Men-Syndrome

In the valley of Silence-land, thousands of miles to the north of Mount Veana, Bin’s peaceful land ‘Men-Syndrome’ was located. Men-Syndrome was green, with lots of flowers, honey bees and was famous for its peaceful and silent pretty women. Bin was a happy-go-lucky fat farmer; he lived near his farm, where he raised cattle and crops. Every evening, after working in the fields, he went for a few drinks with his friends to enjoy and talk about politics and women until late in the night. His wife name was Sam, she was 18 years old. He was not happy with his wife; he had never seen her before marriage as his parents had arranged the marriage. During the marriage night he got to know that his wife looked like an ugly crow. His comments were, “She is a wretched creature with a small brain and big feet”.

Usually, his wife complained that she is tired of performing home tasks, but Bin felt that it was her duty to raise his kids, prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner, clean his home, wash clothes, take care of the cattle, bring water from the near village, gather woods for burning in the stove, have sex with him, whenever he wants, and to do whatsoever he ordered her. Most of the times he used to beat her for not obeying him; Bin considered her as his property. Once, she tried to give Bin advice over building his new home and then Bin had beaten her with stick and had fractured her wrist.

It was a good day to go for farming, weather was calm and the Sun was shining. Bin cried, “Sam, quickly prepare for me the breakfast, I am getting late.” She did not reply, Bin could not wait, “Again, she is playing drama of headache”, Bin murmured.  Bin shouted, “Sam, get out of your bed and prepare me the breakfast” Sam replied, “I am ill and feeling so weak” Bin picked up a rod and hit her on her feet. She started bleeding. He left her bleeding in the bed. In neighborhood, he asked one of his relatives to take her to a quack and said that Sam slipped from the stairs. Everyone in the community knew that Bin is a kind-heart person and deep down he also does not want his wife to be suffering with wounds for a long time, after all, who will take care of home tasks, kids and cattle.

Bin went to his field and started sowing wheat. Suddenly, he felt that the earth was shaking, he sat on the ground. He saw around, but nobody was there, he thought it to be a delusion. He shook his head and said, “I beat Sam for nothing, but my father does the same”. Very soon, the earth started trembling and he felt that sky will fall on him, earth was moving up and down; to and fro like ebb and flow of the sea waves. Tree started to uproot and he was also able to hear sound of grumbling from the ground, as if the earth was angry and was trying to engulf him. It seemed to him that the quake was lasting forever. He got up from the ground and tried to run but fell and his face hit against a nearby rock, he started bleeding, probably his teeth were broken. Soon he became unconscious.

Chapter 2

“Valley of Silence-land is in a serious emergency situation, at 9 am an earthquake of 10 Richter scale hit the area, the whole valley is destroyed and nearly all villages of the valley are damaged but devastating effects have been reported in the area of Men-Syndrome where nearly 20000 homes, nearly all, have been damaged, 4000 deaths have been reported. A sizable portion of livestock has been perished inflicting severe blow to the existing livelihood patterns of already marginalized communities who have lost their main and the only source of income and living. Likewise health and education sectors have received major brunt of the earthquake. Some 12 schools and five medical health facilities have been destroyed.” Mr. Jose Patrick, head of Humanitarian Mission, United Domination Organization (UDO), informed the human crisis meeting at Mount Viena, “We have a very clear picture of the disaster and it is now easy for us to plan a full fledge humanitarian assistance mission for especially Syndrome”. From the corner of the room a voice came, “Wait a minute, we do not have age and sex disaggregated data, how will we plan effectively for woman, man, girls, boys and disabled based upon their needs?” Jose shook his head and saw towards the woman sitting in the corner of the room, “You are a trouble maker. Noor, you do not have any idea about the ground realities and you always poke your nose into the matters. At this moment we need to reach the people, we cannot put more resources and time into data collection while people are dying of wounds, hunger and cold. Without any adieu we are going to start our mission. Regarding age and sex disaggregated data, we will see later on. Is it clear to everyone?”

Noor, gender adviser (UDO), was looking frustrated and upset, she could not keep herself from resisting, “But we must also pay attention to the timing of the earthquake, and its 9 am, and this the time when men in Men-Syndrome leave for farms and woman starts work inside home. Impact of earthquake is different on woman and man, girls and boys. We must not forget the gender roles. If we do not have time to collect data, we must plan gender sensitive mission. Planning will not take much time and our efforts will be gender targeted. I do not know, what are we including in our emergency kits for the affected, how are we planning for camp location and what will be our distribution strategies? If we are using the same strategies that we have then I am not sure about the effectiveness of the mission.”

Patrick stared at Noor, “Listen Noor, you have a little experience, and you are talking to a person who has more than 40 years of experience of organizing such humanitarian missions. In humanitarian missions, gender has always been mainstreamed and I am following UDO mandate. Moreover, you want us to plan gender-based discriminatory system for the mission. Remember, all humanitarian missions have gender neutral approach. If a person is dying, we cannot start discussing his sex, it is against the ethics of humanitarian efforts.” Noor further interrupted, “But, if we will have data of men and woman in our camps, we will be able to work with it.” Patrick replied, “You can do anything that comes under the jurisdiction of your department.”

Just after few hours of the earthquake, the UDO started its mission, first of all helicopters were dispatched to the area as all the roads of the locale were damaged and blocked. So, UDO dropped necessary food items and a humanitarian kit to the people. News of the humanitarian mission was flashing on international media and everyone was praising the efforts and braveness of UDO men who were putting their life in a great danger for assisting the inhabitants of Men-Syndrome. After a day effort, UDO was able to establish a small refugee camp in a safe area of Men-Syndrome. Village was still encountering earthquake aftershocks. In the emergency center of the UDO a large number of injured people were brought. Bin was among the injured people, he was now recovering. His wife and children had survived. As at the time of the earthquake, Sam was taken to quack for the treatment of her leg and the quack worked in an open space. However, she was now unable to do any kind of work as her leg was swelling and international doctor recommended her to take rest for a week. Sam accompanied by her children was in the main camp, with all other people including woman, man, old people and children. Because of emergency, humanitarian mission had established a main camp for all the people with minor or no injuries. In the camp there were no partitions and the main camp was looking like a big hall, with a lot of suffocation. It was difficult for Sam to live in the main camp, as she never used to live with other men and talk to strangers. It was extremely difficult for her and was feeling as if she was surrounded by a pack of wolves ready to eat her. She covered herself with a big cloak and sat silently in a corner accompanied by her children, where she got some floor bedding to sleep. But how could she sleep? She was very hungry. In the evening there was a long queue of women and men, it was difficult for her to go and get the food, as her leg was hurting and moreover, it was uneasy for her to stand in a queue with strange men. In the evening, one of the women in the tent had given some food to her children, who then went to sleep. All the night she thought about the coming days and her hurt leg. She was afraid about the infant who was just a few days old and needed milk to be fed.  

Chapter 3

It was 3am and still Noor was awake, she was working to map out a complete plan of action to integrate gender in the mission. An hour ago, she visited the supplies room to check the details of articles of the emergency kit that UDO was distributing among people. She was shocked to know that the emergency kits were same for women and men{emergency pills, delivery kits and tetanus toxoid (2x) were missing}, as during last mission she had filed a complaint against the emergency kits and she was ensured that in subsequent missions separate emergency kits will be developed for man and woman. Then she saw the details of the daily ration and other accessories distributed to the people. The ration did not include supplements and micro nutrients for lactating and pregnant woman. In the camp area an enormous tent was set in which woman, man, children, old and disabled people all were packed like cattle. There was no bath room facility and toilets were very near to the tent. Toilets had poor sanitation and no drainage system and the area near the tent was smelly and seemed to be full of human feces. The cooking area was also very near to the living facility. Then Noor tried to locate the water distribution tank, she found it outside the camp, it was 2 KM away from the main tent. She whispered, “Pathetic, UDO is ignorant or wants to remain ignorant. They have no idea of their actions or probably they do not want to bother themselves”

It was not the first time that she was challenging the existing norms of the organization; it was her third job in the last eight years and she knew the importance of gender dimensions in a humanitarian mission and also the dire consequences of gender neutral approaches. She had resigned from the last two jobs because she posed a great confrontation to the gender neutral approaches and usually used to say, “How can we implement gender neutral approaches in a society that has gender imbalances and in a setting where woman are living as second grade citizens? Gender neutral approach means that we are deliberately excluding some groups and encouraging the existing flaws of the system that would further lead to more discrimination against woman. In the last resignation, she had written, “I have chosen my fight against gender neutral approaches and I will never quit the struggle, does not matter the circumstances I will face for my ambition”

Chapter 4

The next morning, Sam woke up with a voice, “Hey everyone its breakfast time, everyone get outside to take breakfast, after an hour you will find nothing, has everyone heard me?” A man was shouting in the camp. Sam probably slept for half an hour and now it was difficult for her to get up. But she was very hungry and her accompanying children were also. She tried to get up but was unable, she was feeling dizziness and weakness, her hands and feet were cold and sweating. She gathered her courage and got up but when she went outside, she found a long queue of people who were standing for toilet and also a long queue of people who were waiting for food. Sam was under great psychological pressure, on one hand she was thinking of getting food and on other hand, she was also worried about the surrounding people. After great difficulty, she was able to get food; food was not enough for her and the children. She took a small portion of food and then feed milk to the neonate. After an hour, she had to wash family clothes. UDO had given a bucket to collect water. She had to limp across 2 KM to get to the water distribution point; again there was a long line of people. It took two hours to reach to the water collection point; it was too sunny and was very difficult for her to carry bucket in one hand and neonate in another. At water collection point she filled her bucket with water and tried to carry it back. On her way back she felt very weak and the earth and sky seemed to be upside down, her foot was bleeding and suddenly felt complete darkness. Sam was found unconscious on the ground, with dead child, 1 KM away from the tent. She was now in the emergency section of the camp.

Chapter 5

Noor was able to collect age and sex disaggregated data on few issues, with the help of registration section of the camp, local people and NGO’s. The details of age and sex disaggregated data were as:

Age	Number of People Killed during the Earth Quake		Number of People in the Camp		Literacy rate  among the People in the Camp		Number of People Disabled after the Earth Quake		Bread Winners (from camp count)
	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male
0-10	300	500	500	200	30%	90%	80	20	0	0
11-20	200	300	500	300	20%	70%	20	30	0	1000
21-30	1000	70	1000	3000	5%	50%	100	10	300	3000
31-50	1000	30	2000	2500	3%	40%	200	30	500	3000
50-above	500	100	1000	1000	0%	20%	200	10	200	4000
Total	3000	1000	5000	7000	10%	50%	500	100	1000	11,000

Number of Pregnant Woman in the Camp: 100

Number of Lactating Woman in the Camp: 250

The data clearly evinced that woman were the most vulnerable and affected by the natural disaster. For instance, the death of women by the earth quake was 3 times higher as compared to men, it might be because of a reason: Timing of the earth quake was 9 am that meant that women would be busy in home tasks in their houses. Furthermore, woman access to education is less as compared to men. Old woman are most vulnerable in terms of literacy and then the most vulnerable group is of age that ranges from 21-30 years and 31-50 years old. The patterns are more or less similar for girls and boys. The data indicated a need for special focus on woman and girls to improve the access of education to them. Thirdly, as woman were performing traditional roles then it meant that they were on high risk of being disabled and the statistics showed the same, in which woman were affected (in terms of disability) 5 times more as compared to men. The age bracket of women who were affected the most by the earthquake was between 31 to 50 years. Unexpectedly, there were 1000 women in the camps that were bread winners of their family. UDO had expected none to be the bread winner and the assumption was the basis of UDO program formulation. The number of lactating woman were 250 but in the food ration there were no micro-nutrients for them, so it meant that lactating woman and accompanying children were at higher risk of malnutrition. Similarly, for pregnant woman there were no special delivery kits. Last but not least, woman number in the camp was pretty much similar to men count and had less access to opportunities that made woman more vulnerable inside the camp, UDO gender neutral approach was practically discriminatory against women and girls.

Noor was now working with NGOs and woman groups for formulating gender sensitive program and most importantly the program that could transform gender roles in after camp life. So, in the evening with the help of NGOs and woman groups, Noor was able to organize focus group discussions with the population of the camp. Then she included equal number of men and women for gender implications of the present mission approach to inform programming. She then wrote a report to the High Command of UDO regarding the problems and negative gender implications of the mission.

One of the NGOs approached media for highlighting the issues of the camp. The very next day, international and national media was covering the issues of woman in the camp. This brought UDO under high international pressure to take corrective measures. Everyone was now questioning UDO mission approach.

UDO had now received Noor report and recommendations on the matter. UDO high command decided to take effective measures on the basis of Noor report. The next very day, UDO sent tents, delivery kits, teachers, WASH implementation procedures and facilities, micro-nutrients and also asked for complete setup of Sexual and Gender Based Violence centers. And with all that Noor was now announced to be the director operations for the mission in the Men-Syndrome.

Chapter 6

Bin was shouting in the emergency section over Sam, “You killed my child; he was male and got birth after so many female children. I cannot forgive you.” He tried to beat Sam but the people at the emergency section caught him. The matter was brought to the Sexual and Gender Based Violence section. Sam was consulted, she told everything that happened in the past, the way Bin beat her and his dehumanizing attitudes. 

Now the camp life and Noor decisions and implementation plans might convert vulnerabilities into long term capabilities. It would greatly shape the lives of Sam and many women in the camp who would get rid of suppressed life or otherwise might further go into the web of domination.