Under the sun: How vulnerable communities are taking the heat of climate change

The agriculture sector in India has 75.9% of women workers with men, the landowners moving into secondary occupations possessing improved skills. Women work as helpers with land possession at 14% in India and they end up in tasks from sowing, weeding, and transplanting to standing in excessive pesticide-ridden water with no protective garments. 
Lifting weight, involved in sustenance tasks of fetching water, fuel, and fodder as the second LPG cylinder is often not accessed due to inter-family inequities, domestic chores, and gendered responsibilities of care. Climate change and the resultant scorching heat have exacerbated the situation. 

Transform Rural India Working in rural India with a multi-dimensional perspective supports the SHG federations in livelihood enhancement and income augmentation. In Tappal, Uttar Pradesh, during the gender integration work, it was realised that a combination of the drudgery and back-bending work in agricultural work, excessive climate vagaries, women experience several reproductive health issues including uterine prolapse and other infections including excess white discharge. 

This is also corroborated by the gynaecology department of Aligadh Medical College though medical prognosis is yet to be conducted. TRI would work with women agriculturists on both preventive and curative aspects with the support of health systems.

Women workers in the agriculture sector are bereft of an identity as a farmer and do not have access to credit linkages, land rights and decisions on the crop to be cultivated, area under cultivation, marketing are undertaken by men. They are mostly speechless disempowered workers in the most patriarchal aspect of land rights and resource access.

Estimates suggest that approximately 507 women and girls die every day as a result of complications from pregnancy and childbirth in regions affected by conflict, displacement, and natural disasters (UNFPA, 2015). Increases in air pollution and rising temperatures worsen maternal and neonatal health outcomes. An increase of one degree Celsius in the week before delivery corresponds to a six per cent greater likelihood of stillbirth (Kuehn, McCormick et al., 2017; He et al., 2016; Bekkar et al., 2020).

Climate change worsens global inequity in maternal nutrition (Lancet, 2020) Air pollution is linked to poor maternal health outcomes such as stillbirth, preterm birth, and low birth weight. (Bekkar et al., 2020) Global heating increases water salinity and drinking salinated water is also linked to poor maternal health outcomes (Khan et al., 2011) Climate change is also associated with the increased spread of vector-borne diseases (such as malaria, dengue, etc), as temperature and precipitation rates affect the survival and spread of these diseases (Campbell-Lendrum, D., et al., 2015).

Climate-resilient agricultural policies and practices need to be adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture. Solar energy needs to be harnessed for effective utilisation. Natural Resource management, soil conservation, and protection of water bodies need to be adopted. Initiatives can be taken up by the Ministry of Agriculture with the National Rural Livelihood Mission. Information dissemination about climate vagaries and their impact can be disseminated through digital media. Entrepreneurship should be promoted for income augmentation and Agri-nutritional linkages can be promoted through millet cultivation which is resistant to a great extent to climate changes. TRI works on women entrepreneurship through Nari Adhikar Kendras in Madhya Pradesh to support livelihood enhancement and has undertaken solar installation for electricity generation as a good practice.