Women And Disasters In South Asia

South Asia is one of the most vulnerable areas of an increasingly disaster-impacted world, with cyclones, earthquakes, floods and droughts causing several casualties and disrupting lives and livelihoods every year. Yet the impacts of disasters are not equally distributed across the peoples of the region.Women and men experience disaster differently, and their needs in the aftermath of disaster often differ. Bringing together perspectives from academics, emergency response specialists and development practitioners, the volume investigates to what extent and in what ways gender affects the course of post-disaster reconstruction. Conversely, it also explores in what ways gender politics may be altered by disaster and post-disaster reconstruction. The study includes: a comprehensive overview of key issues facing women and men, as gendered beings, in reconstruction and development; a targeted observation of specific South Asian disaster contexts; and a sustained discussion of case studies and their implications and lessons. This book will interest scholars and researchers of disaster management, rehabilitation studies, gender, environment, ecology and sociology. It will also be useful to institutions dealing with natural and man-made disasters, non-governmental organisations and disaster recovery professionals.

Collection of papers presented at a workshop in Pakistan during 1996.

South Asia is one of the most vulnerable areas of an increasingly disaster-impacted world, with cyclones, earthquakes, floods and droughts causing several casualties and disrupting lives and livelihoods every year. Yet, the impacts of disasters are not equally distributed across the peoples of the region. Women and men experience disaster differently, and their needs in the aftermath of disaster often differ. Bringing together perspectives from academics, emergency responses and development practitioners, the volume investigates to what extent and in what ways gender affects the course of post-disaster reconstruction. Conversely, it also explores in what ways gender politics may be altered by disaster and post-disaster reconstruction. The study includes: a comprehensive overview of key issues facing women and men, as gendered beings, in reconstruction and development; a targeted observation of specific South Asian disaster contexts; and a sustained discussion of case studies and their implications and lessons . This book will interest scholars and researchers of disaster management, rehabilitation studies, gender, environment, ecology, and sociology.

This book aims to address the dearth of specific information on the subject of 'gender issues in disaster', particularly in the South Asian countries. Targeted at policy makers and development practitioners in South Asia, it argues that the risk posed by natural hazards is a variable, which has direct implications on development in general, and livelihoods in particular. The specific vulnerabilities and capacities of men and women, and the gender/social dynamics of disaster situations are often not obviously visible, but it is vital that they be taken into consideration for if ignored they can impede development efforts.

South Asia represents a region highly prone to natural disasters. Disasters not only disrupt the normal life of the affected communities and the countries but also impede developmental efforts. By and large, the approach of the major stakeholders has been 'reactive' rather than 'proactive'. There is indeed, a dire need for concerted and well-planned efforts to achieve risk reduction through risk identification, and sharing and transfer of information. This edited volume explores how the risk of disasters can be reduced by structural and non-structural measures with detailed, comprehensive and participatory strategies. Twenty-seven contributors, both academicians and practitioners, investigate the challenges that the region faces and how changes can be effected at the community, society, government and non-government levels to foster a culture of preparedness. The overall focus is on risk reduction through prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Some case studies from different settings dealing with various disasters have also been included. Since disaster risk reduction is an area of great concern and there is absolute dearth of literature addressing this issue with regard to South Asia, this volume will be of immense utility and interest to government departments, NGOs, insurance companies, universities, training institutions, professional associates, media, general public, and students pursuing courses in disaster management.

Writing Disaster in South Asian Literature and Culture: The Limits of Empathy and Cosmopolitan Imagination looks at the myriad ways in which disaster events (both man-made and natural) are perceived and represented in South Asian literature and culture. This book explores the affective mechanisms of empathy and imaginary identification which are conditioned and reiterated by biopolitical statist regimes of power to preempt and coopt any radical agential or cognitive intervention which might be evinced by the event of the disaster. The contributors also examine South Asian disasters vis-a-vis the registers of ecological crises, migration events, civil and liberation wars, and pandemics to understand the multifarious ways in which such ‘disasters’ are used as tropes to peddle certain structures of interpellation in the collective consciousness.

Each year more than 130 million people are affected by natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, droughts and cyclones. This book explores these issues from a South Asian standpoint, presented in the form of case studies and essays by experts from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.