Assam Drowns Every Year: Challenges of Women during Floods and Building Adaptive Capacity

The North-eastern region of India specifically Assam is prone to natural disasters like earthquake, floods, landslides, cyclone and occasional drought since time immemorial. People in Assam are subjected to perennial floods, river-bank erosions, landslides and occasional earthquakes. In disaster situations like floods, women and men, boys and girls are affected differently and there is a pattern of gender differentiation at all levels of the disaster process: exposure to risk, risk perception, preparedness, response, physical impact, psychological impact, recovery and reconstruction. And the situation is no different in the State of Assam. Women in Assam bear the brunt of floods year after year. Due to social norms and their interaction with biological factors, women particularly girls-face increased risk to adverse health effects and violence. They are unable to access assistance safely and/or to make their needs known. Additionally, women are insufficiently included in community consultation and decision-making processes, resulting in their needs not being met. Hence, this paper initiates to throw light on the challenges women face during floods in Assam and also highlights certain urgent measures to combat such challenges faced by women during floods. Proper policy, planning and good governance can definitely reduce any sort of hazard and can increase the socio-economic situation through different micro credit schemes in collaboration of government, non-government and international agencies.