Gender inequality is not a new issue in Pakistan and the devastating effects of climate change are worsening its impacts on women. Climate change is not a gender-neutral phenomenon and no one will deny the fact that it affects all the segments of society. However, the recent analysis and research studies on climate change suggest that the natural events, leading to shifts in atmospheric patterns, has been proving devastating for women as they belong to a vulnerable and disadvantaged segment of the society.
Climate change puts more burden on women to work at par with men and fulfil domestic duties and earn livelihoods. As the depletion of resources exacerbates with relatively severe competition among people to consume them, women have to work intensely to satisfy the demands of a sustainable household. The burden of maintaining essential resources of utility at home in the form of food items, like water, firewood, and livestock has increased upon them more than ever before. Women have to fetch water from far off places under scorching heat and dry weather with limited physical aid alongside them. With the profound increase in global warming, the availability of clean water in certain areas of Pakistan has truly become an arduous challenge, especially in the region surrounding Thar and Balochistan.
It has been observed that women in such areas spend their entire day bringing water home from distant places that they find much more time-consuming with a lot of physical struggles. If they invest the same amount of energy in doing productive work that can help them grow positively, they can make a bright future for themselves.
A study conducted by Unicef in 2016 revealed that women and girls globally spend 200 million hours, or 22,800 years- every single day- collecting water.
As the depletion of resources exacerbates with relatively severe competition among people to consume them, women have to work intensely to satisfy the demands of a sustainable household.
The impacts of climate change on the health of most women in Pakistan are also worrisome. The quality of health services provided to them and the number of hospitals present are significantly low as to meet the demands of individuals let alone women who suffer far worse than men due to reproductive health issues and other non-communicable diseases. Pregnant mothers who need high nutritional food for themselves and their infants experience malnutrition and malnourishment due to food insecurity caused by climate change. Climate change comes with a number of health problems due to increased exposure to heat, poor air quality, water-borne diseases, and extreme weather events that are disproportionately felt by women being the vulnerable segment.
The reproductive health issues in women and their relatively lower level of immunity than men make them more susceptible to diseases rapidly than them. According to a report, 39 per cent of the population experiences multidimensional poverty, and are prone to lose livelihoods that leave severe consequences on their wellbeing and ability to survive with potential healthcare facilities.
The climate-induced gender problems have made women handicapped in face of myriad challenges they go through in everyday life. The social and cultural norms that sound oppressive to their growth and development have placed a limit on their decision-making powers.
It is perceived that a woman cannot make good decisions due to a lack of sound wisdom and rational thinking that further threatens their positive mobility and bounds them to obey the decisions of others in matters related to personal life. When a woman’s peaceful mobility in society gets impeded by the internal forces, her adaptability to climate change decreases, exposing her existence to suffer the catastrophic results induced by climate change.
A UN report on gender violence stated, “physical forms of domestic violence for either failing to manage the existing water in the house or for breaking norms around women’s mobility by venturing out to secure new resources.”
It has been proved through multiple studies that women are more prone to suffering sexual assault and violence due to disasters and the negative impacts of climate change.
Another study” Gender Discrimination of climate change vulnerabilities” revealed that when the displacement of families occurs due to climate change-induced disasters and floods, women in Pakistan are put in a disadvantaged position.
The findings show that most women suffer different types of violence that are committed by their partners or even strangers whose rate increases in the post-disaster period. An interview conducted under this study with a woman who got displaced by floods portrayed a grim picture of her hard life in a patriarchal setting worsened by climate change.
“Yes, my husband shouts at me and slaps me if I am unable to give him cold water when he is back after hard day’s work.
I have nowhere to go. Besides, if he will not take his frustration out on me, then on whom. I am his wife.
I have to bear it,” she explained.
Women suffering the impacts of climate change far worse than men need the formation and implementation of gender-sensitive climate change and disaster managing policies that reduce their vulnerability and make them strong in face of imminent challenges ahead.
The writer is a sociocultural critic with a focus on human rights. She can be reached at [email protected]