The Gendered Nature of Vulnerability: Evidence from Natural Disasters in India

The magnitude of the impact of natural disasters affects mostly the marginalized sections of the society because of their limited adaptive capacity. In case of women, the ideology of cultural-cum-material patriarchy forces them to be confined to the private sphere of life and the gender-based inequalities make them more vulnerable to disasters. Gender-based behaviours and stereotypes influence their coping capacity to natural disasters which have different means for the contribution to disaster risk reduction. The paper attempts to present a comprehensive literature on gender and disaster in India within the context of disaster management cycle, particularly evidenced from recent three major disasters in India and aims to shed light on some issues and challenges relating to the integration of gender perspectives in disaster risk management in India.