Climate Change, Women's Rights, and the Way Forward: Notes on the Indian Perspective

Abstract

The particular focus of this study is on bringing to light the differential nature of climate change effects across the population, as seen through the lens of Amartya Sen's crucial thesis on ‘missing women.' We argue that there is a need for economists to map how climate change makes invisible women, particularly in the labour force. The precarious accessibility women have, and the freedom women enjoy by virtue of gaining access to education, housing, credit and so on, is doubly at risk from the effects of climate change. It is essential to bring to light the susceptibility of the labor market at large, and the susceptibility of women workers in particular, to the vagaries of nature. Be it in the form of heat stress, or global warming disrupting large scale supply chains, or even wiping out small industries, the impact of climate change on the labor market is substantially large and deserving of closer study, especially through a fruitful application of Sen's essential ideas on human development and gender parity.