Date: 06/09/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment Disaster and disaster management.

Key Phrases: Threat Multiplier, Long-Standing Gender Inequalities, Climate Displacement And Migration, Selective Vulnerability Of Women To The Climate Crisis, Water Wives In Maharashtra, Women As Agents Of Change, Gender Action Plans

Context:

• Climate change is a far larger and more complex phenomenon than the calamities of nature as it is a “threat multiplier”, which escalates social, political, and economic tensions in fragile and conflict-affected settings with its impact not being gender neutral.
• As climate change drives conflict across the world, women and girls face increased vulnerabilities to all forms of gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, human trafficking, child marriage, and other forms of violence.

Human experiences of climate change:

• The impact of climate change on human lives is manifold and is both direct and indirect.
• The direct impacts of climate change include the adverse effects of rising temperatures, frequent weather fluctuations, and resource scarcity on human health, lives, and livelihoods.
• However, it is not only humans who are at the receiving end of the climate crisis but also the world around them, which includes other species, infrastructure, and access to food, health, and sanitation.
• The propensity of these effects, however, is aggravated by the social norms and roles one assumes, and gender, being a key marker of such roles, becomes a primary factor in the distribution of these consequences.

How does climate change impact women and girls?

• When disasters strike, women are less likely to survive and more likely to be injured due to long-standing gender inequalities that have created disparities in information, mobility, decision-making, and access to resources and training.
• In the aftermath, women and girls are less able to access relief and assistance, further threatening their livelihoods, well-being, and recovery, and creating a vicious cycle of vulnerability to future disasters.
• Women’s and girls’ health is endangered by climate change and disasters by limiting access to services and health care, as well as increasing risks related to maternal and child health.
• Research indicates that extreme heat increases the incidence of stillbirth, and climate change is increasing the spread of vector-borne illnesses such as malaria, dengue fever, and Zika virus, which are linked to worse maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Why are women selectively disadvantaged?

• The disproportionate adverse effects that women are subjected to can be attributed to many different factors.
• Women are the primary dependents on natural resources and are responsible for securing food, water, and fuel for the households, and therefore are more vulnerable.
• Whilst being more engaged in environment-related activities, women have less control over such resources and have limited decision-making powers when it comes to the distribution of such resources and of management benefits for the crisis (for example, relief packages provided by the government), rendering them incapable of confronting environmental catastrophes.
• A report by Climate Action Network shows that women perform additional 12–14 hours of work due to climate displacement and migration.
• In times of food shortages due to unfavourable weather conditions, it is the women who sacrifice and eat less than the men due to gender-biased expectations of altruism.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), women also suffer higher mortality and a larger decrease in life expectancy during, and after, extreme weather events.

Experiences from India:

• The impact of climate change in India is becoming more and more evident every year, with intensifying heat waves, erratic monsoons, calamities related to weather, and frequent droughts.
• However, using a gender lens in assessing the impact of climate change has brought into the limelight stories from India, which reassert the selective vulnerability of women to the climate crisis.
• Women form most of the agricultural workforce in rural India, a field especially vulnerable to climate change.
• Despite their vast knowledge and experience, they continue to hold minimal land-owning rights and minimal financial resources, which put them at a disadvantage in mitigating any climate-related crisis.
• Women from the poorest rural communities spend almost two and a half months in a year only fetching water, and there has been an increase in the distance women travel and the number of households that travel for water.
• Women’s gender roles and gender inequality put them at a higher disadvantage against the climate crisis.

Various case studies which expose the disproportionate impact of the perils of climate change:

1. Case study from West Bengal:
   • A study of the tea plantations in Darjeeling, West Bengal, finds that in the last few years, the excessive use of fertilisers in the production of tea (a need that arose due to climate and ecological deterioration) has severely affected female tea workers, as they constitute the cheaper source of labour in tea gardens.
   • They have suffered vision loss, skin infections, loss of appetite, and breathing ailments.
2. Case study from Bihar:
   • The impact on women in the aftermath of floods finds an increased incidence of domestic violence against women, higher instances of trafficking in the name of marriage, increased preference for male children, and instances of abuse in the flood relief camps.
3. Case of Water wives in Maharashtra:
   • The case of water wives in rural Maharashtra shows yet another link between climate change and an increase in women’s exploitation.
   • To address this problem of water scarcity arising from droughts and improper water connectivity, the men of the village have started taking on more wives, where the role of these wives is only to make sure that there is water in the house.

Case Studies presenting Women As Agents Of Change:

1. Solar sister:
   • A women-led initiative in Africa, that helps communities build small-scale solar grids to become energy independent.
   • These grids reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
   • The Barefoot College trains women to be solar engineers to install and maintain clean sources of energy in their communities
2. Role of Self-help groups:
   • In Bhadrak, Orissa, women’s collectives or self-help groups (SHGs) have come together to generate solutions to ensure potable drinking water, in the face of increased salinity in local groundwater due to a rise in seawater levels and decreasing monsoon.
3. Local community participation:
   • Nahi community of women in West Bengal started to place their chicken coops over ponds.
   • The women realized that the chicken faeces that fell into the pond can act as fish feed, and result in larger fish.
   • This method has yielded great economic benefit to these women and their families and helped maintain or improve livelihoods.
   • Through community discussions and the creation of short videos, these women were able to share their experiences and strategies to survive long periods of drought.

Way Forward:

1. Representation in policy-making bodies:
   • As women gain more representation within decision-making bodies, countries are beginning to develop gender action plans that combine climate action with efforts to improve gender equality.
   • International financing funds like the Green Climate Fund now require grant applications to detail how women will be incorporated into a program, and groups like the International Fund for Agricultural Development prioritize women farmers affected by climate change.
2. Empowerment and training:
   • In the face of increased risk of climate-induced disasters, the empowerment and training of women in disaster-preparedness strategies, including early warning systems, search and rescue, emergency response, and relief distribution may be key to their own and their communities' survival.
   • Gender equality is both, a component of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and, at the same time, a precondition for achieving sustainability.
3. Gender-Specific Planning:
   • Funding organizations and donors should also take into account women-specific circumstances when developing and introducing technologies related to climate change adaptation and try their best to remove the economic, social, and cultural barriers that could constrain women from benefiting and making use of them.
   • Involving women in the development of new technologies can ensure that they are adaptive, appropriate, and sustainable.
   • At national levels, efforts should be made to mainstream gender perspectives into national policies and strategies, as well as related sustainable development and climate change plans and interventions.

Source: ORF-Online

Mains Question:

Q. Although the effects of the climate catastrophe are evenly distributed, the extent of the impact is determined by one’s socioeconomic position and is exacerbated by preexisting inequalities. Thus, women’s gender roles and gender inequality put them at a higher disadvantage in the climate crisis. Examine. (250 words).