PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, July 20: Building local women’s leadership on the issue of climate change will be crucial for fighting challenges associated with it, opined various experts at an event held in Ranchi on Wednesday.
Asar Social Impact Advisors which works on climate change in India and noted NGO – Child in Need Institute (CINI) jointly organised the Gender and Climate Dialogues: Jharkhand Chapter at a hotel in the state capital.
The workshop had over 70 participants including government representatives, organisations and individuals working on climate change and allied areas such as health, nutrition and education, noted journalists, researchers and members of women Self Help Groups (SHGs).
Some members of women SHGs had set up stalls to showcase various local products made by them under the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) programmes.
A key objective of the workshop was to provide a platform to create new partnerships, initiate collaboration between diverse stakeholders and invite suggestions to strengthen the work around gender and climate change in Jharkhand.
Manish Ranjan, secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Jharkhand and Rajeshwari B, commissioner, MNREGA, Jharkhand delivered the keynote address at the event.
Ranjan said, “When we speak about the impact of climate change on women, we need to focus on some key areas: increased health risks, access to water and sanitation and women’s limited participation in decision making.”
Citing some key research findings from organizations such as WHO, ILO, UNDP etc., he added, “Evidence suggests that we need a gender-responsive policy to address the issues resulting out of climate change as they disproportionately affect women. We need to foster women’s leadership on the issue and make women advocates on the issue for mitigating climate change effectively.”
Rajeshwari B added, “In order to address the issues that women face due to climate change, we need focused efforts. This involves the sensitive utilization of existing resources and streamlining the implementation of policies in accordance with the needs of women.”
Neha Saigal, Director, Gender and Climate Programme at Asar presented a Gender Transformative Climate Framework which focused on solutions at the intersection of climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience led and driven by women especially those from tribal/adivasi communities.
The framework proposes different strategies and levels of engagement for different stakeholders in the state.
Tanvi Jha, State Programme Manager, CINI Jharkhand presented the findings from their study Impacts of climate change on women and girls in Jharkhand.
The study consists of some important insights from women across age groups on the inter-linkages between climate change, socio-economic status of communities, migration trends and the overall impact of these factors on the lives of young girls and women.
This was followed by a panel discussion.
The workshop invited participants to map key intervention areas under gender and climate for the state to focus on, in a working group format.
Asar and CINI will collate the key points from the deliberations of the workshop and share them with key stakeholders in Jharkhand to make gender an important aspect of the state’s climate action plans.
