Mainstreaming of  climate change

(GS2&3:Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources &Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.)

context:

• Climate change is a unique threat due to its impacts on populations and ecosystems over time.
• These impacts stems from the complex links between the state of the climate and the causes of poverty, embedded as they are within various socio-cultural contexts.

Disproportionate effects :

• Recent discourse has increasingly highlighted the disproportionate effects of climate change on women due to their greater domestic responsibilities, lack of asset ownership, and limited access to the skills and knowledge needed to adapt to stressful events.
• In both developed and developing countries, patriarchal structures and rigidly defined gender norms often leave women and girls disadvantaged.
• When extreme weather events or disasters occur, therefore, the question is not only how severely everyone is affected, but who is affected more, given existing power relations and structural barriers.
• The fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi in March 2019 acknowledged the compounded burden of climate change on women and girls, but also emphasised the “power of their knowledge and collective action.”

Climate-induced displacement:

• The micro-level vulnerability assessments have found various climate hotspots across the country.
• A 2022 study by the United Kingdom’s (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) found that one of Odisha’s economically stable districts, Kendrapara, is experiencing rapid migration, with 85 percent of its population migrating once or twice a year due to exacerbated vulnerabilities associated with frequent cyclones, floods, and storm surges.
• Similar climate-induced displacement pervades in states such as Assam and Jharkhand, while coastal cities like Mumbai and Kolkata continue to face water scarcity and rising food prices along with an influx of migrant populations. 
• The southern and western regions of India are highly prone to extreme droughts, exacerbating the risk of rapid crop failures and low food security.
• Meanwhile, the northern and northeastern regions have become extremely flood-prone, which too, compounds migration.

Climate vulnerability in India:

• India is one among most vulnerable to climate change because of its exposure to climate-related disasters and the economic dependency of a high percentage of its population on climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture.
• This has severe implications for women and girls, especially those in remote regions and those who belong to tribal communities, minority groups, or are part of populations who migrate seasonally and engage in fisheries, forestry, and agriculture. 
• The lives of the women in most of these communities are intricately connected to collecting and managing natural resources.
• For example, fisherwomen account for 34.6 percent of the total fisherfolk population in India, while the agricultural sector employs 80 percent of all economically active women in the country.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report on global climate change says that agricultural land in India is today severely threatened by climate change. 

Additional barriers:

• Frequent climate calamities are also likely to create additional barriers to access of essentials like quality education, menstrual care, and appropriate nutrition. 
• Historical experience with hydro-disasters in India shows that rising water levels and frequent flooding tend to affect women’s menstrual care, given the lack of hygiene products, female helpers and gender-segregated toilets in relief camps for those who are displaced by the disaster.
• As per the Malala Fund Girls’ Education and Climate Challenges Index, India will have 141 million school-aged girls vulnerable to climate change effects by 2025.
• In low-income families, frequent disasters lead to impoverishment, which increases the chances of girls dropping out of school.

Way forward:

• Considering the multidimensional nature of the nexus between climate change and gender inequity, India needs to proactively integrate the research across different thematic areas and affirm gender intentionality into climate action.
• Making sufficient impact demands radical transparency, robust frameworks to guide collaborative efforts, and comprehensive tracking of progress across sectors spanning health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and livelihoods. 
• Effective climate response needs to include both mitigation and adaptation, but the latter has often received limited policy focus and funding which needs to be tackle properly.
• Given India’s ambitious commitment to transition to a low-carbon economy, made at the Conference of Parties (COP) 26 in Glasgow in 2021 and earlier at the COP-21 in Paris in 2015, it needs to create close to 50 million ‘green jobs’ by 2070. 
• Women workers and women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can contribute vitally to this transition if supported through appropriate skilling, awareness, mobilisation, safety and mentorship.

Conclusion:

• The current action plans to combat climate change may not be capable of fully addressing its non-linear effects on those with the fewest resources, or those with unequal access to decision-making and credible information.
• thus, a gender-intentional approach is essential, which also needs to be carefully streamlined to ensure that the concerns of women and girls are fully incorporated.