Women's technological innovations and adaptions for disaster mitigation : a case study of Chrlands in Bangladesh.

Women play a significant role in disaster mitigation in Bangladesh, but their contribution goes unnoticed. Their indigenous knowledge and practice of environmental management increases the coping capacity of communities in hazardous areas and thus contributes to their survival. Their inherent technological ability is demonstrated as they carry out a number of innovations and adaptions, which are generally embedded in their daily lives. This paper aims to describe, within its limitations, technological abilities of women living on charlands (pieces of land resulting from the accretion of silt in river channels), who, generation after generation, have been a source of knowledge and practices that are of immense value to humankind. Development interventions by relevant institutions must take notice of women technologists if they want to increase the capacity of a community to effectively manage disasters.