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Challenges and Exper
S S
 

inding to
SOSUGS
iences from South Asia
arala Emmanual itralega Maunaguru
Women's Development Center

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Women Responding to Disasters Challenges and Experiences from South Asia

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Women Responding to Disasters
Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Edited by Sarala Emmanual Sitralega Maunaguru
Suriya Womens Development Center

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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia Collection of papers submitted at the South Asian Conferance on Gender Concerns in Post Tsunami Reconstruction -Planning Common Strategies and Sharing Resources
Batticaloa, July 2005
This Publication was funded by UNDP, Colombo.
Published by Suriya:Women Development Center
20, Dias Lane, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
(C) Suriya Women Development Center, 2007
Printed by Kumaran Press Private Limited
Tel +94 11 242 1388 Email kumbhasltnet.lk
Cover Design: Dream Station. 07730) 3046
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Contents
//7772//zf77277 ........................................................................................................................................................ vii
A Rights Based Approach to the Post-Tsunami Context: Calling for Accountability Sunila Abeysekera. I
2 Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction:
A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka Rita Manchanda. I 0
3 Gender Concerns in Post-Tsunami Reconstruction
- A brief Note
Ruth Manorama ................................................ . . . . . . . .24
4 Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunami Rehabilitation Work in Tamil Nadu
L. Sivagani ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5 Household Survey of Those Affected by the Tsunami
Some Preliminary Findings from Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka -- May 2005 Sarala Emmanua!................ 42

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10
2
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts in the Maldives Shaliny Jaufar and Zindu Salih.................................... 49
Women's Activism in the Post-Tsunami context Sumika Perera ............................................................. 68
Collective Activism of Women During the Post
Tsunami Context
Sitralega Maunaguru. 71
The Participation of Women in Post-Tsunami Aceh
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Siti Maisarabi. 80
Man Created Disaster with State Support and
Connivance in Gujarat: Gujarat Carnage 2002 and Now
Sheba George .............................................................. 83
Gender Issues in Disaster Preparedness: A Case from Sri Lanka Thanushi Semanayaka ................................................. 96
The Need for Strong Local / Regional Policies and Support/Guidance Mechanisms for Disaster Preparedness Abedatul Fatema ....................................................... 109
Recommendations.................................................. 116
Contributors .......................................................... 125

introduction
Building Feminist Regional Networks to Respond to the Post-Tsunami Realities in South Asia
The tsunami in the Indian Ocean on the 26 December 2004 that affected countries and communities had been considered as one of the worst disaster in the history of the humankind. It had tremendous effect on Indonesia, Andeman Islands, South eastern coast of India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and the East coast of Africa.
The impact of the tsunami on communities, family structures and social relations has been enormous. Men, women and children have lost family, their houses, property, land, kin networks, Community support structures and livelihood options. The impact of the tsunami was mediated by socio-cultural practices that existed in the affected areas. As common to all disasters the impact of the tsunami also has been gendered. In most regions among the dead more than 60 percent are women. For instance, in Ampara District in Sri Lanka, the deaths of women were as twice that of men which clearly indicate the gendered impact of the tsunami.
The post-tsunami reconstruction work has had gendered dimensions, where government policies have been discriminatory
νίί

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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
towards women - for example, women's livelihoods have not been seriously considered in post-tsunami planning. There are gendered experiences of displacement and one of the important issues that has surfaced repeatedly is the increase in violence against Women within families and communities. By analyzing social realities using a gender-based and rights-based perspective, we can bring into clear focus the impacts of disasters on women's lives.
Among the countries that were struck by tsunami, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have been affected by political violence, war and militarization as consequences of long term ethnic conflict. The impacts of war and displacement in people's lives have not been addressed fully in Sri Lanka. The impacts of the tsunami, and the rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the natural disaster, have also been shaped by the history and present dynamics of the long-standing armed conflict in Sri Lanka.
This situation can affect the tsunami reconstruction process in various ways. Hence the history and the present dynamics of the longstanding ethnic conflict have been shaping the rebuilding efforts. Therefore a clear understanding and sensitivity of the Conflict and its dynamics on people's lives are needed for the policy formulation and implementation
Though many such impacts are contextually specific, there are also commonalities that can be identified within a larger South Asian perspective. Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and the Maldives show commonalities in terms of culture, livelihoods, social structure, women's activism, and the role of the states and other actors. There has also been a long history of networking amongst women's groups in the region. It is timely that we analyze our experiences of disasters from a South Asian perspective, and share Strategies for lobbying and working towards women's rights.
Having the above in mind Suriya Women's Development Center organized a conference titled "South Asian Conference on Gender Concerns in Post-tsunami Reconstruction - Planning
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Common Strategies and Sharing Resources with the a generous support from the UNDP. The objectives of the conference were twofold.
i) To share and create strategies and mechanisms for lobbying
within the participant's work contexts.
ii) To provide a platform for future collaboration and exchange on gendered concerns in disaster situations within
the South Asian region.
The participants of this conference came from a diverse background. Local women's organizations, women activists from the Countries I ndia, Indonesia, Bangailadesh, Maldives, international development agencies, UN agencies, government officials, women representatives of the displaced and academics
were participated at this conference.
The conference was held on the 15" and 16" of July2005. There were papers presented at this conference and group discussions were held. There were recommendations which came out of the group discussions during the conference.
Thus the Suriya Women's Development Center proposed to publish the papers and the out come documents of the discussions held. The UNDP willingly provided its generous support towards this publication.
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude for those who contributed for the success of the conference. Our Special gratitude goes to the writers of the papers included in this volume.
Sarala Emmanual Sitralega Maunaguru Suriya Women's Development Center Batticaloa

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A Rights Based Approach to the Post-tsunami Context: Calling for
Accountability Sunilla Abeysekera
We are here today, in Batticaloa in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, in a place where many lives were lost and many more lives completely shattered by the tsunami of December 26, 2004. In our gathering together, as women and men whose lives have been affected by the sunami in one way or the other, we reach out to all those communities that have been affected by the tsunami in Sri Lanka, in Southern India, in Aceh, Indonesia, in Thailand and countless other places. We mourn the losses that all of us have suffered; we remember those who lost their lives during the tsunami and we share our commitment to respond creatively to the post-tsunami situation by challenging ourselves and others who work with us, to use this opportunity to move beyond the circles of discrimination and violence that shape the many different worlds inhabited by women.
I want to fame my comments here today from within a perspective of human rights, entitlements, and protection that should and could provide the basis for just and fair processes of reconstruction and rehabilitation in the post-tsunami era.
While my observations are very specifically based on our experiences in Sri Lanka, I hope that they pave the way for a constructive dialogue between us regarding the overall impact of such a disaster on communities and on women. Whether it is man-made or natural, disasters generate processes of social dislocation and fragmentation that bring more serious Consequences to disadvantaged Communities such

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Women Responding to Iisasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
as the poor, the landless and women. In the Sri Lankan case, as in Aceh, the tsunami devastated parts of our Countries were those that had already been ravaged by years of armed conflict and internal tensions. What history shows us is that these processes of dislocation and fragmentation can also contain within them the seeds of social transformation. If the process of post-disaster reconstruction is handled with sensitivity to the social, cultural and economic implications of resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation, affected communities can come out of the experiences of trauma and tragedy with dignity and strength, and with the economic and social capabilities to build better lives for themselves. How can we, as women activists working in a post-tsunami context, work within and outside structures to achieve his positive outcome in a post-disaster situation? This remains the challenge that we face together today.
All of us who are gathered here today have lived through the tsunami. Some of us encountered it face to face, while others encountered only the horror of its aftermath. We know very well the extent of the destruction, so I will not repeat it here. The tremendous loss of life and destruction of property throughout the coastal areas of the affected countries as well as the tremendous outpouring of sympathy and Solidarity from within and outside our countries has been our shared experience during these past six or seven months.
Over the past six months, many of us have tried to understand and analyse the very specific ways in which women were affected by the tsunami. Our experiences differ according to our own situations, and yet there are some shared experiences based on our sex and gender, identities.
Through sharing our experiences of the specific situation in Sri Lanka, we hope that we may be able to begin a process of discerning the common threads in our shared experiences that will enable us to develop a Collective response that can not only support the women we work with in the post-tsunami context but also help shape the response of those who try to work with women in any post-disaster situation in the future.
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A Rights Based Approach to the Post-tsunami Context: Caling for Accountability
The post-tsunami experience showed us the ways in which the traditional attitudes towards women rendered them most vulnerable to the disaster. Sanctions of shame and Subordination as well as their roles of care-takers of the family stood in the way of their escape from the waves. Women perished in the waves because they stayed behind to bring young children and the ciderly along and because they could not bring themselves to escape from the waves unclothed. In the camps and welfare centers, women found themselves forced to put aside their own needs and grieving in order to continue to take care of children, the sick and the elderly. The dependence of men on women has been reaffirmed by the many problems confronted by men who were left behind to take on responsibility for families in situations where women
had perished.
In Sri Lanka, in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, we confronted two major areas in which the specific situation of women needed to be focused on. On the one hand, we had to focus on ensuring that the delivery and provision of relief and emergency responses were more sensitive to the specific needs of women. The concerns ranged from relatively simple matters such as including women's underwear and sanitary napkins in relief packages to ensuring the provision of some secluded spaces for women in the relief centers and temporary shelters where they sought refuge in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. Not only did women need some secure space where they could change clothes, they also needed a secluded space in which they could mourn in privacy, in keeping with cultural and religious norms.
We also had to create awareness on the need to provide protection for women from violence. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami outrageous as it may seem, we had to draw public attention as well as the attention of relevant officials to some cases of rape and sexual abuse in the process of rescue from the tsunami. In the same manner, we had to deal with issues of domestic violence within the camps and temporary shelters, as well as of situations of abandonment of wives
and children.
On the other hand, we had to begin a process of documenting and analysing the process of allocation and distribution of relief and
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
resettlement grants and other benefits from the perspective of the inclusion, and non-inclusion of women. Focusing on the criteria for eligibility of grants and benefits to ensure that men and women were treated equally; ensuring that widows, single women, female heads of household were considered as special and specific categories when it came to allocation of benefits; and calling for special attention to Cultural and social factors that would affect women on the basis of their religion or ethnicity, we had to manoeuvre within the system and outside it to guarantee women equal treatment and opportunities in the process of post-tsunami reconstruction and resettlement.
While the post-tsunami process in Sri Lanka has been fraught with many political complexities in a way that is somewhat different from the situation that prevails in other tsunami-affected Countries, we remain united in our search for an over-arching framework within which equal rights and opportunities could be guaranteed to all tsunami-affected persons and communities in a way that enables them to return to their lives and livelihoods with dignity and justice. Ensuring respect for principles of non-discrimination and ensuring that social groups and sectors that experienced discrimination, exploitation and oppression in the pre-tsunami context do not return to situations in which these divisions are further enhanced must remain our guiding framework in
this process.
It is in this context that referencing our work to existing human rights norms and standards and in particular to the human rights obligations of our state becomes crucial.
The government of Sri Lanka is signatory to all seven of the main human rights treaties agreed upon by the United Nations. Through its expression of commitment to abide by the norms and standards set out in these treaties, the government becomes obliged to act in a manner that enables its citizens to enjoy the rights as set out in the treaties,
The obligation of states is to protect these rights, through the creation of legal and policy frameworks that guarantee them, as well as through the establishment of mechanisms that can receive complaints of violations, investigate them and prosecute those found responsible
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Á Rights Based Approach to the Post-fsunam í Context: Calling for Accountability
for violations. The state also has an obligation to promote enjoyment of these rights through the creation of a social, economic, political and cultural environment that is conducive to such enjoyment.
The seven international human rights treaties I referred to above Contain sets of guarantees that sometimes overlap, and focus on civil and political rights', on economic, social and cultural rights, on the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of race and sex, on the rights to be free from torture, on the rights of the child and on the rights of migrant workers’. The guiding principle in all these treaties is that of non-discrimination. The fact that the various Covenants and Conventions have evolved over the years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations in 1948 demonstrates that as human society becomes more aware of the Conceptual and experiential complexities of human rights, it continues to expand its own understanding and definition of rights through the continuing and sustained development of newer and more inclusive Standards and norms. As more and more Communities emerge with claims for dignity, respect and non-discriminatory practices, the international community must confront each of these demands and create a framework within which the human rights of each community is guaranteed in a way that does not impinge on the rights of other Communities. In recent years, debates and discussions on the rights of indigenous people, of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, of people living with HIV/AIDS have brought the tensions between claims and counter-claims into the public arena. However, the commitment
of the world to ALL human rights for ALL as reaffirmed during the
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) * The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(ICERD) * The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) * The UN Convention against Torture (CAT) * The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
The UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW)

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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
50' anniversary celebrations of the UDHR remains consistent through this process.
Parallel to these debates and discussions Many international
non governmental organizations and local non governmental organizations talk about a rights based approach, but they lack some of the basic principal. For example, the Right to Consultation - communities have the
on human rights norms and standards, we have also seen the development of standards and guidelines for humanitarian relief and assistance, which are especially relevant to us in the context of disaster response and management. The evolution of international humanitarian law, which sets out standards for the actions of both state and non-state actors in conflict situations and the creation of institutions right to be consulted and such as the UN High Commissioner for have access to Refugees (UNHCR) and the information but ofien International Committee of the Red Cross this did not happen." (ICRC) to provide reliefand assistance to communities affected by conflict and internal turmoil have been invaluable to communities caught up in conflict and disaster situations. Over the years we have observed the development of specific policies and guidelines for the treatment of people during conflicts and disasters, such as the UNHCR Guidelines for the Protection of Refugee Women and Children and the UN Guiding Principles for the Treatment of Internally Displaced Persons. In addition, we have seen international development and aid agencies also taking on what we now refer to as a Rights-Based Approach (RBA) to development and disaster-management.
In the post-tsunami context, six months after the tsunami, we confront the many discrepancies and dissonances between the commitments of accountability and obligation placed on the state and on development and aid agencies and the ground reality of continuing discrimination and insensitivity to specific needs and concerns of women and of other marginalized social groups and sectors.

A Rights Based Approach to the Post-tsunami Context: Calling for Accountability
Among the key issues we confront in the Sri Lankan case are the lack of processes of consultation and participation in decision-making by affected communities; lack of processes of transparency that allow for a free flow of accurate information regarding the availability of aid and assistance; lack of awareness on the part of
decision-makers as well as of affected
of foo and
different
communities regarding binding
obligations to act in a nondiscriminatory manner. Thus, we are compelled to bring to the surface the absence and lack of linkages between the rights established in principle and in law and the reality on the ground in which communities and individuals affected by the tsunami are confronting denial and violation of their rights in the post-tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation process.
Women's groups in Sri Lanka responded to the tsunami through a series of processes in which they became involved in the distribution of relief and assistance paying special attention to the needs of women, and in which they initiated processes of empowering women in tsunami-affected communities to organize themselves in order to better document and monitor the situation on the ground, with a special focus on emerging risks and dangers for women. The formation of the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami-Affected Women, (CATAW) was one initiative that drew together a range of women's groups and alliances with the aim of coordinating relief and assistance activities while also creating a strong network for lobbying and advocacy at the national and international level. In Batticaloa, the creation of the Women's Coalition for Disaster Management has provided a space for districtbased civil society groups to link with state and NGO institutions

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working in post-tsunami relief and reconstruction to focus on womenspecific and gender-specific needs in the processes of resettlement and rehabilitation.
Building consensus across groups working on post-tsunami reconstruction to prioritize women's concerns remains a major challenge for women's groups at this moment.
Arguably, supporting women's claims for equal rights in land and housing grants and in livelihood assistance forms the core of our work. However, in each district and in each community, there are a range of Concerns and considerations based on ethnicity, religion, Culture and radition that need to be taken into account when articulating our demands for equal rights for women. In addition, a crucial issue in the north and east in particular remains the balancing of resettlement priorities between those who were displaced due to the conflict and have been waiting for many years for permanent resettlement and those who have been most recently displaced by the tsunami. Moving ahead with the permanent resettlement in ways that do not exacerbate existing Social tensions based on class, caste, ethnicity and religion or create new arenas of conflict and tension constitutes a major challenge in this
COItCXt.
What are some of the other challenges we face?
Attempts by the state to impose a ban on building on the beaches has led to a number of clashes and conflicts, especially in areas in which the big tourist industry has traditionally sought to claim land occupied by encroachers and squatters. In some tsunami-affected areas, for example in parts of Galle and Amparai Districts, severe land shortages are leading to many diverse tensions around land identification and allocation for permanent resettlement. Privileging legal owners over those who had rented, squatted on or otherwise occupied land and property over years is a flashpoint for potential tension. In Amparai District, tensions over ownership are further complicated by the fact that land that had been abandoned due to the conflict has been occupied by members of other ethnic and religious communities.

A Rights Based Approach to the Post-tsunami Context: Calling for Accountability
Issues of livelihood are integrally tied to issues of permanent resettlement and generate their own tensions. The relocation of fishing communities and other communities whose lives and livelihoods are tightly tied to their living on or close to the beach poses a major problem in most areas affected by the tsunami. In addition, considering environmental concerns as well as concerns relating to sustainable development, designing settlement and houses with systems of energy use and sewage and garbage disposal that are environmentally friendly and sustainable are all factors that call for attention.
In all these processes, as women's groups and civil society groups working for post-tsunami reconstruction which gives priority and precedence to human rights, justice and dignity, we confront the reality that the majority of those affected by the tsunami are the poor, the landless, those who are marginalized because of their class, caste or minority status. Within each of these communities, it is uomen who continue to play the traditional roles of care-giving and of shouldering family/domestic responsibilities while also facing the risks of violence, social sanction and silencing,
Supporting these women to defend their rights, to challenge the patriarchal norms and structures that prevail within their own families and communities as well as within the state and NGO institutions that are supposed to provide relief and assistance calls for a constant, consistent and cautious negotiation and re-negotiation of the many borders and boundaries that define and determine women's lives.
"There are many structures to protect our rights. We cannot sit back and wait for others. Nobody will ever give you rights if you sit back and wait. You have to speak out for your rights. It is only in this way you can get what you want. You should demand for your rights."

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3.
Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative
Analysis of India and Sri Lanka Rita Manchanda
Democratizing and Gendering Post Tsunami Policies
From the tsunami album of award winning photographs stares a woman, collapsed on a beach in Tamil Nadu, her arms outstretched, inconsolable in her grief. On the sea shore that fateful morning as she and her 'sister waited for the fish catch, the tsunami struck. She survived, her dearest friend was lost. It transfixes the image of women (and children) as the most vulnerable victims claimed by the tsunami where in some villages the sex ratio was 1:4 women dead or as in Batticaloa - 60% of the dead were women. The photo image positions the tsunami affected communities, and especially the women as passive beneficiaries entrapping them in a dependency syndrome. Above all, it contributes to the widespread exclusion of women from participating in the multiple tiers of decision-making not only by patriarchal local communities but by collusive states and even international agencies and NGOs involved in tsunami relief and recovery programmes.
In this paper I wish to pick out some broad patterns of similarity and contrast in post tsunami state responses and focus particularly on the problems and risks involved in even well intentioned but ill informed state interventions in the context of women's livelihood needs. The paucity of baseline data on women in fisheries, predicates
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Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
distortions in state, multilateral and NGO planning for livelihoods post tsunami recovery.
The recent outcrop of reports on the post tsunami processes indicates that at best, peoples' participation is nominal and not surprisingly, women's participation as citizens is even more marginal in the planning and implementation of programmes of relief and reconstruction by state and non state agencies. For example, where would the Indian and Sri Lankan state figure in an index of democratization of Participation, Accountability and Transparency in post tsunami reconstruction? What are the implications for the coastal fisherfolk and the economically interdependent community of second line villages, of multi-lateral impact assessments, that in India promote port-based fishing in place of beach fishing? In particular, how will it impact on women who are part of the post harvest productivity chain of beach fishing?
Where in the post tsunami efforts at rebuilding communities and social networks has there been any recognition of the differential impact of the tsunami on women and men? Has there ever been an effort to mainstream gender at the impact and needs assessment levels during the planning, programme design and implementation stages?
Overall, where has there been a consultative process on the creation of buffer zones or enforcement of the coastal regulatory Zone? There are reports of coastal people in Tamil Nadu anxious and uncertain about the rights they may have signed away to make way for industrial mining and tourism development. Radical journalists like Naomi Klein have drawn attention to the opportunity devastating conflict or natural crisis offer to disaster capitalism when people are in 'shock to push through a wholesale neo-liberal agenda. Have efforts been made to reassure people who are being pushed out in the name of safety, that it is not to make way for industrial and tourism developers?
Is there any process of consulting or at least informing the displaced on where they (individually and as a community) want to relocate to? The evidence is stark clumps of 'temporary houses lying empty, built with no regard to the people who are to move in or the suitability of materials used. In contrast one sees the community based approach Qf
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
the Tamil Nadu Construction Workers Union (TMKTS) that is building temporary habitat for the most marginalized of the tsunami affected-the non fisherfolk.
Is there priority towards a rights-based approach to enabling people to rebuild communities or is there the creation of colonies of dependencies? Sadly, there is much evidence to suggest that there is manipulation and denial of information and top down attitudes that tend to disempower people both in the delivery of relief and in rebuilding their lives.
In Sri Lanka, over centralized structures for managing relief and recovery and construction, like the alienating citadel - TAFREN, structurally predicate that the process will be 'top down despite the carefully inserted rhetoric on consulting affected communities and gender concerns in the documents of the 'Rapid Income Recovery and Housing. Moreover, in Sri Lanka, tsunami struck at not only some of the poorest coastal communities in the island but also many who
had already suffered 20 years of conflict in the North and East.
The politics of negotiating federal arrangements with the LTTE in the post ceasefire-no peace hiatus, has only reinforced the tendency towards centralization and the politicization of relief and rehabilitation. Consequently while note is taken that in the recently signed P-TOMS agreement between the government of Sri lanka and the LTTE for post tsunami reconstruction, there is specific mention of gender representation in high level Regional Committees; such well intentioned directives are likely to become casualties of the continuing political controversy that dogs the initiative.
In India, the more robust federal structure of the polity determined much greater decentralization producing divergent responses at the state levels and devolved considerable independence of action and initiative at the district levels. However, it tended to encourage ad hoc initiatives and not the consolidation of institutional policies. Moreover, the prospect of state assembly elections later this year and the need to cultivate the important vote bank of the coastal fishing community, has reinforced the tendency to go through local Community structures
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Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
(caste panchayats), thus consolidating hierarchies within, and social exclusions without. Also, such crony politics has yielded acquiescence and silenced criticism of the Tamil Nadu state government's tsunami recovery policies. It has resulted in an exclusive focus on the marine fishing communities that make up 85% of the tsunami affected. But it has produced deliberate neglect and discrimination against the community of the 'second line villages - i.e. the non fisherfolk, those whose homes may not have been completely damaged but whose livelihoods (interdependent with the fishing community) have been disrupted and destroyed, for example as salt pans have become mud flats, flooded farms rendered useless with salinity and the wetting pools of the coir workers destroyed.
Many of them are Dalits, victims of histories of discrimination and social oppression. The fishing communities, themselves socially excluded in the Indian caste hierarchies, despite their growing economic and political strength, have been hostile to the claims of the low caste and Dalit communities to tsunami relief and recovery entitlements. With the Dalit axis being the dominant discriminatory axis in the tsunami field, gender concerns tend to get overlooked. Indeed a quick glance at tsunami related news and articles in The Hindu Online Archives' turned up only one article related to gender by feminist Columnist Kalpana Sharma on the OXFAM report on The Tsunami's Impact on Women.
The coastal caste panchayat’s are determinedly patriarchal with religiosity (and state interventions) reinforcing patriarchy. Women do not figure in the local Community governance systems and Consequently little or no attention is paid to women's needs and concerns in normal and crisis times. The parallel elected local governance system has ushered in 33% reservations for women but according to researcher and activist Nalini Nayak "women have not been able to steer decentralization of governance in their favour in the coastal communities in any major way.
In Sri Lanka there has been a growing body of feminist driven policy interventions at the national and international level - e.g. The National
Committee on Women Ministry of Child Welfare and Women's
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Empowerment, UNIFEM, UNFPA and a coalition of women's groups and NGOs - pushing for gender accountability in tsunami relief and recovery policies. In India, there does not seem to be the same cutting edge thrust. The much greater impact of tsunami on Sri Lanka may to Some extent account for the much greater national level engagement.
Gender Checklist
What would some broad indicators of gendered state policies look like? For example:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
vii)
viii)
14
Formats that emphasize the value of the collection of sex disaggregated data
The structured involvement of the national (and state level) women's machinery in tsunami impact and needs assessment and in planning policy and programme implementation
Prioritizing gender concerns of physical safety and sensitivity to cultural practices
Paying attention to gender balance and gender sensitization of camp committees and District-Divisional Level Steering Committees and Disaster Management Committees
Recognizing women's multiple roles as economic agents and community managers and consolidating them
Attention to the special needs of vulnerable groups - female headed households, elderly women (and men) - to enable them to escape the poverty trap and look beyond sewing and string hopper producing for the poverty market
Attention to the needs of widowers and the implications of missing women for the community’s care and nurturing system for the young and the elderly in families
Putting on fast-track legal amendments that would give women access and control of assets especially land, boats, fishing gear
etC.

Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
How do Sri Lanka and India rank? For example, as regards sex disaggregated data, in India Some state governments including Tamil Nadu and Kerala had some baseline census data on fishery households but the value of collecting sex disaggregated data was limited to registering the sex ratio. (According to personal Communication by Ruth Manorama, in Tamil Nadu, caste panchayat mediated census enumerating resulted in a tendency to skip female headed households.) In particular, there was nothing available on women's work in the fisheries. This is vital for planning gender sensitive post tsunami livelihood programmes. After the tsunami, official formats for data collection were found to be lacking in attention to collecting sex disaggregated data. It encouraged state based academic institutions
like the School of Social Work and others to step in and fill the gap.
In Sri Lanka after the tsunami, whatever practices of collecting sex disaggregated data had been learnt, were forgotten as evinced in the gender neutral format. Clearly, bureaucracies were not convinced of its value. However, into the breach stepped in a host of agencies, including The National Committee on Women, UNIFEM and focused on sample surveys conducted by the Women's Coalition on Disaster Management. Much of the data collected has still to be organized into tables, analysed and most crucially, integrated into planning and reconstruction programmes. However, it should be mentioned that the lack of awareness of the local context led to some slipshoddiness in the designing of the questionnaires where a disproportionate information burden falls into the 'Others' column. For example, the objective list of Property and Assets Lost/Damaged forgot to mention boats and fishing gear, or that bicycles (and a basket for fish) are not only a priority item for men but for women to take fish and goods to the market. The absence of economic or livelihood information about women in the fisheries led to distorting emphasis. Moreover, large sample surveys were not designed to accommodate local specificities. As Chandrika Sharma in her research on Women's Livelihood in Coastal Communities points out that women among the Catholic fishing communities along the west coast of Sri Lanka are engaged in beach activities of handling fish and marketing and processing fish whereas as in the Buddhist south, this is not
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
considered socially acceptable. Columns for noting women's livelihood concerns showed a very narrow vision and range.
An index to mainstreaming gender is the structural involvement of national and state (federal) level women's machinery. It is now well established that unless women are included in the decision making bodies their concerns will be overlooked and their needs not prioritized or resourced. Structurally speaking, in Sri Lanka, the national women's machinery has been excluded from impact and needs assessment teams and from planning and programmatic implementation. The Ministry of Social Welfare its co-joined Ministry is involved but not the Women's Empowerment wing. The first phase of the Needs Multilateral Impact Assessment was gender blind but the second phase does take on board gender concerns albeit essentially as an add on. The Sri Lankan government sent government officials to be members of the nine multilateral assessment teams but evidently gender concerns did not warrant inclusion of representatives from the Women's Ministry.
There have been individual officials like the Divisional Secretary in Batticaloa district, who have demonstrated gender sensitivity and taken initiatives to include seven women in the thirteen-member Damage Assessment Team. However, this is not an institutionally learnt or integrated response but remains an ad hoc intervention.
Camp committees remain male dominated though male office bearers have learnt to vaguely refer to women's representation on the Committees as witnessed in the Batticaloa Paddy Marketing Camp. Efforts by women's groups to set up a Gender Watch in Batticaloa to monitor post tsunami relief work have made a difference in producing a degree of gender accountability.
As for India, the website on National Disaster Management lists the various line Ministries involved - but what is missing from this list is the Ministry of Human Resources wherein nestles the Department of Women and Child Welfare. It should be noted that there is much greater devolution of power and many of the concerned areas are identified as state subjects or at least on the concurrent list of subjects. In this context attention needs to be drawn to the involvement of the
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Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
State Commission of Women in Tamil Nadu in the Public Hearings on tsunami relief.
However, the degree of gender sensitivity rests to a large extent on the individual officer at the District headquarters.
Nonetheless, concern about gender based violence saw the governments of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, in the initial period after the tsunami, station women fire officers, police officers and women doctors in the camps and affected villages.
According to an OXFAM report the Kerala government agreed to register permanent houses ouned by married couples in the name of both spouses, so that one could not sell the house without the consent of the other:
In Kerala, already in the 1980-90s, the state had built up a welfare scheme for the fishing community that showed gender sensitivity in recognizing the role of women in the production cycle and providing for transport for women to the market and included them in the savings cum relief schemes.
In Kanyakumari the district collector, also agreed to the registration of permanent houses in the names of both spouses.
(OXFAM, The Impact of the Tsunami on Women, March 2005).
In Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu), the district collector, arranged for the registration of new boats (provided by private agencies) as jointly owned by groups of six persons each - a fisherman, a boat builder, a carpenter; and a fisherwoman widowed by the tsunami (Frontline November, 2005). This ensured that uoman got an income from the catch.
Traditionally several of these communities are matrilineal and women owned fishing gear and boats. Nalini Nayak in her research points out that certain NGOs are allotting fishing boats to women in the post tsunami rehabilitation as a strategy to ensure that they have access to fish catches. However, the crucial question remains: Is there institutional gender sensitivity in the state or is it dependent on a particular official in the district? There is a difference between ad hoc responses and
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
institutional responses to mainstream gender as would be reflected in structured integration of, for example, the national and state women's
machinery.
In Sri Lanka, the structures of relief delivery remain male controlled. The cash support of Rs. 5000/- to the tsunami-affected, is given to the head of household and the beneficiaries are male dominated. Patricia J Alailima in the study Gender Dimensions of Tsunami Related Assistance quotes an official of The Peoples Bank saying that “the bank tries to persuade them to open joint accounts" but with little success. It is estimated that disaster affected families depend up to 80% for their income on welfare cash for work. The things which women consider as a priority like shelter, food, a writing table for school going children, are way down on the priority list for men who decide to spend on a bicycle and a radio. She emphasized the time consuming burden of care of mothers to ensure the security of girl children in the crowded camp/welfare and temporary shelter environments. Meanwhile men liberated from earning a living have taken even more to liquor
consumption.
Surveying the tsunami relief situation, Patricia J Alailima concludes "decision making on relief and reconstruction is male-dominated at all levels and women's views are not represented at all at government and donor discussions or when deciding on reconstruction projects. In livelihood revival programmes, woman have been paid scant attention even though they have been an integral part of the fishing industry (mending nets, cleaning and selling fish) brick making, coir industry etc. There is clearly a gender bias in the terms of assistance given for economic activities.”
Concern about the lack of attention to gender issues led the National Committee on Women (NCW) in the Women's Ministry to urge the Minister to put up a memorandum drauling attention to gender concerns on tsunami relief and reconstruction. Its adoption by the Cabinet has empowered sections of the Ministry, namely the NCW, to launch a series of district level programmes to reach out to divisional level officers on mainstreaming gender in tsunami recovery at the Disaster Management
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Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
Units. In addition it has focused on the critical issue of safeguarding women's existing claims on land titles especially in the east where there is common practice of giving a house as dowry.
Studies by NGOs such as the Centre for Policy Alternatives' study on "Women's Access to Ounership and Property in Batticaloa, Jaffna and the Vanni” (April 2005) and the Women's Coalition for Disaster Management's survey of women's land ownership in 17 villages in the Batticaloa district have provided useful material to substantiate the need for post tsunami state policies that factor in women's access, Ownership and Control of land and property.
In addition the NCW and a host of women's groups have been promoting joint Ownership of state alienated land grants and lobbying for amendments to the gender discriminatory provisions that make the son the heir. According to the Land Commissioner no directives on joint ownership can be given to the Government Agents without an amendment being passed. However, such legal amendments have been drawn up and approved by the Cabinet and now await Parliamentary approval. The NCW has asked for the amendments to
be made available to it for scrutiny.
Such interventions remain outside the main structure of posttsunami programmes overseen by TAFOR and TAFREN. Although the text of TAFREN's programmes, especially the Rapid Income Recovery Programme, takes on board gender concerns, there is no structure of consultation with the women's machinery or women's groups to collaborate or monitor its translation at the field level. The need to formally integrate gender concerns has been felt and there is a move to set up an Advisory Gender Focal Group on tsunami reconstruction.
Meanwhile, the Women's Coalition for Disaster Management, Batticaloa, has in a Memorandum to the President drawn attention to the deficiencies in the GOSL Assistance Policy and Implementation Guidelines on Housing and Township Development (2005), in particular to the absence of women's representation in decision making bodies on shelter.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Also they have picked on the confusion in TAFREN’s guidelines about household in the phrase household driven housing construction'. Does it mean that extended families living in one house will be entitled only to one house or does household mean family/ house?
The same confusion extends over to the Rapid Income Recovery Programme document For example, in the context of female headed families. Such households can have two and even more adult women (sisters, sisters-in-law) living in the same house with their small children. Under the RIR programme a special grant of Rs.25,000 is to be made available for income earning activities per female headed household. Does this mean that one grant will be made available per household or is it per female headed family?
Livelihood and Women's Rights to Property
In the designing of post tsunami livelihood recovery programmes, societal and state support for women's roles as economic agents is confounded by the lack of recognition of women's multiple roles in the production economy. This is compounded by an absence of baseline data on women in fisheries and the mapping of the sexual division of labour in the traditional fishing communities. Moreover, state interventions in the fisheries sector in recent years have combined with technological innovations not only to transform the industry, degrade environments and the quality of life of coastal fishing communities but have also had major consequences for women's livelihood (and family wellbeing) and have in some cases led to their dispossession of assets. In the aftermath of the tsunami, it is crucial to have a sharper understanding of the distorting consequences of state intervention and the impact on the multiple roles of women in the fisheries.
In Tamil Nadu, the state government and several NGOs are committed to provide reinforced glass-fibre catamarans and mechanized boats. This has raised the spectre of over-fishing, especially as there is no accompanying squeeze on mechanized trawling. It is also likely to further boost the transformation of artisanal fishing to a modernized fishing industry.
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Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
Further, the proposal to build a sea wall will make the beaching of catamarans impossible and shift the emphasis further towards port fishing away from beach fishing. This is likely to result in centralized landing of fish at a distance and in quantities that tend to exclude women and favour the big merchants. All these have huge implications for women in fisheries and the communities as a whole.
In this Context the research sponsored by the Institute of Social Sciences Trust (ISST) on 'Women Livelihoods in Coastal Communities in Asia, is a major contribution in providing us a detailed profile of the myriad activities of women in marine fisheries. In particular the research of Chandrika Sharma on "Women of Coastal Fishing Communities in the Asian region" and Nalini Nayak on "Sharpening of the Interlinkages: Towards Feminist Perspectives of Livelihood in Coastal Communities", provide crucial insights for planning relevant programmes for post tsunami rebuilding of livelihoods.
Nayak, focusing on the marine fishing communities in India, points to the sexual division of labour in the traditional fishing communities where fishing is a commercial activity with men doing the harvesting and the women post harvesting and both involved in pre harvesting preparing of nets and tackle. With this division of labour women have access to markets and also have control over cash as it is they who convert the fish into money, "This access to markets and the world outside gives the women a wider perspective". In several communities that are matrilineal and matrilocal, the woman are known to inherit the fishing gear in marriage - this gives the woman a share of the catch either for resale or for food.
Since the 1970s, technological change spurred on by state intervention has been transforming marine fishing making for larger boats, capital intensive fishing operations and production for export markets. For women the consequences are that centralised landing sites means that they have to travel distances to have access to the catch. If it is too far, they have to forfeit the catch. Also the catch is expanding and becoming too large for women or rather women are not enabled and therefore not equipped to handle. Such a situation as Nayak
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emphasises, "It is very rare that the state would intervene to assist women in their work as it has intervened to help men with credit and technical aid. That women have the capacity to meet these growing demands is demonstrated by the examples of some women in Vishakapatnam who have successfully entered the larger trade, dispatching fish by train to Mumbai. Some women have found space as commission agents supplying fish to wholesalers, others have financed boat owners to make sure that they had the right to the fish that was caught.
Clearly, if the state supported women, they would have been able to remain in the post harvest chain. But "storage space for fish or Credit to handle large volumes is not the way in which the state has reached out to women.” As post tsunami programmes for recovery of livelihood and reconstruction are put in place it is extremely important to pay attention to these multiple roles of women in the fishing communities and the second line villages, and for the state and humanitarian development agencies to intervene in ways that strengthen women's capacities as significant economic agents.
Too often, state practices have ended up dispossessing and disempowering women even further. As in the manner of credit disbursement, in certain areas where the matrilineal system existed the state came in with credit facilities to buy new boats and nets. The banks through which the credit was channeled recognized the men as fishermen and made loans in their names. Women lost their rights of ownership of the craft and their right to the catch. On the other hand when the men desired to acquire a larger number of boats with state subsidies -they transferred the older boats in the names of their wives although they had no say in the matter. Already the expanding export trade has affected women's access to the surplus fish catch for processing, i.e. dried fish. Such activities have been the insurance for the lean season. Dried fish has moved across India creating a huge chain of interdependent agents and retailers, mostly women.
However, women's activities and participatory role has been rendered largely invisible because it has not been translated into women having
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Gender, State and Tsunami Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of India and Sri Lanka
a greater share in decision making in either the home or community. Women do not figure in the power structures of local caste panchayats. Also women have not been able to steer the decentralizing local governance structures ushered in by the 73 & 74 constitutional amendments in their favour, argues Nayak. Without women's unmediated voice in decision making their concerns will be overlooked.
In the post tsunami scenario, there is a need for the state and development agency interventions to be aware of such gendered concerns in enabling coastal communities to rebuild and reconstruct socio-economic networks and not distort further the fragile economic balance of coastal communities. The tsunami's cause was natural but its socio-economic consequences we know can be highly distorting and discriminatory. Post tsunami also offers us the opportunity of a new beginning - one that could integrate gender equality and gender empowerment.
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3
Gender Concerns in Post tsunami Reconstruction - A Brief Note
Ruth Manorama, India
The International Aid group OXFAM reports that of the 29,000 tsunami victims, 80 percent of those killed in most areas were women. "In other areas, the given estimate was of four female victims for every
s 93 male victim'.
l.
24
The giant tsunami waves, as far as we know, have killed more than 220,000 people in 12 countries spanning South-East Asia, South Asia and East Africa. A recent study by Asia Development Bank (ADB) conducted for the Government of India estimates that the livelihoods of about 645,000 families (about 3.2 million people) have been directly and indirectly affected in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry. Yet there is little accuracy in disaggregated data that shows how many of those dead were women, or how many women are still missing or displaced. Some attempts made by a recent study by the Schools of Social Work in India collated disaggregated data on some variables.
. Experiences have shown that disasters, however natural are
profoundly discriminatory. Wherever they hit, pre-existing structures and social conditions determine that, some members of the community will be less affected while others will pay a higher price. Among the differences that determine how people are affected by such disasters is that of gender. The information most urgently needed relates to mortality and displacement figures, disaggregated by sex. In Aceh province in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka, there is

Gender Concerns in Post tsunami Reconstruction - A brief Note
abundant and partial evidence that more women and children have died than men.
Indonesia – in four villages in Aceh Besar district only 189 of 676 survivors were female. Male survivors outnumbered the female survivors by a ratio of almost 3 to 1.
. For every male who died four females died in the worst affected villages,
in Kuala Cangkoy.
. In Cuddalore, India, almost three times as many women were killed as men, amounting to 391 female deaths, compared with 146 male deaths. In Pacchankuppan village, the only people to die were women.
On the day of the tsunami, the women stayed behind to look after
their children and relatives, or were waiting on the shore for the fishermen to bring in the catch. In Sri Lanka in the Batticoloa district,
the tsunami hit at the hour when women took their baths. It is
important for long term reconstruction and rehabilitation to understand
the Consequences of such demographic changes.
3.
4.
When disasters happen women's specific needs are ignored and their human rights are violated more than what they have previously experienced. There were reports of sexual abuse and rape in temporary camps, which advocates cannot confirm because victims are afraid of identifying themselves for fear of being ostracized. Women are more vulnerable and at risk during disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami because they are marginalized and disempowered under normal circumstances, having lower socioeconomic status, barriers against choice and lack of access to resources. Relief efforts rely on existing structures of resource distribution that reflect the patriarchal structure of society. December's tsunami has sharpened existing inequalities that prevailed in the affected communities, leaving women, girls, and some specific communities such as "Dalits' more marginalized (in
the Tamil Nadu shores).
The women need to care for their extended families which means the workload of women increases. With numbers of men in
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
communities increasing, there could be limitations imposed on mobility and visibility of women which could prevent them benefiting from services, information and decision making opportunities. In addition to this the educational level of women in the fishing community is abysmally low in India.
What will it mean for the surviving women's land rights and their access to other assets? Will the smaller number of women face vulnerability to harassment and sexual abuse or domestic violence?
Women faced lack of access to relief support, shelter and housing,
26
and access to health services. For example:
Children died due to a lack of milk supplies.
Women often faced starvation and suffered sleepless nights due to hunger.
Lack of secure bathrooms and sanitary necessities. Difficulties in securing food, shelter, health services and psychological support.
Women's special needs like health and reproductive care were ignored.
The economic security of women was acutely affected by the tsunami. (I.e.: small scale cottage industries and fish processing, vending of fish etc.)
Lack of sensitivity with regard to privacy. Women faced hardships standing for hours in long queues for food, relief measures and other benefits.
Widowed women sometimes do not receive their payments because the benefits were registered in their husband's name.
. Threats of displacement have forced women to live
away from the coast.

Gender Concerns in Post tsunami Reconstruction - A brief Note
The threats of rape, sexual assault, and gender-specific health problems have increased for women living in displaced camps and in temporary housing.
5. With women amounting to 1/3rd of the tsunami survivors they not only have the right to fully participate in the reconstruction process, they can play an important role in bringing about social change. Both the State and the non state agencies assisting the displaced must recognize and address gender specific and special needs of women, since gender neutral relief and rehabilitation policies reinforce the patriarchal social order where women are inherently disadvantaged.
6. Women in Reconstruction: The need for a policy framework to plan the reconstruction process of women workers is imminent. The governments as well as those involved in reconstruction activities often fail to record the contribution of women workers. There is no special rehabilitation package for them. The right of a woman worker to benefits of reliefshould be ensured. In addition to this, livelihood options of women workers need to be planned by ensuring that the coast is the primary entitlement of coastal communities. They have the right to use the beach for landing, drying their nets, drying the fish and other related activities. As the Coastal Rehabilitation Zones (CRZ) notification states, the fisher community habitats and existing houses must be seen as their natural right. The fishing practices of the community will become irrelevant in the wake of the new housing policy to move the habitats beyond 500 meters. The government should take measures to reclaim the CRZ Zone from existing encroachments in the form of hotels, resorts and shrimp industries. The shelter reconstruction should be an owner-driven policy where the victim should become part and parcel of the planning and implementing process. The affected family can be assisted in terms of access to material support, grants and technology for ensuring seismic safety, cyclone safety
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
and wind proofing in the backdrop of local geological conditions and traditional wisdom.
The policy should address the following specific needs of the women and children: The housing policy should include the necessary infrastructure like schools, water, sanitation and health centers. The infrastructure should be provided by the government. The government should give up its intention to allow adoption of villages by any individual or agency as it totally disrespects the culture and socio-economic norms. Reconstruction should also spell out the concern for Dalits and other minorities. The reconstruction policies must suit the livelihood needs of the coastal communities. The government's allocation of construction of shelters for individual families must be announced officially in the form of government orders taking into account the size of the family and the livelihood needs of the families which may be specific to the region. Women rendered destitute by the disaster should be rehabilitated in their own Community as far as possible, providing adequate livelihood security and independent housing to them. They should not be herded into destitute homes
Address Root Causes: Rebuilding should happen in ways that address the root causes of vulnerability. These could include gender inequalities. Women's local knowledge and expertise are essential assets for communities and households struggling to rebuild. The reconstruction process should identify and respond to women workers' needs for legal services in the areas of housing, employment and family relations. Targeting highly vulnerable women such as single mothers, widows, women living below the poverty line, unemployed women and socially marginalized women for employment options in reconstruction of damaged and new houses is another crucial expectation.

Gender Concerns in Post tsunami Reconstruction - A brief Note
Suggestions for Reconstruction
All those involved in humanitarian assistance and policy making must collect and use sex-disaggregated information.
The protection of women from sexual violence and exploitation must be a priority, even when information is slow to emerge (particularly in certain settings such as conflict and the Consequent presence of military personnel; when young women are alone; when alcohol consumption among men is on the increase, etc.).
The manner of delivering aid must use and abide by the highest standards for protection and accountability. This includes systems for the protection of women and for reporting and dealing with any incidents of abuse or misconduct.
It must be ensured that carning opportunities are accessible to both men and women, whether in immediate cash-for-work programmes or in more sustainable livelihood programmes. This is essential to revitalize local economies by unleashing the potential of all. It also avoids creating or strengthening forms of (sexual) exploitation and dependencies. Even within the boundaries of what is allowed by local culture, it is possible and necessary to go beyond the cooking and sewing projects to which women are often relegated so that new opportunities for established and non-traditional occupations are open to them.
Genuine participation, at all levels, implies not only talking to women and men when assessing needs, delivering aid, or evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in camps, villages, and cities that are on the road to recovery. It also implies developing creative strategies to overcome the limitations of the near uniform domination of men in leadership structures, in the countries affected.
Participation also implies a change of mindset: from perceiving women as vulnerable victims to respecting their rights as citizens with specific perspectives and capacities. Agencies such as the
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World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, international NGOs, donors, and governments have an obligation to lead the way.
Serious consideration must be given to the demographic changes (as well as cultural values) in the countries affected, so that the rights of women as well as men, in property, education, family formation, and reproductive health, are protected and promoted in all policies and interventions.
If conditions of gender inequality determine who feels the impact of disasters, and hou, then providing the finances that have for so long been promised to meet the gender-specific Millennium Development Goals has to be one of the best forms of disasterpreparedness for the future.

4
Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunami Rehabilitation Work
L. Sivagami
Impact of the Tsunami
The tsunami is a rare kind of natural disaster which took place on December 26, 2004 and caused much damage and destruction in the coastal areas of South Asia. It is an unforgettable painful event which has caused devastation and damage.
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and India (13 coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and other parts such as Pondichery, Kerala, Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands) faced heavy damages when the tsunami hit the region. It was the inhabitants of the coastal areas who suffered many losses due to the deadly disaster. Generally, it is a known factor that women and children are vulnerable and highly at risk during any kind of disaster. Thousands of families have lost their homes, properties and livelihood as a result of the tsunami.
In this state, relief items for immediate and emergency needs are being supplied to the people by many agencies. In India relief measures are being carried out by the Central Government, State Government and local and international organizations.
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1. The status of tsunami affected women belonging to different divisions in Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu 8,010 lives were lost as a result of the tsunami tidal waves. Out of the lives lost men account to 2377, women account to 3141, while children account to 1,237, out of which female children account to 1,255. According to data collected women and girl children record the highest number of deaths.
Nearly 150,000 families living in 13 coastal districts of Tamil Nadu were affected; they include fisher folks, small scale businessmen or vendors, cultivators, cultivation area laborers and other workers of marine industries. tsunamitidal waves has orphaned 291 children and widowed 567 women.
(a) Impact on women involved in the fishing industry.
Nearly 300,000 fishing families have been affected by tsunami. Most deaths were recorded amongst the fishing community. The culture of the fishing community is different to other cultures in that it is dominated by men. Women are forbidden from being involved in interventions and decision making regarding important matters. Although women account to more than half of the workforce in the industry, nevertheless the fishing culture and the type of work forces them to live as dependents. Once the men bring their catch to shore it is usually sold by way of auctioning the entire catch according to its weight. But it is the women who are mostly involved in selling fish in the market.
After the tsunami their lives have worsened. Women often strive to save the measly income earned by vending fish, for the betterment of their families. After the tsunami many of them lost their hard earned savings which was washed off. This loss of hard-earned money was never taken into account by the government, which failed to compensate for their savings. The tsunami not only caused visibly extensive damage but also caused mental depression and stress amongst women. Under the tsunami rehabilitation programme fishing equipment alone received relief
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Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunami Rehabilitation Work
aid. Six months after the tsunami, many families continue to fear going out to the sea for fishing. When men do not go to the sea, it is the women who are immediately affected because they cannot earn an income and the families cannot be fed.
(b) Impact on woman workers in the agriculture-based farming families
Since the tsunami tidal waves inundated 1 to 2 kms of the land, the sea water flooded more than 300 agriculture-based villages. Information received states that cultivation in 15,000 hectares of land had been washed out. More than 100,000 families' livelihood depends entirely on these cultivation lands. But now these lands have turned salty and it would take two to three years for these lands to recover its fertility. Mostly it is the women workers who are involved in cultivation. It is important to note that it is once again an uncultivable land that affects women the most. For the past seven months, women have been suffering from extreme poverty because they had been unable to earn an income due to the loss of cultivating lands.
(c) Impact on other women in families which live in the coastal areas and suburbs
Those who live close to the ports and in the coastal areas were engaged in small scale businesses. These included vendors and people who worked for daily wages. According to government reports there were more than 150,000 people who depended entirely on the marine industries for their livelihoods which were affected by the disastrous tsunami. Once again it was the Women who faced many problems. People who worked in the salterns were also affected.
Given this situation let us explore and analyze the government's relief efforts and its policies in rehabilitation work in Tamil Nadu after tsunami.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Rehabilitation work of Government of Tamil Nadu
(a) Tsunami relief efforts by the Government of Tamil Nadu:
Soon after the tsunami hit the coastal areas, the government together with private agencies and individuals rushed to assist the victims by way of providing temporary shelters, dry rations, food, blankets, medical services and many other forms of assistance. Initially, the Government announced that it would pay a sum of Rs.5,000/- as relief aid for each family in order to meet their primary and essential needs. Later, the fishing families received 30 kilos of rice for a period of three months. Apart from the fishing community, the other community received Rs. 2,000/- as immediate relief aid along with 30 kilos of rice.
It was extremely difficult for women who were fully involved in taking care of their families to manage with the relief aid provided by the government for their day-to-day living. Furthermore some fishing families and women from other families had to undergo many difficulties in order to receive relief aid promised by the government.
Although the government had ordered the authorities to provide immediate aid for primary and essential needs, nevertheless it had to pass through an extremely bureaucratic System before it reached the people. As a result many people suffered.
Several tsunami victims who were psychologically affected went through severe mental trauma. The government tried to bring them back to normal by providing special training programmes to psychologists so that they could counsel the affected. However, it is doubtful as to whether these services reached all those concerned.
The Government of Tamil Nadu released more than 70 official government orders for relief and rehabilitation work after the tsunami struck South Asia. Fifty-seven orders were officially

Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunami Rehabilitation Work
released through the income department and the rest were released through the Social Services Ministry, Education Ministry, Finance Ministry, Poultry and Marine Industry, Trade Tax Ministry, Food and Consumer Department and the Cooperative Security Department.
(b) Relief from Central Government
The Central government's participation in relief measures for uomen and children:
1 Six telephone hotlines were introduced in order to help
children
2 Temporary shelters were put up for women.
3 Psychologists and counselors worked in Nagapatinam, Kaniyakumari, and Kadalore in order to help children who were mentally traumatized by the deadly tsunami.
4 Homes for orphaned and needy children were opened in Nagapatinam, Kaniyakumari, and Kadalore. The Central Government provided Tamil Nadu with financial assistance of 1.168 million Rupees for this purpose.
People who were disabled due to the tsunami were given assistance. Rehabilitation centres were opened in all affected districts in order to assist people. Equipments and other resources were provided to these centres to ensure a speedy recovery.
(c) Important government orders given by the Tamil Nadu Government regarding relief
Let us look at some important government orders regarding tsunami rehabilitation work by the government.
The State Government's orders were extensively on relief aid and compensation regarding employment, permanent housing, education of students and examinations, financial assistance for
orphaned girl children.
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Government of Tamil Nadu Date
Order No. published
Important summary
G.O. No. 574 28-12-2004
G.O. No. 575 28-12-2004
G.O. No. 583 31-12-2004
G.O. No. 10 06-01-2005
G.O. No. 5 08-01-2005
G.O. No. 6 08-01-2005
G.O. No. 7 08-01-2005
Compensation of Rs. 100,000/- for families where there were/was loss of lives/life
Immediate relief aid for 150,000 people in order to meet primary needs and second phase in immediate relief aid
Rs. 5,000/= in order to meet day-to-day needs
100,000 houses were to be built in 13 districts and Rs. 8,000 to be provided for each house. 50,000 temporary shelters by Government and 50,000 by other organizations.
New government service homes in two districts.
Orphaned girl children between the ages of 14-18 and unmarried women above 8 years of age to be provided with financial assistance by the Social Services Department
Voluntary services organizations and other organizations were asked to build children's homes in three districts, provide financial assistance to orphaned children and build
houses in tsunami affected villages.
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Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunami Rehabilitation Work
G.O. No. 23 13-01-2005 Tender to provide general facilities
to village agencies G.O. No. 30 17-01-2005 Relief for destroyed cultivation
G.O. No. 36 24-01-2005 Relief teams to be created at
districts village / periphery levels
G.O. No.342 31-05-2005 Organizations are called to build
permanent houses. Opportunity
given to organizations willing to build houses for a minimum of 50 families spending 7.5 Million Rupees.
G.O. No. 61 08-02-2005 Relief aid awarded for
damaged fishing equipment.
Problems faced by women during tsunami rehabilitation work, reflections on government programmes and issues to be addressed.
(a) Temporary Housing
The government requested interested organizations to immediately put up temporary shelters for victims who lost their homes to the tsunami. Many voluntary and private organizations promptly came forward accepting the conditions put down by the government.
As a result these temporary shelters were not suitable for human existence. These houses did not even offer ventilation facilities, which is a primary requirement. Even the floors, ceilings, windows and doors had many shortcomings. The houses lacked sanitation facilities and women did not had any privacy which they most certainly needed. It is obvious these houses have not been well planned. All houses were made of tin and tent material and these two materials were not heat proof.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
These houses were built without taking into consideration the needs of women and are unbearable to live in during the day due to the lack of proper air circulation. During the day, most of the victims took refuge in shady places outside in their temporary shelters. During the nights the unpleasantly cold air bothered them. Female children caught chicken pox due to scorching heat and pollution.
Recent torrential rains flooded areas where temporary shelters were put up. Nearly 80% percent of tents and shelters that were set up got washed away in floods. People faced many difficulties and problems as a result.
Temporary shelters alone prove how very little Concern is given to women regarding relief and rehabilitation.
(b) Psychological and medical assistance
Women were physically and mentally hurt when the tsunami hit the South Asian region. During this period many women experienced abortions. Many women who had been sterilized had lost their children to the deadly tsunami. Some women lost their husbands as well as their children.
The government which took into account the loss of lives and the injured failed to show any concern over these abortions. Medical camps and healthcare units organized by the government did not offer any treatment or Consultancy. In addition, the assistance of trained counselors and psychologists did not reach all who were affected. Although government support existed, women underwent surgery in order to be able to conceive once again. Lack of counseling and the right kind of approach was the reason behind such actions.
In addition, women who have lost their children to the tsunami as well as mothers who have undergone sterilization were forced
to leave their husbands taking second wives in order to produce
an offspring. In the area of Karaikkaal two mothers underwent surgery in order to conceive once again. But realizing the

Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunami Rehabilitation Work
dissatisfaction of their husband and their in-laws interest in giving their son a second wife, caused one of the two women from Kilinjal Metai to commit suicide.
Although counselors and psychologists are approached in order to overcome stress and mental trauma caused by the tsunami, it would work effectively only when their treatment blends with the culture of the patients. The government must work to design Counseling training programmes according to the local culture.
(c) Relief aid in the form of financial assistance to women and
children:
The government provided relief aid by depositing a certain amount of funds for children, girl children, unmarried women, and widows. Children's homes and destitute homes were put
s up by the Government. The government's efforts to help women and children are indeed commendable. But it is important to consider the indirect consequences women face.
(d) Tsunami pushes women into forced marriages:
Unfortunately many women are forced to marry their sister's husband who had turned a widower because he lost his wife to the tsunami. Furthermore, if many lives were lost in just one family, the family would get more aid; thus many young women are given in marriage by force. The government's relief effort of depositing a certain amount of funds forces women to lead a false life with people who marry them for their money alone.
(e) Elderly women are forced to bear the family burden all over
again:
Elderly women who have lost their son or daughter due to the tsunami are once again forced to take care of their grandchildren and provide security. They are also forced to find employment at a very old age in order earn an income. These victims have not received any special privileges or any other investment assistance from the government.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
(f) Income of destitute widows stopped:
In certain families in the fishing industry there are more women who are involved in jobs without boats, engine and nets. These families only received compensation for the loss of lives in their families. Women and widows who are employed in other trades share the same grievances.
There was no compensation given to women who buy fish in large scale for their business and spend Rs. 500/= to Rs. 5000/ = per day for purchasing alone. This discrimination shows that women are not considered and accepted as a valuable labour force. It is the widows who are most affected by this kind of discriminative acts.
In some families women are the sole bread winners. The government has not been very clear with its plan in giving special vocational training and certain privileges for these women folks. Measures must be taken to increase their income according to their skills and talents.
(g) Awareness regarding natural disasters
Many global organizations such as the UNDP are providing special training programmes in disaster preparedness and management. These kinds of training programmes are being held in Tamil Nadu from 2003. Government servants at state and district levels and the youth are the beneficiaries of this training programme. But it is the elderly women, house wives and children who are mostly affected during natural disasters. As part of their early warning measures, government parties should make arrangements to conduct training programmes to prepare these vulnerable groups from falling into great danger and becoming unfortunate victims. Furthermore it is important that the government develops and early warning systems for disasters.

Government Policies and the Status of Women in Tsunani Rehabilitation Work
Effective actions of the Tamil Nadu government
The many activities taken up by the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha
under the tsunamis rehabilitation programme by effectively using government mechanisms and tools, are indeed commendable. Authorities in affected districts too worked effectively for this purpose. Nevertheless, it is important to carry out a in-depth study regarding "the tsunami's effect on women and review the tsunami rehabilitation workin order to find solutions for the problems faced. New programmes focusing on women should be initiated under the tsunami
rehabilitation programme.
XX
XX
Tsunami rehabilitation work for the affected women - Recommendations that need to be considered while implementing activities
It is important to identify suitable livelihoods for tsunami affected widows, elderly women, and women who are looking for employment. Thereafter income earning programmes must be planned and implemented. Programmes must be planned in a way that elderly women may receive certain special privileges.
Annual awareness camps on natural disasters should be held for people living in coastal areas (especially elderly citizens, women
and children who are left behind in their homes).
Women rehabilitation teams must be established at village levels in order to safeguard, monitor and utilize effectively the compensation provided (which was given as deposit amounts) for young women, girl children and widows.
In order help people face the consequences of natural disasters courageously counseling programmes must be designed in keeping with the local culture.
Women's suggestions should be obtained in order to build permanent housing based on their living conditions.
Women's participation in the planning and implementation process of the tsunami rehabilitation work must be ensured.
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5
Household Survey of Those Affected by the Tsunami: Some Preliminary Findings from Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka - May 2005
Sarala Emmanual
Geographical Spread - Batticaloa Division
DS Divisions Manmunai North Manmunai Pattu Koralai Pattu North Koralai Pattu Eravur Pattu Manmunai South Eruvil Pattu
Kattankudi
Ethnicity of Households in Survey
District Tamil Muslim Batticaloa
93% 6.2%
15.2% 78.5% 6.2%
Christian Hindu Muslim
42
 

Household Survey of those affected by the tsunami
Changes to social relations within households: Lost Family Members
According to the District secretariat the gender disaggregated data on those who died and were injured was as follows. Similar to national data and data from other countries that were affected by the tsunami, more women died than men. In the Batticaloa district 58.9% of those dead were women. Nevertheless in the injured category there is a marginally higher representation of men than women.
Dead % of Dead % of Missing Injured 96 of Injured % of Displaced
(male) total (female) total (male) total (female) total (male) deaths (female) deaths injured injured (male) (female)
1157 41. 1658 58.9 952 603 52.2 553 47.8 22002
District Secretariat, Batticaloa 2005
Within the sample of 200 interviews conducted for this survey, 22 families had lost their family members in the tsunami. One woman had lost her husband and in three of the families, the wife had died. Ten families had lost children. 8 families had lost other relatives.
The Divisional Secretariats had also collected data on the number of widows in all the DS divisions which as indicated in the table below.
Divisional Secretariat Division No. of
- Widows(146) Eravur Town 2 Vaharai 27 Manmunai North 51 Kiran 6 Valaichenai 31 Oddamavady 2 Koralaipattu Central - Chenkalady 4 Vellavely 3 Paddipalai 3 Kaluwanchikudy 17
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Impact on caring roles of men and women
Changes to social relations within households: New-comers to the household post-tsunami
In the Batticaloa sample, 25 households had new comers of whom 30 were female and 34 were male (children and adults)
On average there were 2-3 new members in these households, with one case of seven new members being provided care in one
household.
This indicated that households had taken on caring responsibilities
for additional family members in the post-tsunami context. This had increased the burden and responsibilities of both men and women in the households, especially women, as they were the key care givers within the household.
Changes to social relations within households: Care of children
Three households had taken in children who had lost their family members. Two of the children were girls aged 3 and 9 and one was a baby boy of 1/2 years.
Within the entire district just under 700 children were registered as having lost both parents. The Probation and Child Care Services was supporting a system of placing children within existing families and Community care givers were moving away from institutional care as much as possible.
Changes to social relations within households: Women heads of
households
44
15% of the sample identified themselves as women heads of household. However this was not a phenomenon after the tsunami but a responsibility they had taken on as the main care provider even before the tsunami.
Ten of the families had male family members who were working in the Middle East and the main caregivers were women.

Household Survey of those affected by the tsunami
Women's livelihoods
District Livelihood activity Before After
tsunami tsunami
able to continue
Batticaloa Sewing 22.9% 62% of
y WOr11em
Government- working
teaching/nursing 1.8% before the
Small business/ tsunami said
x. self employed 22% that they
Poultry 13.5% were unable Weaving 8.5% to work Other (including fishing because of and brick makings the loss of construction) 13.6% income earning equipment, raw materi
als, livestock or capital
10 households had at least one family member abroad or working in Colombo, and these were mostly men. 69.6% women interviewed were non-income earning members of the household
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Pre-tsunami Loans'
District Activity Male Female
Batticaloa Micro Enterprise 1
(5,000-25,000)
Farming 2 2
Fishing 2 2
Housing 4. 4
(avg 50,000
150,000)
Sewing 1
TOTAL 9 20
Three months after the tsunami, only one man and one woman in the sample had taken out loans for trade purposes.
As indicated in the table it was mostly women who had taken loans mainly for livelihood activities, before the tsunami. During the time of the survey they were still worried about having to pay back these loans as it was unclear if these loans were going to be written off or if the repayment was going to be postponed.
Shelter
Condition of house
In the Batticaloa sample, 39.3% of the respondents' houses were totally destroyed while 42.9% of the houses were partially destroyed. Only 17.9% were left undamaged.
Land ownership
In the Batticaloa Sample 80.1% families had ownership to their land, whilst 17.8% were long term occupants of the property. Three of the households were tenants and one was on permit land.
46

Household Survey of those affected by the tsunami
With regard to the new-comers to the household 17 persons had legal ownership of the damaged property on which they had lived.
7 persons had been long term occupants 1 person had no legal ownership of the damaged property Women's wishes in ownership of new property
33.5% of women said they preferred the property to be written in their own name
40.1% of the women said they preferred joint ownership with either daughter or husband
This indicates that more than 70% of the women did not want the sole ownership of the property to be given to a male in the household - Contrary to the current state policy. According to the current housing policy land titles can be given in the woman's name if the previous property was in her name. However there is no provision to give land titles in joint ownership as the Crown Land Ordinance does not recognise joint ownership.
The gendered dimensions of the loss of movable property
In all three districts the loss of movable items included jewelry, women's income earning equipment and household items; those items that traditionally provided economic and social security to women. Some of these items were replaced by NGOs.
Another common item mentioned was bicycles - which was crucial for household mobility (especially for women and children). Batticaloa has very poor infrastructure, especially in relation to transport, since people have been living through more than two decades of armed conflict. Therefore personal transport such as cycling is very common and extremely important for the mobility of adults and children. The loss of such items had restricted their access to livelihood activities, markets and schooling.
Children and Schooling
In 16 households (8% of the sample), children were not attending school after the tsunami. This included eight girls and eight boys mostly 47

Page 31
Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
over the age of 12 years.
Reasons för not continuing schooling . No books and other equipment
. No income
No transport (this was the most commonly mentioned problem) Personal security
Most commonly mentioned concern was robbery and looting. In the
Batticaloa sample
12.5% mentioned violence and domestic violence as something that
concerned them.
Cultural practices
Batticaloa, women mentioned the inability to perform death rites, puberty rituals, marriage Ceremonies as obstacles they faced in performing cultural practices.
Positive experiences for women
26.8% mentioned government assistance and relief as a positive supportive mechanism that helped them in the post tsunami COItCXt.
24.8% of the women mentioned that learning to negotiate with government and NGO officials, participating in decision making, participating in public life and accessing information had been a positive experience for them after the tsunami.
12.4% mentioned assistance they got through other organizations
4.8% mentioned family assistance
Survey conducted by: Suriya W%omens Development Centre — Baliticalloa As a part of the national survey designed by CENWOR- Centre for Women's Research, Colombo and supported by UNIFEM
48

6
Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts in the Maldives
Shaliny Jaufar and Zindu Salih
Introduction
Maldives is a small developing island nation consisting 1,190 tiny Coral islands ranging from around 1 - 9 kilometres in length and not more than 1.5 meters above the sea level. The population of the Maldives is 270,101 (Census 2000) scattered among approximately 200 islands dispersed over a large geographical area. The country consists of a more or less homogenous group of people, sharing the same language, religion and culture.
Traditionally the Maldivian economy was based on the fisheries sector with the vast majority of the population being involved in the industry. The country has made considerable progress in the past decades and the economy has diversified into other areas, most notably the tourism sector.
Women in Maldives enjoy more freedoms and a higher level of participation in society when compared to some other countries with similar cultural and social backgrounds.
However, gender inequities do exist and women and girls are at a comparative disadvantage to men and boys in almost all socio-politic and economic sectors (2005 World Bank et al).
One of the areas in which gender inequalities are becoming most evident is that of income generating activities or livelihoods.
49

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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia Gender and livelihoods: pre tsunami
Women have traditionally been active contributors to household incomes. However, with the economic growth and move towards greater expansion of industry and the service sector, there has been a decline in traditional economic activities that women were largely engaged in, causing many women to leave the labour force. This situation was reinforced by the increasing levels of income, which lessened the need for the wives or women's income for the households and encouraged the women's domestic role as homemaker.
The decrease in the number of uomen active in the labour force can be largely attributed to the modernisation of the fishing industry together with establishment of tourism as a major industry.
The fish processing activities, traditionally women's domain, were captured by the new factories. Fish processing includes boiling, Smoking and drying of tuna, to be sold to local and international markets. Social norms and Cultural restrictions discourage Women's employment Outside the home island. Such norms also limit women's participation in the tourism sector - only 4% of women are found in this industry - and other industries which require employment outside the home island.
(2005 World Bank et al)
However, in recent years increased training and education has encouraged women to re-enter the labour force in different roles and Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women rose by 9% in 2000 from the year 1995. Even so, women's representation in the labour force is much lower than desirable with only 37.4% of LFPR comprising women while male participation is 71.1% (Census 2000).
This is also evident in the fact that, according to a study conducted in
the outer atolls by the Ministry of Atolls Development (2004), 46% of occupations were exclusively male while only 15% were exclusively female and 39% of occupations were undertaken by both men and women.
This is especially concerning the fact that approximately 50% of Maldivian households are headed by women, which could mean that single female headed households are particularly vulnerable (UNFPA
2004).
50

Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
Furthermore, according to the Vulnerability and Poverty Assessment (1998) 43% of the population were living in poverty on 15 Rufiyaa per day which is just above a (US) dollar per day.
The agricultural industry is mainly managed by women, although in some islands it is also the chief economic activity for men. According to a study by the World Food Programme, in islands where agriculture was a key livelihood activity, it was reported that the produce contributed to an estimated 60% of the household income (WFP 2005). Women maintain communal and individual farming plots as well as grow home gardens for domestic Consumption and sale.
Although women are underrepresented in the two main industries in the country, women's contribution to the economic enterprises of the country is still significant. A large proportion of women are selfemployed or supplement their income with additional economic activities from home such as tailoring, making traditional foods and
handicrafts (2005 World Bank et al). S SS SS SSLSSSSS - ---
Employed Population by Industry 2000
12OOO
... ز. --:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ 10000
---------........................... -------------............................................................--............... [: ، ۔ یہ ............... --4 8000
6000 ! -- Male ' هي 4000- - D. Female 2000 !-| |- | |- | |- |- SSLLSS S SSSSSSSS LSSS
old Lo
. ડિો Sè N తో ぐ్యనో ბSS నో ༦྾ తో తో లో
@ く C) ్యనో ్యణి నీ ܐܵܓ݂ معي «Շ ܬܢN O ృ* గ్రీ స్ర
გ་ბ @ S S ܠܓ జో C9 ہكچ
Source: Statistical Yearbook of Maldives 2004
51

Page 33
Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia Impact of the tsunami on the Maldives
The tsunami, which swelled in the seas off Indonesia and left untold destruction and death in its path, struck the Maldives just after nine in the morning on 26 December 2004. Waves ranging from 1 - 4 meters slammed into a tiny country that at its highest elevation is only 1.5 meters above the sea-sweeping across entire islands, carrying with it lives, homes that had taken generations to build, vital infrastructure and entire livelihoods.
This has been the worst natural disaster in the history of the Maldives. Around 100 people lost their lives, mostly women and children and 12,000 people or 7% of the population has been displaced (World Bank etal 2005). Some islands had to be completely evacuated as there was nothing left on those islands - no infrastructure, homes or vegetation. Whole communities have been uprooted and placed elsewhere. This is a hard reality to deal with for the nation as a whole as the Maldives has hitherto never had to face the issue of homeless people. Now, thousands have to move into temporary shelters and to live with host families where they will live for the coming months or years. Others have been given refuge by family and friends.
The tsunami has setback the country by twenty years of development. The cost of destruction and damage to infrastructure and industries are at 62% of the annual GDP of the country. 15% of the islands had their water supply disrupted and 25% of the islands essential infrastructure, such as jetties and harbours (WFP 2005) underwent severe damage. Houses and personal assets, educational and health facilities, transport and communication and utilities' infrastructure has been either severely damaged or destroyed in affected islands.
The Maldives economy is based on two industries; tourism and
fisheries. Agriculture also plays a significant role in the local small scale economies. The disaster had a terrible impact on these economic
lifelines. According to the Joint Needs Assessment (2005 World Bank etal), tourism, fisheries and agriculture account for approximately USD 266.2 million in losses directly and approximately USD 30 million in indirect losses.
52

Making Women's Livelihoods Count. Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
Directly tourism accounts for 33% of GDP (MPND 2004). Indirectly, it could be much higher. Due to the tsunami 19 of the 87 resorts had to be shut down and for the earlier part of the year (2005) occupancy rates were below 40% (President's Office & Television Maldives 2005).
The waves destroyed or washed away several fishing vessels, fish processing equipment, jetties, harbours and coastal structures, leaving a large part of the fisher folk and others in this industry with no means of a livelihood. The sea water contaminated the fresh water lens and destroyed significant agricultural areas and vegetation and it is expected to take years to revive these crops. Small income generating activities experienced great or total losses to their tools, infrastructure and equipment effectively forcing out of employment a significant part of the population.
The fragile environment of Maldives has been severely compromised by the massive wave; large parts of beaches and fertile topsoil have been washed away, vegetation has been destroyed, and the large amount of waste and debris created by the devastation and ruins are a major environmental hazard.
The psychosocial impact of the catastrophe has been exacerbated by the loss of livelihoods and consequent uncertainty of the future. In addition to losing livelihoods and a lifetime of savings and assets, the contraction of the fishing and tourism industries have meant job losses for many people, especially the young population.
Gender and livelihoods; post tsunami situation
The tsunami disaster washed away and interrupted the livelihoods of thousands of men and women. In addition to property and assets, many families lost their savings that had been stored away in their homes. While men have lost substantially in terms of assets such as fishing vessels and workshops, women's livelihoods have also been hit
hard.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
However, with women being involved in small scale businesses and not ouning large assets, together with their tendency to work within the households, their losses have not been as visible and measurable as those of men.
Agriculture sector
There are mainly two types of agricultural activities in the islands, which are; managing large farming plots on Communal land, and growing fruits and vegetables on a smaller scale in the homes. Women form a considerable part of the labour force in both types.
Sakeena is the Imam of the women's mosque of Omadhoo island. She was growing mango, chilli, papaya, guava, Curry leaves and banana in her home and earning a substantial income from selling the produce.
After the disaster, due to the increase in the salinity of the ground
water, all her plants and trees had dried up and died. (MGFDSS 2005b)
The impact of the tsunami on the agricultural sector was immense. Farming plots were damaged and agricultural crops, and plants and trees grown in the home dried up. In addition seeds, tools, fertilizers, pumps and other farming equipment got damaged or washed away. Another serious consequence of the disaster is increased salinity in the ground water of the islands, making replanting impossible. It would take considerable time, maybe years to get vegetable production back on track, and to get agriculture back to pre-tsunami levels.
The tsunami disaster's impact on the agricultural sector would have particularly detrimental effects for women as it is the economic sector which has the highest participation rate for women. This is due to the fact that it is an income generating activity that can be done within their home islands, and also because men have moved away from agriculture to take advantage of the structural changes to the economy in the last decades. Around half of those involved in large scale farming and majority of the home growers are women. These women would find it difficult to find alternative means of a livelihood due to a culture of restrictions on the mobility of women outside their home islands, and also because of the limited avenues for income within islands.
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Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
Fisheries Sector
In the fisheries sector, the men are involved in going fishing while the women process fish for sale as well as for own consumption. Due to the tsunami some islands have reported losses or damages in varying degrees to boats, fishing nets, spotlights, generators and other equipment used for fishing. In some cases every fishing vessel in the island was lost. The fish processors, mostly women, lost their kitchens, sheds and tools such as pots and stoves used for their work.
Rugiyya is an elderly woman, who with her children was making dried fish and fish paste on a large scale, earning a considerable income. Some members of the family were also involved in weaving, selling popcorn and making areca nut packets, as well as home gardening.
The disaster had destroyed their home, all their property and equipment as well as their savings stored in their home. They are currently displaced and living in a host island, in cramped conditions in the community centre.
Rugiyya also lost one grandchild in the disaster. (MGFDSS2005b)
Soon after the disaster, with the exception of the islands that have been completely devastated, most of the fishermen were able to resume fishing as they shared the vessels that are intact or have repaired salvageable ones. However, most of the fish processors, who were predominantly women, were unable to resume their activities due to their kitchens being damaged and the loss of equipment which could not be easily replaced with available means. In the islands where women have been processing fish, the fishermen were selling their fish directly to the collection vessels as the fish cannot be processed in their islands. Therefore a considerable amount of women in these islands have lost their livelihoods and are solely dependent on the income of men in the family.
Tourism sector
Tourism is the single largest contributor to the GDP of the Maldives, but only 4% of those employed in the sector are women. These women are mainly employed in lower paying jobs such as cleaners and
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
housekeepers and they are usually from islands very close by or adjacent to a tourist resort. Resorts that provide daily ferries to and from the home islands normally have higher numbers of female employees than
those which do not.
The damage to some of the tourist resorts which caused them to close business for repair has affected a large amount of male workers and also women who were dependent on the remittances sent by these men. Another consequence of the disaster could be tourist resorts laying off workers due to declining numbers of tourists visiting the Country, but as of yet this has not been necessary.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Mariyam is a divorced woman who was living with her three children and her elderly mother. She was the leader of a workgroup who was making coir rope, weaving and making Curry powder. She also had 35 chilli trees where she got a steady income.
The disaster has destroyed her home, damaged all her property and equipment, displacing her family to another island. (MGFDSS
2005b)
This is one sector that women tend to be largely involved in. These include activities such as tailoring, making Curry powder, short eats catering, weaving, making coir rope etc. Highly skilled workers such as carpenters, electricians, welders etc are areas where mell predominate.
In areas flooded by the tsunami, most of the tools and equipment have either been damaged by Salt water, or lost. Work sheds and work areas have been destroyed or washed out to sea. Islands have reported high losses of sewing machines, high powered electrical tools, electrical appliances and generators. Sewing is one of the major economic activities for women who stay at home and sewing equipment is not easily affordable. Women who were weaving fangi and coir rope lost a lot of their finished stock and they also lost large quantities of coconut husks that were being soaked in the sea for making the rope. Although weaving and rope making has already begun on some islands, women have
traditional roofswall thatch made from dry coconut leaves
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Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
been expressing concern that there is still no market for these products as one of the largest markets was the tourist resorts.
People in this sector are one of the most highly affected and vulnerable groups from the tsunami, as they have lost their workplace and tools and, due to their specialized income generating activities, they have few options or skills to engage in other activities.
Broader implications; why restoring women's livelihoods is a priority
He assessments carried out in two atolls by Ministry of Gender, Family Development and Social Security (MGFDSS) show that a large proportion of men who were questioned were continuing with their economic life and that in most cases it is the women who were unable to resume their activities.
For example, an assessment conducted in Thaa atoll, shows that in the island of Thimarafushi the majority of the men were working outside the island and therefore able to resume their jobs, while more than half of the women were involved in home gardening, sewing and fish processing and had lost their equipment and tools and were unable to continue their work (MGFDSS 2005b).
With the recovery work being carried out, there was also a substantial demand for certain skilled jobs, such as construction and carpentry, where men who had lost their livelihoods can get alternative sources of income.
Being an income earner in the family raised the autonomy and degree of independence of women, as well as boosting their self confidence. Enabling economic independence is also the most essential means to achieve empowerment of women. The loss of the means to pursue income earning could setback the progress achieved over the years and once again cause economically independent women to go back to their socially prescribed primary role of homemaker and caregiver. Most of the affected had been involved in small scale income generating activities and the loss of their livelihoods would again reinforce and deepen the existing gender disparities in income and
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
ownership of capital and widen the gap in the participation levels of men and women in economic activities.
Most of the women that were covered in the livelihood assessments by MGFDSS (2005a, 2005b) reported that being idle without any work was cause for psychosocial problems. A group of women from Kolhufushi island, who were all involved in farming reported that they were all used to being active and working and that being without work made them insecure about their future, and also caused them to stress
and worry about their situation (MGFDSS 2005a).
Another issue that was identified among women of both the host and displaced populations was that they had to be primarily involved in communal kitchens and doing the cleaning and looking after the camps and temporary shelters. This, in addition to their household and childcare responsibilities left them with no time to continue with their income generating activities.
Women from Buruni island, which is an island hosting almost all people that were displaced from Vilufushi island reported that they were so busy with the cooking and cleaning in the communal kitchens and areas that there was no time for them to tend to their farming plots (MGFDSS 2005b). These women would also be experiencing a decrease in their incomes and leaving their crops unattended would also hinder the resumption of their means of livelihood in the future.
Women's income generating activities also tend to be based, for various reasons, within their households, unlike those of men's and with the large numbers of people being displaced and now having to live in Cramped quarters - with host families and temporary shelters and tents - there is no physical space for women to recommence their activities. The women of Vilufushi who are currently living with host families and temporary shelters in Buruni island, were mostly fish processors and the lack of a properly equipped kitchen to carry out their work is the biggest constraint that they face.
Another negative consequence of the disaster and people living in cramped conditions and temporary accommodation is the increase in unplanned pregnancies and unued mothers. In spite of the low
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Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
contraceptive prevalence rates in the country, contraceptive
devices are not widely available to displaced populations.
Such pregnancies would increase the vulnerability of women by adding to their responsibilities as well as hindering or delaying them from resuming their income earning activities. This would also cause serious economic constraints on the families.
The interruptions and loss of livelihoods of women, therefore, if not rectified properly, face the danger of increasing the vulnerability and dependence of women, who are already a relatively disadvantaged group in the society.
Relief and recovery programmes/responses
The tsunami left the people, especially those who were displaced, with limited or no money, to take care of even their own basic needs. After emergency relief aid was provided the first large scale assistance program by the government was to give immediate cash assistance to the affected population.
Affected households were identified after assessment teams visited the islands and this cash assistance was provided to the households that were affected, in accordance to their losses and damages. This provided the people with some spending money, with which they could buy personal items, and if possible, to replace some of the materials that they had been using for income generation. The aim of the programme was to deal with the immediate needs of the people.
The initial assessments of the impact of the disaster measured damages to physical infrastructure and assets such as fishing vessels and shops, which were mostly owned by men and which were visible and easily measurable. Most of these assets and buildings were registered and/or belonged to registered businesses. However, women involved in the informal sector and small income generating activities were not registered and there was no way to determine their numbers or the extent of their damage. As a result the initial reports of damages caused by the disaster did not fully reflect the losses faced by women.
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There was in general a lack of gender disaggregated data available on damages and losses due to the disaster. As the initial data and assessments have been used to formulate and plan most of the recovery and economic re-establishment programs, assistance programs for women workers are very limited.
Various projects and programmes have been planned by the government together with support from the international donor agencies, the people and the private sector to provide assistance to those who have lost their livelihoods in the disaster. Although some of them are still in the study and design phase, some assistance programmes are being implemented by the major sectors, like fishing, providing grants, loans and in-kind replacements to enable people to resume their businesses or income generating activities.
Island Livelihood Revitalisation and Development Program (ILRDP)
The ILRDP was formulated to assist the restoration of livelihoods and revive economic activities in the tsunami affected islands through a grant and a loan component. The project is being implemented by fisheries, agriculture, and trade sector Ministries together with the Bank of Maldives and funded jointly by the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations agencies (MoFT 2005).
The activities planned under the project include; in-kind equipment to replace what was lost small and short term cash grants for working capital subsidized micro credit for agricultural and other producers
government financing of repairs to fishing vessels and fishing equipment and
procurement of new cost-effective fishing vessels to replace those that were lost
The loan component of the programme is currently underway and loans are being dispersed by the Bank of Maldives, in association with the sector Ministries. The grant component of the project is still being formulated.
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Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
Under this programme, there is a specific focus to provide replacement assistance to fishing vessels, fishing equipment and farming plots. Assistance is planned to be provided to women who were involved in fish processing, agriculture and home gardening, but a lot of the women who are involved in home businesses and other SMEs and who do not fall under abroad sector would not be covered under the project. As most of these women are not registered and conduct their activities within their homes, they do not come under the trade sector Component of the program as well.
Agriculture Sector
In order to provide assistance to agricultural farmers and home growers there are currently three ongoing projects being implemented by the Ministry Fisheries, Agriculture and Marine Resources (MFAMR) (MPND 2005).These include:
l. Replacement of Farming Inputs to Farmers and Home Gardeners, jointly funded by FAO, ADB, UNDP and Japan. Activities under this project include the provision of agricultural inputs, machinery, equipment and working capital.
2. Strengthening of Agriculture Extension, under which extension
assistance is going to be provided to farmers.
3. Improvement of Soil, Forestry and Water Resources in tsunami Affected Areas, jointly funded by the Government of Maldives, FAO, Singapore and ADB. Activities under this project include, the provision of soil and water analysis kits for testing water and soil, rehabilitation of fruit trees and provision of saplings.
4. Strengthening Agriculture Institutional Capacity. One of the Components planned under this project is the establishment of agriculture markets, with assistance from IFAD and also with Government funding. This would have beneficial implications especially for women, whose participation is almost half of the agriculture sector, as the establishment of markets at a closer proximity to their home islands would widen their economic prospects. Such markets would also provide them with the
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opportunity for expansion of their work to a larger scale and enable them to diversify their produce.
Livelihoods replacement programmes planned under the agriculture sector generally do address the needs of the women involved in the sector. This is important for this sector as the participation of women in this sector is substantial.
Fisheries sector
The implementation of the projects planned under the fisheries sector has not yet started, and there are some projects which are at the procurement and tendering phase. The activities under these projects include:
. Fishing vessels replacement and repair
Replacement of fishing equipment and gear
Most of the projects planned under the fisheries sector focus on asset replacement and assistance for fishermen. There are no programmes planned as yet to provide replacement assistance to fish processors who are predominantly women. There is however, one project being planned where micro-credit facilities would be provided to small and medium scale fish processors but there is no indication on when the implementation would start.
Cash-for-work programmes
Cash-for-work programmes were conducted immediately following the disaster to enable communities who did not have any means of income due to their losses, to enable them to earn something for their daily needs. Another aim of the project was to include the communities in the reconstruction of their islands and to mobilise the people. Under this programme, which was funded by OXFAM, cash was given for reconstruction work such as clearing the rubble, and laying bricks.
Women participated in some of the cash-for-work programmes, mostly in clearing and cleaning the island. In some of the islands, even though the women wanted to, they were not given the opportunity to participate in bricklaying. Some of the reasons given to the women
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Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
were that their participation would slow the work, or that it would not be proper to give the work to women while there were men who did not have any work to do. However, in few islands both men and
women participated together in bricklaying (MGFDSS 2005c). Restoration of Women's Livelihoods Programme
Although there was assistance being planned by major sectors to women whose economic activities were affected, there were many women among the affected populations whose income generating activities did not fall under any specific sector. As a result these women would not have been able to get assistance from any of the major livelihoods restoration programmes.
The Ministry of Gender, and Family Development and Social Security (MGFDSS), in association with UNDP has planned a project to address this issue and provide assistance to such women who are not covered in other programmes. Such women include those who were involved in tailoring, raising poultry, baking, making curry powder, weaving and making coir rope.
Under this programme in-kind and cash assistance will be provided to women to enable them to resume their income generating activities. The program is currently at the procurement and tendering phase.
Areas for interventions; gaps and recommendations
While there is some progress towards incorporating women's livelihoods in national level programming and policymaking there remain many areas where gender issues need to be urgently addressed in order to ensure that recovery and reconstruction is for all.
1. With the transition from the relief to the recovery stage, there was insufficient initial action taken to mainstream gender into all aspects of recovery planning. Consequently, the Gender Ministry was often not consulted at national level policy and recovery planning and there was lack of information gathered on gender specific needs in the area of livelihoods. While women's livelihoods issues are recognised to some extent at the policy level; there is still a tendency
to sideline or give second priority to replacement of assets and tools lost by women.
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2.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
S Above all, there need to be efforts made to build a consensus at the policy and community levels that women's livelihoods issues are an equal and important part of recovery and restoration.
Some of the informal enterprises that women are involved in have not been registered or formally recognised and thus cannot be either identified or authenticated under any particular category to make them eligible for grants/loans. For example, while carpentry has been taken into account as a sector eligible for micro-credit and loans grant schemes, short eats catering businesses have not.
S Information sharing by different sectors need to be facilitated in a more Systemic manner and on a wider scale so that gender specific information, women's livelihoods and sources of income caused by the destruction of property and land needs, etc can be mainstreamed into all sectoral planning.
S. It is also recommended that further assessments are not carried out as repeated visits and surveys to collect the same information cause fatigue and frustration among those whose are being assessed. Instead as mentioned above, proper information sharing can provide required assessments in many cases.
There has been a lack of involvement at the initial planning stage by women at island levels
S Decision making needs to be participatory and inclusive of women active in both formal and informal economies - this should be highlighted and ensured in information gatherings decision making mechanisms already in place or being planned.
Reconstruction and recovery plans include micro credit facilities and loan programmes to support small scale and medium scale businesses including fish processors who are mainly women. However, these schemes do not cover other kinds of livelihood activities by women such as making traditional foods and catering businesses. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge and skill among these women to manage credits and loans and may put them in
danger of going into debt. There is also a lack of knowledge of

Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts
business management and expansion such as identifying and Catering to different markets: for example, agricultural produce is rarely sold
tO eSOtS.
S
Micro-credit facilities and loans grants packages should include capacity building and technical training components to provide women with skills to manage debt.
This training could also be geared to provide women with skills training for alternate means of livelihoods to broaden and diversify income generating avenues available to women.
Training could include business management and development of marketing skills to expand women's role in the economy.
5. The issue of women's livelihoods have largely been ignored; in fact there is only one livelihood restoration project targeted specifically for women so far.
S
It is recommended that while in the short term there need to be livelihood restoration projects specifically targeted towards women, in the long term, women's issues should not be an annex or a component of larger scale livelihood restoration projects but assistance for women should be mainstreamed into the main project or programme. Making separate smaller projects for women undermines the importance of women's contribution to the whole economy as well as being wasteful of resources and
le.
Towards gender equality and empowerment
Just as the Country's recovery goals are to achieve progress that surpasses the levels of development attained in the pre-tsunamiyears, the agenda for gender issues should also be along these lines. The programmes to restore livelihoods create important opportunities to address wider issues of gender equality and long term empowerment of women.
One of the areas that could provide a constructive avenue to empower women and promote equality is asset replacement.

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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Ownership of assets is a major factor which determines the economic and social position of an individual in society. Due to government policy and social norms, land is more or less equally owned by men and women in the Maldives. However, perhaps due to the fact that women earn less income than men, women generally have fewer assets. Thus, in the aftermath of a disaster, not least because women and women headed households are likely to be in a more vulnerable position, it is imperative that asset replacement during the recovery phase directly involve and benefit women as well. Moreover, this should be an opportunity to increase the women owned asset base for more longterm benefits.
Livelihood restoration programmes should also actively seek to ensure that women's livelihoods options are expanded more than before. Programmes to counter disadvantageous Social norms and customs can be a part of the recovery efforts. This includes efforts to increase awareness in communities about the role of women as income earners and long term programmes geared towards changing restrictive attitudes towards women.
Livelihoods restoration programs that include capacity building and skills development would enable women to seek employment and alternative means of livelihoods within and outside the home island such as in tourist resorts and increase their job mobility.
In addition to such programmes there are also wider structural issues that need to be addressed such as making employment opportunities more accessible for women through the provision of safe and affordable transport facilities to workplaces, addressing issues such as harassment at work, providing secure living quarters for women in workplaces and making it a policy to encourage applications from women.
Even though women's participation in the development of the Country is growing, the level of participation is still significantly low. This is an excellent opportunity to provide the necessary measures to address this disparity. Such broader strategies are essential if we are to achieve gender equality in the economic sphere.
66

Making Women's Livelihoods Count: Ensuring Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery Efforts Bibliography:
Ministry of Atolls Development (2004), Old Existing and Potential
Income Generating Activities in the Maldives, Male',Maldives
Ministry of Finance (2005), Island Livelihood Revitalisation and
Development Program; Project Document, Male', Maldives
Ministry of Gender, Family Development and Social Security (2005a), Assessment Report; Assessment trip to tsunami Affected Islands of Meemu Atoll, Male Maldives
Ministry of Gender, Family Development and Social Security (2005b), Assessment Report; Assessment trip to tsunami Affected Islands of Thaa Atoll, Male Maldives
Ministry of Gender, Family Development and Social Security (2005c), Assessment Report; Meetings with Laamu Atoll Women's Development Committees, Male' Maldives
Ministry of Planning and National Development, (1998), Vulnerability
and Poverty Assessment Survey, Male, Maldives
Ministry of Planning and National Development, (2001), Population
and Housing Census 2000, Male, Maldives
Ministry of Planning and National Development, (2004), Statistical
Year Book 2004, Male', Maldives
Ministry of Planning and National Development (2005), online article: http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/Progress%20Update/Fisheries/ Fisheries%20Sector'9620Update.htm. (accessed on 5 July 2005)
The President's Office and Television Maldives, The tsunami Disaster
Maldives, DVD, Male', Maldives
United Nations Population Fund (2004), ICPD + 10 and beyond; Progress, Achievements and Challenges in the Maldives 1994-2004, Male', Maldives
World Food Programme, (2005), RapidAssessment Report of the Impact
of the tsunami in the Maldives, Male', Maldives
World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN System, (2005), The Impact
of the tsunami: Joint Needs Assessment, Male, Maldives
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7
Women's Activism in the Post-Tsunami Context
Sumika Perera
On the 26" of December 2004, Sri Lankans faced the worst natural disaster in history. People living in the coastal areas in seven major districts were badly affected by the tsunami. Particularly affected were the people from the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa and Hambantota.
Globally, in both natural disasters and man-made disasters such as conflicts, those that are most affected are women. This is a truth we have witnessed historically. In the post-tsunami context, while living in relief camps and in temporary shelters, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim women faced discrimination, simply because they were women. Also, Women living in the North and East faced not only the tsunami, but the consequences of more than 20 years of war.
Six months after the tsunami, most of these people are still living in camps and temporary shelters. w
In response to the tsunami disaster, women's organisations became active in various ways. Firstly, members from women's organisations visited the camps in the affected districts and provided material relief assistance to meet the immediate urgent needs of women. Following which they started exploring and documenting the special needs and problems women faced during the disaster and in the context of life in the camps.
Many women's organisations who were involved in this work then joined together and networked among themselves to work more
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Women's Activism in the post-tsunami context
effectively. Four networks of women's organisations, comprising fifty five different organisations which have been working for many years on Women's rights issues, joined together to form the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW) in response to the tsunami. The four networks included the Mothers and Daughters of Lanka, Action Network for Migrant Workers, Women's Alliance for Peace and Women's Alliance for Peace and Democracy. An organised and systematic effort in information gathering and analysis by the organisations through this network exposed the realities facing women living in the camps and in the communities affected by the tsunami. Women were facing many problems relating to their safety and faced a number of incidents of gender-based violence.
There had been no attention paid to women's specific problems in the relief distribution efforts, information collection and camp management processes. Women had no opportunities to influence decision-making processes. Most needs assessments conducted by the government and non governmental organisations focussed mainly on men as their sources of information.
It didn't take long for CATAW to realise that it needed to move beyond emergency relief work and focus on empowering women. Firstly, CATAW worked on providing training and raising awareness to women activists on how to recognise the risks faced by women and how to assess their needs. These trainings included sessions on active listening skills and mediating skills to resolve problems faced by women.
However, the challenge to include women's voices in the reconstruction efforts remained an obstacle. Even though women's organisations had provided relevant authorities with extensive documentation on gender-based discrimination and violence, there had yet not been a satisfactory response from them. Through this process CATAW realised the need for stronger networking and more rigorous empowerment of affected-women through awareness-raising about their
rights.
CATAW actively intervened in expanding women's participation in decision-making bodies from camp management to higher level
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Women Responding to Disasters; Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
decision-making bodies. It has also been able to provide some guidance on this regard to district level women's networks who have been working together with us for over many years.
Even today the primary focus of uomen's organisations and uomen's groups is to guide women affected by the tsunami in accessing basic relief assistance, in rebuilding their lives, as well as further pressurizing policy makers.
The responsibility of helping women create an environment that protects their rights is still with us. It is imperative that we advocate for their needs as well as for their voices to be heard at the national
level.
Women's organisations and networks such as CATAW are working towards bringing about women's economic empowerment as well as rebuilding safe social environments in the post tsunami context. Currently CATAW is helping women affected by the tsunami to deal with their mental trauma as well as to rebuild their livelihoods. Its aim is to prevent women from becoming dependents or destitute and making then economically and socially empowered.
CATAW has especially focussed on women from the North and East, who have also been affected by the conflict for more than twenty years. We believe that the rebuilding process should not be limited to the impact of the tsunami, but should extent to building inter-ethnic coexistence, peace and mutual trust. Therefore, the post-tsunami Context becomes an opportunity to strengthen women's peace activism. This has been going on Over the years among Tamil and Muslim women and women's organisations in the North and East; as well as with women and women's organisations from the South.
We have to join together in our activism in rebuilding the lives of uomen who were affected by the tsunami as well as the conflict. In this process, the trust we build among ourselves will become a powerful force that will push us foruvard. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to organisations such as the Suriya Women's Development Centre who have created a space such as this conference to share our thoughts amidst many obstacles.
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S.
Collective Activism of Women in Batticaloa
During the Post Tsunami Context Sitralega Maunaguru
Introduction:
The Tsunami on the 26 December 2004 had turned thousands of people's lives upside down, caused mass displacements and damaged millions worth of private and public property. The east coast of Sri Lanka was one of the worst affected regions. In the districts of Ampara and Batticaloa thousands of people lost their lives. Houses and properties were destroyed. People lost their livelihoods. My aim here is to highlight the way in which women faced and acted against the consequences of this disaster.
Traditionally women are viewed as helpless victims in the context of disasters. But what we witnessed generally in Sri Lanka as elsewhere was contrary to this popular view; women acted upon the consequences of disasters with great resilience and strength. This activism of women brought specific issues of women in disaster contexts to the center Stage.
Armed conflict and political violence have wrecked Sri Lanka for the past three decades. It has also resulted in loss of lives, disappearance of people, displacement, and violation of human rights. During these years women groups in the country constantly responded to these issues in a number of ways. The Mothers Front in Jaffna, The Mothers Front of the South, Women Action Committee, Mothers and Daughters of Lanka and the Women for Peace are some of the organizations and networks that held demonstrations, issued statements and sent petitions to the relevant parties in conflict. These activities always centered on
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calling for the end of conflict and political violence and advocating for political negotiations to arrive at a sustainable, just and peaceful solution. The activism of women also extended to dealing with the emergency needs of women during ethnic riots and mass displacements
in 1983, 1990 and in 1991. Women's responses to the tsunami:
Soon after the tsunami, women's organizations in Batticaloa started relief work using their available material and human resources to provide emergency assistance to those who were affected. Individual women participated tirelessly with commitment in these initial activities even though they themselves had suffered personnel loss in the tsunami disaster. They organized neighborhood groups and rendered immediate help to people in their vicinities.
However women's organizations did not limit themselves to providing immediate relief. Soon they started exploring the real core issues of affected and displaced women and intervened at policy level. Women's organizations constantly voiced the need for adopting a gender sensitive perspective in the relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts.
The women's organizations in Batticaloa formed themselves into a coalition to collectively voice the issues and concerns of the displaced by the tsunami, and work together primarily on the issues affecting women. This resulted in the formation of a network – the Women's Coalition for Disaster Management - Batticaloa.
Women's Coalition for Disaster Management (WCDM) - Batticaloa
Women's Coalition for Disaster Management (WCDM) - Batticaloa was set up in early January to respond to the urgent gender concerns in the post-tsunami context. WCDM consisted of approximately 20 local and international organizations as well as women's groups from the communities affected by the tsunami. The decision to form a coalition was arrived at at a meeting of local women's organization, officials from INGOs and UN agencies, which was held at Suriya Women's Development Centre. At that meeting the discussion centered
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Collective Activism of Women in Batticaloa during the Post Tsunami Context
on difficulties faced by the displaced women in the welfare camps as a result of the lack of a gender sensitive approach.
On the 12th January 2005 the Women's Coalition for Disaster Management had submitted a memorandum to the Batticaloa District Disaster Operational Committee which had been functioning under the leadership of the Government Agent, Batticaloa.
The memorandum called the authorities to have consultations with displaced women in relation to decision-making about temporary and long-term arrangements for their welfare and rehabilitation. It also asked for the representation of local women's organizations in the decision making structures.
"We call for the inclusion of women representatives from the
different resettlement locations, and women representatives from
local women's organizations in all local and district level decisionmaking bodies” (statement issued by the WCDM 12 January 2005).
The WCDM urged the authorities to take necessary measures regarding the following and also made recommendations in terms of concrete actions they could take.
Ensuring women's privacy in the camp.
There is a lack of privacy for women to change dress, bathe, and sleep or feed babies. Hence every location housing displaced persons should be provided with designated (and monitored) spaces for Women only”.
Prevention of violence against women:
Women are particularly concerned about the alcohol consumption by men in camps, as this increases the risk of sexual harassment, abuse and violence. We recognize that increased alcohol use is linked to the loss of men's opportunities for productive work and usual social roles. Measures must be taken to both protect women through security arrangements as well as preventative mechanisms to engage men within useful and fulfilling activities in and outside the camps
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Women and girls' reproductive health needs
Regular clinics for women (only) be held at each location, preferably with an all-female medical team. Special attention must be given to the needs of pregnant and feeding mothers.
Participation of women in managing the camps:
Women's committees must be set up in each location for displaced persons and all committees in the camps must include women representatives.
Timely and clear information to women
Information must be made available to women directly to avoid confusion, fear and a dependency on rumors and dominant figures in the camp. This is particularly important with regards to registering people, upcoming medical clinics, provision of rations, legal status, compensation prospects and future administrative plans for the camps and displaced persons.
Special attention to women heads of households:
Women who have become heads of households due to the loss of family members must be especially consulted about their relocation needs and wishes. (Ibid)
WCDM also highlighted in the memorandum women's livelihoods
requirements which were often different from those of men and which were linked to the physical environment and social context of their original community. It reiterated that decisions about relocation must
recognize women's livelihoods.
74
This memorandum was signed by the following organizations.
1. Suriya Womens Development Centre
2. Women's Development Forum
Prevention on Gender Based Violence Project - Care International
Nertra — Kirankulam

Collective Activism of Women in Batticaloa during the Post Tsunami Context
13.
This
OXFAM — AUS
OXFAM - GB Thirupperunthurai Community Development Organization Koralaipattu North Development Union
Peoples Welfare Association - Kiran
. Campaign for Ending Violence Against Women Network . Working Women's Development Foundation
. Women's Coexistence Committee- Foundation for
Coexistence World University Service Canada-WUSC
memorandum had become a lobbying document and the
WCDM circulated it widely. Due to the campaign that the WCDM
had taken forward some progress regard to the situation of women in
the camps was reached.
i)
ii)
iii)
Women representatives were included in most camp committees.
Private bathing spaces for women were made in camps.
The officers from the Women Police Desk of the district began routine visits to the camps in order to receive complaints from
WOle.
The Livelihoods Task Force in Batticaloa (which consisted of government and INGO/NGO representatives) included three women's organizations in its highest level decision- making
body.
The co-chair person for the Protection and Psychosocial Task Force in Batticaloa was a member of WCDM - the only local woman in a leadership position in all of the 9 task forces which were set up to respond to the disaster at the district level.
Suriya Women Development Centre functioned as the secretariat for the WCDM. Regular weekly meetings were held to discuss the
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issues related to women affected by the tsunami. These meetings were attended by various stake holders. Women's Organizations, International aid agencies, UN representatives and women from the welfare camps. The meetings were conducted by the WCDM providing a space to raise women's concerns, to ask questions, to listen to grievances, to understand the ground realities, and to make links.
Campaign for land rights:
The second campaign which the women's organizations took forward in Batticaloa also through the WCDM was on land rights and housing. This was to advocate for women's land rights in the context of reconstruction and rehabilitation. When allocating land in new resettlement areas the head of the household (in most cases this is the husband or father) was registered by the Divisional Secretariat. In the East of Sri Lanka, customary laws allowed for property to be inherited from mother to daughter. WCDM had conducted a rapid study on landownership in seven villages in the Batticaloa district which indicated that many women among both Tamil and Muslim communities were land owners prior to the tsunami. This traditional practice was overlooked and the women who owned land prior to the tsunami confronted the danger of losing their right to land. Many women raised their concerns about this during the weekly meetings which the
WCDM conducted.
Therefore a second memorandum was made in this regard to the President of Sri Lanka. It advocated for the following specific measures with regard to land and housing rights.
l. If land was owned by a woman before the tsunami, the
resettlement land titles should be given to the women.
2. There were more women among the dead, within the 200 meter buffer zone. If the land belonged to the woman who died, the land in resettlement areas should be given to the daughters, following customary practices in the East where house and land are inherited from mother to daughter.
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Collective Activism of Women in Batticaloa during the Post Tsunami Context
3. Rebuilding own permanent shelter: If the land and house was in a woman's name before the tsunami, certificates given to households for the purpose of reconstructing damaged houses, should be given in the woman's name'
In addition the WCDM stressed the representation of women in decision-making bodies on shelter. The government had formulated Structures for Community participation, assessing damage of houses, allocating plots, grievance Committees, designing of shelters and issuing certificates at local level. These structures and committees did not have any direct representation of women. Through past experience it was obvious that if women's representation was not made a compulsory criterion for decision making bodies, then there is dismal representation. Considering that women have been equally affected by the tsunami as men, and that if women were not in decision-making bodies, then their concerns were overlooked; the memorandum called for positive action by both the state authorities and donors to ensure that women were represented in all decision making bodies.
"Donors and local government officials ensure that all Village Rehabilitation Committees include at least one woman from the community. This individual can be a woman from a CBO or local women's organization, or someone with special Anouilledge of the concerns of women.
All divisional and district grievance committees include women in the community.
All Damage Assessment teams include a woman representative from the Village Rehabilitation Committee.
The 3 member working committee on the District Donor Consortium ensures that at least one third of the nominated representatives for Village Rehabilitation Committees, Damage Assessment Teams and District Grievance Committees are women" (Memorandum to the President- May 2005)
Some Divisional Secretaries took positive action in this regard and the example of the action taken by the DS of Vakarai in Batticaloa
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
District can be sited. He committed to including 7 women in the Village Rehabilitation Committee.
The lobbying of the WCDM was taken to the highest level decisionmaking bodies. Representatives from the WCDM had meetings with TAFREN (Task Force for Rebuilding Nation) and with the Women's Ministry on issues and recommendations contained in the memorandums. When the Head of UNIFEM visited Sri Lanka in May 2005, WCDM was invited to participate at the discussion with her.
Reporting Gender rights abuses:
Another important work of the WCDM was to monitor and report on rights issues of women in the post tsunami reconstruction Context. The network started compiling incidents and complaints with regard to abuses of rights. These reports were named as Gender Watch. These reports monitored rights and concerns of communities affected by the tsunami - especially women. The reports were compiled usually every two weeks and circulated to organizations via email.
The Gender Watch did not cover all violations - and therefore was only indicative of the nature of problems.
The Gender Watch had compiled from January to April 2005, 17 cases of domestic violence, 1 case of sexual violence, 12 reports of bad conditions in the camp regard to sanitation and health, 19 cases of rights violations resulting from state practices and polices, 5 reports were documented where communities were threatened and moved out of schools and other buildings, involuntarily into tents and 1 case of mines in the relocation site etc. Some of the issues were resolved by referring it to relevant authorities/organizations. For example out of 19 complaints due to state practices and policies, 9 were followed up. The Complaints included coercing communities to move out of schools, not issuing ration cards to people, not registering families, not giving relief money to women, using abusing language against women. Other reports were related to the gendered nature of government housing policies and problems with loan repayment. These reports were not independently verified, but were forwarded to the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission for follow up.
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Colt, e Activism of Women in Batticaloa during the Post Tsunami Context
Thus the Gender Watch reports brought out actual issues at the ground level, to the attention of concerned officials and organization/ departments and also provided a forum for people to place their grievances.
The collective activism of women through the platform of WCDM resulted in creating awareness and alert regarding gender issues and women's concerns among the state institutions as well as among the other agencies. As I said in the beginning it had brought these issues to the centre stage. The other women's networks in the south of the country had also participated in the activities of WCDM. These networks, especially Coalition for Assisting Tsunami Affected Women (CATAW) a network formed soon after the tsunami in the south of Sri Lanka took forward the campaign that the WCDM had initiated.
However the challenges to effectively include women's rights and welfare in to the rehabilitation and reconstruction process still remain. We need to work more on this untiringly and Collectively.
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9
The Participation of Women in Post Tsunami Aceh - Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Siti Maisarah, Indonesia
Current problems faced by communities in Aceh
Within the context of the armed conflict that is facing Aceh, many women have experienced sexual violence and have also been used as tools military of conquests, and human-shields.
Aceh is also a region in which the Shariah Law is gradually being implemented. The main target for the implementation is women.
This is also the region which has been hit worst by the earthquake and tsunami causing many women to lose their family members, their houses and properties, among many others.
The impact of the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004
Dead: 138,728
Lost: 371,063 people (65% women). Houses Damaged: 179,312 units.
Refugees: 474,318
15 regions out of 21 regions in Aceh were affected: East Aceh, North Aceh, Bireun, Pidie, Aceh Besar, Sabang, Aceh Jaya, West Aceh, South West Aceh, Nagan Raya, South Aceh, Aceh Singkil, Seumeulu, and Lhokseumawe.
From 15 regions that were hit, 9 among them are located in the
conflict affected regions.
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The Participation of Women in Post Tsunami Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Specific problems faced by women
Women are forced to live in refugee camps which are lacking in safe spaces for women.
Physical disabilities which limit women's mobility
The increase of psychosocial problems.
Women have lost their economic resources albeit have been forced to become the primary bread winner of the family.
Getting stigmatized as the cause of the disaster - women were blamed that the tsunami was a punishment for their immoral behaviour
The loss of their assets and properties.
Difficulties in getting legal rights and proving ownership of properties.
Experiencing many forms of sexual violence (the most common being sexual harassment)
Other Problems
Women's concerns not taken into account at the decision making level (including in the planning and blueprint making process) in the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The assistance provided does not support the process of empowerment; instead it makes the women more dependent.
The activities carried out are project oriented. After three or four years the projects come to an end, however the underlying problems have not been resolved.
Women's activism in the post tsunami context in Aceh
In spite of all these problems women have got involved in some organizations and are doing activities of economic recovery, psychosocial intervention, alternative education and conducting emergency response activities.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia Getting involved in village cleaning and clearing programs.
S Local women's organizations organized a Women's Congress where 400 women participated to make a joint plan on how women's participation in the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation can be improved and promoted, especially in the areas of decision making and policy making.
Accompanying the internally displaced persons and children when they go to receive assistance.
Conducting psychosocial programmes by establishing support groups for the children through some activities, group counseling, individual Counseling, playing, studying, sports and art activities.
Carrying out programmes of community psychosocial education
Gender needs that have still not been considered
82
The involvement of the women in the process of decision making and policy making for reconstruction and rehabilitation is very poor.
The facilities of the camps should take into account the special needs of women.
There should be a better mechanism for the protection of women
Special attention should be given to the development of psychosocial interventions for women and children.
The need to establish good coordination among organizations, both local and international.
The organizational skills of women need to be developed.
Women's resources and skills need to be recognized and better utilized.
S Establish women's networks locally, nationally and
internationally to raise women's concerns.

O
Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat: Gujarat Carnage 2002 and Now
Sheba George
"I want to assure the people of Gujarat that Gujarat shall not tolerate any such incident. The culprits will get full punishment for their sins. Not only this, we will set an example that nobody, not even in his dreams, thinks of committing a heinous crime like this" (Emphasis added)
Mr. Narendra Modi. Chief Minister, Gujarat State on February 28, 2002 on Gujarat State run Television Channel.
"The State Government, taking seriously this cruel and inhumane offence
of mass violence (on innocent travelers), is firm to take symbolic steps
and to punish in such a way that such an incident may not repeat in the future”
Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, on
February 28, 2002
on floor of Gujarat Assembly
In a two hour Meeting called by the Chief Minister (On night of February 27, 2002), he made it clear that there would be justice for Godhra the next day, during the VHP called bandh. He ordered that the police should not come in the way of "Hindu Backlash'. On being vehemently protested by the State Director General of Police, the Chief Minister harshly told him to shut up and obey. At the end of the meeting the CMensured that his top officials especially the police - would stay out of the way of the Sangh Parivar men. The word was passed on to the mobs.
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Deposition by Senior Minister of the Gujarat State Government in the Concerned Citizens Tribunal headed by former Supreme Court Judge
A bandh was called by Vishua Hindu Parishadon February 28, 2002 supported by BJP led State Government. The violence that unleashed on February 28, 2002 by Right wing Forces with complete State Connivance and Culpability resulted in MANCREATED DISASTER that marooned the Muslim Minorities of Gujarat for a complete year of 2002 in different phases............... and is still continuing.
March 2002 – May 2002
Police and Rapid Action Force excesses were unleashed on Muslims specifically in Ahmedabad and Vadodara cities. Women and young girls were physically (including firings), verbally and sexually assaulted (molestation, sexual remarks, exposing genitalia, mid-night knocking, threats of subjecting them to what happened in Naroda Patiya) within their homes and in relief camps. Illegal detentions and physical assaults including firings on men and young boys took place. There was ransacking, looting and extortion of money by police while conducting Combing Operations in Muslim areas. Constant ongoing sporadic violence, police excesses and state attitude continued inflicting mental, emotional and psychological violence on survivors as they struggled in Camps.
May 2002 - December 2002
No rehabilitation measures and poor relief measures were provided. There was a laxity in providing compensation, and there was harassment by state authorities to close the camps. There were continuing threats and intimidation for registering complaints, denial of justice and anti minority attitude of the state which continued to inflict violence on Muslims.
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Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat
Situation in camps: Unrecognised camps and displaced persons by government of Gujarat
Across the State 2 lakhs of displaced Muslims were forced to take shelter in Relief Camps set up by the Muslim Community in available places beginning from February 28, 2002. Survivors from rural Gujarat continued to come in after 15 - 20 days of the immediate violence making their way across hilly terrain and forests without food and water. The Government of Gujarat gave recognition to the camps only on March 15, 2002. The Government of Gujarat officially recognized 103 camps and the displacement of 113,697 Muslims. There existed several gaps between the official and unofficial figures of recognized camps and the number of total displaced persons. Within Ahmedabad City alone: -
O Of the total 89 Reliefcamps only 54 relief Camps were recognized Within the 54 recognized camps 16,863 persons were not taken
in to account by the Government
Situation in camps: Lack of support cells/legal aid cells/counseling cells by the state government
No support systems were set up to provide immediate medical aid and counseling support to the victims and survivors - specifically women and young girls of severe violence and children. Survivors continued to have dreams and hallucinations of attacks (of what they had witnessed/ were victims of) for days together unable to sleep, rest or cry. Deep shock, daze and anguish prevailed within camps.
There were no responsible officers/personnel of the government to assist the survivors in procuring dead bodies and finding missing persons. Instead survivors including women were harassed for registering complaints and filling forms for receipt of compensation.
No legal aid cells or guidance was provided by the government. Instead the police officials who came to camps for registering Complaints threatened and intimidated survivors who named the VHP/BJP leaders as the accused, and demanded Rs. 100/- 150/- from the survivors to
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give them a copy of the FIRs, and often registered complaints by only filling in inadequate information.
Situation in camps: providing basic necessities and relief for survivors
Instead of providing for and setting up the relief camps, the State Government had put down terms and conditions for setting up of relief camps by the Muslim community thus shifting the onus of responsibility on the survivor community itself. These conditions included that relief camps should be run by a registered trust or an organization, or should take special permission of the Collector. The camps should provide for toilet facilities, drinking water facilities, and health facilities satisfactory to the government, the camp organizers will be responsible for health and prevention of diseases of the persons taking shelter; they were also to be responsible for providing health and pure food to children and all other persons, and be accountable to keep records of in coming and outgoing relief items.
Situation in camps: Forceful closure of camps without proper alternative
leaSLCS
The Government forcefully started closing camps in the month of June 2002 and all camps were declared officially closed by the end June 2002. The government provided no alternative arrangements/ rehabilitation and security measures before the forceful closure. Within Ahmedabad alone, 59,935 Muslims were still living in camps when the camps were forced to close down.
Providing compensation to the surviving victims
A compensation Package of Rs. 2 Lakhs for the victims of the Godhra Train Tragedy and Rs. 1 lakh for the victims of the Gujarat Carnage 2002 was announced by the State Government of Gujarat. The Discrimination in the compensation package was removed after there was nation wide criticism and protest against the State decision.
The State Compensation Package included: - Rs. 90,000/- in cash and Rs. 60,000/- in bonds for the deceased
- Rs. 1,500/- to 15,000/- for injuries (did not take in to account
sexual violence and bullet injuries) 86

Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat
- Rs. 5,000/- to Rs. 50,000 for house / residential property
damage
- Rs. 10,000/- for commercial property damage - Rs. 2,500/- for household damages
- Two months ration equal to the quantity given in camps to the
families willing to leave the camps
Providing rehabilitation to the displaced survivors
It is important that the State broadens the frame of responses/ preparedness to disasters, while being conscious of the multiple layers impacting those facing and surviving disasters. These multiple factors include those of identity, class and region that have repercussions on recovery from disasters.
It has been noted that caste / ethno-religious groups / internally displaced persons already recovering from and one catastrophe are once again denied rights in the face of a new disaster, due to discrimination with regard to the distribution of relief and rehabilitation (earthquake 1 tsunami / religious violence). Many aid agencies take time to glean the local complexities while the state turns away or executes the discriminating factors and denials and/or hands over the reconstruction of lives and property mostly, to non governmental organizations. For example, in Gujarat, the state government announced no rehabilitation package for the displaced survivors.
The human rights concerns and gross violations of women's rights are either glossed over, undermined, suspect of exaggeration or removed from the realm of truth and justice.
There is no scope for punishing the guilty due to state culpability (Hindu militants, police and paramilitary force involvement in the case of Gujarat - 2002) and evidence that don't withstand prevailing laws. The beginning and the end results in scores of fact-finding reports. The ramifications are deep underlying trauma, ghettoization and erosion of the self and community; restorative justice or compensatory provisions are non existent by state agencies. This is the gravest challenge for women in human rights work and in policy and decision making.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia Role of the Central Government
The NDA led Central government supported the state connivance to violence. It announced the package of Rs. 150 Crores but no further details about use of money are available. The UPA led Central government in May 2004 promised to provide a rehabilitation package for the survivors but no money has yet been announced or allotted.
Role of civil society
Within Gujarat, the majority community and civil society did not take part in any of the relief and rehabilitation processes. Instead they were responsible for either taking part directly in inflicting violence directly through looting, burning shops and establishments or houses, and indirectly by supporting the violence. A large part of the majority community within the state of Gujarat felt and continues to feel that the "Muslims deserved what happened to them". However, outside Gujarat, civil society responded to the man created disaster, by being volunteers in reliefcamps, assisting in legal aid measures and providing financial assistance for relief and rehabilitation. The survivor community themselves had to provide for rehabilitation in terms of shelter, livelihood, schools, and religious places for the displaced persons.
Across the state of Gujarat above 10, 000 houses have been constructed and repaired by the Muslim social organizations. Eighty new colonies have been built in available alternate land for survivors who are not allowed to return to their houses and villages and for witnesses who face threats for registering cases. Muslim organizations have provided for educational and livelihood support. Schools, medical clinics and hospitals have been built by the Muslim organizations themselves in the areas where rehabilitated families have settled.
Of serious concern is that the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction are not defined by women - neither the survivors nor the defenders. This impacts the articulation of needs and scope of strategic change that can enhance women's spaces across the board.
Cultural and religious / caste Panchayats and political bodies are controlled by men due to their control on financial resources. The lack
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Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat
of transfer of real money-power to women also obstructs womenoriented rebuilding of lives and communities.
The lack of reviving of livelihoods undermine and push men into further depression and helplessness - as providers - already having failed as protectors, and women slide down equality indicators as a consequence, resulting in sexual exploitation. On the other hand women and young girls face incumbent restrictions of mobility especially if they live bordering the conflict zones; they are freer to move in ghettos.
Complete segregation and polarization affects thinking through gender preparedness for disasters. It also perpetuates the silences resistance to expanding violence against women strategies, responses and actions that could curtail the impact of future disasters on Women.
Present concerns of the displaced survivors and witnesses
After 3 years of carnage -
61,000 Muslims continue to live displaced lives without permanent shelter and livelihood.
Across 18,000 villages Muslims are not allowed to return to their homes and property.
Severe economic and social boycott of Muslims continues in most parts of Gujarat affected by violence in 2002
Rehabilitated families across the state continue to struggle for existence in absence of concrete means of livelihood, poor compensations, denial of basic rights to human security and justice and denial of basic needs like health, education, transportation, water and sanitation.
The main concerns of the survivor community have remained unchanged after three years. The continuing partisan State attitude, continuing and expanding right-wing activities and pococurante demeanor of majority community for justice and peace push the survivor community at the edges even more socially, economically, educationally.
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This has lead to strengthening the discourse of self determination and difficulties to find common ground across differences. There has been a significant downward slide in socio-economic development limiting women's economic upliftment. There have been problems for women who were widowed due to traditional attitudes on widowhood. Young women who had facial injuries have been traumatized and withdrawn from any interactions with society. There has been an increasing trend of early marriages, with more and more women giving up options for education and career development.
Forced ghettoization:
Juhapura, is a Muslim dominated locality in the city of Ahmedabad uvhich uvas home to 50,000 Muslims.
After the 1992 riots, today, the number of Muslims residing in Juhapura has increased to 2 lakhs.
With each subsequent incidence of violence, Muslims are forced into ghettos mainly on outskirts of a city or a village. Forced living on the fringes of the cities and villages denies them access to basic amenities of water, sanitation, transportation, medical aid, and education, limits their livelihood options and increases the overall cost of living. These facts can be witnessed in Bombay Hotel, Vatva Sundernamnagar in Ahmedabad City, Ramol in Ahmedabad Rural and similarly in Panchamahals, Dahod and Vadodara districts where 80 colonies have been built for displaced families.
The situation of communal conflict forces both the Hindu and the Muslim families to move out from the area of conflict giving rise to Hindu and Muslim Ghettos. The main difference between the two ghettos is that the majority Hindu community has access to land, the basic facilities and amenities like transportation, water, sanitation, provided by the government; as for the Muslim minority communities, they cannot buy, purchase or rent lands house in developed Hindu areas; neither does the government provide basic amenities to places where they migrate. For example, within Ahmedabad city, the western part of Ahmedabad has not only been provided with basic amenities of water and sanitation but parks, gardens, fountains have been developed
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Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat
for the beautification of the area by the government; the routes of government buses have been expanded to provide transportation to the Hindu residents living in the area. Right opposite is Bombay Hotel the largest Muslim ghetto in Ahmedabad. No mode of public transportation is available to reach the place. There is no sanitation and drainage system developed for the residents. There are no accessible Government health centres and schools within the locality. Children, women, sick persons have to travel a distance of anything between 1/2 km to 3 kms depending on where their house is located to reach the main road, and travel further down to access schools, hospitals and other daily needs. Every year during the monsoons the area faces a threat of an epidemic as water logging occurs across the entire area, with water containing chemical and sewage waste.
Absence of security and protection
On July 5, 2005 families from Naroda Patiya, vacated their houses and shifted to Vatva and Bombay Hotel (Muslim areas of Ahmedabad city) immediately after an attack in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh during a Rath Yatra (A Hindu festival in which a large procession is carried out across the city). Muslim families who experienced violence in 2002 continue to move into Muslim dominated areas or back to the site of relief camps with every coming Hindu festival or due to other attacks happening across the world and the Country.
Along with threat of physical violence, Muslim communities also constantly face the fear of being detained illegally by the local Crime Branch or Police Agencies. Till date 542 persons have been officially arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) of which 99% are Muslims. Many unrecorded arrests and torture of young Muslim men and boys continue to take place.
No proactive measures are taken by the State Government or the state Agencies to instill a sense of reassurance and protection within Survivors. Instead provocative statements by the government, social and economic boycotts by civil society, and other right wing activities continue unabated.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia Lack of concrete livelihood means and continuing economic boycott and denial of property/assets
Within district administration and Peace Committee meetings between Muslim and Hindu communities, Hindus have laid the terms and conditions for the Muslim communities to return.
Some Examples are as follows:
“You will be allowed to come back if you drop the rape charges" - Randhikpur Village, Dahod
"Muslim doctors having a сотрuter should be expelled as Hindus suspect that he is linked with ISI through his internet"
— Pandaruvada, Panchmahals "You cannot engage in the same busines as Hindus, yои should not participate in Hindu functions, Hindus should be allowed to use Muslim assets when they want"
— Kaduvad, Vadodara "Convert into Hinduism" , "
– Raichha, Vadodara "Withdraw the case filed against theperpetrators” ..
- Naroda Village, Naroda Patiya - Ahmedabad
Across the State of Gujarat, Muslims are forced out of their businesses and establishments. Displaced Muslim families have lost their ownership of land, property and other assets in their own areas, as they are not allowed to return back, pushing them into the margins economically. Poor compensations given by the Government compared to heavy economic losses have pushed hundreds of families into poverty
(for example Naroda Patiya, Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad).
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Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat
Denial of Basic Rights
Most areas in which the Displaced Survivors could be rehabilitated are situated on the fringes of the city or in villages where civic bodies provide no basic amenities. Hence most areas face concerns of drinking water, electricity supply, sanitation and sewage disposal. As these areas are located away from the city, livelihood options become limited. Secondly, persons who earn their livelihood by working within the cities/ villages spend most of their earnings on transportation. Children are denied educational facilities; this affects girls the most because of the distance and the increased education costs. The cost of the education increases due to transportation and because many are forced to go to private schools due to the lack of government schools. No adequate health care facilities are available within the areas. The families have to travel anything between 1/2 km to 5 kms depending on the location of their houses. This has become a serious problem in times of emergencies and monsoons.
Concerns for obtaining destroyed legal documents and compensation
No proper mechanism or support system has been developed by the municipalities or State government to provide new documents in lieu of the destroyed legal documents (ration cards, election cards, birth certificates, passports, driving licenses apart from other documents concerning their assets and property) to the survivors. The lack of adequate and correct information has led them to spend large amounts of money to obtain these documents.
Displaced survivors are still struggling to procure compensations for their dead family members, for injuries or damages as they have not been able to obtain the necessary documents (injury / death certificates from hospitals, FIR copies from Police stations)
PARTC
Women are in the forefront when the catastrophe takes place but they end up with receding roles and don't have a say in key matters in reconstruction nor in any permanent mechanisms that emerge as monitoring bodies or in policy making and financial institutions.
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Women's participation ends up with small examples of victim-hood converted to agency with no substantial participation in policy planning and monitoring implementation of reconstruction of work. In earthquakes, floods or genocides, money and planning still is not within the reach of women. Time and again women play intensified roles in negotiating or dialoguing to overcome conflict. Women's presence as "individuals” v/s institutions or organizations limits their possibilities in defining preparedness for disasters in a gendered way. Lessons learnt from various efforts for conflict transformation shows that women are not in more permanent positions to ensure preparedness to post conflicts disaster situations and development, decision making and planning. Strategies and actions taken by SAHR WARU: Women's Action and Resources Unit as part of the rehabilitation and reconstruction process
February 2002-2004
SAHR WARU witnessed and worked in the aftermath of the Gujarat carnage of 2002 that happened as a result of the Godhra Train Incident. All our work constituencies were severely affected.
Immediate interventions of providing relief and legal support
A larger part of our work was in camps for six months in partnership with
citizens initiatives. The tasks included:
Filling up forms for legal support to prepare FIRs
Distribution of food items in camps and affected areas to 7,000 families (Shah-e-Alam Camp, Madhavbhai Compound Camp, Millatnagar, Gomtipur, Chandola, Jamalpur, Sarkhej, Bapunagar, Shah-e-Alam)
Distribution of non food items in camps — Bakar Shah Roza Camp, Madhav Bhai Mill Compound Camp, Shah-e-Alam Camp
Educational support to 300 children
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Man Created Disaster with State Support and Connivance in Gujarat
. Providing medical aid to six women survivors of burns
Assistance with livelihoods through SANJHA — SAHR WARU (a ration shop which was run by eight women survivors from Naroda Patiya, through providing livelihood support to 8 other
women survivors.
National and international instruments
Do these instruments actually support women? Do these structures and systems deliver justice or deter victims / survivors from seeking truth and justice? While we do not wish to promote women's victimhood and highlight their agency and resistance, the fact is that the scales on which women are victims only continue to expand. Be it to ideologies, development planning, conflict or as survivors of disasters.
We are at a cross road where there has been a departure from multicultural and plural societies and increasing crimes against Women as well as spates of suicides due to unemployment and depression (in Gujarat). This is based on the acceptance of a homogenized socio - cultural norm and increased pressure to conform and maintain the existing Status quo.
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11
Gender issues in Disaster Preparedness: A Case from Sri Lanka
Thanushi Senanayaka
Disaster Preparedness vs Emergency Response
The dominant or traditional approach to disasters often practiced in South Asia generally tends to be emergency response driven, and relief focused unlike the alternative approach to disasters which looks at disasters as part and parcel of the development process. The alternative approach sees disasters in the context of conditions within the Society. In many South Asian countries although funds are allocated by the government for emergencies, they are withheld until a disaster actually strikes. This leads to a situation where the finances from the national and non governmental organizations being diverted from the development activities to provision of disaster relief.
However, the alternative approach to disasters gives more emphasis on disaster preparedness and other long-term measures.
Other common features of these traditional disaster response programmes are that they are bureaucratic, unsystematic, highly Centralized, and top-down. The top-down approaches coupled with bureaucratic centralized systems do not allow space for consulting and employing the men and women of the affected communities for the disaster recovery work. Further, these systems pay very little or no
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Gender issues in disaster preparedness. A case from Sri Lanka
attention to the fact that men and women experience disasters differently.
Gender and Disasters
Men and women experience disasters differently due to their socially constructed roles. Consequently, disasters also have a different impact on men and women. Roles and responsibilities of men and women in the disaster management process too differ. In a disaster situation, the vulnerabilities, capacities and options available to men and women are different. However, the dominant or traditional approach adopted in most of the disaster response programmes does not recognize nor address the different vulnerabilities of men and women. Instead the benefits are often confined to men, as men are viewed as 'head of household breadwinner and women as house wives', 'secondary earners', and mothers' within the context of the family. The ignorance of gender differences leads to the relief and recovery work being insensitive and ineffective. Furthermore, these programmes not only deny benefits for women but can even lead to worsening their situation.
Are Women More Vulnerable to Disasters?
Even under normal circumstances various studies and research have shown that
Women are poorer-globally women are poorer than men. Women are disproportionately employed in unpaid, underpaid and non formal sectors.
» Women have limited access to resources - the traditional social customs such as marriage, dependence on fathers, husbands and sons, banking systems and inheritance laws contribute to giving unfavourable or limited access and control to women.
Lack of access to information and markets - traditional homebased responsibilities limit the mobility of women. This restricts women from having access to education, participation in politics, and markets.
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lack of access to enjoy human rights - gender inequalities deprive women from the enjoyment of human rights, health care, political rights, economic status and landownership rights.
Disasters result in loss of lives, livelihood, shelter, and infrastructure - a total unexpected change of the normal situation. Apart from the mental trauma of losing loved ones, men and women from the affected communities have to bear with other hardships such as being confined to a transitional camp with limited facilities. The transitional shelter establishes its own culture. The age old traditions that ensured the safety of women and maintained the social fabric, is stripped off during disaster situations. The lack of privacy, security and loss of immediate family members increase the vulnerability of women. Since, in many societies a woman depends on her husband, brother or father, the loss of such family members will make her helpless and weak.
During a disaster the majority of the casualties tend to be women. The majority of the deaths from the tsunami in Sri Lanka were women. This is especially true if women did not receive timely warnings and if cultural and social constraints restricted their mobility. There are also cases of women not having certain life skills such as Swimming, climbing etc. Evacuation areas available at times were not safe for women which stopped them from accessing such areas. Furthermore, older women, disabled women, pregnant, nursing women with children tended to be left behind, or were the last to leave, due to their lack of knowledge, and restricted mobility.
Gender-based attitudes and stereotyping can extend women's recovery phase. Increased expectations from women as care givers to the family members during the time of disasters, deprive women from having time to mourn the loss of the near and dear and attend to the mental and physical trauma experienced. On the other hand as men are generally portrayed as physically and mentally strong their need for counseling tends to get neglected. A majority of the lives lost from the tsunami were women in many families. Although, there were a number of organizations involved in counseling for children who lost
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Gender issues in disaster preparedness: A case from Sri Lanka
their parents and women, there was no special attention on men who were widowed.
There were many instances reported of men who lost their families attempting suicide, in some communities being forced to remarry for the sake of safeguarding the property. In a particular community in the east of Sri Lanka two men who were widowed were forced to remarry single women from the same community.
In the aftermath of a disaster the gendered division of labour becomes critical as gender roles are often seen to be reinforced or sometimes intensified due to the additional work and changes in the environment. Fisheries, self employment and informal sector were severely affected by the tsunami. This resulted in loss of livelihood for many women employed in these sectors. Women experience the economic burden as well as the domestic burden. As housing is often destroyed in disasters, many families were forced to relocate to shelters which had inadequate facilities for cooking. After the tsunami women from the affected families in transitional shelters had to prepare their meals with the available limited facilities while attending to the needs
of the elderly, disabled and children in the family.
Humanitarian Interventions in the Aftermath of the Tsunami in Sri
Lanka
The tsunami disaster was unexpected and a disaster of its nature unprecedented. The scale and complexity of the situation demanded attending to the immediate needs and restoring normalcy, to initiate rehabilitation and reconstruction. Numerous agencies, government, and local organizations, and individuals attended to the immediate relief measures, and Subsequently a massive reconstruction and rehabilitation process began. Though some who volunteered their services had previous experience, knowledge and skill in responding to disaster situations, there were many organizations/groups new to crisis situations.
Despite the good intentions, there were many instances of important issues being overlooked due to ignorance and lack of experience in
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addressing women's issues in disaster situations. As a result women (and sometimes men) in relief centres experienced difficulties in accessing basic biological needs. As most camps had men as managers women had difficulties in accessing appropriate Sanitary wear, possibilities of washing and sometimes experienced humiliation. Women could not directly access relief and other support due to lack of knowledge on emergency assistance, and the practice of considering men as the head of the household in relief distribution efforts by government officials. Inadequate attention on pre and post natal and reproductive health considerations created a situation of not having space to rest and lie down for the pregnant, and breastfeeding mothers. Further, many transitional camps did not have separate toilets and bathing area for women. Since the male medical officers provided assistance at the initial stages women in most cases did not access family planning methods and advice in camps. There were also reports of husbands and male partners insisting on sexual activity even when there was a lack of privacy.
Are Women Frontline Responders to Disasters?
Women are often more vulnerable to disasters than men and popularly perceived as helpless victims. However, women do possess valuable knowledge and experience in coping with disasters. In many communities women take an active part in community initiatives taking leadership roles and at grass root level most often outnumber
II]ՅՈ.
Women have used their indigenous knowledge to communicate the onset of disasters, while men rely on weather bulletins. The close association women have with the environment makes it possible to understand the unusual signs prior to a disaster. It is often women who will collect and store food items for difficult times ahead. In the aftermath of a disaster when the men are forced to migrate in search of work, women are left to shoulder the entire responsibility of looking after the family. After the tsunami, women played a major role in taking care of orphaned children, pregnant mothers, the sick, the disabled and the elderly. Women were also involved in providing support as
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Gender issues in disaster preparedness: A case from Sri Lanka
temporary teachers for children who could not go to schools. In constructing temporary shelter women worked with men. However, the reconstruction process had many gaps, particularly in overlooking the fact that women are equal partners in the recovery process with
c.
Absence of Gender Sensitivity in the Rebuilding Process
Why concerns of women and men were overlooked in the relief and rebuilding efforts can be attributed to a number of reasons. The scale of the disaster, and urgency to restore normalcy, appears to be one of the key reasons for the absence of gender sensitivity.
There were a number of players involved in the relief operations. Although, some were experienced and aware of addressing gender concerns the absence of sufficient analysis of communities from a gender perspective constrained their relief efforts. Even later, for the rebuilding process the lack of gender disaggregated data continued to hinder the rebuilding process.
At present there are a number of analytical frameworks, guidelines, and other sources of information available to help translate policy into practice. For example, the UNHCRS (1992) People Oriented Planning (POP) in Refugee Situations looks at the context and refugee profile, the activities of women and men and their use and control of resources before and after the crisis (Capacities and Vulnerabilities Analysis). Yet they are either not applied or poorly adhered to by agencies involved in disaster management. Some of the other reasons for the absence of gender sensitivity in the rebuilding process are lack of Co-ordination about roles and responsibilities between state and non governmental organisations, politics in relief distribution, and gender insensitivity among relief workers.
Agenda for Change: Recommendations for a Gender Sensitive Post Tsunami Rebuilding Process
Ignorance of gender differences leads to insensitive and ineffective operations that largely bypass women's needs and their potential to assist in disaster relief and reconstruction activities.
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The following recommendations about addressing women's Concerns
and gender issues in relief and reconstruction could be used as a guide
for
policy makers and practitioners in the area of disaster management.
Making Initial Disaster Responses Gender Sensitive
Relief Distribution
Disaster relief that is gender sensitive requires:
X
Close interaction with the affected communities during the relief planning process.
Gender-disaggregated assessments for relief distribution. Employment of female relief workers. o E.g. distributing provisions through women.
Relief workers who are aware and sensitive to gender issues and humanitarian ethics.
Recognition of skills and capacities of women from affected communities and their involvement in relief planning, distribution of assistance and in other emergency management activities.
Relief that reaches sub-categories such as widows, old women, female-headed households, single women, disabled etc.
Attention to the cultural concerns of different communities and elimination of culture/religion/gender based discrimination in registration, compensation and relief distribution.
Adherence to the minimum standards set for relief distribution
(e.g. the SPHERE standards).
Basic Practical Needs
Women have specific needs and measures should be taken to:
XX
102
Ensure privacy for women in common areas of camps.
o E.g. provide women's "corners' separate toileting and bathing
Ø፲ን'é?ሪd§.
Attend to needs of pregnant and nursing mothers.

Gender issues in disaster preparedness: A case from Sri Lanka
o E.g. provide infant milk pouder, feeding bottles, infant clothing,
nappies and mosquito nets.
10 Provide sanitary ware and rags for menstruation, and clothing
such as undergarments.
Security and Safety
It is a fact that in displaced situations, in temporary shelters and in camps, women and children are often subject to sexual harassment, abuse and violence. Specific measures need to be taken to secure women
and children's safety:
Take practical measures to protect them from abuse;
o E.g. secure sleeping arrangements, provide adequate lighting and safe location of toilets.
» Take steps to ensure that the community is responsible for the safety
of children
» Wherever possible, assist and accompany women/children going in
search of family members / loved ones.
Health Concerns
Women keep families healthy after disasters. As caregivers to the young, old, sick, disabled, and injured, women tend to put their own needs last. Relief and reconstruction efforts need to pay attention to women's health and ensure specific health concerns and needs are being
addressed:
y Measures are needed to tackle the increased risk and incidence of sexual and/or domestic violence associated with major disasters.
o E.g. medical assistance should be available to women and children victims of physical or sexual abuse. Some women may need the Morning
After Pill.
» Reproductive and family planning health services should be included
in general health work.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
o E.g. provisions made for antenatal and postnatal care; pregnant
and lactating women who may need nutritional supplements.
The different physical and mental health needs of women and men need to be recognised and addressed.
o E.g. people with disabilities, elderly people and family care givers. Trauma Counselling
Members of relief teams need to be aware and sensitive to the issues of
talla
» Gender differences in psychological impacts of disasters should recognise that women's anxiety also stems from fear and risk to
their family/children.
y Training for mental health providers should address problems of highly vulnerable groups such as women headed households, grandmothers caring for orphans, battered women, and women with disabling injuries, newly widowed women and men, women at risk of suicide.
Gender Sensitive Planning for Rehabilitation/Reconstruction
In many communities, women take an active part in community disaster initiatives. Yet in larger, more formal planning, women are scarcely represented and markedly absent from decision-making. Not being sensitive to gender issues in development planning and disaster mitigation means that interventions are often only targeted at men. Sensitivity to gender is vital in order to empower a community to successfully move on and move up from the abyss of disaster.
Rehabilitation/reconstruction should promote post-disaster development that reduces risk of Communities to disaster and empowers local communities. This means tackling the reasons why certain sections of society and community are more vulnerable to disasters. Rebuilding should happen in ways that address the root causes of vulnerability, including gender inequalities.
Women's local knowledge and expertise are essential assets for communities and households struggling to rebuild. To capture these
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Gender issues in disaster preparedness: A case from Sri Lanka
capacities, disaster responders must work closely with women. In planning and implementation of rehabilitation/reconstruction, practical
steps should be taken to:
X)
X)
XX
X
Ensure the needs, skills and capacities of affected communities are incorporated in planning and implementing rehabilitation work.
o E.g. include women in housing design as well as construction; recognise and incorporate women's traditional knowledge and experience in managing natural resources.
Establish ongoing consultation with women in affected areas, women's organizations, and women's advocacy groups.
Evaluate and take measures to ensure women can participate in reconstruction and benefit from economic recovery packages
o E.g. Ensure that women have the mobility to participate in reconstruction and rehabilitation activities. Ensure meetings and events are held at times and places where women can participate; Ensure family caregivers have access to support.
Strengthen informal social networks and link them to disasterresponding agencies and offices.
Fund women's groups to monitor disaster recovery projects.
Identify and respond to women's needs for legal services in the areas of housing, employment, and family relations
o E.g. Deed of newly constructed houses in both the names of husband and wife, and land rights for women.
Give priority to social services, children's support systems and women's centres.
Target highly vulnerable women such as single mothers, widows, women below poverty, unemployed women and socially marginalized women during the (re)construction of new / damaged houses.
Monitor relief and rehabilitation for possible gender bias and inequities that may develop over time.
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o E.g. avoid unintentional overburdening of women with
multiple responsibilities at home, work, and in the community.
Monitor as far as possible the degree to which relief and recovery assets are equitably distributed.
Re-building Livelihoods
Reconstruction must fully engage women and ensure that Women benefit from economic recovery and income support programs. Women's limited income generation and employment opportunities should be expanded in the process of developing local economies. In re-building livelihoods, practical steps should be taken to:
Ensure rehabilitation and reconstruction, target economically active women of all ages and social groups.
Incorporate gender analysis into all empirical assessments.
o E.g. collect or generate gender-specific data; conduct a thorough
analysis of damaged economic sectors (e.g. fishery, tourism, agriculture) that identifies roles of women and identify areas for their participation.
Support income-generation projects that build non-traditional skills among women.
o E.g. provide women with fair access to construction-related and
other non-traditional employment; include employment-relevant job training; seek out women with technical qualifications for training on specific projects such as overseeing housing construction,
Incorporate women's income generating options in livelihood
rebuilding plans.
o E.g. make provision for self-employed/home-based women workers
in plans.
» Ensure access to grants and loans to re-build lost livelihoods to replace damaged or destroyed tools, workspace, equipment, supplies, Credit, capital, markets and other economic resources.
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Gender issues in disaster preparedness: A case from Sri Lanka
Include measures to support Women's multiple responsibilities as economic providers and family workers.
o E.g. work with employers to develop or strengthen family friendly" policies for those needing time to apply for assistance, cope with trauma and help injured family members; provide assistance to family care givers to support them economically and ensure continued care to the injured, children, and disabled.
» Develop and commit to gender accountability and monitoring
116:21SLLICS.
o E.g. monitor the percentage of women and men in construction,
trade, other employment; the numbers of disabled women trained the proportion of economic recovery grants and loans funds received by women; the working conditions in private and public relief work projects etc.; monitor and assess long term impacts on women and girls of disrupted markets, forced sale of assets, involuntary migration, increasing proportion of female-headed household
Disasters are times of disempowerment and loss for both men and women and it is important not to further erode their positions. Sensitivity to gender issues in disasters needs to go beyond the traditional concern about women and children. While being sensitive to women's responsibilities for supporting dependants, relief and reconstruction programmes should be able to make constructive use of men's time too. In relief and reconstruction both mechanisms should not undermine women's traditional areas of authority such as the management of the home, food, water and family health. A culturally and socially sensitive disaster management culture will be able to get the active involvement of women as risk managers while drawing in the complimentary roles played by men and women during disaster situations.
Bibliography
1 Elaine Enarson (March 2001) Promoting Social Justice in Disaster Reconstruction: Guidelines for Gender Sensitive and Community Based
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Planning, drafted for the Disaster Mitigation Institute of Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Gender and Disasters Network (January 2005) Gender Equality in Disasters: Six Practical Rules for Working with Women and Girls.
Madhavi Malagoda Ariyabandu and Maithree Wickramasinghe (2003) Gender Dimensions in Disaster management: A Guide for South Asia, ITDG South Asia Publication.

1)
The Need for Strong Local / Regional Policies and Support/Guidance and Mechanisms for Disaster Preparedness
Abedatul Fatema
Introduction
Disasters are common events in Bangladesh. Cyclones to devastating floods are the range of this disaster- from 1955 to 2004 the problem of flood becomes one of the main concerns of people in Bangladesh. Flood submerges about 60% of the land area, damages crops and property and disrupts economic activities and causes diseases and loss of life. Similarly, cyclones sometimes accompanied by strong storms and tidal surges, pose threats to human society along with erosion of soil, riverbank and coasts. Cyclones are very destructive to people and property and disruptive of economic life. Another hazard which Bangladesh faces is drought. Drought affects the standing crops, water supplies and plant growth leading to loss of production, which results in food shortage.
In addition, Arsenic - a toxic element and silent disaster within water - has begun to teach a bitter lesson to mankind. The excessive level of the presence of arsenic in drinking water has redefining water as being a "life saver” to a “threat” to human survival.
Disasters
Some researchers argue that disasters could be more easily recognized than defined. But actually there is no single definition of disaster. A disaster can be defined as a significant departure from normal experience,
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
occurring in a particular time and place. To understand the impact of a disaster it is not enough to merely know the number of deaths; the value of property destroyed or the decrease in per capita income. It is also important to know the symbolic meanings of vulnerability, the adequacy of available explanations for the causation of disasters, and the society's imagery of death and destruction.
Classification of Disasters
Disasters can be classified into two main categories:
1. Natural disasters
2. Man made disasters
1. Natural Disasters
Natural disasters can be classified into two sections:
1.1 Short-term disasters
1.2 Long-term disasters
1.1 Short Term or Sudden Disasters
A short term or sudden disaster is one which comes suddenly and causes a great destruction of human life, property and resources, such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes, tidal waves etc.
Floods. The occurrence of flood in Bangladesh is as old as its history, but over the years the problem has aggravated and one is now of the main concerns for most people. The exact cause of a flood is still unknown but according to national and international experts the cause of floods is as follows:
* Confluence of the main river.
High monsoon rainfall
Low mean sea level.
Rise of sea level.
Siltation of rivers.
Flood protection measures.
10

The Need for Strong Policies and Support/Guidance Mechanisms for Disaster Preparedness
* Deforestation.
* The construction of the Farakka Barrage.
In this paper I want to highlight the Farakka problem in Bangladesh. The measures taken by India to divert the upstream water resulted in severe adverse effects on the hydrological and morphological behaviors of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghane and their tributaries. Due to the abrupt change of the flow of water, the flow of sediments and sand has disrupted the equilibrium of river morphology. Moreover the extreme low flow of water due to the diversion of water has caused the lowering of water level downstream. As a result devastating floods frequently occur in Bangladesh for which the country has been paying a high Cost in terms of agricultural production, river bank to soil erosion, population displacement, formation of char lands, salinity, intrusion, obstruction of navigation, fisheries, deforestation and desertification, vulnerability and pauperization.
Cyclone. Like floods, cyclones are also a regular phenomena especially in the costal areas and in the offshore islands. During the last three decades almost all of the coastal areas and offshore islands have faced cyclones.
Droughts. Every year during the month of Arshyin e Kartik the people of northern part of Bangladesh faces tremendous droughts.
Earthquakes: Bangladesh is a highly seismic risk joiner area. Though there is no sufficient data for the threat of earthquakes, there is always the fear that the southern part of Bangladesh will be engulfed by the sea due to a devastating earthquake by the year 2005. The hill tracts of Bangladesh are also high risk locations of earthquakes.
1.2 Long Term Disasters:
A long term disaster is that which occurs over a period of time and is not visible. Nevertheless it destroys our natural resources, and threatens life. The impact of a long term disaster is more dangerous than floods, cyclones or any other disasters.
The barrage that controls the flow of water of the Ganges River coming into Bangladesh from India.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia For example:
y Arsenic Poisoning
y Deforestation
» Increased salinity in both surface and ground water etc.
Arsenic. At present more than 80 million people from 61 districts are at risk of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. Of those, two million have been already identified with having arsenic symptoms. It usually takes about 10 to 20 years, depending on the amount of arsenic accumulated in the body for a person to be identified as an arsenic patient. Arsenic in ground water was noted as the "worst" disaster of
this century for Bangladesh.
The severity of chronic arsenic cases in Bangladesh suggests that the different mineral components in ground water might be magnifying the toxicity due to the excessive withdrawal and use of surface and ground water. Since India has diverted huge amounts of surface water from major rivers, the downstream water level has been contaminated with increased levels of arsenic.
The impact of arsenic on women: Women face great problems due to arsenic contaminated water. When a woman is affected by arsenic poisoning she faces:
» Social problems
Economic problems
Health problems
When a woman becomes the victim of arsenic, her husband leaves her, she has to go back to her parents' home and is considered a burden by her family; she also loses her job and faces severe financial problems. Most of all, as a victim of arsenic, her reproductive health system suffers as well, resulting in menstrual problems. Thus arsenic is not only a disaster to the country but also a threat to the family (especially women).
Increase of Salinity: Almost all the mangrove forests have disappeared due to increase of salinity as a result of upstream unilateral
1 12

The Need for Strong Policies and Support/Guidance Mechanisms for Disaster Preparedness diversion of water resources by the Indian State. The mangrove forest resources have further been declining due to the introduction of shrimp cultivation. Thousands of shrimp ponds in which lurk shrimp bries, killer virus and poison have taken over the mangrove due to increase of saline water. As a result of this the world's greatest mangrove forest, the Sundarban is being severely affected.
The Farakka Problem: The adverse effects of Farakka barrage has many faults: it has incurred salinity in both surface and ground water, interrupted navigation and river communication networks, aggravated arsenic contamination in ground water, destroyed the natural habitat of fisheries, depleted forests, exacerbated the desertification process in northern Bangladesh, destroyed biodiversity, depleted wetlands, increased work of women labourers, and caused devastating floods.
2. Man Made Disasters
In this century man also creates disasters. Man made disasters are as follows:
Environmental pollution.
Population Expansion.
» Violence against women. Violence against women
Violence against women is one disaster that men can prevent. However, men don't take this issue seriously. Nevertheless, today the incidence of violence against women has increased to such a level that it cannot be ignored any more.
Bangladesh's Preparedness and Contingency Plan
The Bangladesh government has taken the following measures for disaster preparedness.
Contingency planning has been set in place at all levels of society for specific disaster responses to major catastrophes such as cyclones and floods. The comprehensive disaster management programmes incorporate disaster risk reduction deploying local disaster action
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia plans as well as the local development plans.
The Government has established emergency funds for disaster response and established community storage facilities for emergency relief items mainly food, medicine, tents and shelter.
The responsibility for the coordination of disaster response preparedness is reformed at the ministerial level, district level, union level and thana level.
Women and Disasters
Human beings have been at the mercy of natural disaster since the beginning of time. It has been shown that the suffering of women and children during disasters is much higher than men. During disasters women face the followings problems:
Xy
Women do not have the liberty of migration because they are permanently responsible for domestic duties such as childcare and
the care for the elderly or disabled.
The pain experienced by women (mothers) of the loss of children (from the disaster) is much higher because they carry their baby for nine months and endure severe pain and risk during the delivery of
the child.
Women often have to pawn their jewelry to meet the household expenditure.
In order to support the family the able bodied male members of the family migrate to towns, cities or even foreign countries in search of jobs; the female as the de-facto head of household has to face the
ground realities.
Women face sexual harassment during camp life (during a post disaster period).
During a disaster the sanitation system breaks down. This makes it very difficult for women to use open-air toilets.
During a disaster women also face many health hazards.
In Bangladesh it is customary for women to get less food than men.

The Need for Strong Policies and Support/Guidance Mechanisms for Disaster Preparedness
During a disaster the situation worsens. Most of the time the women exist at starvation levels.
Women have to Collect drinking water and fuel for cooking. During a post disaster period it is very difficult for them to collect fuel, wood and drinking water from long distances.
Recommendations
Women need to be mobilized more because of their low levels of literacy and lack of general awareness.
During a post disaster period men should take the responsibility to fetch water and fuel wood.
Those who are in their latter stages of pregnancy should be taken away to a safe place during a disaster
Everyone should be aware of preventing sexual harassment during a post disaster period.
Community level awareness programs need to be increased Regional emergency funds for disaster response should be formulated.
National and regional level disaster response preparedness should be performed at every level.
Regional disaster forums for women and children should be formed. International River Laws should be followed by every country.
Regional and bilateral co-operation and collaboration should be formulated to meet the river linking problems.
Conclusion
Natural disasters are frequent occurrences in Bangladesh. Women are the major victims of disasters due to their low status in the society. Therefore, attention should be given to special groups such as women and children. Programmes on disaster preparedness will be effective if
they are backed by strong policies and guidance mechanisms.
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13
Recommendations
The Recommendations which came out of the Group Discussions.
The group discussions were held on particular themes such as prevention of violence against women, women and decision making, livelihoods, housing, welfare and compensation, land rights and ownership, right to information, health, education and social services.
These were discussed in general and also in the context of Sri Lanka. Hence the recommendations were divided in to general and to specific to Sri Lanka.
General Recommendations
o
1 16
The Tsunami response of governments, bi-lateral, multi-lateral, international and local non governmental organisations must be rights based and implemented according to international normative rights frameworks and guidelines.
Tsunami recovery must not be merely victim and needs/welfare focussed, but must be strongly grounded on the promotion, protection and exercise of rights.
The Tsunami recovery process must not be discriminatory on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, class or region.
It must ensure that a gender analysis is incorporated into all aspects of the recovery process and women have equal representation in all decision-making structures.
The Tsunami recovery process must ensure equality and nondiscrimination of women.

Recommendations
Governments must pay special attention to their international obligations under universal human rights declarations as well as UN treaties they have ratified.
With respect to women's rights that state obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) must be met.
Tsunami recovery work must also be founded on national Constitutional guarantees and domestic laws that can enforce international human rights standards.
Capacity building for women in small and medium scale micro Credit initiatives, including in finance management
Prevention of the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women
Protection for humanitarian workers.
Prevention of women's sexual exploitation in the delivery of relief and other assistance.
Missing persons - the long-term trauma of families of the missing where there is no confirmation of death. The need to map burial sites and create a space for mourning and related rituals and practices.
Ensure the protection of orphans, their rights and the concerns of the aged particularly aged women
Setup mechanisms to access information on how much assistance has been received by the state for Tsunami recovery particularly to deal with gender concerns -Transparency of aid.
Recommendations Specifically for Sri Lanka
The Tsunami recovery process in the north east of Sri Lanka must take into consideration the ravages of long term protracted conflict in the region and how this has compounded the devastation suffered in the Tsunami. The Tsunami recovery process must therefore be based on an analysis of the links between conflict, militarization and disaster and its very particular gendered impact.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
The heavily centralised decision making and delivery structures must be decentralised, owned and administered at the local level.
We also express concern of the heavily politicized nature of the Tsunami recovery and call upon all political parties and entities to prioritise the needs of the Tsunami affected peoples of all communities.
Violence against Women
There is an increasing incidence of violence against women, particularly domestic violence and sexual harassment in camp situations, displaced
families and among displaced communities.
Recommendations -
1.
18
The formation of community level Action Groups in resettlement locations - temporary or permanent, to prevent violence against women and protect their right to be free form societal and domestic violence.
These Action Groups could be set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Women's Affairs; Government Machinery at the local level - Government Agents, District Secretariats, Grama Sevaka Niladaris, Samudhi /Niyamakas, etc. as well as international
and local NGOs.
. Discriminatory policies such as the distribution of relief assistance
and other monetary benefits directly and solely to men must be changed to prevent resulting violence against women.
. The domestic violence bill must be implemented fully and
women must be provided facilities for legal advice, legal assistance, counselling, shelters and skill development for economic independence.
. Special attention must be paid to women's personal security.
Attention must also be paid to the factors that compel or coerce women into early and under age marriages and pregnancies with a view to preventing them.
. Concerns in relation to widow ostracism and remarriage must
be addressed at the community level.

Recommendations
7. Special attention must be paid to the situation of children, particularly girl children in the context of the re-marriage of both men and women widowed by the Tsunami.
Women and Decision Making
Women are inadequately represented in the process of needs assessments, policy planning, policy design, implementation, monitoring- at both decision making levels and implementation level.
Recommendations
1. All policy formulation, with regard to relief, resettlement and rehabilitation, must be done with the prior consultation of the communities affected by the Tsunami, particularly women. Local level Committees must be set up for liaison purposes with policy makers, both government and non government.
2. Women's representation must be increased at the level of district committees, village committees and district and local level task forces set up by TAFREN, Government Agents and other agencies - MultiLaterals, International NGOS and large national NGOs.
Livelihoods
The gendered nature of women's livelihood needs and concerns are not addressed at the level of policy. The specific needs of women as both de facto and de jure heads of household, elderly women, orphaned young adult women who have responsibility for family survival have to be addressed. Women's livelihoods assistance is formulated with women being assumed to be secondary income earners and is often limited to home based small and medium scale entrepreneurship or income generation projects. There is no long-term perspective on women's access to equal employment opportunities, assets and resources. Most livelihoods policy interventions are also limited to informal sector employment for women. There is inadequate attention paid to structural (and infrastructural) constraints to women's participation in formal employment and income-earning activities.
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Recommendations -
.
10.
120
Discussions must take place with women at the local level to determine women's needs, income-earning requirements as well as to identify women's skills and capacities.
Policy on livelihoods assistance must be made with the participation of women both at the level of local consultation as well as policy level decision-making.
Sector based livelihoods assistance policies must consider women's specific situation within the labour market and their location in large numbers in the informal sector.
Women's specific role in the fisheries industry and fisher communities must not be overlooked when policy interventions are made. E.g. the greater attention paid to port based fishing as opposed to beach based fishing and Small fisheries.
Attention must also be paid to the role of women in agricultural communities affected by the Tsunami; their role in subsistence farming; the salination of agriculture lands and so on.
Policy with regard to livelihood and employment assistance for women must take into account women's primary responsibility for the provision of family subsistence. Therefore livelihood interventions must not be limited to home based, unregulated and unprotected employment options for women.
Women must have access to and adequately skilled to engage in formal sector, secure employment opportunities.
Social welfare policies must be put in place to ensure that Women's domestic care based responsibilities are taken care of at the Community level so that they can access employment outside home.
Women must have adequate information to make choices regarding employment opportunities available to them.
The effects of the Tsunami, specifically those that affect women, must be researched extensively and used to inform policy.

Recommendations
11. Women must be allowed access to adequate credit facilities
and low interest, easy repayment terms.
12. A formula must designed to write off pre Tsunami loans.
13. A special district based and administered fund must be created
to assist women's livelihoods.
14. The government must be lobbied to reconsider the 100 and 200 metre buffer zone and make a more realistic decision based on scientific and environmental factors regarding coastal resettlement. The rights of coastal people to live in their traditional communities must be protected.
15. Women must be provided with scientific knowledge of disasters
and disaster preparedness.
16. Tsunami response must be considered a national issue and must be redressed as such without being subject to partisan political interference.
17. Infrastructure (ie. affordable transport facilities) and support (ie. day-care) must be provided to allow women to overcome structural constraints to their participation in incomegenerating activities away from their homes.
Housing, Welfare and Compensation
The large-scale displacement due to the Tsunami raises fundamental questions on re-settlement and adequate shelter for all those affected by the disaster. It also raises concerns about the allocation of land, the payment of compensation and the rebuilding of shelter whether in places of original habitation or relocation sites. The right to shelter and to determine, where one's shelter is located as well as to determine the type of shelter one requires has been raised as a major concern by women. Current assumptions about the nature of households (ie, as comprised on one unitary family headed by a single - usually male - member) result in inequitable access to services in the many cases where such assumptions do not hold.
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
Recommendations
122
1.
A network of women's groups and persons dealing with shelter has to be set up at district level to highlight the needs and interests of women with regard to shelter.
Comparative examples of good practice vis a vis the provision of gender sensitive shelter, from countries in the region affected by the Tsunami and other natural disasters must be shared through common forums.
Women must be consulted in the design and building of temporary shelters so that they can determine the extent of living space, Common space and working space within a shelter. E.g. the location and space of the kitchen, sleeping areas, toilets,
etC.
Both temporary and permanent shelter must be located in areas where public services, transport, schooling and other social facilities are easily available to re-settled communities, particularly women.
Compensation and other relief and welfare benefits must not be given in the name of male heads of household but must be distributed jointly.
Land allocation for resettlement must take into consideration patterns of women's land ownership and must protect women's right to ownership.
Land held in the name of women must be adequately compensated for and where new title or permits are given, these must be given in the name of the woman so that women's traditional ownership patterns are protected.
Where state land is allocated for re-settlement to landless persons such title or usage must allocated on the basis of joint ownership.
There should be a change in the concept of head of household that privileges the male and State grants and compensation in

Recommendations
cash or kind to families must be given jointly to women and
fՈeI).
10. Relief efforts must be co-ordinated both at the national and the local level. All NGOs and INGOs at the local level must co-ordinate with each other and with locally based government officials and departments to ensure that there is no duplication that the Tsunami recovery effort is not ad hoc and the delivery of material needs and services are more efficient.
ll. Both the state and political groups must ensure that the Tsunami recovery effort is not politicized or used to promote narrow partisan political interests. The effort must not be discriminatory on grounds of gender, ethnicity, caste, class and religious grounds.
Land Rights and Land Ownership
Customary practice in the Eastern province as well as matrilocal marriage patterns had historically protected the land rights of women with a higher percentage of women from these areas owning land and property in their own names. As a result much of the property lost or destroyed in the Tsunami affected areas was that of women. The allocation of state land as compensation for land lost or in resettlement schemes is currently in the name of heads of household, defined in practice as male heads of household. Therefore traditional patterns of women's land ownership are in danger of being changed. Therefore beneficial land ownership practices prevalent in the eastern region must be protected with the protection of women's land rights.
Recommendations
1. Mechanism must be set up to assist women as well as men to prove ownership of the land and property that was registered in their names so that they can claim adequate Compensation.
2. Women who are head households must be given special assistance to establish ownership and access compensation and resettlement facilities and grants without undue delay.
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3. When resettlement assessments and resettlement policies are
formulated women's needs and concerns, especially those linked to livelihoods, must be addressed.
4. Women must be consulted in decisions regarding housing and
shelter. Housing and shelter designed for resettlement communities must include women in the determining of their location as well as their design.
Loans for construction and reconstruction of damaged houses
must be disbursed with due consideration to the needs and capabilities of women. Rebuilding and repayment terms must be fixed in consultation with women. Special schemes must be put in place to assist women in special situations such as women who head households, elderly women, single women and women with the care of dependents.
The Right to Information, Health, Education and Social Services.
Recommendations
124
1. Minority views need to be represented at every level of decision
making.
2. Information Forums should be set up consisting of elected
representatives from each sector in the community to take needs and concerns of the community to central decision makers and to bring information from centre to community.
. In permanent resettlement there should be community group's
participation in every level. Community must know how much is being spent on the houses. There should be transparency about the way in which the funds are spent on building houses.

14
Contributors
Abedatul Fatema - Public Relations and Publication officer BROTEE, A Village Movement to Protect the Rights of Vulnerable Community, Bangladesh
Rita Manchanda - Rita Manchanda is a writer, researcher and journalist who has written extensively on peace and security issues, human rights, gender, minority rights and the media reporting conflicts. Currently she is a Consultant with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) where she has been Director of the Programmes -Women, Conflict & Peace Building and Media and Conflict. Earlier, she was the Commonwealth Gender Advisor to the Sri Lanka government in 2005. Among her many publications is the edited volume “Women War and Peace: From Victim hood to Agency”. Her latest publication is "The No Nonsense Guide to Minority Rights in South Asia .
Ruth Manorama - General Secretary Women's Voice, President National Alliance of Women, President of the National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW). She was awarded the Right to Livelihood Award in 2006.
Sarala Emmanuel - Has worked in development issues specifically on gender and psychosocial care in situations of armed conflict. She coordinated the post-tsunami Women's Coalition for Disaster Management in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. She has been involved with networks of women's organizations in Sri Lanka and Asia in terms of
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Women Responding to Disasters: Challenges and Experiences from South Asia
lobbying, advocacy and research work in relation to gender and conflict.
Shaliny Jaufar - Ministry of Gender, Family Development and Social Security, Maldives and Zindu Salih - (formerly) UNDP Maldives
Sheba George - Director of SAHR WARU: Women's Action and
Resource Unit, Ahamadabad, India
Siti Maisarah - Women Volunteer Team for Humanitarian Work
(RPUK-Aceh) Indonesia
Sitralega Maunaguru - Professor at the Eastern University Sri Lanka in Batticaloa. She has written extensively on gender issues. Advisory Committee Member of Suriya Women's Development Center Batticaloa. She was awarded in 2003 by UNHCR for promoting the rights of internally displaced women. She is also a member of the National Committee on Women, Sri Lanka.
Sivakami. L - Programme Coordinator, Institute for Social Education
and Development, Chennai, India
Sumika Perera - Coordinator of the Coalition for Assisting Tsunami
Affected Women, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Sunila Abeysekera - Director, INFORM- Human Rights Monitor, Colombo, Sri Lanka She has been working widely on Human Rights issues and Women Rights issues in Srilanka. In 1999 she has been awarded by the UN for her work on Human Rights. She is also involved with the Global Campaign for Women's Human Rights.
Thanushi Senanayaka - formerly Intermediate Technology Development Group - South Asia (ITDG - South Asia - Practical Answers to Poverty) Colombo. Relaunched as Pratical Action.
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