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Context

• Violence against women and girls increases in the aftermath of disasters and at the extreme end of the scale. This even takes the form of intentional homicides, according to a new United Nations report on disaster risk reduction.

 

Details

• The Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2022 (GAR 2022) builds on the analysis of United Nations-mandated SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) data on increased gender based violence in disasters.

 

Findings of the report

Correlation between Disaster and Female Victims

• The strong correlation between the number of people affected by disaster and the number of female victims of intentional homicide was found to be the highest in central and south Asia, followed by east and Southeast Asia.

 

Indirect Social Impacts

• It suggested that the additional socioeconomic and psychological stresses of disasters on affected people increase vulnerability through indirect social impacts.
• These further undermine coping capacity, social cohesion and well-being, which in this example have a disproportionate impact on women and girls.

 

Disaster Displacement

• The document cited various studies to establish that increases in gender-based violence during disaster displacement.
• Slow-onset disasters was a key concern at the global level, in regions such as Asia and the Pacific, as well as in various countries such as wildfires in Australia, cyclones in Bangladesh, and floods and hurricanes in the United States.

 

Human Trafficking

• Disasters also fuel human trafficking, which has a strong gender dimension.
• An analysis of available SDG data demonstrates a strong relationship between disaster affectedness and the number of detected female victims of human trafficking in all regions except north Africa, west Asia and Oceania.
• In India, coastal states of West Bengal and Odisha, are seeing a rapid increase in floods and cyclones brought on by the impacts of climate change. There is also increasing instances of displacement and migration, making people more vulnerable to trafficking in these regions.

 

Other Gender-based Violence

• Research in Australia and the United States has also used similar methods to model significant increases in domestic violence, marital breakdown, and suicide and drug addiction following major disasters such as wildfires.
• The report highlighted a ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence globally during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, a recent study on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and associated economic losses on urban populations in four Latin American cities found a high correlation between these stresses and violence within the home, as well as depression and anxiety. All these are affecting women and people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.

 

Disproportionate Vulnerability

• The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on social and economic development have created disproportionate vulnerability and exposure for women and girls.
• All of these undermine efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda as well as regional agendas.

 

Disaster Preparedness

• The report emphasized on women playing a crucial role in scaling up disaster preparedness, bringing a wealth of knowledge, capacities and needs-based approaches to decision-making.

 

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/increase-in-disasters-leads-to-spike-in-intentional-homicides-of-women-un-report-82580