According to the UN Environment, 80 percent of the people who are displaced by climate change are women or girls facing heightened risks of poverty, violence, or unintended pregnancies as they migrate to safer locations.
Climate change aggravates the socio-economic barriers to inequality, thereby disproportionately impacting the already poor and marginalized.
Women and girls who are already facing gender inequalities on several fronts find themselves in a more stressful position, as climate change means an increase in vulnerabilities against them, limited access to services and healthcare, and a lack of social relief or assistance provided to them.
With the rise in sexual violence, child marriages, and trafficking it has been indicated that women are most vulnerable to climate change. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has found that with the increase in environmental stress and resource scarcity, there has been an uptick in gender-based violence which includes domestic abuse, sexual assault, rape, forced prostitution, forced marriage, and higher incidence of human trafficking in distressed areas.
As women adapt to prolonged periods of droughts, by walking longer distances to collect basic resources for survival including food and water, they become vulnerable to sexual assault. Women also suffer from increased violence from their partner, as with loss of livelihood, men usually resort to drinking alcohol which leads to them beating their wives.
Climate crisis lead to the loss of livelihoods of families who often get trapped in financial distress and vicious cycles of poverty. Due to the increased financial burden on the family, there have also been increased instances of child marriage to release some burden of feeding a family member.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, a mother of a child bride from Sunderbans said “The groom’s family didn’t demand any money. We thought by marrying off our daughter, we would have one less person to feed.” The family was facing financial issues after the cyclone and decided to marry their daughter. Marriage of survival therefore occurs in these places, where younger girls are married off to much older men, thereby violating the child's rights and causing poor mental health.
In Bangladesh, it has been observed that families have agreed to less desirable proposals for their minor daughters during heat waves and dry spells.
Another impact of climate change on women and girls is increased trafficking. Study indicates that the highest number of trafficking cases were in 2009, and this has been linked with the severe cyclonic storm Aila. One of the reasons behind climate change-induced trafficking is the increase of financial stress which results in the ease of traffickers to easily trap young girls and women for forced prostitution and child labor.
Climate change continues to displace lives, livelihoods, and dreams. As per the UNICEF report, a young girl named Sajida Batool had to drop her dream of becoming a doctor as her house was washed away repeatedly in the harsh rains of Sindh, Pakistan. With the family taking almost a month to relocate, it became difficult for Sajida to focus on her aspirations. The grievances of women are also faced in getting access to proper healthcare facilities. In fact, 65000 Pakistani pregnant women were deprived of proper healthcare during floods and were left with no alternative other than giving birth under the open sky.
A study was conducted in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh in each of the three districts of Mongla and Shyamnagar to understand the vulnerability of women in these areas and the challenges they face. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods in these areas and highlighted how women are impacted due to limited access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities.
The study pointed out that with the increased rate of salinity in the southwest coastal belt of Bangladesh, women and girls have to travel to remote locations to collect water where they often encounter sexual harassment.
With saline water and insufficient facilities, pregnant women are more susceptible to waterborne diseases. Drinking saline water during pregnancy also leads to other health problems including hypertension, malnutrition, and is also a causal factor behind newborn mortality. Pregnant fisherwomen who are required to go waist-deep into saline water also reported several reproductive healthcare problems which included inflammation and infection of reproductive organs, vagina, uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.
A fisherwoman from Kananagar village in Mongla shared how she believes that she had four miscarriages because of her constant contact with saline water. The saline water also caused itching and infection in her uterus.
Another issue that pregnant women face is that they are often stranded without any facilities during natural disasters caused by climate change. A woman from Shyamnagar, lost her twin unborn babies as she was stuck in an embankment along with her family, during cyclone Aila. Due to fewer facilities to rescue her and take her to the hospital, she was not admitted on time and lost her babies.
The various evidence from South Asian countries points to the worsened conditions of girls and women due to the climate crisis. An effective understanding of climate change as both an environmental and social issue is the first step towards reducing the inequalities caused by the climate crisis. Women and girls must also be seen as a key to climate action. Women’s participation in community-based action plans, as resource managers and in policymaking, is important for building and strengthening climate resilience.
Durrain Desnavi is pursuing a Masters in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. She is currently a Research Intern with TA.
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