The Impacts of Climate Change on South Asian Women

Jul 3, 2023 | Neha Madhira
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Of the 750 million South Asians affected by at least one climate-related disaster in the last two decades, women have been disproportionately impacted. According to a recent report by the Climate Action Network South Asia, women can work up to 12 to 14 hours of agricultural work a day while caring for their families and gathering natural resources for their households, and are therefore on the front lines of the effects of climate change.

Founder of the women’s rights organization Badabon Sangho, Lipi Rahman, works with fisherwomen in the Coastal Bend area of Bangladesh and has seen firsthand the effects of climate change on this population.

“Salinization [in Bangladesh] causes people to not have fresh drinking water, and farmers cannot produce crops,” Rahman said. “A lot of male farmers leave the area because they do not have much of an earning or income and sometimes don’t come back. Then, women are left behind to look after their children or engage in another job, where they might not receive a fair wage.”

Not only is it an overall health risk for families in the area to consume salt water, but these effects of a warming climate also leave fisherwomen susceptible to more violence as they have to work longer hours daily to catch fish.