Disasters Are Gendered: What’s New? - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 263

Disaster planners are increasingly turning to digital technologies as the early
warning aids of the future. Mobile phone technology, using either centrally
disseminated warnings or crowdsourcing approaches, has been identifi ed as a key
innovation in early warning. In 2009, for example, the government of Bangladesh
started a mobile phone disaster-warning system:
Tens of thousands of mobile users in Bangladesh's fl ood and cyclone-prone areas will now
receive advance warning of an impending natural disaster through an alert on their cell
phones, a government offi cial says.
Bangladesh - one of the world's most densely populated countries - is highly vulnerable
to natural disasters, including cyclones, storm surges, droughts, fl oods and earthquakes,
which often affect millions of people.
In a bid to minimise loss of life and damage to property, Bangladeshi authorities have
signed an agreement with two mobile operators in the country to provide disaster early
warning alerts to subscribers (Bhalla 2009 ).
More than a dozen “least developed countries,” including Mozambique, Uganda,
Madagascar, Vietnam, and Vanuatu, are exploring using mobile devices as early
warning systems. Rich countries, including Australia and the Netherlands, have
already implemented extensive mobile-phone-based systems. The allure of using
mobile-phone-based early warning is based on preliminary evidence of its effi cacy,
and the (unexamined) observation that mobile phones are increasingly common
even in rural and poor communities. Mobile-phone-based early warning is also
being heavily promoted by private telecommunications companies that have a
vested interest in partnering with governments to channel essential public services
through their private networks. Disaster warning is seen by the private sector as a
growth market. In the long run, the confl ation of the imperatives of public service
with private profi t may prove to be problematic, but for now ICT-based early warn-
ing is on the leading edge of new approaches to disaster risk reduction.
The shift to digital technology seems to be highly effective in providing early
warning to some members of some communities, but in many places it will do little
to close the gender gap in deaths and displacements. For example, a 2008 report
from an international relief organization highlighted a mobile-phone-based warning
system being piloted in “fl ood-prone” Bihar, India. But this good news needs to be
placed against the irony of the recent implementation of local laws in Bihar (and
elsewhere) that ban women from using mobile phones:
In [December] 2012, a village council in the Indian state of Bihar banned the use of mobile
phones by women in Sunderbari village… The most recent ban, comes after a July ban on
mobile phones for girls in the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. This was followed by a ban
in August on mobile phones for girls under age 18 in a district in Rajasthan, according to
The Times of India .
In Rajasthan, the ban was issued so that girls would not be “spoiled” by excessive use
of cellphones. In Uttar Pradesh the ban on mobile phones also included a ban on women
under the age of 40 going shopping un-escorted by a man. Overall the bans target women's
freedom and mobility. A local resident said: “It has been observed that mobile phones have
given “unnecessary” freedom to girls, which is distracting them from following our
culture. The Panchayat's decision will be followed strictly in the village as it has been
accepted by all.”