Gendered Vulnerability in Flood Plains of West Champaran, Bihar

1. HI-AWARE
Gendered Vulnerability in Flood Plains
of West Champaran, Bihar
Pranita B. Udas & Anjal Prakash
ICIMOD
Flood and Gender

2. Flood
“an unusually high stage in a river – normally the level at
which the river overflows its banks and inundates the
adjoining area”. – hydrology text book
A large amount of water covering an area that is
usually dry – Cambridge dictionary
“ when the water level rises affecting our life and
livelihood assets’’- People living with flood

3. Flood, people and gender
Before flood
Preparedness
During Flood
After Flood
Differential coping & adaptive
capacity
Differential capability & agency
Differential Livelihood assets
Gendered Vulnerability
Location
Patriarchy
Historical inequity Biological differencesNorms
Values Entitlement

4. Bihar: Farmers and flood
Infrastructure and in/security
>3732 km embankments along different rivers in Bihar (FMISC)
Road construction and other infrastructure development
Road expansion
People and poverty
State: 49.4 % below poverty line
Rural Bihar: 55.7 % below poverty line (RBI)
1/7 of the poor in India is from Bihar
Prevalence of underweight children under 5 : 56.1%
Gender Development Index rank 35 out of 35
Flood and food
76 % live under recurring threat of flood devastation,
73.06 % land area is flood prone (FMISC)
Agriculture -generates 16 % state GDP, but provides
employment to 70 % of rural working force (Singh et al, 2011)
Crop area loss due to 2007 flood was 16.08 lakh ha(Bansil, 2011)

5. Flood in Bihar in Figure

6. Participatory assessment on
socioeconomic drivers and
conditions leading to
vulnerability
– Participant observation
– Identification of social
stratifier of vulnerable
group based on people’s
perception
– Interview and FGD with
specific group
Study in Bihar
Methodology

7. Case study : Chharki, Bhagawanpur
Panchayat, Nauten Block, West Champaran
Hamlet of 106 hh living in old
embankment, 100 house with
bamboo wall –thatched roof, 6
has brickwall, thatched roof.
Devasting flood in 1980
displaced the community from
Bishambhapur, after that the
community shifted to ten different
places losing their land one after
another in every rainy season.
The recent flood in 2007, and
then in 2013- families moved to
new embankment for 3 months,
as the current settlement was
inundated

8. 2005
2010
2016

9. Some indicator:
Loan per family increases with more daughters
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
AmountofloaninIndian
Currency
Proportion of male to female
Women are vulnerable not only water destroy their homes and
livelihood assets, the social disparities and barriers to exercise
their ability multiplies their vulnerability

10. Differential gender impact during flood
Female are encouraged to stay in higher safe place to take care
of children, but are at high risk due to issues on
• Sanitation/ toilet, specially for women and children
• Drinking water
• Taking care of livestocks and children
Men take risk to continue protecting bamboo houses not to
allow them to collapse, as much as possible. A bamboo house
cost INR 10000.
Women without men hence either loose property or in risk to
protect property
The most vulnerable identified by the villager in the study area
were the women headed households or households with only
and more women.

11. Key issues
Conditions
• Gendered social hierarchy
• Disparity in land ownership
• Farming and labor as livelihood strategy
Drivers
• Regular flood and inundation
• Embankment
• Road construction
• Untimely wage payment
• Consumerism and dowry
Living with flood

12. Key lessons
Enhancing women’s assets and capability
- Changing dominant gender barriers e.g. breaking the
culture of dowry
- Harvesting rain for drinking to meet immediate need-
designing proper technology
- Structure may be solution for one, but the reason for
vulnerability for others- proper resettlement/social
safety plan could secure life of women and children
from ills of modern development that could be reason
for flood.

13. Thank you
Supported by
the UK’s Department for International
Development (DFID)
and
Canada’s International Development
Research Centre (IDRC)