Flood and the Paradox of Women: a Content Analysis
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PAIDEUMA JOURNAL ISSN NO : 0090-5674 Flood and the paradox of women: A content analysis Bijit Das PhD research Scholar, Dept of Sociology Dibrugarh University Abstract Media acts as a ladder between the common people and regional happenings around us. Media is in a way the arsenal of news regarding politics, sports, literature, finance, and conflicts, entertainment etc. People in contemporary world get to know about the far away happenings from the shadow of media. The paper is more concerned about how media portrays the role of women as a specific gender in case of natural disaster and their catastrophic loss to the mass, including public administration and government officials. Natural disaster is a common causality happening in all over the globe in any form of flood, tsunami, volcanic eruptions, earthquake etc. Both sides of gender are affected by it. But the perspectives of woman are taken into concern more specifically. This paper is more specific about the 2016 flood in the North Indian state of Bihar and Dhemaji district in the state of Assam, India. National media and the state media took part extensively in portraying the issues to the whole mass of India. A content analysis of news articles from national newspaper, Times of India and The Hindu is taken to see if the media is looking into the issues of women’s voice to the administration and the government. Possible issues of health, mobility, finance, food, medicines, protective measures, and training in relation to women will be taken as parameters. The scope of this analysis will bring and eye to the mass through media towards the problems faced by women and implementation of any solution by the state. Key words- Media, Ladder, Content Analysis, Women’s voice Assam is the land of two mighty rivers – Brahmaputra and Barak. Each year these two rivers and their tributaries cause floods in vast areas of Assam which leads to human misery and devastation of nature. This year, more than 30 districts including lower and upper Assam have been severely affected, Vol XIII Issue X 2020 78 http://www.paideumajournal.com PAIDEUMA JOURNAL ISSN NO : 0090-5674 Several factors including natural and artificial are responsible for the re-occurrence of floods in Assam. First and foremost, Assam lies in the heart of monsoon belt and so gets overburdened with rainfall every rainy season. Due to this, the river along with its tributaries such as Subansiri, Manas, Kopili, Jia-Bhoroli, etc. get flooded and their banks overflow flooding the vast plain of the state. Secondly, the existence of long ranges of mountains on its northern and eastern boundaries compels the water to flow down into the vast plain causing the rivers to swell. Thirdly, every year due to heavy natural as well as artificial land sliding, Assam loses hundreds of kilometres of its land area. This soil erosion makes the river shallow, which later helps in the creation of a heavy flood. There are also human-induced factors like destruction of wetlands, deforestation, and encroachment on river banks. Most cities and towns suffer due to poor urban planning. Drainage congestion due to man-made embankments is one of the crucial factors responsible for urban floods that can be visible every year in cities like Guwahati, Chennai, and Mumbai. Bihar is surrounded by Nepal in the north, West Bengal in the east, Uttar Pradesh in the west and Jharkhand towards the south. There are several rivers that run through the state: Ganga, Sone, Punpun, Falgu, Karmanasa, Durgavati, Kosi, Gandak and the Ghaghara, to name a few. Nearly 85% of the state’s land is under cultivation. Bihar also receives heavy rainfall all through June to October. The state of Bihar has been facing floods since for a long time. It accounts for almost half of India’s average annual flood losses. In the year 1914, Bengal and Bihar faced floods. In the year 1934, Bihar was shaken by an earthquake which was again followed by floods. The state has been facing floods ever since, but the frequency of floods has become high in recent years. There have been floods almost every year from 1979 which have caused extensive damage. Lakhs of people have lost their lives and their homes. The state has faced infrastructural losses worth crores of rupees. In 2008, more than half of Bihar was submerged under water. The state witnessed its worst floods ever with more than 30 lakh people in more than 1500 villages spread across 16 out of 37 districts being affected. The worst affected districts were Araria, Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura. Vol XIII Issue X 2020 79 http://www.paideumajournal.com PAIDEUMA JOURNAL ISSN NO : 0090-5674 After the floods in 2008, Bihar faced a drought for two years and again in 2011, nearly 100 villages were flooded by the Bagmati river. Much of Bihar’s misery has been caused by the Kosi river, which is a major tributary of Ganges. The Kosi river system drains about 60,000 km2 of eastern Nepal and southern Tibet before it enters Bihar. The basin includes almost half of the world’s 8,000 m plus peaks. North of the India- Nepal border, it is known as the Sapt Kosi or “Seven Rivers” in reference to its seven tributaries: Indrawati, Sunkosi, Tambakosi, Lihku Khola, Dudhkosi, Arun and Tamur. Its three main tributaries i.e. Sunkosi, Arun and Tamur join the river at Tribeni. Downstream of the Tibreni, the Sapt Kosi flows through a narrow gauge of 11km, before spreading over the Gangetic plains. As a result of the sudden decrease in slope below the mouth of the gorge, an inland delta is formed. It is interesting to note that the river has shifted more than 100 km westward in the past 200 years. Geographical conditions Dhemaji is a small district located in the north east state of Assam. The district comprises of the following boundaries –Arunachal Pradesh to the north and east, Lakhimpur district in the west and river Brahmaputra in the south. An area of 3237 square kilometer is covered by the district. There are a total number of 1150 villages in the district. There is an average rainfall of 3000m annually. The river Brahmaputra flows from east to west in the southern part of the district c carrying the following tributaries Dihingia, Diadhal, Doridhal, Tangani, Guttong. These make the district vulnerable to flood. The population of Dhemaji mainly relies on agriculture and sericulture, rearing of silkworm1. Bihar is a north central state located in the country sharing boundaries with neighboring states of Utter Pradesh in the west, West Bengal in the east and Jharkhand in the south respectively. The river Ganga flows along the state from east to west making the areas prone to flood resulting in loss every year including death and destruction of crops and properties. The main occupation of the inhabitants of the state is agriculture. Therefore the fortune of the farmers is always craved by the river Ganga. Women, media and natural disaster Natural disaster is an episode of calamities by nature. The event of flood in India is an ongoing phenomenon happening every year. Disaster harms both man and woman equally but the inequality in facing the disaster for women then man makes them more susceptible to it. Inequality Vol XIII Issue X 2020 80 http://www.paideumajournal.com PAIDEUMA JOURNAL ISSN NO : 0090-5674 in access of protective measures, resources, medicines, opportunities makes more damage to the women then man. Today’s gender stereotype, education, patterns in way of life is reflected in the women victims of flood. In the myth of flood women are defenseless to sexual abuse and domestic violence. They end up in relief camps where there is no proper security, solitude, privacy and authority for safeguarding the souls. They become prey of illicit activities and often displaced female victims feels uncomfortable attaining supplying from male in the relief camps. (Chew & Ramdas, 2005). Most of the women during their early stage they were not taught few activities equally with men like swimming, tendency to climb trees, high altitudes and so this affects their role in saving themselves from flood. Again women are not natural for any type of stratagem making activities. They are dominated by man in following man’s advice for evacuating the danger zone in any type of disaster. The problems can also be seen in the type of dress woman wears. They are basically into sarees which restricts mobility during disasters. Government at most of time fails to reach the victims in time which results in death of the victims. The patriarchal society that woman lives in makes them more socially and economically vulnerable than man (Infocus program on crisis response and reconstruction, 2000). Women are portrayed as homemakers with free time on hand (Bourdieu, 1986) which isolates them from learning activities, helping them from disasters to safe their life. The women in the relief camp who have lost their dear ones, parents in the disasters falls in the racket of human trafficking and laboring activities. Again the challenging conditions of the victimized women restrains their mental ability, they are challenged socially, economically, health wise. In camp they are challenged for security and privacy. They are exploited by the unnatural advent of gathering from the population. In society young women whose parents were dead during the disaster they were asked to marry at an early age and women who were widowed by the disaster were force to do illicit activities for living and many adopted the path of suicide. Again this makes also an economic challenge for them to sustain living as the men are the breadwinner of our society.