| Abstract |
Rural women around the globe, increasingly face the challenges to adapt to various <br/>impacts of climate change and natural disasters. Also, there have been large differences <br/>between men and women in terms of impacts, vulnerabilities, and capacity to adapt to these <br/>challenges. Moreover, depending on individuals’ access to resources, assets, information, <br/>services, and decision-making power, the extent of vulnerability can be known. Here comes <br/>the importance of vulnerability assessment of rural women who have less access to resources, <br/>at the same time depends natural resources for their living.<br/>Kerala state, lying along the coastline of Arabian sea, is considered as a risky zone to <br/>flood impacts and anticipated risk. With 3000 mm of yearly rainfall, there is heavy discharges <br/>in rivers that leads to floods. Floods are considered as a major and most frequent hazard in the <br/>state with about 14.8% of the area prone to flooding and 52% of the population being <br/>vulnerable to flood impacts. Floods result in fatalities, losses in property and infrastructure, <br/>making most of the rural sector vulnerable especially, children, adolescent girls and women. <br/>Besides, rural women help to fulfil the basic needs of their families, dealing with flood <br/>incidence and at the same time with the impacts of natural disasters. Furthermore, rural women <br/>also contribute their perspectives on flood forecasts, preparedness, and mitigation techniques.<br/>With this background, the study entitled ‘Flood Vulnerability of Rural Women – An <br/>Indicator-based Approach’ was conducted among rural women of Kerala in 2021-22. The <br/>objectives of the research were; assessment of Flood Vulnerability for Rural Women (FVIRW) <br/>in flood-prone Agro-Ecological Units (AEUs) of Kerala; development of Flood Vulnerability <br/>Index (FVIRW) for AEUs; analysis of the dimensions of FVIRW in AEUs; assessment of rural <br/>women’s perception on change to various climatic parameters and delineation of flood <br/>adaptation strategies followed by them. The study was based on the primary data collected <br/>through personal interviews using a well-structured interview schedule. Multistage sampling <br/>method was used for the selection of locale and respondents. The field study was conducted <br/>among the rural women of two specific AEUs; namely Pokkali Land (AEU 5) in Ernakulam <br/>and Kuttanadu (AEU 4) in Kottayam. Hundred respondents from Pokkali lands and Kuttanadu <br/>each were selected randomly, totaling 200 respondents, which constituted the sample size of <br/>the study.<br/>217<br/>For the socio-economic profiling of the rural women respondents, the variables selected <br/>were age, means of livelihood, education and family size. Based on the results obtained, it was <br/>found that in case of Pokkali, 86 per cent of the respondents belonged to young age (<35 <br/>category), and vast majority of the respondents were relying on secondary occupation for their <br/>livelihood (63%). Only 42 per cent of the respondents had higher secondary level of education. <br/>And majority of the respondents (78%) had a medium-sized family with 4-6 members. In case <br/>of Kuttanadu, 83 per cent of the respondents belonged to young age (<35 category), and vast <br/>majority of the respondents were having secondary occupation as their livelihood (54%). Only <br/>26 per cent and 25 per cent of the respondents had higher secondary and high school level of <br/>education respectively. And majority of the respondents (52%) had a medium-sized family <br/>with 4-6 members.<br/>For the purpose of flood vulnerability assessment of rural women, a composite <br/>index (FVIRW) was developed based on the framework of CVIRFT (Sathyan et al., 2018) and <br/>LVI (Hahn et al., 2009). The index is scaled from ‘0 to 1’, i.e., from least vulnerable to most <br/>vulnerable. The FVIRW was developed based on three dimensions of vulnerability viz., <br/>Adaptive capacity, Sensitivity and Exposure, under which 9 major components and 70 <br/>indicators were selected based on literature review, expert opinion and location specificity. Of <br/>the 39 indicators, 12 were developed for the study specifically for the respondents and location.<br/>Based on the FVIRW value obtained, rural women in both Pokkali (0.569) and <br/>Kuttanad (0.554) were coming under highly vulnerable condition. Considering the dimensional <br/>values, in case of Pokkali, the sensitivity dimension had higher index value (0.687) followed <br/>by the exposure dimension (0.679) and adaptive capacity (0.471). In case of Kuttanadu, the <br/>exposure dimension had higher value (0.687) followed by sensitivity dimension (0.647) and <br/>adaptive capacity (0.464). Overall, both the AEUs had a high level of flood vulnerability <br/>towards rural women.<br/>Assessment of perception in change of climatic parameters based on perception <br/>index revealed that, majority of the rural women (91%) were found to have a high degree of <br/>perception towards changes in various climatic parameters like temperature, rainfall pattern, <br/>flood frequency, and river proximity.<br/>For the purpose of analyzing adaptation strategies followed by the rural women, <br/>nine strategies selected based on a review of literature were analyzed for their frequency of use <br/>by the respondents, and the results indicated ‘doorway barriers’ and ‘constructing houses on <br/>218<br/>concrete pillars’, ‘elevated shelfs’ strategies as the most commonly used, followed by ‘placing <br/>sandbags across the boundary of the house’. Region specific adaptation strategies followed by <br/>the respondents were also derived.<br/>Though the rural women were found to be better at perceiving and adapting to <br/>changes in climatic and flood parameters, there were components that needed further attention <br/>which contributed to their vulnerability. In the study area, neither formal-informal disaster <br/>education nor training was so far done. They haven’t received any warning or directions to <br/>move away from riverine flood affected areas. Local authorities and NGOs should educate the <br/>rural women in both AEUs on flood impacts and various adaptation strategies through training <br/>and workshops. Most influential interventions to reinforce the components such as sociodemographic profile, livelihood strategies, socio-economic assets, water, health and food under <br/>the purview of adaptive capacity and sensitivity should be identified by households, local <br/>communities and the government. <br/>To improve these components, various policy level suggestions announcing schemes <br/>for better standards of living, employment opportunities for the rural women and poverty <br/>alleviation, promoting homestead gardening, micro-loans availability, linking women <br/>organizations to cooperative institutions, conducting trainings on flood risk management and <br/>technology adoption, ensuring water supply and insurance policy modification to include assets <br/>loss due to floods must be addressed with the greatest importance. Policies for inducing <br/>entrepreneurial and work enthusiastic behaviour among rural women, policies and subsidies <br/>for acquiring flood insurances for lost property assets, establishment of crisis management <br/>office for better resilience to floods and preparing a flood hazard map for the region are <br/>essential in both AEUs. In addition, providing better quality and sufficient quantity of water <br/>during floods, providing access to potable water facilities and easy access to water sources, <br/>construction of health clinic and establishing health camps, providing better sanitation facility <br/>to the women during relief time and promoting awareness on health consciousness and various <br/>diseases after flood may be implemented. And, the results presented and prepared in this study <br/>may be helpful to governmental organizations for planning different mitigation measures and <br/>specific intervention strategies to reduce the vulnerability of rural women.<br/>Even though the FVIRW was developed specifically for the rural women of Pokkali and <br/>Kuttanad AEUs, it can be extended to assess the flood vulnerability in similar AEUs of India <br/>and other flood prominent regions globally with necessary modifications in the selection of <br/>indicators based on the location and context. The present study analysed the flood vulnerability <br/>219<br/>of 200 rural women, comprised of 70 indicators and 9 major components. But this framework <br/>can also be further extended to a larger sample size. The findings of the study suggest that more <br/>vulnerability studies should be carried out to highlight other vulnerable areas of Kerala so that <br/>more area specific flood vulnerable and climate change policies related to rural women can be <br/>formulated. <br/> |
