Women's Vulnerability Due to Climate Change in the Coastal Area of Bangladesh

Citation:

Hasan, Syed Monibul, and Md. Be-Nozir Shah Shovon. 2019. "Women's Vulnerability Due to Climate Change in the Coastal Area of Bangladesh." In Proceedings on International Conference on Disaster Risk Management, 349-54. Dhaka: BUET-Japan Institute of Disaster Prevention and Urban Safety.

Authors: Syed Monibul Hasan, Md. Be-Nozir Shah Shovon

Abstract:

The study has been conducted to identify the women vulnerabilities, and explore the consequences of climate change on women in Kaikhali and Ramjannagar union under Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira district. A detailed questionnaire survey has been carried out to achieve the key objectives of the study. A total of 142 household respondents, especially women have been selected by using simple random sampling. The study has found that the important roles and responsibilities of women in the family make them more vulnerable such as food collection and preparation (85.21% as first important responsibility); taking care of the children, elderly and sick (75.35% as second most important responsibility) during and after a disaster. The tendency to save their domestic materials and animals (92.25%), not taking decisions during emergency period (86.61%) and wearing traditional sari (89.43%) are the main barriers for the women to move to a secured place during disaster. Women is highly affected by different water borne diseases during disaster such as skin disease (76% in rank one), diarrhoea (60% in rank two). The study has found that the cyclone shelters in the study area are not women friendly. The destruction of houses and homestead (94.36%), crop production loss (92.25%), and livestock death (revealed by 81.69%) affect on women’s economic livelihoods during cyclone and tidal surges. Adolescent girls are forced into early marriage (55.63%), their educational activities (89.43%) are disrupted; lactating mothers are severely affected with the lack of balanced nutrition (92.25%), and pregnant women don’t get proper health care services (75.35%) in the aftermath of a disaster. The scarcity of safe drinking water (71.84% in rank one), and lack of proper shelters (41.55% in rank two) are the most important difficulties and complications for women during post disaster.

Topics: Economies, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Health, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2019