Gender and Climate Change in India: Gender and Development Perspective

Climate change from a sociological perspective is an emerging global socio-political issue and one of the greatest ecological crises of the twenty-first century. It is driven both by anthropocentrism (human activities carried out to satisfy human needs) and by capitalist patriarchy—the close relationship between two systems of oppression, capitalism and patriarchy, which mutually reinforce one another and shape human–nature relations.

Climate change is all-pervasive and affects everyone. However, the nature and severity of its impact vary considerably across groups, depending on social factors, social norms, and cultural values. In this context, gender and climate change in India cannot be separated. Climate change intensifies gendered vulnerabilities for gender minorities—particularly women and transgender communities. The social ramifications of climate change become visible through these gendered impacts.

Gendered Vulnerabilities to Climate Change in India: An Overview

Climate change is not merely a natural calamity. It is also a crude indicator of the socio-economic, socio-cultural, socio-political, and spatial vulnerabilities faced by women and transgender groups. The following points draw on research that examines the nexus between climate change and gender in India.

Climate-Sensitive Labor Women disproportionately bear the disadvantages of climate change. Culturally prescribed gender roles confine many women to labor-intensive, climate-sensitive work such as agriculture, water collection, and fuel and fodder gathering. Their livelihoods are directly tied to changing environmental conditions.
Reproductive Labor and Environmental Dependence Women’s reproductive labor—pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing—takes place in domestic spaces that depend heavily on natural resources for survival. When climate change disrupts access to water, food, or fuel, women’s responsibilities become more difficult and more precarious.
Household Survival and Natural Resources Women rely on natural resources for the vital supply of raw materials needed to sustain the household. Environmental degradation increases their workload and reduces household resilience.
Intergenerational Environmental Inequity Women are often the most adversely affected by ecological change. Climate-related impacts on women’s health and well-being influence childbearing, child-rearing, and other forms of reproductive care. These effects can perpetuate environmental inequities across generations.
Intersectional Vulnerabilities Women bear the cumulative effect of climate change and existing inequalities. Their structural vulnerabilities intensify through the interplay of gender, caste, class, ethnicity, and location.
Climate-Induced Migration and Family Disruption Climate change-induced migration refers to the forced movement of people due to sudden or long-term changes in their local biophysical environment. This leads to internal displacement within states and nation-states, as well as international movement. In India, such migration has contributed to the social phenomenon of “left-behind wives and children” and “destitute wives,” as some husbands engage in bigamous marriages in destination areas. There are also cases of polygamous marriages in which men marry multiple women so that women can fulfill the function of fetching water for household maintenance, as reported by Scroll in 2015.
Transgender Communities and Climate Shock Transgender communities experience the brutality of climate change in specific ways. Many face homelessness due to social stigma associated with their identities, which severely reduces their climate resilience. Their precarious living conditions are worsened by extreme temperatures, erratic rainfall, and natural calamities.
Informal Women Workers and Precarious Employment Women working in the informal labor market—such as construction workers—experience marginalization linked to climate variability. Erratic labor patterns and lack of work during monsoon seasons reduce income security. Construction workers often labor in extreme heat, heightening susceptibility to chronic illness. The absence of work in rainy seasons pushes many into deeper poverty. Home-based women workers frequently live in precarious housing and face spatial inequality. Rising temperatures can make their homes too hot to work in, exacerbating exploitation and economic vulnerability.
Disasters and Sexual Minorities During natural or human-made disasters, transgender communities—often living in slums or without shelter—are disproportionately affected. Sexual and gender minorities face isolation due to systemic bias and violence, and often have no support systems during climate crises. As a result, they experience higher risks of homelessness, food insecurity, and health care insecurity.
Limited Access to Services for Transgender Communities Transgender communities often lack access to affordable health care, emergency shelters, and social protection during climate crises and disasters. Living at the intersections of poverty and marginalization compounds these risks.

The Significance of Gender-Transformative Climate Action in India

Men, women, and transgender communities experience climate change differently. These differential vulnerabilities highlight the need for gender-transformative climate action that ensures the needs of all gender groups are addressed.

Moving beyond a simple “needs-based” approach, gender-transformative climate action emphasizes the empowerment of women and transgender minorities for full participation in climate processes, including decision-making, planning, and implementation.

Integrating a Gender and Development (GAD) approach into climate action can support gender-transformative policy by drawing on two key concepts:

Practical gender needs (immediate, material needs)
Strategic gender interests (long-term structural change and equality)

From Women in Development (WID) to Gender and Development (GAD)

Gender planning in the GAD framework involves understanding not only gender differences but also the systemic nature of gendered inequalities.

A paradigmatic shift from Women in Development (WID) to Gender and Development (GAD) reflects a move away from seeing women merely as passive recipients of development. WID focused on integrating women into existing development processes through their fuller participation in the productive sphere, while largely accepting traditional power structures.

In contrast, GAD:

focuses on the systemic causes of gender oppression
views women in relation to men as active agents of their own development
considers both practical gender needs and strategic gender interests

Gender-transformative policies informed by GAD aim not only to meet material needs but to change the gendered positioning of women and gender minorities by addressing structural inequalities.

In the context of gender and climate change in India, gender-transformative climate action:

integrates GAD principles
positions gender minorities as agents of climate action
emphasizes participation and leadership in climate resilience, including:
- natural resource management
- disaster preparedness
- sustainable livelihood options
- greenhouse gas reduction
- low-carbon economic development

Climate Policy, G20, and the Need to Mainstream Gender

India’s G20 presidency has placed important emphasis on climate action. There is now a need to review existing State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs) to enable the passage of gender-transformative climate policies.

National and state climate policy documents and initiatives must:

acknowledge and recognize gendered vulnerabilities
integrate gender perspectives into climate change adaptation and mitigation

Gender-blind climate policies are often masculinized and exclude women. Both gender-blind and gender-neutral policies fail to recognize gendered vulnerabilities.

We can distinguish among several types of climate policy:

Gender-specific policies focus only on practical gender needs (e.g., material needs of women) and often portray women as vulnerable victims of climate change.
Gender-sensitive policies understand the processes shaping gender relations and see women as capable of adapting to climate change.
Gender-transformative policies seek to restructure resource distribution and power relations to establish equitable gender relations based on strategic gender interests—such as freedom of choice, access to credit, land rights, control over natural resources, and the abolition of the gendered division of labor.

For example:

Tamil Nadu’s climate action plan is largely gender-specific, identifying women as victims of climate change.
Uttarakhand’s climate action plan is moving toward a gender-transformative approach, identifying women as active agents in climate action.

Women as Active Agents in Climate Action

Women are closely connected to nature through their everyday interactions with the environment in fulfilling subsistence needs of the household. Empirical data shows that women often bear responsibility for feeding and caring for children while maintaining the household, and many have extensive knowledge of subsistence agriculture.

It is widely recognized that the domestication of plants in many parts of the Global South was developed by women. These are key indicators of women’s potential as active agents in climate action, not just as vulnerable victims.

There is an immediate need to ensure meaningful participation of women and transgender communities in inclusive climate action planning in India.

As a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and under the Paris Agreement framework, India has increasingly recognized that “gender equality and the effective participation of women is important for effective action on all aspects of climate change” (UNFCCC, 2011).

Participatory Strategies for Gender-Transformative Climate Action in India

From a Gender and Development perspective, several participatory strategies can be institutionalized at national and state levels.

1. Green Jobs and the Green Economy

Outcomes from COP27 and related climate negotiations emphasize green jobs that restore natural resources and promote environmental conservation. These can challenge the climate crisis by increasing women’s participation in the green labor market, including:

green construction
clean transportation
renewable energy and sustainability services

Currently, many women in the construction sector carry bricks, cement, and water—tasks defined by traditional gender norms. Integrating women into green construction and resource-efficient manufacturing can harness their knowledge of natural resource management and recycling for more environmentally friendly practices.

India’s national government has explicitly highlighted the goal of a green economy in the 2023 national budget, with a focus on sustainable development and the inclusion of gender in nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

2. Climate and Energy Entrepreneurs

Partnerships between government, private stakeholders, and civil society can empower women and transgender communities to develop climate entrepreneurship, including:

solar lighting and solar lamp ventures
clean cookstove initiatives
affordable renewable energy solutions for rural communities

The Sakhi initiative is one example of a clean-energy entrepreneurship model in India. As primary household managers, women can make informed decisions about clean fuel use, reducing gendered health vulnerabilities linked to cooking with polluting fuels. Women can also serve as powerful endorsers for clean-energy marketing messages.

3. Climate Action Social Enterprises

Social entrepreneurship that blends social and economic value offers significant potential for climate-resilient sustainable development in countries like India. Social enterprises led by gender minorities can:

promote eco-friendly products
expand access to clean energy technologies
design inclusive, environmentally sustainable community spaces

These initiatives link livelihood opportunities with climate adaptation and mitigation.

Conclusion

Addressing gender and climate change in India requires a multi-stakeholder approach that brings together:

government institutions
private sector actors
philanthropists
academic institutions
civil society organizations

Only through such institutional networking can gender be effectively mainstreamed into climate action.

Gender-transformative climate policy recognizes women and transgender communities not as passive victims, but as central actors in building a just, resilient, and sustainable future.

Read: Environmental Sociology Applied to the Climate Crisis