Disasters caused by natural calamities are nothing new to the Indian populace. At any given point, one can find at least one havoc-wreaking force of nature at some part of the subcontinent. Although the list of types of disasters can be far and wide, one reigns supreme in sheer number, and the amount of destruction caused – floods. Their frequency contributes to 47% of all-natural disasters, and the damage left on both human dwellings and natural habitats is unparalleled (Padmanaban, 2021).

As is the case with most other disasters, natural or otherwise, women are forced to beat the often brutal and debilitating aftermath. Floods are no exception to this rule. Time and time again, women’s experiences worsening compared to that of men from the same categories during a flooding event has been well documented by researchers, NGOs, and the governments themselves. Little has changed over the course of the years. But, the literature from the recent floods of Kerala hums a slightly different tune from that of the other similar events across the country. This essay will take a brief look into the hardships women face during floods. Then the essay will do a comparative study on the issues women face during flooding, with the Kerala floods of 2018 as the main subject.

General Women's Issues During Disasters

As one of the most vulnerable categories of people, women face a multitude of problems during and after floods. Policies and practices on mitigating and meeting women’s issues post-disaster are still overlooked in India. The issues women have to endure after a flood is significantly higher than that of men from similar strata. It is not just during floods that women face these issues but after most disasters. Women from interior parts of the country are never in mind to the ones offering relief work, nor do they have enough information or knowledge to utilise them to their advantage due to high illiteracy and unfamiliarity with the bureaucratic process to obtain help. The double burden of caring for the family members and finding work outside, economic or otherwise, are forced on the shoulders of women. This becomes particularly hard when there are children or older people that need special care in their family. Further, they have to fend off relatives and other con artists from cheating them off their relief money provided by the government.

Lack of sanitation facilities and health centres within relief camps addressing problems faced by women add to their woes and significantly increase the chances of them getting ill. While widowers marry young girls available, widows are left on their own devices with little external help. Women have to face the end of the problems caused when their husbands rely on and sometimes waste relief money for the family on alcohol, as is often the case in many places after a disaster strike. The rise in alcoholism also is directly proportional to that of domestic violence as well. Still, very little attention is given to these specific issues either by the government and the authorities tasked with the responsibility to aid the people post-disaster or do the disaster management agencies or NGOs providing and documenting relief work.

Women headed households face the issues mentioned above in a much more significant fashion than their counterparts. Young girls and women have to take care of their younger siblings and are often forced to drop out of school to help with housework or to find labour opportunities to support the family. The sudden financial and child care responsibility they are expected to shoulder without any external help is a significant burden on them. Sexual exploitation, forced labour and trafficking are big woes for women, particularly young women, in relief camps. The stress and anxiety-induced on women during these difficult times are not taken into account during relief work or ever after.

The lack of insight into women’s issues post-disaster put a large gap between the policies made for disaster-stricken women and the issues they face on the ground every day. Which detrimentally affect their lives at best or put their lives in grave danger at worst.

Kerala Floods and its Effects on Women

In the midst of 2018, right after a considerable strain put on the populace by the Nipah outbreak, came the worst flooding event of Kerala history in almost a century. The effect was swift and inflicted massive damage to the people, ecosystem and infrastructure around the state, but central Kerala bore the brunt of it. The state government and numerous other collectives and individuals joined hands in immediate relief work, including setting up camps for the survivors who needed shelter, to rescue operations and material collection and distribution to the affected areas.

In a study on the effect of the flood had on women from the central Kerala districts of Kottayam and Alleppey, the researchers uncovered many issues women faced during the crisis, which were of lesser variations slightly different from those reported from the section above – ultimately, compared to other states, the issues were less severe in Kerala even though the flood itself was devastating.

Women's Issues During the Flood

The following are the issues and hardships women from Kerala who experienced the flood first-hand had to report. Many who depend on medicinal help for their immediate health, like high blood pressure and diabetes, could not source the required medicines. Further, due to the conservative societal norms when it comes to menstrual hygiene, women found it difficult to ask for them from the relief workers. Excessive bleeding due to stress among women nearing menopause and many women reporting urinary infections were also widespread. Disposal of sanitary pads was another major problem for most women in the thick of the crisis while juggling many other issues at the same time. Anxiety and depression among disabled women due to them relying on others skyrocketed during the same period. Nutrition for pregnant women was not fulfilled in the camps, nor were mothers given any privacy to breastfeed their children, which added much worry and anxiety (Jose & Kunjappan, 2020).

Cultural norms of keeping valuables under one’s bed had a devastating effect, particularly on women, since, unlike men, the little economically valuables that are often not safely deposited and kept close to them were all washed away in the torrent. Due to the lack of availability of resources in all localities, most people were forced to move to and rely on relief camps for their portion of the government-issued ration. Freedom of movement for women was much restricted due to fears of safety than it was for men – who were able to move freely as they pleased. Since men in Kerala are notorious for their alcohol consumption, fear of drunk men bothering women added to their woes.

Studies found that trafficking, forced labour or sexual exploitation did not take place during or after the floods in Kerala due to women being more informed about matters such as these beforehand and are able to act more independently than their counterparts in other places in India. Further, school dropout rates for girl children remained virtually zero, and support for students, academic or stationary, were supplied regardless of gender. Unfortunately, the study also reported that the relief workers were not properly coordinated since disaster management was never given as much priority compared to other sections and that no Dignity kits were designed or distributed to women – which is a major oversight (Jose & Kunjappan, 2020).

Returning back to their damaged houses, and particularly the kitchens where the women spend most of their time working, were in bad shape. They are forced to make do with such conditions while receiving little to no help from their male partners or family members to make matters even worse (Kerala Floods, 2019). Due to lack of resources nearby, the workload of women has risen up more than a factor of two than pre-flood times. They were left with no choice other than to shoulder these new responsibilities on top of worsening mental and physical health.

Post-Flood Women's Participation

Local women’s poverty eradication initiatives like Kudumbasree were part of the cleaning up drives and let out loans for women entrepreneurs affected during the flood. Further, women with disabilities who were deeply affected by the floods were included in the programs to economically resuscitate their livelihoods. Although most of the members come from impoverished backgrounds, they chipped in more than five crores to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund. Kudumbasree and ASHA workers were essential in mobilising workers and volunteers from one part of the state to the places which needed more assistance with cleaning drives and organising health camps, respectively (Anandan, 2018). 

Conclusion

It is of much interest as to how the issues, particularly women’s issues, in the 2018 Kerala relief camps and elsewhere differed from that of issues collected from studies and literature from states like Uttarakhand, Bihar and, Orissa. A notable reason behind this could be the large difference between the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). Kerala ranks at the top of the index while the aforementioned states lag behind (Padmanaban, 2021). There were many issues plaguing the relief operation executed in Kerala, but in comparison to those taking place elsewhere in the country, the severity of the issues women faced was slightly lower. While the high literacy rate is not the only reason which brings down the issues, it certainly helps to spread knowledge and information regarding immediate survival and long-term wellbeing.

That said, there exist many problems women faced during the flood in Kerala. Issues plaguing all over India, like the irresponsibility of men during the crisis, the double burden women have to face during and immediately after the flood, is a major issue still. There are several shortcomings in the way relief work was organised – which left out many women’s concerns in the dust. Disaster management needs to take a more robust look and account of women’s participation during a crisis, as collectives such as Kudumbasree and ASHA workers were indispensable to the relief efforts.