Exploring Vulnerabilities of Disaster-Induced Widows

The Uttarakhand flood of 2013 in India has taken many families’ bread-earner. Usually, the status of Indian widows, especially in North India, is deplorable, associated with social discrimination and economic deprivation. This paper explores the multi-dimensional vulnerabilities of 20 women widowed during this disaster through a qualitative method. The results indicate financial difficulties, despite farming and husbandry activities for subsistence, leading to a lack of education and decent nutrition for children. This paper makes recommendations for convincing policymaking, adapted to widows’ needs.  Keywords: Widowhood, vulnerability, Uttarakhand, Disaster, Floods eISSN 2514-7528 © 2021 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA CE-Bs by E-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians / Africans / Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/jabs.v6i18.382