Does Natural Disaster-Induced Male Unemployment Increase Violence Against Women? Empirical Evidence from India

Violence against women (VAW) in India has increased with the rising frequency of natural disasters. This article uses district panel data between 2004 and 2019 for India to study the association between VAW and domestic violence (DV) with occurrences of droughts and cyclones. Results suggest that a rise in droughts-induced male unemployment significantly increases DV and VAW by 14 and 20.2 percent, respectively. The mediation analysis shows that the effect mediated by male unemployment on VAW is 3.4 and 2 percent of the total effect for droughts and cyclones, respectively. This indicates an emergent need for gender-based policy initiatives to prevent VAW. Furthermore, institutional policies such as alcohol sales prohibition, setting up of women-only police stations, and improving women’s political representation help prevent VAW. Besides reducing fatalities, disaster risk-management policies should focus on employment generation and promote gender-responsive budgeting to reduce women’s vulnerability to disasters.HIGHLIGHTS Women bear the burden of disasters with higher fatalities and increased violence within and outside the household.Loss of male employment causes financial and psychological stress, increasing VAW at the time of disasters.Disasters lead to reinstated patriarchal and masculine norms contributing to women’s poor socioeconomic status.Women-only police stations and greater political representation of women are critical to preventing VAW after disasters.