Why the climate fight matters to women more
Famine and food insecurity are all negative by-products of climate crises that will adversely affect women, girls and other marginalised communities first
It is a truth universally acknowledged and applicable across scenarios that until the fire approaches homeward, one does not heed its existence. To be honest, that’s the climate crisis and me. Since save-the-planet topics were introduced in the EVS (environmental science) period in Class 5, I knew the planet was in crisis, pollution was through the roof, the polar ice caps were melting, natural resources were depleting and, in the last few years the air quality index (AQI) of all major cities in India was rapidly deteriorating — Delhi leading the way. But I wasn’t viscerally concerned. Even as I liked posts about up-cycling in fashion, shopped for sustainable brands and felt my throat scratch a bit when I came to Delhi, the climate and planet never kept me awake at night. That is until I had a baby.
Raabiyaa was born end-September 2023 in Delhi, and by end-October, my four-week-old newborn had congestion and was inconsolable from discomfort with a stuffy nose and incomprehension at what this struggle to breathe was. Panic would grip me each time I watched my baby’s chest heave and, as I administered the paediatrician-recommended medicine by nebuliser and scrambled to buy multiple air purifiers for every room in the house, I wondered which city I could relocate to where I wouldn’t have to choose between taking my child to the park and asthma! That must have been my epiphany of climate awakening.
I asked a friend who works in renewable energy what could introduce me to the climate-debate ocean. He sent me the UN Women's Report on Feminist Climate Justice. The comprehensive report was an eye-opener for me. It had both a robust critique of climate policy and climate advocacy to date and prescient warnings of what will come if we don’t change our ways collectively along with an inspiring and idealistic global vision. But what stayed with me was the simple premise that the climate crisis is a feminist issue because women, along with other marginalised groups, are more adversely affected by climate-related disasters than men. This is not just because, for instance, a drought will cause rural women to walk farther and face more hardship, but because “gender-based violence increases in times of crisis and the climate crisis is no different”. The report noted that during the 2022 drought in the Horn of Africa, child marriage increased four-fold in the affected parts of Ethiopia, and, in Somalia, rape and intimate partner violence increased by 20%!
Famine, food insecurity, and a resource crunch are all negative by-products of climate crises that will adversely affect women, girls and other marginalised communities first. Numerous reports have shown that climate-crisis-induced natural disasters have fuelled the trafficking of women and children in the garb of employment opportunities or safe habitats. And these are just a few facets: The intersections of vulnerability are myriad. The poorer and more marginalised the woman’s other identity markers--nationality, race, ethnicity, class demography, caste, religion, gender spectrum, physical ability spectrum--the larger the adverse impact of the climate crisis she is likely to face.
I felt foolish and ignorant. It’s so simple and obvious when laid out. Why hasn’t it bothered me more before this moment? Is the answer perhaps, the same reason why world leaders for the past many years failed to do more or better on the climate issue, why big corporations are able to get away with climate crimes, why countries make climate destructive deals and policies in exchange for international aid or investment? Is it that we just don’t care, because we think we will be dead anyway when the planet finally implodes?
This is a gross generalisation certainly, but why aren’t more people other than the few “NGO types” and the youngest two generations more paranoid about the environment? Are we so callous because we know that in our lifetime we are assured of our ACs and our water supply? But what about our children?
It suddenly makes perfect sense to me why those incensed young people are throwing soup at various iconic works of art across European museums. We all need to be up in arms or constantly indignant at the very least. Climate consciousness, climate education, and the climate crisis discourse need to move beyond elite international conferences, higher-ed research theses and private school annual days. It needs to become part of our common sense. It feels odd now that the worsening AQI in all major cities in India has not elicited more public outrage. After all, the air will not discriminate with regard to who will choke. Why is clean air not on any party’s election manifesto in India? Why aren’t we a vote bank that will be “appeased” by climate-sensitive politics? As women, who will suffer first and suffer more, we must recognise the climate crisis as a women’s security issue and force governments to do better. Every environmental clearance any government grants should make it nervous of public scrutiny and outrage.
My cook knocks as I type this and asks to leave early. “What happened?” “My one-year-old daughter has a fully congested nose and throat.” I look at my newborn being medicated within the first month of her existence on this planet. Where is that soup-can?
Swara Bhasker is an actor. The views expressed are personal
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