Chennai
Mihir Bhatt, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, who is helping state governments implement the National Disaster Management Plan said, “We need to focus on women-centric disaster management plan. We need to see how women’s leadership is negotiated at the district level. We need to talk about how the money hardly reaches the women after a disaster.
And, we also need to see how to build resilience. During tsunami, we have see the work done by women. So, women should be included in disaster management plan.” Disaster, according to some experts, was a way to empower vulnerable groups. Prema Gopalan, Founder of Swayam Shikshan Prayog, has worked with women farmers in drought-hit Maharashtra.
“Crisis is an opportunity to educate people. During the drought, we have worked with 7,000 women farmers, with less than 5 acres of land, and advised them to grow millets and pulses which don’t require as much water. It helped put food on the table,” she explained.
However, certain communities are more vulnerable during a disaster, said Chaman Pincha, gender and disaster expert. “During the Indian Ocean tsunami, the transgender community didn’t get much help. Even the temporary shelter constructed for woman didn’t take into account space for their livelihood activities — which rendered them without a means of living until they were rehabilitated.
In addition, the alcoholism wrecked havoc during tsunami. The monetary relief was spent by men on alcohol. It impacted the family. We need to address these structural issues,” she said. During the panel discussion, the role of men in the process of gender equality was discussed.
Dr Swarna Rajagopalan, founder of Prajnya Trust, said, “During the Chennai floods, men were doing the rescue while women were organising relief. There is a stereotype in play here — women too should be equipped with life-saving skills,” she said.
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