Gender and Climatic Policies in India- A Review of National and State Action Plans on Climate Change

Abstract

It has been widely argued that the worst sufferers of climate change are poor and marginalized groups, particularly from developing countries (IPCC-AR4, 2007). It has been found that women being the poorest of the poor are even more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as compared to men. Further, women’s greater dependence on natural resources such as forests for fuelwood and fodder, expose them to greater risks associated with climate change. It has also been seen that during natural disasters, women tend to die in far greater proportions as compared to men due to their physical limitations and also during the post-disaster scenario, women become more vulnerable due to their domestic roles, natural resource dependence, and also other societal norms such as a limitation on females’ ability to migrate out after a major climatic disaster. It has been widely highlighted that traditional roles and responsibilities such as collection of water, fuelwood, and fodder make women vulnerable due to extreme events such as flooding and droughts and therefore exacerbate women’s inequalities and oppressions. Therefore, it is imperative to include gender concerns in all policy documents and laws relating to climate change and ensure adequate women's participation to ensure gender equality through climate action. This paper therefore aims to analyze the level of participation of women in climatic policies in India and also find out how the gender concerns are being addressed in India. In another section, key barriers to gender mainstreaming have been identified and the last section deals with key suggestions to engage with gender in the context of climate change in a meaningful manner.