Why women's narrative should be prioritised in the sustainability debate

According to a 2009 UN report, the world’s poor are the most disadvantaged in terms of facing the consequences of the climate crisis. This is a category prominently represented by historically marginalised groups like women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, religious and cultural minorities, and indigenous communities. Since that UN report, several other reports and multilateral conventions have recognised how women disproportionately experience a greater burden of the impacts of climate change, which includes disasters, change in patterns of agriculture and migration, loss of biodiversity as well as depleted access to natural resources like groundwater. But what exactly makes women more vulnerable? Across the world, women are primarily in charge of the domestic sphere, and this means greater dependency on natural resources and longer hours spent on procuring them. For instance, data from the India Human Development Survey-2 (IHDS) shows that women spend twice the amount of time (46 minutes) fetching water per day as compared to men (22 minutes). Women also shoulder the responsibility of food production, raising livestock, and horticulture. Even though they spend more time engaged in activities related to the environment, they own less than 10% of the land worldwide, they experience poverty disproportionately, and have practically no participation in decision making related to the environment. In designing policy responses to mitigate the climate crisis too, women are likely to have limited or negligible power (for example, determining access to or distribution of resources during a hazard). Several reports also highlight how young girls and women are more likely to be displaced during disasters and face issues in accessing basic requirements like healthcare, education, water, hygiene, sanitation, food, education and shelter. This is further exacerbated by a lack of safety, security, and increased proneness to sexual and physical violence. It is clear that our approach to the climate crisis desperately needs to identify and incorporate participatory gender-sensitive strategies. The discourse surrounding sustainability is practically meaningless without fostering a just dialogue that works on the interlinkages between climate change and gender. But how do we do that? One of the first steps is to acknowledge and take stock of all the localised knowledge that women possess in dealing with extreme weather conditions. Indigenous communities worldwide, and more specifically the women in those communities, have prepared for and responded to disasters from a locally rooted approach, passed down to them as oral histories. Take the case of Kerala’s disaster prone coasts, for example. Even before the introduction of technology-based early warning systems, or standard operating procedures for response, communities that inhabit these coasts mitigated incoming disasters and natural hazards using indigenous strategies passed down by their earlier generations. Researchers have found that the women of these coastal communities possess an intimate familiarity and historical knowledge of the marine environment including natural early warning systems and technical skills related to building infrastructure like houses and bridges. The next step is to ideate on what roles they can play in planning local, regional or even state level approaches to disaster management. How do we incorporate women’s knowledge into our policies? The most robust way to weave the ideal of gender justice into any social process across communities and geographies is to ensure adequate representation and participation of women in the decision making practices. In the case of the climate conversation, this could include opening up the forum of discussion to women at the ward level, or hiring consultants who work with local communities in the climate-gender space to build resilience. When narratives of women and other disadvantaged communities are spotlighted, or even better, prioritised, they hold the potential keys to unlock a truly sustainable and resilient future for the world. The author is a feminist researcher, who is currently part of the Women Climate Collective, a community seeking to increase the representation of women’s voices and perspectives in the climate conversation. Views are personal.  Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.