Sunita* was in grade 6 when the well they drew water from dried up. The solitary water pump in the village was reserved for the exclusive use of the upper caste people, so the family now had to fetch water from a natural well five kilometres away. Since her mother worked as a domestic help, and her older sister was in grade 9, the burden of fetching water now fell on Sunita. Each trip took almost 2 hours. Sometimes, if she was a little late, the others would have depleted all the water, and she would have to wait till the underground spring filled the well again, before she could fill her 3 pots, and return home. Though she enjoyed going to school and was a reasonably decent student, Sunita was forced to drop out of school because fetching water took up so much time.
Climate change affects everybody, but people who are already the most marginalised are impacted disproportionately. There is an extremely strong co-relation between climate change, gender and social inequity; and women are far more vulnerable to the effect of climate change than men.
In poor, rural households, women are responsible for the household water supply, for energy for cooking and for food security. Since all three depend on natural resources, and are adversely affected by climate change, women end up spending a considerable amount of time in mitigating the effects of climate change. Since a greater proportion of their time goes in seeking diminishing natural resources, like Sunita, they are forced to drop out of school or have fewer time to pursue livelihood.
When we study the pattern of migrations, we find that except when women migrate to go to their marital home after marriage, men are more likely to migrate than women. When men migrate, they leave the women behind to handle elder care and child care and to feed the families. With resources diminishing due to climate change, women carry a disproportionate burden. During a prolonged drought, or any other natural emergency, men migrate more frequently, thus leaving the women to bear the burden of dealing with the adverse effect of climate change.
A large majority of rural and poor women are forced to cook in poorly ventilated kitchens either by burning firewood or using polluting stoves, which increases their exposure to air pollution. The fact that women get less nutrition than men and are often weak and anaemic makes them more susceptible to respiratory illnesses. These two factors combine to adversely impact the overall health of women. Children and the elderly have lowered defences against air pollution. When they fall ill, a disproportionate share of the caregiving falls on women.
Climate change leads to higher temperatures and more contaminated water sources, both of which increase the incidence of water borne and vector borne diseases. This is further compounded when there are natural disasters like cyclones, floods or droughts. Even if families are not displaced from their homes, there is a much greater incidence of illnesses, and women as primary caregivers spend a disproportionate proportion of their time and effort in caring for patients.
Natural disasters also restrict access to medical facilities, and the burden of this reduced access is be borne primarily by women. Calamities also prevent women from accessing sexual and reproductive health services, which will lead to unplanned pregnancies, home deliveries and greater maternal and natal mortality. It is women who are already at the margins who are impacted most by this.
Climate change also leaves women, especially economically vulnerable, lower caste and tribal women, more exposed to the risk of physical and sexual violence.
When women need to travel longer distances (or deeper into the forest) to fetch water or to look for food, they are vulnerable to sexual assault and rape. Since women end up spending more time on gathering scarce natural resources, they have less time to spend on a secondary livelihood- this pushes families into a cycle of poverty and increases the risk of human trafficking.
Women who are unable to earn a secondary income are more dependent on the income of their male family members, and this leaves them vulnerable to physical, sexual and emotional intimate partner violence.
Climate change could lead to displacements and forced migrations. When women are forced to live in camps and other temporary shelters, they are at increased risk of sexual intimidation and rape, often in the hands of the people who are running the camps and are supposed to protect them.
How, then can this vulnerability of women be reduced? The first step is to understand and acknowledge the close linages between climate change, social inequity and gender. More women, especially a diverse set of women, need to be brought into the discussion.
One should specifically quantify and measure the gender specific impact of climate change. This would include additional time spent in accessing natural resources and caregiving, and the opportunity cost of this time. It is therefore critical that the gender perspective be made an intrinsic component of all development initiatives.
Women should be made a part of decision making at the local, national and international level. Women, though not necessarily the most vulnerable women, are coming together to collectively raise their voice against the impact of climate change. Such voices should be brought into the mainstream, and the voices of the most vulnerable women should be amplified.
Allocation of resources towards mitigating the effect of climate change should be done in consultation with women, because they are best suited to give inputs on where the investment will have the maximum impact.
Access to credit should be improved, so women can benefit from new technologies that improve access to dwindling natural resources, and which provide secondary livelihoods.
Women have a fund of inherited knowledge and they should be involved in developing and testing new technologies which will mitigate the effects of climate change. At the local level, traditional wisdom should be incorporated into any new technology that is being developed.
These steps will reduce the economic, social and cultural barriers that make women particularly vulnerable to climate change.
Baby* was 16 when she came to know that their ancestral forests will be submerged by the construction of a dam which would regulate the flow of the river.. She realised that this would not only destroy their traditional food sources and their livelihoods, but would eventually force the tribe to migrate to other places. The women led the protests against the project. Though they were subject to verbal, physical and sexual intimidation, they refused to back down, and they eventually managed to get a stay order issued against the project. Baby knows that their traditional way of living continues to be in danger, but she knows that she will not back down.
* these are composites of many stories that have been well documented- details changed to suit the purpose.