Violence Against Women in post-Tsunami context

Missing but vital aspect in recovery effort

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Although the impact of the Asian Tsunami seemed to be equal on the effected population, studies on Tsunami and disasters proved that disasters have had a differential impact on diverse segments of the affected population as well as the speed and the time of the recovery differs from one segment to another. So the impact is more severe on vulnerable sections such as poor, excluded communities and women than rich people.

According to People's Report (India, the Maldives, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Thailand), women have been worst affected in the aftermath of the Tsunami. The violence committed against women under normal circumstances have been worsen in the post Tsunami context. It has been revealed that the violence against women goes beyond the conventional notion of being physical, sexual or emotional in nature but extends up to the persistent discrimination against women by the state, communities and families in the areas of civil, political, social, cultural, economic aspects of women's living. This fact has adversely affected women's recovery from the disaster and denies women in general and single, older, women with disabilities and women-headed households in particular, to lead a life with dignity and security.

The whole concept of accepting the head of household as man affects almost all Government interventions, starting from compensation, and housing to identification of relief. Man is consulted on all important matters. So women did not participate in consultation process. Women have not been involved in designing the house. As a result, there are a lot of complaints that houses designed were primarily encroaching into their privacy, said Bijay Kumar, Country Director Action aid which facilitated the study.

The study which was carried out in five countries, is based on the work of 174 organizations and interviews with 7,583 Tsunami affected women in India, Maldives, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The report examines the violence perpetrated against women in the post Tsunami context against the Women's rights set out in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which is the most comprehensive international instrument encompassing the vital areas of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of women.

In the areas of legal protection, the study has found out though Constitutions of all the countries (except Somalia) have ratified the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other UN conventions, there are significance vacuum in legislature, policies and Institutions pertaining to increasing violence against women in the aftermath of disasters. It has also found out that existing Institutional delivery mechanisms are not properly organized to realize objectives of the laws and that the mechanisms offer sensitized personnel effectively make it difficult for survivors to seek assistance. In the post Tsunami context, violence against women, a significant increase in violence against women has been observed in five countries. Almost all the women who have been interviewed agreed on, that various forms of violence, ranging from emotional and physical to sexual were perpetrated against them in the aftermath of Tsunami. In most of the cases, the perpetrators are husband, family members or relations. One third of Indian women and one fifth of Sri Lankan women said they had experienced sexual violence and one out of six Maldivian women stated that they had experienced physical and sexual violence in and out of marriage. In Somalia nearly a quarter of women experienced sexual abuse or rape. Girls as young as six years or women in their fifties could be victims of rape. Sri Lankan women were of the view that they felt the place most susceptible to violence is their own home or their husband's place. Tsunami affected women in India cited sexual harassments in public places such on buses and selling fish as other incidents where women's right to bodily integrity is violated.

One of the significant facts observed in the post Tsunami context rendered large number of women destitute and deprivation precipitated their vulnerability, compelling some women to take drastic measures. Poverty and deprivation have induced girls from poor families in India to enter the sex tourism industry in coastal regions. Trafficking has been observed in Prakasam and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. In addition, early marriages were also observed as common practice in Andhra Pradesh.

The deprivation was so intense in women displaced in Chennai that some of them resorted to sell their kidneys for their survival. Thirty-four women from among 18, 60 families displaced from seven Kuppams (hamlets) of North Chennai had resorted to selling their kidneys for survival. Another instance of violating women's rights to bodily integrity is forced recanalisation on the women who had lost their children in the Tsunami. In Somalia, women's rights to bodily integrity is violated in childhood through the institutionalised practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Almost all women in Somalia undergo this painful and unhealthy procedure.

Among the common factors that women attributed to the intensification of violence against them in the post Tsunami context are, violence used by men to vent on their frustration/anger exacerbated by their unemployment, lack of counselling; consumption of alcohol or drug; the husbands suspicion or mistrust; extramarital liaison by the husband and dowry demand and poverty. Lack of security in camps or temporary settlements has been cited as a major factor contributing to the increase of violence. Lack of privacy with regard to toilet and bathing facilities, inadequate lighting at night made women vulnerable to violence. Women consulted in Sri Lanka cited that exposure of women to outsiders (strangers living in and around camps and settlements) as a casual factor. Maldivian women stated that vulnerability increased due to family and community disruptions.

Consequences of violence vary from physical injuries to loss of self-worth, fear, depression, heart-ache, humiliation to suicidal tendencies. Most of women from Sri Lanka and India expressed that anger, depression, fear and suicidal tendencies are resultant from violence against them. Four out of hundred women consulted in Sri Lanka stated that they suffered from suicidal tendencies and several of them attempted to commit suicide. In Putland rape is so stigmatised that if the rapist is know to the victim, the rapist does violate not only the women's right to bodily integrity but also their right to life. Social consequences of isolation and stigmatization further de-motivate and marginalise women. Socio-cultural norms attaches disgrace to survivors of physical and sexual violence. Shame-psychosis has a spillover effect on the entire family diminishing the marriage prospects not only for survivors but for other family members.

The most common coping mechanism is sharing the experience with a trusted person or with husband if the husband is not the perpetrator. However, many of the victims suffered in silence due to fear of shame. Sri Lankan women consulted stated that if the perpetrator is not the husband, the women would respond in unison to violence in several ways; identifying and ostracising the perpetrator, inform the police and providing assistance and support to survivors of violence.

Another coping strategy seems to be maintaining silence and not retaliating to the violence. Several reasons have been cited for this rather passive reaction to violence by women consulted in the study. Afraid of being shamed, women's initialisation into culture of silence in the name protecting family integrity.

"All I want is my husband to stop drinking and bring up my children in peace. My future seems bleak but I am going to give up for the sake of my children" says a Sri Lankan woman. Some other reasons cited are the fear of exposing the problem to parents or relations which would make them more vulnerable to violence, perception on the part of survivors that they themselves cause act of violence owing to their behaviour, action or inaction, that the husband is entitled to have access to wife's body. Some of the women perceived that beating the wife shows that the husband feels very close to her and resisting will lead husband to seek other women.

It has also been found out that most of the women consulted were ignorant of laws and policies that are in place to redress the violation of women's rights. On the other hand, the existing laws and policies are not adequately implemented. There are barriers in the judicial system that make it inaccessible to women; no confidence on the part of survivors that police would take action and instances of survivors being told to go home and reconcile with their husbands. In the Eastern province Muslims and Tamil felt that they were unlikely to get assistance from Sinhala speaking police because of language barrier.

Common concern among the women consulted in all countries was that they were denied right to information and decision making. Another complaint was that access to food, clean water and sanitary facilities was inadequate and that girl children's access to education was limited, owing to number of factors such as mobility, distance, culture and discrimination. Women's right to housing, property and land was affected by dilly dallying of policy with regard to the buffer zone. In the areas of livelihood, most of the mega rehabilitation projects neglected the loss of micro-enterprises that most women engaged in. In most of the instances women were not consulted on livelihood options (Traditional or alternative livelihoods) and the attention was shifted from micro-enterprises to sectoral developments, especially fisheries and tourism.

The report provides insight into discrepancies in the areas of implementation of laws and policies with regard to protection of women against violence and providing assistance in the rebuilding effort. One of the concerns is that women have not been adequately consulted in the rebuilding and resettlement phase of the programmes and that in selecting livelihood options (micro-enterprises most women are engaged in were neglected in the development process). As the report provides views and opinion of the affected population and the recovery process is still under way, it is a must read for policy makers, decision makers as well as local and International NGOs in assessing the ground realities across the region.

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