5. Gender, Climate Change and Household Food Security: A South Asian Perspective

Research on the impacts of climate change indicates greater severity on certain groups and social classes. There is a general consensus that women in the developing countries will be harder hit than men by slow changes in temperature and precipitation which would increase the burden of daily provisioning of food, water and fuel, and also in the advent of weather related disasters, where the onus of providing and caring for the family rests on the woman. While forecasts of climate change in different geographical regions retain an element of uncertainty and women’s response to such potential changes can at best be estimated, in the case of weather induced natural disasters like cyclones, hurricanes or floods, the differential impacts on men and women, their distinct coping mechanisms and the success/failure of relief/rehabilitation and preventive measures has been well documented. In fact, disasters serve to highlight the disproportionate costs that women will have to bear as a result of climate change. As it is undisputed that the frequency of natural disasters will increase with global warming, lessons drawn from gender differentiated impacts and gendered response to such disasters may provide useful inputs for food security policy.