| Women in a Changing Climate Almost           anything of any importance in India and in the lives of its people has           its roots and consequences in some form or another of ecological           security. A very large part of the daily existence of some three out           of four of our fellow citizens directly depends, on a day-to-day           basis, on the processes of nature and the products they make possible.           For the rest of us, even those living in the largest cities, the           impacts may be more indirect, but there are numerous and they can be           pervasive. All of us face them, no less than the villagers do, in our           daily lives: from how much clean water we have to drink or how much           dust there is in the air we breathe to the numbers of villagers that           crowd our urban slums — eco-refugees from a rapidly degenerating           resource base — to the price we pay for onions.
 
 The changing climate has come to be recognised as one of the major           sources of vulnerability mediated through the environment. As global           temperatures rise, rainfall patterns change, extreme events increase           in frequency and magnitude, and the sea level rises, more and more           lives and livelihoods will become disrupted. A few may well find more           opportunities (such as growing crops in dry areas that are becoming           more humid or in less cold winters) but for most, the changes           resulting from changing climate will not be welcomed as an           improvement.
 
 Diverse groups are affected differently by the deterioration in the           health of the environment. Geographically, of course, different           nations will face different outcomes, physically, economically and           socially. Within each nation, there will be groups that suffer the           most and others that actually benefit from the changes. In India as           also the rest of South Asia, we can expect to see some of the worst           impacts anywhere.
 
 Farmers, used for millennia to certain environmental conditions, will           have to adjust to completely new ones. Given the radical changes that           have already taken place in agricultural practices over the past few           decades, additional adjustments may not at first be thought of as           being very difficult, but large-scale changes and redistribution of           wealth and income, which can be expected to take place, could become           major sources of social and economic breakdown.
 
 Similarly, much of the ‘informal sector’, which accounts for the bulk           of the non-farm jobs in the country, is at the mercy of the elements           in one way of another. Many of these will have their regular means of           livelihood diminished or eliminated by the changes taking place in the           physical environment.
 
 The segment of society that is likely to be affected the most deeply           is women, some three billion of them, in all regions, in all economic           strata and in all kinds of habitats. Among these, the worst affected           will surely be the two billion or so low-income women in the third           world. Some one billion of them live in rural communities and the rest           in the already squalid, insanitary slums of exploding cities. In their           every day lives, already encumbered heavily by the need to fetch           water, gather fuel, protect families from diseases, maintain a livable           shelter, they will have to invest even more heavily into the daily           chores of survival and subsistence.
 
 Ecological security is, by its very nature, a holistic concept.           However, the devil lies in the detail. And so, of course, do the           angels. If we are to establish a secure ecological foundation for our           economy, we must get to the root causes and deal with the fundamental           barriers to achieving it. It is crucial to keep in mind the whole           picture and also to understand the little elements, the pixels, that           come together to make it what it is.
 
 We now need to adopt radically new ways to deal with our future, new           technologies, new systems of managing our resources, new institutions           of governance. If we are to get these approaches right and be able to           cope with the changes taking place, then those affected the most – the           women, the farmers, the marginalised – must be integrally involved in           designing them.  q
             Ashok Khoslaakhosla@devalt.org
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