Nepal was again hit with a major earthquake again. Only three weeks ago a much larger earthquake had hit the country. Together they have left more than 8,000 dead, scores injured and millions displaced. Sadly, scientists had predicted that another earthquake was coming—and many more will come in the future in this seismically active region.
Read more on Quartz, published May 12, 2015.
Disasters affect women much more than men. A 2007 study by researchers at the London School of Economics and the University of Essex found that between 1981 and 2002, natural disasters in 141 countries killed significantly more women than men, and that the worse the disaster, the bigger the gender disparity.
The latest figures from Nepal show that among the 1.3 million affected by the earthquake, about 53% are female—a small but not yet statistically significant bias. That might soon change. Lessons from previous disasters show that the bias affecting women can worsen in post-disaster relief.
Read the rest on Quartz, published May 1, 2015. Written with Shelly Walia.
Image credit: UN under CC-BY-NC-ND license
Akshat Rathi 