The gender imbalance poses an equal challenge to surviving women and single men.

Three months after the tsunami stroke the shores of Aceh, people and relief agencies find themselves faced with various problems in the devastated areas. Beside the economic and political problems, grave social implications for the tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people, have surfaced. According to the report of the international aid group Oxfam, the tsunami has created a severe gender imbalance in the devastated regions. The report suggested that it killed four women for every man, which means that in some villages “up to 80% of those killed were women.” According to the Sunday Times, in the Acehnese village of Kuala Cangkoy, for instance, around 117 of the 146 victims were women.

Becky Buell, Oxfam’s policy director, argues that the serious gender imbalance wrought by the tsunami is expected to cause all kinds of problems for years to come. One of the direct consequences of this disproportionate impact is the increasing rate of rapes and sexual harassments, after which “the women are put into sort of exile so that people won't talk,” said Wanti Maulidar, head of Women’s Solidarity of Aceh. Also, some of the concerns raised by the Oxfam report have to do with early marriages, dropping out of school, and reproductive health. In other words, women are expected to be forced to get married early, to drop out of school earlier, and to have more babies. Furthermore, there is the question of who is going to fill the work gap left by women.

Commenting on the implications for the presence of a “surplus” of men in any society, Andrea den Boer, from the University of Kent at Canterbury, told BBC World Service’s Everywoman Programme that gender imbalance leads to tensions and violence. She gave the example of the region of Hwi Pai in China in the 1850s, in which there were 129 men for every 100 women. As a result, men became involved in banditry, which turned into a wide-ranging revolt, allowing the rebels to control parts of China. “There seems to be overwhelming evidence that, for example, a large portion of violence committed within any society is committed by unmarried males,” she said. Furthermore, gender imbalance is usually accompanied by prostitution, women trafficking, kidnapping and polyandry. 

However, it is important to note that the emerging gender imbalance in the tsunami-hit areas is not a unique phenomenon. Such a disproportion usually occurs after military conflicts and natural catastrophes. In war-torn areas, there are usually more women than men because of the large number of males who die in combat. In this case,  however, more victims were women. Such a disparity, according to the Oxfam report, is the result of the fact that men have more physical strength and that most of them were either fishing or away from their houses when the devastating water waves smashed into Aceh. Furthermore, usually women were not taught how to swim, which reduced the chances of their survival. Significantly, similar gender imbalances exist in India and China but for different reasons; they can be attributed to female infanticide and sex-selective abortions.

Interestingly, it seems that the Acehnese themselves are still not aware of the gravity of the problem. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, when the head of Cot Lemkeweuh village was asked about the consequences of gender imbalance in the tsunami-hit areas, he replied: “So far I haven’t thought about it. All we think of is having semi-permanent houses, food and getting a job.” According to Yusmanidar, an Acehnese villager, things will get better with men finding jobs and getting houses. “They can go up into the hills to get a soul mate. If they have money, the women will come,” she said. The whole situation reminded me of American poet Cherrie Moraga’s quote: “When you are not physically starving, you have the luxury to realize psychic and emotional starvation.” Maybe it is still a luxury for people who are struggling for the basics of life to think about marriage.  

Perhaps it is still too early to grasp all the repercussions of the Indian Ocean tsunami. New realities and dilemmas are coming to light everyday. After the release of the Oxfam report, worries about the future of women in tsunami-hit areas are added to the international community’s wide range of concerns. With new problems emerging on the ground, will the governments of the tsunami-devastated areas as well as the international community be able to bear their heavy responsibilities?

• Click Here to Read Oxfam’s Report in Full 

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