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By Aayushi Sharma
Gender inequality coupled with the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Climate crises are not gender neutral; in fact they make life harder for women everywhere. They affect how people live, work, stay healthy, and feel safe.
According to a study, “Women of the underprivileged and labor class living in arid regions, such as in India and elsewhere in South Asia, tend to be more affected by the adverse impacts of climate change than men because of more poverty, less education and training, less access to institutional support and information, and less participation in decision making bodies”.
How do gender disparities occur in the Agriculture sector due to climate change?
In fields like agriculture, there are differences in how gender is affected by climate change. Due in large part to their relative dependence on natural resources that are under threat and the fact that they make up the majority of the world’s impoverished, women are increasingly perceived as being more susceptible than men to the effects of climate change. In addition, the roles, duties, decision-making, access to land and natural resources, opportunities, and needs that are shared by both sexes demonstrate the differences between men and women.
Unequal Excess
The fact that women don’t have the same access as men to important farming resources like land, labor, knowledge, fertilizer, and better seeds keeps this gap between genders going.
Less decision making authority
Women also tend to have less decision-making authority and face additional social, cultural, and institutional barriers to accessing and adopting agricultural technologies.
Women often face barriers in accessing and controlling environmental resources and services. They have little say in decision-making processes and don’t benefit much from managing the environment. As a result, they struggle more to deal with climate change.
In times of extreme weather events like droughts and floods, women usually take on extra work to support their families. This means they have less time for training, education, skill development, or earning money.
Lower wages
A significant number of women are employed as agricultural laborers, receiving wages for their work. In Indian agriculture, for example, out of 97.5 million females in rural areas, 37.3% work as cultivators and 62.7% as agricultural laborers. Laborers face greater financial risks compared to cultivators, mainly due to seasonal employment and the uncertainty of income, which worsens during adverse climate conditions. Additionally, female laborers typically earn lower wages than their male counterparts, leading to greater economic hardship for them.
Additional Responsibilities
In many societies, cultural norms and responsibilities for childcare prevent women from relocating during disasters or seeking employment elsewhere. This places additional burdens on women, such as traveling longer distances to access clean water and fuel. Additionally, women in many developing countries experience gender inequalities across various aspects of life, including rights, politics, economics, land ownership, housing conditions, exposure to violence, education, and health.
According to Gita Rani Bhattacharya, Former Executive Director, Assam Mahila Samata Society, “Due to migration of male population from the native village in search of jobs women have to take additional responsibilities of handling family. Since climate change has altered the rainy season and the pattern of rain, women have to choose other livelihood options in order to ensure the survival of their families.”
Female Participation in Agriculture in India
Female workforce in agriculture is dominated by agricultural laborers. In India, Agriculture employs about 80 percent of rural women. Female cultivators are mainly found in the western parts of the country, while female laborers are prevalent in the eastern regions where rice is grown, spanning from the Indo-Gangetic plains in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the north to the southeastern districts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the south.
“In certain regions of India women farmers take more responsibility for farming than men. Mainly, plowing work is handled by male farmers in the field and other works like harvesting, sowing and taking care of the crops is generally done by women. Thus, they spend more time in the field as compared to men and face more consequences of climate change.”, said Mrs Bhattacharya.
Case study: Climate risks of Women farmers in Haryana and Bihar
The gender norms in Bihar and Haryana demonstrate a stark contrast between rich high-caste households and low-caste or landless women. While women from low-caste and landless backgrounds participate in agriculture as laborers, those from wealthy high-caste households are discouraged from manual agricultural work. Additionally, the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 historically favored male offspring in terms of inheritance rights, perpetuating male ownership of land and economic resources. Despite the 2005 amendment granting equal inheritance rights to women, there hasn’t been a significant increase in women’s land ownership.
The predominant decision-making authority regarding technology adoption in agriculture lies with men, as indicated by the majority of participants and corroborated by consultations with key informants and observations in study areas. Activities such as gathering information on farm technology and liaising with extension agents are predominantly undertaken by men, leading to a conceptual lock-in that extends beyond gender lines.
Many women farmers defer decision-making to men, perceiving them as wiser, thus relying on male input for decisions related to climate change adaptation in agriculture. Consequently, the adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) remains uncommon in Bihar due to widespread lack of knowledge about CSAPs among farmers. Additionally, certain CSAPs, like laser land leveling, are less feasible in Bihar due to the prevalence of small and fragmented land holdings in the region.
Operational land holdings is a major component for the adaptation of CSAPs farmers who operate more land are more likely to go for adapting climate resilient practices. Thus, women in these regions are more likely to stay away from these decisions which bring adaptation to climate change.
References:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140196317301532
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735903.2017.1336411
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14735903.2017.13
https://www.niti.gov.in/rural-women-key-new-indias-agrarian-revolution
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