Women in 2018 Kerala Floods: A Sociological Narrative

Abstract

Every disaster makes women weaker than what they earlier were. They are primary home makers and are shattered when they find their home destroyed or washed away. The present study is a sociological narrative on how women and girls cope with floods and how important is home for their psychological, cognitive and their holistic well-being. Their very existence as a woman is threatened in a shelter as some of their basic needs, such as sanitary pads, infant feeding, toilets and basic female-specific medicines, which are integral to their existence as a woman remain unfulfilled; this drives them to immense frustration and depression. Much of how women feel about their basic needs are also cultural inhibitions which are aggravated during disasters where only uniformed men of army and disaster response forces are suppliers to their needs. This chapter is specific to women of the state of Kerala in India, which excels every other state in India, both in women’s education and in medical services.