Asian, African women most affected due to climate change: Study

A recent study by researchers shows that women in Asia and Africa are most affected by the negative impact of climate change. According to the study, the stress born through rapid environmental changes greatly weakens women's agency. Within the hotspots that were tested, it was discovered that it makes it difficult for them to make free choices.

Wome in Asia and Africa most vulnerable

Majority of Asia and Africa are areas that are highly sensitive to climatic shifts, changes in livelihood and social structures. These three factors make the women of this region even more vulnerable. The study draws its conclusions from 25 case studies that were done across Asia and Africa, in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Tajikistan in Asia and Kenya, Ghana, Namibia, Mali, Ethiopia and Senegal in Africa.

The study hints at how male migration and women's poor working conditions, combined with either institutional failure or poverty, to constrain women's ability to make choices and decisions. The researchers who undertook this study are from the United Kingdom, Nepal, India, Pakistan and South Africa.

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The study basically proves that environmental changes place increasing responsibilities on women, especially those that are young, less educated and belong to lower classes, or marginal castes and ethnicities. The study keenly divides the area measured for their study into 3 distinct regions, semi-arid regions, mountains and glacier-fed river basins and lastly in deltas so as to make their findings more accurate.

All the areas selected by them face environmental risks, including droughts, floods, rainfall variability, land erosion and landslides, heat waves, coastal erosion and cyclones. In order to combat this extra stress and burden, the researchers have suggested an effective social protection system like pensions and grants or a universal public distribution system. Another solution that was proposed in the study was that instead of promoting competition, cooperation between households should be encouraged.

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