With climate change pushing distressed communities — disproportionately affected by its impacts — further into the margins, gender minorities stand to bear the brunt most acutely. Young girls and women, particularly from coastal and rural regions in India, are facing widening social and economic hardships as a direct result of climate change. In Odisha, one of India’s most vulnerable climate hotspots, environmental degradation is triggering a transformation in the gender landscape.
Given the area’s high susceptibility to cyclones, it is common for male cultivators to migrate outside of eastern India in search of seasonal labour opportunities. This leaves women behind at home with a magnified load to provide for their families, in addition to their existing domestic and care-based responsibilities. The fact that women’s agricultural work is often dubbed ‘farm labour’, and not formally recognised, further obstructs their ability to obtain credit from banks and informal moneylenders. The burden, however, is not just economic or familial. With no patriarch around to provide social security, women are at a greater risk for sexual harassment.
Nature, too, is a daunting predator in these marshlands. The increased salinity of land and water, caused by rising sea levels, and a growing trend of shrimp and prawn cultivation, compels women to walk miles in search of drinking water. During floods, this task becomes even more of an uphill battle. Many women have to endure menstrual and urinary infections due to prolonged exposure to saline water, as noted in ground reports from the state, including an article in Scroll in 2019. This further amplifies the reproductive healthcare crisis in Odisha’s coastline villages.
Among the many unexpected consequences of climate change in the region, the issue of social isolation perhaps is most unique. Friends and relatives are wary of visiting their loved ones in the region, due to the diminishing availability of safe and clean water, and the risk of skin ailments that accompanies the exposure to saline water.
Eligible bachelors in Odisha, meanwhile, find themselves facing a challenge on the marriage front, with potential brides expressing apprehensions about settling in a land where the sea seems to move inward with each passing year.
Foraging For Agency And Local Sustainable Solutions
With no one but themselves to rely on, local women in Sitalpur, Kaliapat, Ganjam, Tandahara, and many other connected regions of Odisha’s coast have had to take matters into their own hands. A vibrant cluster of women-led self-help groups (SHGs) has formed alliances across 11 rural councils in the state, and they are not willing to countenance repression. Many are raising shared concerns in these government-recognised forums, while others are tirelessly innovating sustainable solutions. At Mainsa village, the profits from a leaf-plate-making business, run solely by women, have facilitated investments in a soft-crab-farming model, and a dry fish business — a means that not only ensures independent income, but is also “useful during disasters for food”, reports the Global Programme India. Within the same district of Puri, women in Tandahar and Gundalba villages are reviving coastline forests that can act as a buffer against cyclones and floods. In nurturing the saplings along the coast in an organised manner, the women are laying the foundation for a forest that will, in turn, nurture them.
The case of Odisha, while acting as an inspiring example of locally-driven climate resilience, has further reinforced the truth of how climate change exacerbates social disparities. This report by the Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) discusses the myriad muscular and skeletal disorders to which women farmers are susceptible, in addition to highlighting the household and economic burden they carry.
There is a growing need, therefore, for climate-action solutions in Odisha to be tailored to meet the needs of the local women leading the fight against climate change. Broadly, interventions targeted at climate resilience here must focus on empowering female farmers by giving their work its due recognition and allied benefits, and promoting institutional investment in women-led ventures.
Further, while upgrading to appropriate technology is a priority, women’s health, safety, and specific training needs must be kept in mind. Participatory policymaking — involving local voices, particularly from marginalised communities, at multiple stages of the drafting and implementation process — can help ensure that solutions cater to the unique long-term, intergenerational needs of a community, in addition to offering local suitability.
Samreen Chhabra is a faculty member at Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences.
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