BURMA: Females Hit Worst by Cyclone Nargis - Report

By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Jul 27 (IPS) - Nearly three months after the powerful Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, it has emerged that the majority of those who died in the devastated area were women. Sixty one percent of those who died were female, reveals the ‘Post-Nargis Joint Assessment’ (PONJA), a report released by the tripartite group set up to respond to the humanitarian crisis in military-ruled Burma, or Mynamar. ‘’In some severely affected villages, twice as many women aged 18-60 died as men,’’ the report said. The same pattern was also evident in the deaths of children in the 5-12 age group and the among the children below five years, where there was a noticeably higher number of young girls who died when Nargis struck than young boys, adds the 187-page report, released last week. But this... [read full story]