Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080408TDY04303.htm
Female views needed in disaster planning
Makoto Yasutomi / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer
ANAMIZUMACHI, Ishikawa--A small town struck by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake just over a year ago held a meeting last month on disaster management. During the meeting a declaration was made that disaster damage reduction and recovery efforts should take the perspective of women into consideration.
The "Anamizu Declaration," named after the Ishikawa Prefecture town of Anamizumachi, came after reflection on the earthquake that struck at 9:42 a.m. on March 25 last year, registering an upper six on the Japanese intensity scale of seven. The quake claimed one life and injured 338, and destroyed or seriously damaged 2,425 homes. At one stage, 2,627 people were forced to stay at emergency evacuation sites.
The main points of the declaration made on March 22 are as follows:
--Ensure that women participate in the planning of temporary housing and the operation of evacuation sites, while emphasizing the need for awareness that women's needs must be taken into account.
--Offer more support for women, who play a major role in the recovery and rebuilding of lives, and develop an environment so that it is easy for them to proceed with their work, be it at home or the workplace.
--Encourage the participation of women in the process of building our society, and work toward the creation of a society that gives due respect to a wide range of values and regional cultures without excluding minority groups.
Women accounted for about 3,700 of the 6,400 people killed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995--nearly 1,000 more than the number of men killed.
Among the reasons put forward for this discrepancy in deaths is the fact that many women living alone in decrepit homes died in the quake.
It has also been pointed out that many women became sick from the stressful conditions of the emergency evacuation centers.
Women who spent a long period living in the shelters suffered from a lack of privacy in matters such as breast-feeding, changing clothes and sleeping. Unhygienic portable toilets and a lack of sanitary goods and other women's items made life extremely uncomfortable for women.
The declaration states that such basic issues should be addressed as a matter of course. It also calls for women to take part in planning during the process of restoration and proposes that local governments and other authorities increase the number of women on relevant committees.
Yasuko Aikawa, an associate professor at Kobe University who made a keynote address at the meeting, analyzed the effects of the earthquake on people's homes.
Aikawa said that with basic utilities such as electricity, water and gas being cut off, the cleaning up and securing of water, food and fuel placed a greater burden on women than normal. The closure of nurseries, schools and day care centers also forced women into spending more time caring for children and elderly people.
She also pointed out that many husbands were absent for long periods, placing their priorities on helping restore operations at their workplaces. Employees even had their company loyalty scrutinized with questions such as "Who got here first [to help with restoration work]?" and "How many nights have you slept over at the workplace?"
Many women who had part-time jobs were laid off, and when they questioned such decisions they were brushed off with such comments as "We're in an emergency situation, so just put up with it!"
"Amid much uncertainty, a clearly female perspective was not evident," Aikawa said.
Naturally, women were also among those who suffered in disasters such as the Western Tottori Prefecture Earthquake in 2000, and Typhoon No. 23, which brought large-scale flood damage, and the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake, both of which struck in October 2004.
"Women are also experiencing the same kind of hardships. Let's take another look at this issue and use this occasion to deliver the message again," a participant of the meeting said.
The role of women in disaster planning has also been encouraged at the international level.
At the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, it was declared that the role of women in disasters and damage prevention should be respected and their role carefully considered.
It was also declared at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg that women hold the key to improving regional disaster prevention in all countries.
The Hyogo Framework for Action was adopted at the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe in 2005. The framework states that the participation of women in the planning process of all disaster response measures helps strengthen the abilities of communities to cope with disasters.
At the Anamizu meeting, Aikawa urged women to actively participate in the planning of disaster response measures.
"If we're told that [of course] men can't understand things only women understand then it's going to be difficult to get those issues taken up by mainstream society," Aikawa said. "To win the understanding of a wide range of people, women should also actively participate in planning and gain expertise in matters such as earthquake damage limitation, the mechanics of earthquakes, and the legal framework pertaining to restoring and reviving [areas affected by natural disasters]."
Anamizu is hardly a leading town in preparing for disasters from a women's perspective, but it is a sign of changing times that a small town with a population of just over 10,000 should attempt to issue such a bold statement.
Creating a system by which even just a few people could take into consideration the needs of others based on a detailed women's perspective, will generate hopes that quite different results can be achieved in responding to and recovering from a disaster.
(Apr. 8, 2008)
Female views needed in disaster planning
Makoto Yasutomi / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer
ANAMIZUMACHI, Ishikawa--A small town struck by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake just over a year ago held a meeting last month on disaster management. During the meeting a declaration was made that disaster damage reduction and recovery efforts should take the perspective of women into consideration.
The "Anamizu Declaration," named after the Ishikawa Prefecture town of Anamizumachi, came after reflection on the earthquake that struck at 9:42 a.m. on March 25 last year, registering an upper six on the Japanese intensity scale of seven. The quake claimed one life and injured 338, and destroyed or seriously damaged 2,425 homes. At one stage, 2,627 people were forced to stay at emergency evacuation sites.
The main points of the declaration made on March 22 are as follows:
--Ensure that women participate in the planning of temporary housing and the operation of evacuation sites, while emphasizing the need for awareness that women's needs must be taken into account.
--Offer more support for women, who play a major role in the recovery and rebuilding of lives, and develop an environment so that it is easy for them to proceed with their work, be it at home or the workplace.
--Encourage the participation of women in the process of building our society, and work toward the creation of a society that gives due respect to a wide range of values and regional cultures without excluding minority groups.
Women accounted for about 3,700 of the 6,400 people killed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995--nearly 1,000 more than the number of men killed.
Among the reasons put forward for this discrepancy in deaths is the fact that many women living alone in decrepit homes died in the quake.
It has also been pointed out that many women became sick from the stressful conditions of the emergency evacuation centers.
Women who spent a long period living in the shelters suffered from a lack of privacy in matters such as breast-feeding, changing clothes and sleeping. Unhygienic portable toilets and a lack of sanitary goods and other women's items made life extremely uncomfortable for women.
The declaration states that such basic issues should be addressed as a matter of course. It also calls for women to take part in planning during the process of restoration and proposes that local governments and other authorities increase the number of women on relevant committees.
Yasuko Aikawa, an associate professor at Kobe University who made a keynote address at the meeting, analyzed the effects of the earthquake on people's homes.
Aikawa said that with basic utilities such as electricity, water and gas being cut off, the cleaning up and securing of water, food and fuel placed a greater burden on women than normal. The closure of nurseries, schools and day care centers also forced women into spending more time caring for children and elderly people.
She also pointed out that many husbands were absent for long periods, placing their priorities on helping restore operations at their workplaces. Employees even had their company loyalty scrutinized with questions such as "Who got here first [to help with restoration work]?" and "How many nights have you slept over at the workplace?"
Many women who had part-time jobs were laid off, and when they questioned such decisions they were brushed off with such comments as "We're in an emergency situation, so just put up with it!"
"Amid much uncertainty, a clearly female perspective was not evident," Aikawa said.
Naturally, women were also among those who suffered in disasters such as the Western Tottori Prefecture Earthquake in 2000, and Typhoon No. 23, which brought large-scale flood damage, and the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake, both of which struck in October 2004.
"Women are also experiencing the same kind of hardships. Let's take another look at this issue and use this occasion to deliver the message again," a participant of the meeting said.
The role of women in disaster planning has also been encouraged at the international level.
At the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, it was declared that the role of women in disasters and damage prevention should be respected and their role carefully considered.
It was also declared at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg that women hold the key to improving regional disaster prevention in all countries.
The Hyogo Framework for Action was adopted at the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe in 2005. The framework states that the participation of women in the planning process of all disaster response measures helps strengthen the abilities of communities to cope with disasters.
At the Anamizu meeting, Aikawa urged women to actively participate in the planning of disaster response measures.
"If we're told that [of course] men can't understand things only women understand then it's going to be difficult to get those issues taken up by mainstream society," Aikawa said. "To win the understanding of a wide range of people, women should also actively participate in planning and gain expertise in matters such as earthquake damage limitation, the mechanics of earthquakes, and the legal framework pertaining to restoring and reviving [areas affected by natural disasters]."
Anamizu is hardly a leading town in preparing for disasters from a women's perspective, but it is a sign of changing times that a small town with a population of just over 10,000 should attempt to issue such a bold statement.
Creating a system by which even just a few people could take into consideration the needs of others based on a detailed women's perspective, will generate hopes that quite different results can be achieved in responding to and recovering from a disaster.
(Apr. 8, 2008)
