On August 30 last year, it rained in a residential area in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul. Reporter Kim Hye-yoon unique@hani.co.kr
The lower the social class, the more they felt that disaster damage had a serious impact on their lives. On the 19th, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs released a report entitled ‘Health equity monitoring and business development to improve public health level – health inequality in a risk society’. Researcher Kim Dong-jin and other researchers conducted an online survey of 1,837 people aged 19 to 74 years old between May 4 and 12 of last year, according to population composition by gender, age, and region. There were 939 people who experienced disaster. The research team asked survey participants which class they belonged to when classifying Korean social income classes into five groups: lower class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, and upper class. Among those who experienced natural disasters such as typhoons, floods, cold waves, heatwaves, earthquakes, and yellow dust, 49.6% answered that the damage was serious. The response rate that the damage was serious was the highest at 58.0% in the lower class, followed by the lower middle class (51.1%), the middle class (49.6%), and the upper middle and upper class (32.3%). Among those who experienced social disasters such as fire, collapse, explosion, traffic accident, environmental pollution, new infectious disease, and fine dust, 55.1% of respondents said that the damage was serious. Again, the ratio was higher in the lower class (65.7%) than in the upper middle and upper classes (52.5%). It was found that the lower class, the lower education level, and the non-regular workers were slower to recover from disaster damage. Among those who experienced natural disasters, 10.7% of respondents said that they had not recovered. The lower class (21.4%), middle school graduates or less (21.8%), and non-regular workers (13.9%) were higher than the total number of respondents. 24.1% of those who experienced social disasters also responded that they had not recovered, with response rates exceeding the total number of respondents in the lower class (38.8%), middle school graduates and below (38.2%), and non-regular workers (28.4%). Among the respondents who had received disaster damage and government support, the response rates that economic support and health care support were insufficient were 70.0% and 40.3%, respectively. This was also higher for the lower class (83.2% · 51.3%) than the combined response rate (56.3% · 31.5%) for the upper middle and upper class. Confidence in the government’s disaster support was also low. 73.2% of those who had experienced disasters and 66.2% of those who had not experienced disasters also answered that ‘the government will not equally distribute financial support and help to all citizens in the event of a disaster’. In the report, the research team said, “Various social conditions that are unequally distributed by social class are being further amplified through the process of risks and disasters.” It is necessary,” he concluded. Reporter Lim Jae-hee limj@hani.co.kr
