BharatNotes Vulnerability
nounUsage in a UPSC answer
A welfare state earns its legitimacy not by celebrating aggregate growth but by insulating its most vulnerable citizens — the landless, the migrant, the disabled — from the shocks of disease, drought, and displacement, for the true measure of governance lies in how it cushions vulnerability rather than how it tallies prosperity.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
vulnerable (adj), vulnerably (adv), invulnerable (adj), vulnerabilities (n pl), vulnerability (n)
Root
Latin vulnus = wound; vulnerāre = to wound; vulnerābilis = wounding; Late Latin -itās = noun suffix
Etymology
From Late Latin vulnerābilitās, from vulnerābilis ("wounding, injurious"), from Latin vulnerāre ("to wound"), from vulnus ("wound").
Memory Hook
Root "vulnus" = "wound" (as in "vulnerary", a wound-healing ointment). A vulnerability is the spot where you can be WOUNDED — your unguarded, open wound.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors that increase susceptibility to the impact of hazards. The reason it is the central concept of the field is that it is the alterable term: the hazard cannot usually be prevented, but vulnerability can be reduced, which makes disaster risk reduction possible at all. It is also socially patterned, since poverty, insecure tenure, disability, age and gender shape who is harmed most by the same event.
Don’t Confuse It With
Vulnerability is susceptibility to harm from a hazard. Exposure is simply being located where the hazard occurs, and one can be exposed without being especially vulnerable. Capacity is the resources available to cope, broadly its inverse. Poverty strongly shapes vulnerability but the two are not identical.
Hindi Meaning
भेद्यता (bhedyatā) or संवेदनशीलता (samvedanshīltā).
Common Questions
- What is vulnerability in disaster management?
- The physical, social, economic and environmental conditions that increase a community's susceptibility to harm from a hazard.
- Why is vulnerability the focus of disaster risk reduction?
- Because hazards themselves usually cannot be prevented, whereas vulnerability can be reduced through policy, planning and investment.
Seen in UPSC Question Papers
- Prelims 2021 — Disaster Management
- Mains 2021 · GS3 · 10 marks — Disaster Management
- Mains 2019 · GS3 · 10 marks — Disaster Management
- Mains 2016 · GS3 · 12.5 marks — Agriculture
- Mains 2013 · GS3 · 10 marks — Disaster Management
Real UPSC previous-year questions whose text uses “Vulnerability” — proof this word earns its place on your list.
Tip: press Alt+S to hear pronunciation
