The challenges faced by women amidst extreme heat cannot be dealt with in isolation but in consonance with the reality of broader contextual issues of poverty, informality, gender and income inequality, discrimination, inequitable distribution and access to resources, and gender-based violence.
Irrespective of the nature of the disaster, women face the brunt of rising temperatures disproportionally more than men. Even as a decline in mortality from temperature changes among men by 23.11% (2000-2010) and 18.7% (2010-2019) was reported, women experienced a gradual rise in their mortality rates by 4.63% and 9.84% in the two time periods, respectively. The risk of pre-term labour and high stillbirth rates persists in adverse temperature conditions. According to the Asian Development Bank, for every 1°C rise in temperature, there is a 6% increase in pre-term births, up to 16% during heatwaves. Similarly, each 1°C increase in temperature pushes the likelihood of still-births to more than 5%. Thus, pregnancy amidst extreme heat becomes an even more stressful and risky period for women.
Women who work outdoors in the informal sector are the most affected. With more than 80% of rural women earning their daily bread from agriculture, extreme heat detrimentally affects crop yields, physical health, and ultimately, incomes. Women working in the informal sector in urban areas in Delhi face more severe effects of heat waves driven by their socio-economic disadvantage.
A gender-oriented perspective must be mandatorily inculcated in the development of policies on climate change, disaster management, and development by the Central government. Such evidence-based policy-making will require gender-disaggregated data across states and union territories to be gathered and analysed utilising the capacities and resources of academia and public and private sector institutions.
03/06/2024