Abstract:
India was the third country most severely impacted, after Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The official death toll of India was reported at 10,749 and another 6000 people were reported missing and feared to be dead. Approximately 154,000 homes were destroyed and 600,000 people were displaced and moved to emergency shelters. The overall financial loss for India has been estimated at about $ 2 billion U.S. dollars. The fishermen communities that lived in the coastline suffered the most damage and destruction. Approximately 80 percent of the dead on the mainland were from fishing communities. They lost their homes and their source of livelihood.
While these statistics emerged, there was another startling statistic that began to surface and expose the gender inequalities during natural disasters. Official government data shows that three times more women than men were killed by this tsunami.