Experts yesterday stressed the need for giving credit to the women of our country for their contributions in the field of disaster management.
They said the females play a vital role to overcome disaster, but they are yet to receive any formal recognition for it from the authorities concerned.
The disaster management experts were speaking at a roundtable titled 'Female and girls are silent force for overcoming disaster' at Senate Building on the Dhaka University (DU) campus in the capital.
Centre for Disaster and Vulnerability Studies (CDVS) of DU organised the programme in collaboration with Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP).
Speakers at the programme said people consider the females the most vulnerable portion of the society during and after a disaster while they (females) contribute vitally.
Presenting a keynote paper, DU sociology department Prof Mahbuba Nasrin said the contributions of females to disaster management was excluded in the 2011 Asia-based coordinated report conducted by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) of the United Nations.
The male and the female, both are affected at times of disaster, but the responsibility of minimising the risk of disaster falls on the shoulder of the females, said Nasrin, also CDVS coordinator.
Disaster Management Bureau Director General Ahsan Zakir, Disaster Management National Project Manager Muhammad Abdul Quyyum and CDMP Communication Specialist Shaila Shahid also addressed the programme.