Every year International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th March. This year will also be celebrated and the theme is “Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow”, recognizing the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation and response, to build more sustainable future for all.
Climate Change is a significant matter to concern about. This is reducing the sustainability of the world since it is causing various problems such as frequent droughts, floods, heat waves, rising sea levels, swelling global warming which is causing the ice and glaciers to melt rapidly and forming several natural calamities. The consequences of these are so severe that the world is constantly facing difficulty while tackling. As a result Climate Change is yielding great hindrance to the world environment as well as economic and social development of the world. But in this process gender inequality is comprehensively visible. When it comes about undergoing the consequences of the natural calamities like droughts, floods and many more, women are the most vulnerable as they are outright involved in producing food, utilizing water and collecting fuel for their house chores which is why their duties get difficult to be fulfilled because they are dependent on the natural resources especially women living in the rural area. Their livelihood gets hampered exceedingly yet their patience of coping up with climate-change adaptation and mitigation is laudable. Despite not having the authority to decision-making, prudent resources, proper education and training they are able to envisage climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Whenever we discuss Women’s Day or anything related to it, we always focus on women from mainstream forgetting there is another community of women in the world and that is Indigenous women. Their contribution to the betterment of world environment is indeed commendable. They play a significant role on climate-change adaptation and mitigation which is greatly disregarded. Their sagacity to the nurturing and caring of the world, adaptation of climate change impacts and environmental changes, knowledge about nature are what can make the theme “Sustainable Tomorrow” more effective.
According to Amnesty International, there are 370 million indigenous people living in more than 90 countries all over the world. They represent 5% of the world’s population. Half (approximately 240 million) of the population of indigenous are women. It is known that indigenous people mostly live in closer to the nature. In other words they live in places like hills and remote area in most common which is why it is obvious that they have intimate connection to the nature more. Because of that their knowledge about nature is acute and that’s why this has been helpful to them to survive natural disasters for many years. Indigenous knowledge gained through intensive observation of nature can play a special role in mitigating climate change. It can be an indulgence in ecological integrity too.
It is true that indigenous women have knowledge about nature, but they are also largely affected when it comes to natural disasters. They are continuously using the means of the natural resources for instance they are on par with men in terms of how to use the soil for production of paddy & vegetables, to have an idea about the fertility of the soil, to plant trees and to take care of them. E.G. there are many indigenous women in Bangladesh who are engaged in crop production. Especially women living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) are involved in a production method called “Jum (Slash and Burn)” by which different crops are produced. Their exploit is just as equal as that of the Indigenous men. Like men, they plant paddy, produce crops and vegetables. They also manage to come from hill to hill in order to sell those products. In families where a woman is the head, she manages the household finances alone doing all the tasks all by herself. When untoward disasters hit they are the first one to be affected and that too drastically. But they somehow handle the outcome of those disasters. They are constantly in contact with the nature which is why their knowledge about nature, climate change and mitigation is spacious.
Since they are intertwined in this action, Productions that may have made them economically sustainable get damaged by those of calamities. Yet their exertion does not stop, they are negatively affected at one time but await the positive at another.
Indigenous women are expected to be the bearer of their customs and rules. The communities expect from them to pass on the knowledge of their predecessors to their descendants leading their communities to a light future. Therefore it is translucent that they manage to conduct both their communities and natural circumstances with their fruitful knowledge and leadership.
Recognizing indigenous women’s contribution on climate change adaptation and mitigation will make the theme of this year’s international women’s day go one step forward yet there is no acknowledgement of their knowledge and contribution. People are still unaware that these indigenous women can make fundamental impact on climate change adaptation, mitigation and response, to build the future more sustainable for all. It is very much important to recognize their intelligence and bringing them forward to disclose their experiences and lore about nature not only on this day like International Women’s day but also every day. In fact providing them adequate education and training on climate change adaptation and mitigation will help them to come up with adaptation strategies which can be a great benefit for the world in building a resilient future since they have already pragmatic knowledge.
Written by Saptorshi Dewan
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