The climate crisis is not gender neutral

Context: According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die in a disaster.

Impact of climate change on vulnerable groups: 

• Disproportionate health risks and mortality: Women and girls, especially in poverty, face significantly high health risks due to societal roles, responsibilities, and cultural norms. 
  • Prolonged heat is particularly dangerous for pregnant women (increasing the risk of preterm birth and eclampsia), young children, and the elderly.
  • Exposure to pollutants in the air (household and outdoor) affects women’s health, causing respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and also the unborn child, impairing its physical and cognitive growth. 
• Agriculture and livelihood vulnerabilities: Agriculture, a vital livelihood source for women, especially in rural India, is severely affected by climate change. Climate-driven crop yield reductions lead to increased food insecurity, affecting nutritional intake and exacerbating health and domestic challenges for women.
  • Within households with small and marginal landholdings, men often face social stigma from unpaid loans, leading to migration, distress, and sometimes suicide, while women bear heavier domestic workloads, worsened health, and more intimate partner violence.
• Water and sanitation: Extreme weather events disrupt water cycles, making access to safe drinking water difficult, increasing the burden on women and girls responsible for water collection, thereby reducing their time for productive work and healthcare.
  • A report from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in 2021 found that 75% of Indian districts are vulnerable to hydromet disasters (floods, droughts and cyclones). NFHS 5 data showed that over half of women and children living in these districts were at risk.
• Food and nutritional insecurity: Climate change-induced food insecurity leads to poor physical and mental health among women, who bear the brunt of increased domestic workloads and intimate partner violence due to resource scarcity.
  • Data from NFHS 4 and 5 indicate that women in drought-prone districts are more likely to be underweight, suffer from intimate partner violence, and experience higher rates of girl marriages. These conditions, stemming from food and nutritional insecurity, increased workloads, and income uncertainty, detrimentally affect women's physical and mental health.

Way Forward

• Empowering women in climate solutions: Recognizing and empowering women as key agents in climate solutions can significantly improve outcomes. As tribal and rural women have been key in environmental conservation efforts. Equipping women and their collectives such as Self-help Groups and Farmer Producer Organisations with knowledge, tools, and resources can foster local climate solutions. 
• Addressing heat waves and water shortages: Immediate actions include protecting priority groups (outdoor workers, pregnant women, infants and young children and the elderly) from heat.
  • Urban authorities need to implement heat wave plans(based on local temperature plus humidity), including altering work and school timings, providing cooling facilities, and improving public drinking water access to prevent heat-related deaths. 
  • Long-term strategies involve improving tree cover, minimising concrete, increasing green-blue spaces and designing housing that is better able to withstand heat are longer-term actions.
  • On water scarcity, leveraging India's traditional rainwater harvesting expertise is vital. Work done by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in a few districts of Tamil Nadu showed that using geographic information systems, the panchayat could map key water sources, identify vulnerabilities and climate hazards and develop a local plan to improve water access by directing government schemes and resources.

• Community-led resilience: Building resilience through community-led initiatives, empowering local bodies like panchayats and Self-Help Groups (SHGs), through devolution of powers and finances and investing in building the capacity of panchayat and SHG members.
• Revising policy with a gender perspective: The National and State Action Plans on Climate Change (NAPCC & SAPCC) need to evolve beyond portraying women merely as victims, acknowledging them as vital agents of change. This requires a shift towards gender-transformative strategies and a comprehensive approach to climate adaptation.