Women and girls are to be seen as powerful agents of change for disaster resilience, said M Shashidhar Reddy, Vice Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority. He was chief guest at the seminar to mark the international day for disaster reduction organised by United Nations. While women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during a disaster according to a report of RIO +20 The Future We Want, Reddy said that in India, up to three times as many women as men have died in 2004 Tsunami, while in Indonesia, this figure rose up to four times. More than 90% of the estimated 1,40,000 fatalities following the 1991 cyclone in B’desh were women. The limited mobility and social status of women increased their vulnerability to these events.