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Transforming Gendered Lives and Livelihoods in Post-disaster Settings in the Bangladesh Sundarbans Forest

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Climate Change, Hazards and Adaptation Options

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Abstract

This chapter surveys literature on gendered livelihoods, disasters and community resilience, and contributes to the application of intersectionality in research on the post-cyclone influences of Cyclone Aila on gendered livelihoods in the Sundarbans forest communities of south-west Bangladesh and Aila’s intersectional impacts on the forest communities’ resilience. Overall, the literature has established Aila’s severe impacts on the gendered livelihood-seeking behaviours of the forest-dependents in the Sundarbans. This review chapter examines the resilience-building of the rural poor communities of the Sundarbans forest areas, and patterns of livelihood support services given to the Aila survivors by the four national NGOs (Shushilan, BRAC, SAMS and LEADRS). Thereafter, the paper investigates the intersectional dimensions of gender, religion and marital status influencing the gendered relations of the Aila survivors. Finally, the study demonstrates the utility of intersectionality as a theoretical tool for delving into livelihood transformation and gendered relations of two contrasting Sundarbans forest communities.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is an outcome of my ongoing doctoral thesis at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. This study was funded by the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship of the Western Sydney University. I am grateful to Dr. Liam Magee, my primary supervisor of my doctoral thesis, for reading and offering extremely helpful comments in the initial draft of this paper. Many thanks to Dr. Penelope Rossitier, my co-supervsior, for her comments on earlier draft of this chapter.

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  1. Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Building EM, Parramatta Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Sajal Roy

  2. Department of Gender and Development Studies, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh

    Sajal Roy

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  1. Sajal Roy
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Oceanografia y Ecologia Marina. Coastal Climate Science, Universidad de la República de Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Gustavo J. Nagy

  3. Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy

    Marco Borga

  4. Department of Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru

    Pastor David Chávez Muñoz

  5. Department of Hydrology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Artur Magnuszewski

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Roy, S. (2020). Transforming Gendered Lives and Livelihoods in Post-disaster Settings in the Bangladesh Sundarbans Forest. In: Leal Filho, W., Nagy, G., Borga, M., Chávez Muñoz, P., Magnuszewski, A. (eds) Climate Change, Hazards and Adaptation Options. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37425-9_24

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