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Assessment of Disaster Impact on the Health of Women and Children

Received: 27 September 2015    Accepted: 22 October 2015    Published: 24 October 2015
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Abstract

Disaster destroy local health systems and infrastructures; increase the potential risk for safe water, sanitation and diseases prevalence that may affect dreadfully the children’s and women’s rights to survive; to safety; to food and nutrition; to safe water, sanitation and hygiene; to health and to education. Such worst condition draw attention to scientists the need for understanding social, physical and health related vulnerabilities and capacities of children’s and women’s during and after disaster. These caused present field based assessment for impact of disaster on women and children living at Kalapara Upazila of Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. The semi-structured questionnaire survey for primary and secondary data collection and physical observation methods was followed to fulfill the objectives. Result showed that most of the women were illiterate; unemployed and more likely to be self-employed in housekeeping. They have no socially agreed right in decision making systems and suffer traditional gender based domination. Their lower economic and social status inclined them to be more vulnerable to gender sensitive disasters which are the regular phenomenon for the study area. Inside the shelter the children’s and women’s have limited space; basic needs provided were insufficient-- not ensured at both household and community level and the real situations were incidents of gender sensitive violence. The challenges to solve these problems are the integration of gender, women and child issues into disaster research, planning, and organizational practice as a pre-requisite for developing and delivering child and women centered DRR and CCA policy and programs.

Published in Journal of Health and Environmental Research (Volume 1, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11
Page(s) 19-28
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Capacity, Coping Strategy, Post Disaster, Vulnerability, Women

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    AKM Abdul Ahad Biswas, AKM Mostafa Zaman, Md. Abdus Sattar, Md. Shahidul Islam, Md. Afjal Hossain, et al. (2015). Assessment of Disaster Impact on the Health of Women and Children. Journal of Health and Environmental Research, 1(3), 19-28. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11

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    ACS Style

    AKM Abdul Ahad Biswas; AKM Mostafa Zaman; Md. Abdus Sattar; Md. Shahidul Islam; Md. Afjal Hossain, et al. Assessment of Disaster Impact on the Health of Women and Children. J. Health Environ. Res. 2015, 1(3), 19-28. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11

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    AMA Style

    AKM Abdul Ahad Biswas, AKM Mostafa Zaman, Md. Abdus Sattar, Md. Shahidul Islam, Md. Afjal Hossain, et al. Assessment of Disaster Impact on the Health of Women and Children. J Health Environ Res. 2015;1(3):19-28. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11,
      author = {AKM Abdul Ahad Biswas and AKM Mostafa Zaman and Md. Abdus Sattar and Md. Shahidul Islam and Md. Afjal Hossain and Md. Faisal},
      title = {Assessment of Disaster Impact on the Health of Women and Children},
      journal = {Journal of Health and Environmental Research},
      volume = {1},
      number = {3},
      pages = {19-28},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jher.20150103.11},
      abstract = {Disaster destroy local health systems and infrastructures; increase the potential risk for safe water, sanitation and diseases prevalence that may affect dreadfully the children’s and women’s rights to survive; to safety; to food and nutrition; to safe water, sanitation and hygiene; to health and to education. Such worst condition draw attention to scientists the need for understanding social, physical and health related vulnerabilities and capacities of children’s and women’s during and after disaster. These caused present field based assessment for impact of disaster on women and children living at Kalapara Upazila of Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. The semi-structured questionnaire survey for primary and secondary data collection and physical observation methods was followed to fulfill the objectives. Result showed that most of the women were illiterate; unemployed and more likely to be self-employed in housekeeping. They have no socially agreed right in decision making systems and suffer traditional gender based domination. Their lower economic and social status inclined them to be more vulnerable to gender sensitive disasters which are the regular phenomenon for the study area. Inside the shelter the children’s and women’s have limited space; basic needs provided were insufficient-- not ensured at both household and community level and the real situations were incidents of gender sensitive violence. The challenges to solve these problems are the integration of gender, women and child issues into disaster research, planning, and organizational practice as a pre-requisite for developing and delivering child and women centered DRR and CCA policy and programs.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Assessment of Disaster Impact on the Health of Women and Children
    AU  - AKM Abdul Ahad Biswas
    AU  - AKM Mostafa Zaman
    AU  - Md. Abdus Sattar
    AU  - Md. Shahidul Islam
    AU  - Md. Afjal Hossain
    AU  - Md. Faisal
    Y1  - 2015/10/24
    PY  - 2015
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11
    T2  - Journal of Health and Environmental Research
    JF  - Journal of Health and Environmental Research
    JO  - Journal of Health and Environmental Research
    SP  - 19
    EP  - 28
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2472-3592
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20150103.11
    AB  - Disaster destroy local health systems and infrastructures; increase the potential risk for safe water, sanitation and diseases prevalence that may affect dreadfully the children’s and women’s rights to survive; to safety; to food and nutrition; to safe water, sanitation and hygiene; to health and to education. Such worst condition draw attention to scientists the need for understanding social, physical and health related vulnerabilities and capacities of children’s and women’s during and after disaster. These caused present field based assessment for impact of disaster on women and children living at Kalapara Upazila of Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. The semi-structured questionnaire survey for primary and secondary data collection and physical observation methods was followed to fulfill the objectives. Result showed that most of the women were illiterate; unemployed and more likely to be self-employed in housekeeping. They have no socially agreed right in decision making systems and suffer traditional gender based domination. Their lower economic and social status inclined them to be more vulnerable to gender sensitive disasters which are the regular phenomenon for the study area. Inside the shelter the children’s and women’s have limited space; basic needs provided were insufficient-- not ensured at both household and community level and the real situations were incidents of gender sensitive violence. The challenges to solve these problems are the integration of gender, women and child issues into disaster research, planning, and organizational practice as a pre-requisite for developing and delivering child and women centered DRR and CCA policy and programs.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Disaster Risk Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh

  • Department of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, Patuakhali science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh

  • Department of Disaster Risk Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh

  • PGD in Disaster Management Research Student, Faculty of Disaster Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh

  • Department of Disaster Risk Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh

  • Department of Resource Management, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh

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