Christian Subversion And Missionary Activities - 6

[Bharatvarsh2]

Participants this week were guardedly optimistic (at best!) about the potential for significantly disrupting and transforming gender relations following natural disasters.



The possibilities for change were not in question. Most would certainly agree with Bahattin Aksit's observation from Turkey that "as physical and social space collapse" during disasters, "there is an opportunity for transforming gender roles and maintaining them in the post-disaster period." Indeed, several instances were offered of positive change. From Armenia, the NGO Women and Development targeted rural women for grassroots health education, capitalizing on the period after a major earthquake to provide more knowledge, skills, and resources to women as family health providers. Perhaps more significantly, Armine Mikayelyan and her colleagues noted (Armenia), the post-disaster period helped break women's traditional silence around health issues related to male migration, such as sexually-transmitted diseases. Because rural women were explicitly targeted for training, they were not only more able to keep families healthy but "became surer and saw themselves as part of their problem's solution."



Indian women, too, reportedly gained self-confidence following gender-sensitive relief measures targeting women:



Disasters can be great liberators!! While witnessing a very vocal meeting of rural women in village Srirampur, Orissa, about a year and a half after the cyclone of 1999, I was informed by the NGO there (Church's Auxiliary for Social Action) that before the cyclone, women would rarely come out and interact on social issues, let alone interact with outsiders. This changed after the cyclone, because relief packages of most NGOs, and even the government, were targeted at, or through, women. That phase really empowered them, made them amenable to interacting on social issues, and also increased their self-esteem and their status within their families and society! [Anshu Sharma, SEEDS, India]



Self-help income-generating measures following South Asian cyclones] started a new social system, wherein the position of women is higher than it ever was. This appears to have been well accepted by everyone. Also important here is the role of an Indian Constitutional Amendment reserving one-third of seats in elected local governments (rural and urban) for women. Though there have been teething problems in the process, there is promise of a very positive impact. [Anshu Sharma, SEEDS, India]



hxxp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/env_manage/reports/week04.html