Dalit and Adivasi communities have fewer adaptation resources to combat the damage from events related to climate change since they continue to be deprived of socio-economic and political rights and face systemic discrimination.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just released the final part of the Sixth Assessment Report. This report is seen as one of the most important assessments which makes it clear that anthropogenic climate change has caused widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere. It’s already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damage to nature and people. The report stresses how vulnerable communities that have historically contributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected. Unlike most of the previous reports by the IPCC, the AR6 synthesis report stresses on international and internal inequality and the disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable communities, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
How do we make sense of this report in India where the most climate vulnerable communities are Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes groups, nomadic and pastoral communities, traditional and small-scale fishers and small and marginal farmers, urban poor, women, and sexual minorities, etc?
In most part of India, the term climate change is slowly getting registered though its impact was being felt for more than a decade in India as variability in rain falls, changing monsoon patterns, increasing floods and heat waves, erratic weather conditions and coastal erosion, etc. As the Indian monsoon and rainfall patterns are changing significantly due to climate change, the agriculture sector, where 70 per cent of all farmers from the Scheduled Castes work as agricultural labourers dependent on daily or seasonal wages, gets hit first. As floods, heat waves, sea levels rise and extreme weather events are increasing, experiences from most part of India demonstrate how caste oppressed communities are not only disproportionately affected by them but get discriminated against during rescue, rehabilitation, and recovery from climate onslaughts.
Last year, Assam was flooded and around 197 people lost their lives and 2,35,845.74 hectares of crops were damaged. The sanitation workers (safai karamcharis) from the Banshphor (Scheduled Caste) community of Guwahati city had to work day and night to unclog drains and wash off the sludge in the city. According to the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a movement aimed at eliminating manual scavenging, approximately 98 per cent of all workers employed in this kind of work are Dalits and predominantly women.
Research has demonstrated how in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, one of the most drought-prone regions in the country, Mahar, Matang, Chambhar, Pardhi, and Koli-Mahadev communities bear the brunt of caste-based oppression, inequalities, and discrimination with recurring droughts in the region for decades.
As part of my research, in 2022, I traveled across South and North 24 Parganas districts in the state of West Bengal which are part of the Indian Sundarbans, one of the most climate vulnerable regions in the country. Most of the women from Munda, Bediya, Bhumij, and Oraon Adivasi communities I met complained about how their health is being impacted by the increasing saltwater content as a result of sea level rise. The women have to stand for several hours in the water to catch fish and collect crabs and mussels — a major part of their livelihood and diet.
Dalit and Adivasi communities have fewer adaptation resources to combat the damage from events related to climate change since they continue to be deprived of socio-economic and political rights and face systemic discrimination.
In the recently concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Egypt, India spoke eloquently about international climate justice and the loss and damage funds that developed countries have to contribute to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. However, India doesn’t address internal climate justice and inequalities within. How do we even think about loss and damage when our society is based on caste that ensure permanent loss and damage to Dalit communities for centuries? What about the loss and damage of Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes, nomadic and pastoral groups, traditional and small-scale fishers and small and marginal farmers, urban poor, women, and sexual minorities in India? Can the government of India acknowledge that caste oppressed communities have disproportionate losses and damages? Do these communities have any rights over the loss and damage funds? Though India has a National Climate Action Policy adopted in 2008 and all states have state climate action policies by now, caste and the vulnerabilities of the caste-oppressed communities aren’t part of most of these action plans. The action plans need to acknowledge and address caste and climate vulnerability and special protection measures need to be in place during climate event preparedness and during the onslaught of climate events and post that.
Along with class, gender, and race, caste needs to be acknowledged as a category by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. India should recognise caste and climate vulnerabilities of caste-oppressed communities and initiate measures to protect them, and these efforts should be part of the national and state climate action policies.
These special vulnerabilities should also be integrated into disaster and climate risk management plans, governance, climate risk preparedness plans, climate impact relief assistance programmes, and social protection coverage in the context of climate change.
Beyond that, there should be separate climate action plans and implementation funds for caste oppressed communities. Mushrooming climate, energy, and sustainability initiatives across the country, mostly led by upper caste and savarna professionals who are distant from the caste realities, is another challenge for caste to get any importance in these spaces. It’s also crucial that the climate justice movement in India, mostly led by the urban upper caste and savarna youth from major Indian metros, genuinely integrate environmental and caste justice questions into their campaigns. They also need to have honest conversations with the ongoing Dalit, Adivasi, and backward castes movements across the country that have been raising the issues of water, forest, land, environmental rights, and dignity for centuries.
Written by Ajmal Khan
Source: Indian Express, 16/04/23
