<p>Seven of the Earth’s nine life-sustaining planetary boundaries, which make the planet habitable, have already been breached, according to the Planetary Health Check report (2025), published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. This is a clear sign of how humanity, in its relentless pursuit of a cowboy economy model, has systematically entrenched the destabilisation of our planet. Of these nine boundaries, climate was the first one to be transgressed, and has since assumed the role of an accelerant – leading to the continuous breakdown of the other planetary systems.</p>.<p>The threat of this destabilisation is lurking over the Indian subcontinent with particular ferocity. The Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2026, released by Germanwatch, placed India ninth among the most affected climate-vulnerable countries in the world. The year 2025 alone offered harrowing evidence of this vulnerability: India recorded extreme weather events on more than 99% of days between January and November. These events—including heatwaves, cold waves, cyclones, and floods—collectively claimed at least 4,419 lives, devastated approximately 17.4 million hectares of cropland, killed an estimated 77,189 animals, and ruined at least 181,459 homes.</p>.<p>On May 22 this year, all 50 of the world’s hottest cities were in India, underlining the severity of the 2026 heatwave. While India grapples with increasingly intense heat and other disasters fueled by the climate crisis, the cost of these burdens falls disproportionately upon the structurally marginalised social groups. The existing resilience framework, with its limited engagement with climate equity, risks reproducing these socio-structural disparities. Resilience, therefore, must be grounded in an equity-first approach – one that places the most vulnerable at the centre of both governance reforms and infrastructure investments.</p>.Climate crisis hits India hard.<p>Beyond environmental damage, climate change threatens to undermine progress in human rights and gender equality by disproportionately affecting women and girls. As a “threat multiplier,” its cascading effects compound women’s vulnerability. This compounding is starkly visible in the domain of agriculture, where women now account for over 42% of India’s workforce; nearly 77% of rural women are engaged in the sector.</p>.<p>With rising temperatures, shifting monsoon trough, and increasingly erratic rainfall, the cropping cycles have been destabilised, and drought-flood oscillations have been intensified. As a result, projections by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the International Food Policy Research Institute suggest that yields of major staple crops could decline significantly by 2030, with rain-fed regions producing nearly half of India’s foodgrains facing the greatest risks.</p>.<p>The consequences for women cultivators are particularly devastating. Given that women constitute a significant proportion of India’s small and marginal farmers, even a single failed agricultural season can precipitate the collapse of an entire rural household. Research in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (IJP) has linked weather-driven crop losses to increased mental distress and suicide rates in rural communities. In Maharashtra’s Amravati district, female farmer suicides have been associated with climate-induced crop losses, debt, and inadequate institutional support.</p>.<p>Beyond economic devastation, climate-induced disasters pose serious risks to women’s health and safety. Last year, India’s “food basket” experienced its worst floods since 1988, causing mass displacement and forcing women into unsanitary conditions that increased their risk of infections and security threats. Intensifying heatwaves worsen these challenges. Research in Tamil Nadu found that pregnant women performing heavy physical labour faced nearly double the risk of miscarriage and adverse pregnancy outcomes due to heat exposure, underscoring the need to centre women in India’s climate framework.</p>.<p>Agents of resilience</p>.<p>Recognising women’s disproportionate vulnerability to climate change is only half the challenge; the other is acknowledging their role as agents of resilience and climate action. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), in an interview with the author, said addressing the gendered dimensions of climate change was essential. Evidence across sectors supports this.</p>.<p>In Amritsar and Ludhiana, the adoption of around 1,200 e-autos promoted clean mobility while enabling more than 200 women to work as e-rickshaw drivers. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh’s Vidyut Sakhi programme has trained about 30,000 rural women as electricity bill collection agents, creating livelihoods while generating over Rs 2,000 crore in revenue for state utilities. These examples demonstrate that women are not only vulnerable to climate impacts but are also central to climate solutions, making a gender lens in climate policy a governance imperative.</p>.<p>Although the United Nations recognised women’s disproportionate vulnerability to climate change in 2009, institutional responses remain inadequate. At COP29, despite the designation of a ‘Gender Day,’ only eight of the 78 world leaders present were women, reflecting the persistent underrepresentation of women in climate decision-making. The deficit is not confined to representation and extends to the domain of data. The Gender Snapshot Report 2025 finds that only 57.4% of the data required to track Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality) is currently available, leaving 42.6% of the evidence needed to assess women’s empowerment still missing. What cannot be measured cannot be governed – and without robust, gender-disaggregated data, climate policy will continue to operate on assumptions rather than evidence.</p>.<p>In India, a study revealed 43% of state-level action plans didn’t have significant mentions of gender. A one-size-fits-all approach to climate change adaptation may not be effective. Ranked 23rd on the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2026, India occupies the medium-performing tier – reflecting meaningful progress, but also considerable unrealised potential. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on resilience and adaptation for women’s health, tailored to their local needs and contexts.</p>.<p>(The writer is a research student at St Stephen’s College, Delhi)</p><p><em>(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH).</em></p>
<p>Seven of the Earth’s nine life-sustaining planetary boundaries, which make the planet habitable, have already been breached, according to the Planetary Health Check report (2025), published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. This is a clear sign of how humanity, in its relentless pursuit of a cowboy economy model, has systematically entrenched the destabilisation of our planet. Of these nine boundaries, climate was the first one to be transgressed, and has since assumed the role of an accelerant – leading to the continuous breakdown of the other planetary systems.</p>.<p>The threat of this destabilisation is lurking over the Indian subcontinent with particular ferocity. The Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2026, released by Germanwatch, placed India ninth among the most affected climate-vulnerable countries in the world. The year 2025 alone offered harrowing evidence of this vulnerability: India recorded extreme weather events on more than 99% of days between January and November. These events—including heatwaves, cold waves, cyclones, and floods—collectively claimed at least 4,419 lives, devastated approximately 17.4 million hectares of cropland, killed an estimated 77,189 animals, and ruined at least 181,459 homes.</p>.<p>On May 22 this year, all 50 of the world’s hottest cities were in India, underlining the severity of the 2026 heatwave. While India grapples with increasingly intense heat and other disasters fueled by the climate crisis, the cost of these burdens falls disproportionately upon the structurally marginalised social groups. The existing resilience framework, with its limited engagement with climate equity, risks reproducing these socio-structural disparities. Resilience, therefore, must be grounded in an equity-first approach – one that places the most vulnerable at the centre of both governance reforms and infrastructure investments.</p>.Climate crisis hits India hard.<p>Beyond environmental damage, climate change threatens to undermine progress in human rights and gender equality by disproportionately affecting women and girls. As a “threat multiplier,” its cascading effects compound women’s vulnerability. This compounding is starkly visible in the domain of agriculture, where women now account for over 42% of India’s workforce; nearly 77% of rural women are engaged in the sector.</p>.<p>With rising temperatures, shifting monsoon trough, and increasingly erratic rainfall, the cropping cycles have been destabilised, and drought-flood oscillations have been intensified. As a result, projections by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the International Food Policy Research Institute suggest that yields of major staple crops could decline significantly by 2030, with rain-fed regions producing nearly half of India’s foodgrains facing the greatest risks.</p>.<p>The consequences for women cultivators are particularly devastating. Given that women constitute a significant proportion of India’s small and marginal farmers, even a single failed agricultural season can precipitate the collapse of an entire rural household. Research in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (IJP) has linked weather-driven crop losses to increased mental distress and suicide rates in rural communities. In Maharashtra’s Amravati district, female farmer suicides have been associated with climate-induced crop losses, debt, and inadequate institutional support.</p>.<p>Beyond economic devastation, climate-induced disasters pose serious risks to women’s health and safety. Last year, India’s “food basket” experienced its worst floods since 1988, causing mass displacement and forcing women into unsanitary conditions that increased their risk of infections and security threats. Intensifying heatwaves worsen these challenges. Research in Tamil Nadu found that pregnant women performing heavy physical labour faced nearly double the risk of miscarriage and adverse pregnancy outcomes due to heat exposure, underscoring the need to centre women in India’s climate framework.</p>.<p>Agents of resilience</p>.<p>Recognising women’s disproportionate vulnerability to climate change is only half the challenge; the other is acknowledging their role as agents of resilience and climate action. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), in an interview with the author, said addressing the gendered dimensions of climate change was essential. Evidence across sectors supports this.</p>.<p>In Amritsar and Ludhiana, the adoption of around 1,200 e-autos promoted clean mobility while enabling more than 200 women to work as e-rickshaw drivers. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh’s Vidyut Sakhi programme has trained about 30,000 rural women as electricity bill collection agents, creating livelihoods while generating over Rs 2,000 crore in revenue for state utilities. These examples demonstrate that women are not only vulnerable to climate impacts but are also central to climate solutions, making a gender lens in climate policy a governance imperative.</p>.<p>Although the United Nations recognised women’s disproportionate vulnerability to climate change in 2009, institutional responses remain inadequate. At COP29, despite the designation of a ‘Gender Day,’ only eight of the 78 world leaders present were women, reflecting the persistent underrepresentation of women in climate decision-making. The deficit is not confined to representation and extends to the domain of data. The Gender Snapshot Report 2025 finds that only 57.4% of the data required to track Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality) is currently available, leaving 42.6% of the evidence needed to assess women’s empowerment still missing. What cannot be measured cannot be governed – and without robust, gender-disaggregated data, climate policy will continue to operate on assumptions rather than evidence.</p>.<p>In India, a study revealed 43% of state-level action plans didn’t have significant mentions of gender. A one-size-fits-all approach to climate change adaptation may not be effective. Ranked 23rd on the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2026, India occupies the medium-performing tier – reflecting meaningful progress, but also considerable unrealised potential. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on resilience and adaptation for women’s health, tailored to their local needs and contexts.</p>.<p>(The writer is a research student at St Stephen’s College, Delhi)</p><p><em>(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH).</em></p>
