skills and DRR knowledge, women heavily rely on men for decisions to get evacuated and move to shelter. A training program would ameliorate women’s awareness and participation in DRR and help build a resilient community.
According to Cyclone Shelter Construction, Maintenance and Management Policy 2011, shelter centres to be built three-storied must have ramps for up to first. But a ramp facility all the way up to the third floor needs to be established because the responsibility of wheeling and carrying babies, elderly, and specially-abled persons falls on the women of a typical household in Bangladesh.
Homesickness causes a higher threshold for women to go to and stay at shelters despite the imminent dangers of disaster and ultimately succumb to the disaster. Rural women hesitate to be around other people, that too in crowded places. On top of that, most shelters do not offer privacy for pregnant, lactating mothers.
Even a sound and healthy woman needs privacy during their stay. Partitions made of plywood, and curtains inside shelter centres to segregate evacuees “Bari-wise” [by neighbourhood], if not family-wise would abate women’s reluctance and fear of the unknown about staying at shelters.
In our society, the responsibility of being a provider lies solely on men. Men struggle to maintain their incomes as disasters shrink economic opportunities. Some suffer from depression and succumb to substance abuse, leading to increased domestic violence. Many men migrate to urban settlements in search of earning opportunities. The disaster-induced migration causes anxiety and depression for their female partners as well as other family members.
Once the disaster subsides, for the affected people to cope with economic constraints, it is a must to provide their hard cash in the form of microloans or relief grants by the government. A moderate purchasing power would give the men to tide over the crisis period until they find a suitable livelihood without having to become frustrated by the societal pressure of becoming the breadwinner in the family.
Gendered dimensions of disasters are a somewhat less explored issue in Bangladesh. Instead of implementing fit-for-all policies, a more appropriate and effective program would be addressing gender-specific issues. Gender perspectives must be incorporated into national policy and regulatory frameworks for inclusive, effective, and sustainable disaster risk management.
Sadia Afrin is a professional architect graduated from BUET, pursuing master’s in Disaster Risk Reduction MSc (DRR) from BUET-Japan Institute of Disaster Prevention and Urban Safety (JIDPUS). Zulkernain Khandaker is pursuing master’s in Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) at Department of URP, BUET.
