Citation

Arora S. Disasters 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12471

PMID

33314308

Abstract

Discourses in disaster studies have seen a paradigm shift from hazard centric to people focussed approaches. 'Social vulnerability' has been the key to understanding experiences of people and communities with respect to disasters. Through a narrative ethnographic study of the Nepal earthquake in 2015, this study aims to understand post-disaster experiences of relief and rehabilitation of Nepali women. In doing so, it adopts an intersectional approach to vulnerability and privileges voices of marginalized women in post disaster contexts. This paper brings out narratives of violent experiences in post disaster spaces which include stories of rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, illegal trafficking, prostitution, self-harm and suicides. These violent experiences are more pronounced in the voices of Dalit women who also face institutionalized violence in the form of unequal access to disaster relief aid, dignity kits, safe spaces, among other resources. Such discrimination makes Dalit women from poor socio-economic backgrounds more vulnerable in post disaster contexts. In the case of Nepal, relief and rehabilitation processes carried out by the Government, Army and NGOs, failed to understand and address intersectional vulnerability and in some respect became part of the problem. Therefore, through examining narratives of women across different caste and class, this paper argues for an intersectional approach to examining vulnerability in post disaster contexts. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en