Pre and post Vulnerability of Floods to Mental Health Among the Residents of Srinagar City, J&K-India

Abstract

Health effects occur directly through contact with flood waters or indirectly from damage to infrastructure, ecosystems, food and water supplies or social support systems. They can be immediate or can appear days, weeks or months after the floods have receded. Two thirds of flood related deaths worldwide are from drowning and one third from physical trauma, heart attacks, electrocution, carbon monoxide poisoning or fire. The main of this paper was to assess the Pre and post vulnerability of floods to mental health among the residents of Srinagar city. For the collection of primary data, sample of 200 respondents were randomly selected from various areas of the Srinagar city. A well structured questionnaire was employed for collecting primary data. The study reveals that Maximum number patients were found during post floods (974). During pre floods out of the total 418 patients, maximum were found in the month of July (116 patients) followed by August (107 patients). However in post floods out of 974, maximum cases were found in January (281 patients)  followed by march (273 patients). Females were found more vulnerable in both cases but in pre flood  62 percent females were found exposed to different mental health problems which increased to 77 percent after floods of September, 2014.

Key words: Flood, Mental Health, Srinagar, Vulnerability