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Climate change disproportionately affects rural women in India, who face amplified risks due to limited resources, social norms, and unpaid care responsibilities. The 2025 Beijing India Report highlights these gendered vulnerabilities, impacting their health, livelihood, and security.

Implications of Climate Change on Rural Women

• Reproductive & Maternal Health Impacts: Climate-induced malnutrition and heat stress worsen pregnancy complications, leading to increased anaemia, early hysterectomy, infertility, and poor maternal outcomes.
  For example: The Beijing India Report notes rural women experiencing more hysterectomies due to chronic dehydration and anaemia.
• Agricultural Vulnerability: As primary cultivators and labourers in farming, women suffer directly from unpredictable rainfall, crop failure, and soil degradation.
  For example: In Bundelkhand, women face seasonal joblessness due to frequent droughts impacting farm output.
• Loss in Non-Farm Income: Rural women engaged in handicrafts, food processing, and small-scale trading experience sharp income loss due to climate events.
  For example: The report states women in non-farm sectors lost up to 33% income during extreme weather in 2023–24.
• School Dropouts Among Girls: Climate-related migration, economic distress, and gender bias lead to higher dropout rates among adolescent girls.
• Disproportionate Impact on Indigenous and Marginalised Women: Adivasi and Dalit women face layered vulnerabilities due to both climate exposure and caste-based exclusions in relief and recovery processes.
  For example: During cyclone Amphan (2020), Dalit women in Sundarbans reported being last to access aid and excluded from shelter decisions.

Measures to Integrate Gender Sensitivity into Climate Adaptation Strategies

• Gender-Responsive Policy Planning: Climate action plans must explicitly integrate gendered vulnerabilities.
  For example: States like Odisha have begun to incorporate gender indicators into their State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs).
• Gender-Disaggregated Data Collection: Reliable data is needed to tailor interventions to the needs of women across regions and social strata.
  For example: Create a Climate vulnerability index with a gender component at the Panchayat level.
• Economic Empowerment and Financial Inclusion: Skill women in climate-resilient agriculture, agro-processing, renewable energy, and green jobs. Promote self-help groups (SHGs) and women cooperatives for sustainable livelihoods.
• Strengthening Rural Health Infrastructure: Improve access to primary health centres, especially for reproductive and maternal care in climate-affected areas.
• Inclusive Governance and Leadership: Ensure women’s representation in climate-related decision-making bodies, local disaster response teams, and forest management committees.
  For example: In Gujarat, women-led Pani Samitis have successfully managed water during droughts through decentralised planning.
• Integrating Gender into National Missions: Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) should include gender-specific guidelines, especially in water, agriculture, and energy.
  For example: Expand schemes like UJALA (for LED lights) and PMUY (clean cooking fuel) with a women-centric approach in climate-vulnerable areas.

The Beijing India Report is a clarion call to mainstream gender into India’s climate strategy. Rural women, as both victims and agents of change, must be central to India’s climate resilience framework. A gender-sensitive approach not only promotes equity but also ensures effective and inclusive adaptation, aligning with the SDG goals of Climate Action (SDG-13) and Gender Equality (SDG-5).

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