Enhancing Women's Resilience in Disaster Condition in Padang City West Sumatra Province
Wewen Kusumi Rahayu1*, Anik Purwanti2, Retno Sunu Astuti3, Dyah Lituhayu4
Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Diponegoro, Central Java, Indonesia1,3,4
Faculty of Law, Universitas Diponegoro, Central Java, Indonesia2
Email: [email protected]*
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Article Information |
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ABSTRACT |
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Received: February 19, 2023 Revised: February 28, 2023 Approved: March 20, 2023 Online: March 24, 2023 |
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Padang City is one of West Sumatra Province's Level II Regions. Padang is geographically vulnerable to natural disasters, particularly earthquakes and tsunamis. Natural disasters affect men and women differently. Women are four times more likely than men to become victims of natural disasters. Women, on the other hand, have become advocates for the existence of various government disaster relief efforts. The Regional Government of Padang City actively maximized the position of women as one of the agents who became a support and fixed the post-natural disaster situation, according to a descriptive qualitative method and the theory of social feminism. The purpose of this study is to determine the position of women actively as one of the agents who support and improve the situation after natural disasters. Using a descriptive qualitative method with the theory of social feminism, it was found that the Padang City Regional Government has maximized the position of women actively as one of the agents who support and improve the situation after natural disasters. The efforts of the local government are aided by West Sumatra's adoption of local matrilineal values, which place women as the primary party in the concept of kinship life. Women's resilience in disaster mitigation conditions can be increased by actively involving them. |
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Keywords |
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Resilience; Women; Natural Disasters; Mitigation; Feminism
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INTRODUCTION
Law No. 24 of 2007 concerning Disaster Management, explains that a disaster is a series of events that threaten and disrupt people's lives and livelihoods caused by natural factors, as well as non-natural factors (Hardiyanto & Pulungan, 2019). Disaster events cause casualties, environmental damage, loss of property and even damage to social life (Nurjanah & Mursalin, 2022). In line with the development of time and the increasing variety of community activities, it also has an impact on the occurrence of various disasters in the form of environmental damage so that many disasters occur such as floods, landslides, forest fires and even droughts.
West Sumatra Province is one of the areas located on the West Coast in the central part of Sumatra Island. West Sumatra Province consists of lowlands on the West Coast and volcanic highlands formed by the Bukit Barisan. According to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the geographical conditions of West Sumatra Province make it one of the provinces that has a high potential for disasters, especially natural disasters. Some of the potential disasters that threaten include earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, coastal abrasion, drought, extreme weather, landslides, hurricanes, forest and land fires (Muhammad et al., 2018). The potential for this disaster threatens almost all regencies and cities in West Sumatra Province, as shown in the following table:
Table 1. Disaster Risk Index per Regency/City of West Sumatra Province
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No |
District/City |
IRBI 2013 |
PIRBI 2016 |
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Score |
Risk Class |
Score |
Risk Class |
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1 |
Padang |
209 |
High |
209,2 |
High |
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2 |
Agam |
209 |
High |
209 |
High |
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3 |
West Pasaman |
203 |
High |
203 |
High |
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4 |
Mentawai Islands |
197 |
High |
197,2 |
High |
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5 |
Padang Pariaman |
197 |
High |
196.8 |
High |
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6 |
South Pesisir |
190 |
High |
190 |
High |
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7 |
Pasaman |
178 |
High |
178 |
High |
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8 |
Pariaman City |
171 |
High |
171 |
High |
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9 |
Dharmasraya |
143 |
Intermediate |
143 |
Intermediate |
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10 |
Solo |
137 |
Intermediate |
137 |
Intermediate |
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11 |
South Solok |
137 |
Intermediate |
137 |
Intermediate |
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12 |
Bukittinggi city |
130 |
Intermediate |
130 |
Intermediate |
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13 |
Tanah Datar |
125 |
Intermediate |
125 |
Intermediate |
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14 |
Solo City |
125 |
Intermediate |
125 |
Intermediate |
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15 |
Lima Puluh Kota |
119 |
Intermediate |
119 |
Intermediate |
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16 |
Padang Panjang City |
113 |
Intermediate |
113 |
Intermediate |
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17 |
Sawah Lunto City |
113 |
Intermediate |
113 |
Intermediate |
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18 |
Sijunjung |
107 |
Intermediate |
107 |
Intermediate |
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19 |
Payakumbuh City |
105 |
Intermediate |
105 |
Intermediate |
Source: BNPB Indonesia Disaster Risk Index, 2013 and Decline of Indonesia National Disaster Risk Index, BNPS 2016
From table 1 it can be seen that each Level II Region in West Sumatra Province has a moderate to high disaster risk. One of the areas with a high category of disaster risk is Padang City. The natural condition of the city of Padang consists of hills and lowlands directly facing the Indian Ocean. This condition makes Padang City vulnerable to extreme weather disasters, extreme wave disasters and abrasion, earthquakes and tsunamis, forest and land fires and other disasters (BPBD Kota Padang, 2019).
Regarding natural disasters, they can happen at any time without any prior certainty and can happen to anyone. Because of this, it requires the readiness of all parties, including the government, NGOs, practitioners, academics and especially society in general to have vigilance and readiness in dealing with disaster conditions. The attitude of a community that is ready and alert is also called a disaster response community. Through the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), the government is making various efforts to prepare and form a disaster-responsive community. With the hope that it can reduce and even avoid disaster risks that may be felt and experienced by the community more broadly.
Disaster events impact every community, but in different forms. In the Cultural Forum activity with the theme "Building a Culture of Disaster Awareness, Minimizing Disaster Risk", UGM anthropologist, Suzie Handjani said that "Disasters have different impacts on women and men" (Satria, 2022). Furthermore, Suzie added that, when natural disasters occur, there are groups that are marginalized such as women, even get impacts like "multiple burdens" (Satria, 2022). With the role of mother being carried out by women, it requires them to carry out the responsibility of caring for family members properly, even when natural disasters occur. It is unfortunate that the government and society have not read these differences so that when carrying out disaster mitigation, then during disaster management, as well as post-disaster management, women often do not get the things they need because treatment is just the same as men (Satria, 2022). Suzie gave an example during the evacuation, even though there had been segregation of men and women, the women were not given access to the things they needed, such as mothers who had small children, some had just given birth, and needed diapers, then women also need sanitary napkins, need bras, and so on (Satria, 2022).
Recognizing the importance of protecting women in disaster conditions, the authors describe the efforts made by the Regional Government of the City of Padang in carrying out disaster mitigation in order to create a disaster-responsive society by paying attention to the protection of women and men in order to strive for women's resilience in disaster conditions.
The city of Padang is one of the Level II Regions in the Province of West Sumatra which stretches from North to South which has a 68.126 km long beach and a row of Bukit Barisan with a hill area of 486.209 km2 (Statistics, n.d.). The natural condition of the city of Padang is in the form of hills and plains directly facing the Indian Ocean (Ramadhan, 2021). This geographical condition is one of the things that causes the Padang City area to have the potential for natural disasters. Throughout 2021, various forms of natural disasters that have occurred in the City of Padang include; 29 cases of drought, 26 cases of floods, landslides and tornadoes 5 cases each, besides that earthquakes also often occur in the city of Padang (Rais, 2021).
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated that the city of Padang is a city prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, which is caused by the location of the coast in the western part directly facing the megathrust earthquake source zone. Therefore, the BMKG asked the regional government to be able to encourage and realize the people of Padang City more broadly so that they are on a tsunami alert (tsunami ready community). The Head of BMKG, Dwikorita explained that based on the records of the BMKG Tsunami Catalog, West Sumatra Province had experienced tsunamis several times, namely in 1797, 1833, 1904 and 1935 (Situmorang, 2022).
Various policies in dealing with natural disasters are used as the basis for the City of Padang in dealing with various potential natural disasters that may occur. These policies are in the form of; Law No. 24 of 2007 concerning Disaster Management, Minister of Home Affairs Regulation No. 46 of 2008 concerning Guidelines and Organizational Procedures for the National Disaster Management Agency, based on this policy, the Padang City Government formulates various regional policies to deal with various potential natural disasters that might occur (Gerungan, 2019). The regional policies are; Padang City Regional Regulation No. 3 of 2008 concerning Disaster Management, Padang Mayor Regulation No. 95 of 2016 concerning the Organizational Structure and Work Procedure of the Padang City Regional Disaster Management Agency, which is used as the basis for realizing a planned, integrated, coordinated and comprehensive disaster management (BPBD Padang City, 2019).
In Law no. 24 of 2007 concerning Disaster Management explains that disaster management is a shared affair and responsibility among all stakeholders (Suarda, 2016). Various development planning efforts in the City of Padang have been carried out based on increasing people's welfare, increasing justice and reducing the impact of damage as well as protecting society more broadly from various forms of natural disaster threats. However, the handling that is not comprehensive and not systematic causes the implementation of various efforts to deal with natural disasters to be not optimal.
In various forms of natural disasters, it was found that 70% of the victims of natural disasters were women and children (Ananda et al., 2019). Various things cause the high number of female victims in various forms of natural disasters. According to Enarson and Morrow, economic problems, race/ethnicity and age have caused women to be in a more vulnerable condition than men (Ananda et al., 2019). On the other hand, Kusumasusari added that the condition of physical differences between men and women, political marginalization and women's dependence on men led to an increasing vulnerability of women in conditions of natural disasters (Ananda et al., 2019).
On the other hand, women have greater capacity in managing disasters, because in many natural disaster conditions in Padang City, women have a higher concern and have strong bonds with society and the environment when compared to men. Women as social actors have dedicated and capable emergency responders and are able to build social networks in disseminating information and exchanging assistance (Ananda et al., 2019). However, in the city of Padang, which adheres to matriarchal cultural values, it still cannot maximize the potential possessed by women. Based on this background, the purpose of this research is to find out the position of women actively as one of the agents who support and fix the situation after natural disasters.
METHODS
This study uses a descriptive qualitative method with a gender analysis approach. Descriptive qualitative method is done by describing and interpreting the object as it is (Rahayu, 2022). The gender analysis approach is a method or tool for identifying gender gaps or disparities through the provision of data and facts and information about gender, namely data that is disaggregated between women and men (Ananda et al., 2019). Data and information were obtained by interviewing the stakeholders involved, namely: (1). BPBD Padang City, (2). NGO, (3). Office of Women's Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning (DP3AP2KB) Padang City, (4). Communities affected by disasters, (5). Community figure. The research process was carried out by collecting data from online mass media, documents from local government institutions and carrying out a data cross-checking process using source triangulation techniques.
RESULTS
The geographical location of Padang City which is on the edge of the West Coast of Sumatra Island and directly adjacent to the Indian Ocean is one of the potential causes of various natural disasters. This condition is also coupled with the geographical position of the city of Padang which is in the active collision zone of two tectonic plates, so that earthquakes often occur and the potential for a tsunami occurs. On September 30, 2009 an earthquake occurred in the city of Padang with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale. Data collected by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) show that 6,234 people died and 343 people were missing. In addition to earthquakes and tsunamis, Padang City also has the potential to experience various other forms of natural disasters, in the form of floods, volcanic eruptions, landslides, droughts and others.
In terms of the disaster concept, the paradigm of disaster management which previously focused on aspects of emergency response has shifted to the paradigm of disaster risk management (Triyana & Wibowo, 2011). One of the local government's efforts to adapt to this paradigm shift is to make regional policies that contain and adapt to the concept of disaster risk management paradigm. The policy is Regional Regulation No. 3 of 2008 concerning Disaster Management. In the General Provisions section it is stated that the implementation of disaster management is a series of efforts which include establishing development policies that are at risk of disasters, disaster prevention activities, emergency response and rehabilitation (BPBD Kota Padang, 2019).
In various disasters that have caused human casualties, property, the environment and changes in the order of social life, of course, this has had a very large impact on the local community and society more broadly. According to the results of an analysis from the London School of Economics (2008) in 141 countries, it shows that in every disaster incident, women victims are four (4) times more vulnerable than men (Ministry of PPPA, 2018). One can see that when the disaster occurred, the number of female victims who died or were injured was more than the male victims. This is because, many women are at home doing domestic work while men are outside the home doing work in public areas so that it is possible to save themselves more quickly.
The interesting thing from the findings in the field is that women who are affected by natural disasters in the city of Padang have the ability to get up faster and help restore their family's economic condition. Various kinds of efforts were made by women, including being actively involved in the agricultural sector, especially as rice farmers or as traders. Unknowingly, this effort can be a way to relieve trauma (trauma healing) due to natural disasters. After the earthquake, people in general must be able to get back on their feet and anticipate existing problems, and cannot depend entirely on assistance from the government, the private sector or other community groups (Budirahayu, 2020). It is undeniable that, in post-disaster conditions, women actually become a support for the government's existence, such as organizing public kitchens, caring for families, saving goods for survival and even being a reinforcement for all family members to survive (Budirahayu, 2020).
The existence of the government through the active participation of women's communities is also used by the Regional Government of Padang City. This condition is actually one of the effective ways to motivate and mobilize the community to reduce disaster risk in the city of Padang, especially the earthquake and tsunami natural disasters and increase family and community resilience. The concept of making use of women's existence in a more active and complete manner is known as women's resilience through a social construction approach.
Women are often identified with the task of caring for the family and household which is considered as unpaid informal sector work (Budirahayu, 2020). This theory is supported by the socialist feminist school according to Delphy and Leonad that in carrying out their domestic duties, women can do well and are able to organize themselves even though they are under a patriarchal structure (Budirahayu, 2020). Another theory used to describe women's resilience in disaster conditions is the theory of Kaplan (1982), which states that women must have awareness and collective action to actively participate in creating conditions for gender equality in order to actively participate in carrying out various social care actions in order to continue to survive.
Based on Social Feminist theory, phenomena in the field show various things that affect women's resilience in disaster conditions in Padang City, including (Nurtjahyo, 2019) are: (1) there is a construction of social values in the local community that expects women to save their family members first, (2) the number of women who did not attend disaster mitigation training conducted by BPBD, and (3) lack of knowledge of the female community regarding the early symptoms of natural disasters.
In connection with this phenomenon, the BPBD is collaborating with the Office of Women's Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning (DP3AP2KB) to carry out various strategies to strengthen the role of women again during a disaster. Efforts that have been made by stakeholders in encouraging the strengthening of women in disaster conditions include (Nurtjahyo, 2019) are: (1) compile and publish a pocket book on Disaster Mitigation that can be accessed by the public at large, (2) incorporate gender-based disaster mitigation into the education curriculum material, and (3) corming and educating women to become agents of disaster mitigation campaigns.
CONCLUSION
The geographical area of Padang City makes it one of the areas that has a high potential for natural disasters. The disaster mitigation efforts carried out by BPBD are by actively involving the community of women, so that they are able to strengthen and form the resilience of women in every disaster mitigation process that is carried out. This effort is considered effective in educating the community to become a disaster preparedness community. In addition, they are also able to get back up and improve the living conditions of their families independently. Actively involving women is more appropriate than just making them a target group.
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