CLIMATIC CHANGES IN INDIA AND RURAL WOMEN

ABSTRACT Women are in particular susceptible to the climatic changes because they are more likely to experience the adverse impacts from the climatic changes. The agricultural sectors like rice, cotton and tea cultivation and fishing, associated with women are influenced by the climatic changes. All this increases the sufferings of the women. The women have less access to information, resources and they do not enjoy the same social status. They also have inequal rights to property. Key Words: malnutrition, inequalities in the gender, degradation, mortality

Objectives of Study: The objective of studying impact of climatic changes on rural Indian women is to find out that it has a gender issue where women bear a disproportionate burden of climate change consequences. For example - Decreased food security, Increased burden of care giving. Their responsibilities increases as family member suffer increased illness due to exposure to vector borne diseases. The National Action Plan on Climate Change in India states further that climate changes has different effect on women and men, that the impacts of climate changes could particularly prove severe for women and special attention should be paid to the aspects of gender. Studies on gender and climate changes claim that by ignoring the gendered effects of climate change, policy makers and other can make position of women even more susceptible. Changes in climate patterns impact the management and access to natural resources such as water and forests. Women have to make much longer distance for drinking water, firewood. With men migrating to cities for work, women are even ploughing fields i.e. Bihar. Women as they are usually responsible for caring for the ill. Natural Action Plan on climate change-Rural Women Bear Brunt of Climate Change "Women's susceptibility to climatic changes cannot be overstated. " It's the poor-especially poor women - who are most suceptibe". According to a report regarding rural women in developing countries are among the most affected given their limited access to resources and lack of decision-making power. Economists acknowledge a phenomenon that poverty among women is rising faster than poverty among men". Women grow fifty per cent of the total agricultural product in India. To reduce the susceptibility the first step would be to make them visible. The Dalit and Adivasi women have very less access to everything and hence have the least capacity to deal with the climatic changes. Environmental Degradation And Forms of Appropriation :- The essential items such as food, fuel, wood, herbs, gum, honey, resins, bamboo, etc are gathered by the rural households by the villagers from the forests.

Class - Gender Effects of Deprivation- The women and female children are the ones which are adversely deprived by the environmental degradation. The poor households are adversely effected. The basic three reasons are: i. Pre existing labor divided gender wise ii. The survival resources including food and health care are unevenly distributed among the men and women in the rural households especially in India. iii. There are significant inequalities in women's and men's access to the most critical productive resources in rural economy, agricultural land and associated production technology. The "class-gender effects" relate to at least six critical aspects :- time, income, nutrition, health, social survival networks and indigenous knowledge, each of these effects is important across rural India On Time:- The women mainly gather fuel, fodder and water. Normally the average working hours are approximately ten to twelve hours which have increased with the reduction of access to forests, waters and soils firewood, for instance is the single most important source of domestic energy in India which provides more than sixty five per cent of domestic energy in the hills and deserts of the north. On Income:- The income of the villagers has decreased as there is a decline in the gatherings from the forests. The extra time which is required for gathering in turn reduces the available time for crop production, which can adversely affect crop incomes, especially in hill communities where women are the primary cultivators due to high male outmigration for instance, a recent studyfound that the substantial increase in firewood collection time due to deforestation has significantly reduced women's crop cultivation time, leading to an associated fall in the production of maize, wheat and mustard which are primarily dependent an female labor in the region. On Nutrition :-The fact that undernourishment can be caused as much by shortages of fuel as of food has long been part of the conventional wisdom of rural women who observe 'it's not what's in the pot that worries you, but what's under it'. There is also little likelihood of poor women being able to afford the extra calories for the additional energy expended in fuel collection. On Health:- Poor rural women are directly exposed to waterborne diseases and to the pollution of river and ponds with fertilizer and pesticide runoffs, because of the nature of the tasks they perform, such as fetching water for various domestic uses and animal care, and washing clothes near ponds, canals and streams. An additional source of susceptibility is the agricultural tasks women perform for instance, rice transplanting which is usually a woman's task in most parts of Asia, is associated with a range of diseases, including arthritis and Gynecological ailments,cotton-picking and other tasks done mainly by women in cotton cultivation expose them to pesticides which are widely used for this crop. On Social Support Networks:- The considerable displacement of people that results from the submersion of villages in the building of major irrigation and hydroelectric works, or from large-scale deforestation in itself has another class and gender implication the disruption of social support network. This includes reciprocal labour-sharing

arrangements during peak agricultural seasons; loans taken in cash or kind during severe crisis such as droughts and the borrowing of small amounts of foodstuffs, fuel, fodder, and so on even in normal times. Women typically depend a great deal on such informal support networks, which they also help to build through daily social interaction marriage alliances. Table 1. Percentage of women ( 15 years and above) engaged in domestic duties in rural areas Without Food Food Energy Household Water Others Subsidiary Collection Processing Manufacturing status Arunachal 66.30 35.75 52.63 40.00 30.86 19.28 Pradesh Assam 81.41 33.61 51.76 49.84 26.71 14.72 Manipur 76.22 29.69 50.01 35.54 35.54 8.35 Meghalaya 80.10 27.22 52.42 34.66 49.88 16.35 Mizoram 84.74 43.50 67.34 45.05 64.74 36.98 Nagaland 80.22 37.24 24.83 75.57 57.92 31.35 Sikkim 48.65 5.66 36.64 35.75 44.99 16.12 Tripura 49.64 15.21 29.18 4.58 56.44 9.03 NE States 76.55 30.78 48.57 42.98 32.51 14.08

Without Subsidiary status Arunachal Pradesh Assam Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Sikkim Tripura NE States

Food Collection 66.30 81.41 76.22 80.10 84.74 80.22 48.65 49.64 76.55

Food Energy Household Water Others Processing Manufacturing 35.75 33.61 29.69 27.22 43.50 37.24 5.66 15.21 30.78 52.63 51.76 50.01 52.42 67.34 24.83 36.64 29.18 48.57 40.00 49.84 35.54 34.66 45.05 75.57 35.75 4.58 42.98 30.86 26.71 35.54 49.88 64.74 57.92 44.99 56.44 32.51 19.28 14.72 8.35 16.35 36.98 31.35 16.12 9.03 14.08

On Women's native Knowledge:-The gathering of food alone demands an elaborate knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal properties of plants, roots and trees, including a wide reserve knowledge of edible plants not normally used but critical for coping with prolonged shortages during climatic disaster an examination of household coping

mechanisms during drought and famine reveals a significant dependence on famine foods gathered mainly by women and children for survival. Also among hill communities it is usually women who do the seed selection work and have the most detailed knowledge about crop varieties. Adjustment:- Experience shows that susceptibility is dependent on issues such as weather, technological power, access to information, all of which are major problem areas for women. However rural women can be key agents of adjustment and improvement to climate change. Their responsibilities in household, communities and as stewards of natural resources position them well to develop strategies for adapting to changing environmental realities. Improvement:- Woman also have a role deriving from their own strength. The development of clean Development mechanisms, through carbon appropriation from afforestation and reforestation can also be done by poor rural women. Poor women, without access to modern energy fuels are faced with problems relating to indoor air pollution and bear huge health burdens as a result there is a high incidence of bronchitis, asthama and other health problems. While women should not be denied the use of fossil fuels like LPG or Kerosene, yet at the same time appropriate technologies that take into account the specific socio-economic realities of different rural areas, reduce women's workload, free-up time and enable them to pursue income generating or other activities need to the developed. Suggestions The study of the impact of climatic changes requires to take gender differences into consideration.Gender differentiated strategies for responses and capacity-building are needed, due to differences in gender specific roles and responsibilities created by society. Recognize that women are more susceptible in climate change driven scenarios. The important points which need to be worked on : Understand and address gender-specific natural resources use pattern. Identify women's particular skills and capacities that lend themselves to improvement and adjustment. Increase women's participation in decision-making at all levels in climate changes improvement and adjustment. Conclusion:The Indian experience offers several insights and lessons. First the process of environmental degradation and appropriation of natural resources by a few have specific class gender as well as locational implication. Second, the adverse class gender effects of these processes as manifest in the erosion of both the livelihood systems and the knowledge systems on which poor rural women depend. Third, the nature and impact of these processes are rooted interactively, on the one hand, in the economic advantage and political power predicated especially, but by no means only, on property differentials between households and between woman and men. Fourth, there is a spreading grassroots resistance to such inequality and environmental

destruction to the processes, products, people, property, power and profit orientation that underlie them. In short, an alternative, transformational approach to development would involve both ways of thinking about things and ways of acting on them. Rural women bear burden of climate change touching following points: a. Class-Gender effects of deprivation b. Effect on time of gathering fuel, fodder and water. c. On income which declines. d. On nutrition of women causing undernourishment. e. On the health which is exposed to water borne diseases Govt. should analyze and identify gender-specific impacts and protection measures related to floods, droughts, diseases, and other environmental changes and disasters. It should develop strategies to enhance women's access to and control our natural resources in order to reduce poverty, protect environmental resources, and ensure that women and poor communities can better cope with climate change. Government should take cognizance of women's specialized skills in different aspects of their livelihood and natural resources management strategies and utilize those that lend themselves to improvement and adaptation. Women's participation in climate changes must be enhanced by tools and procedures that augment their capacity and sensitize decisionmaking to the advantages of equal participation.