Climate-induced Gender Vulnerabilities in Northwestern Bangladesh

Abstract

Risks and vulnerabilities arising out of climate change are exacerbated by unequal gender relations. The current study examines climate-induced vulnerabilities to which men and women are exposed and explores the factors that affect women more than men. This study was conducted in purposively selected Kurigram district as a representative of Northern Bangladesh, where people experience climatic divergence and extreme poverty. Data were collected from 100 randomly selected participants from three villages of Kurigram district through questionnaire survey and focus group discussions. The gender vulnerability index was used to measure the extent of vulnerability and the factors influencing vulnerability. The results show that 72.2 per cent are highly vulnerable with females being almost more than twice as vulnerable as males. The analysis indicates that the amount of land, difficulty in bathing when the basic bathroom structure was destroyed and use of borrowed money were the main determinants of gender vulnerability in changing climatic conditions. The findings of this study might help to integrate gender into climate change policy discourse and find appropriate adaptation strategies in Bangladesh, particularly in Northwestern Bangladesh.

Keywords

Climate change gender women’s vulnerability Bangladesh

Introduction

Climate change is one of the most important challenges faced by the human community today. It indicates the alteration of the global atmosphere and has been observed for a significant period of time (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2007). It is well recognised that poor women in developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts because of poverty and social differentiation. Gendered social differentiations are mainly in the form of social norms and diverse power structures in which men and women have differing roles, resources, rights and knowledge with which they cope with climate change (Babagura, 2010; Petrie, 2010; Schalatek, 2009). In fact, women stay in economically more vulnerable positions than their male counterparts in any disastrous situation which hinders their capacity to recover from disasters. No doubt, the poor and marginalised are the worst victims of the negative consequences of climate change because of their higher dependence on natural resources and inadequate capabilities to cope with this changing environment (Habtezion, 2011). Neumayer and Plumper (2007) examined the issue and found that disasters usually kill more women than men during and after disasters where the socio-economic status of women is low. The unequal risk and exposure across gender in an environment of changing climate have also been reported by Rahman (2013), Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies [BCAS] (2010) and Mitchell, Tanner and Lussier (2007). Women are more vulnerable due to their lower access to resources, mobility and ownership of goods and resources as well as gender-differentiated roles and responsibilities.

Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world due to its geographical location as well as deltaic topography, extreme climate variability in conjunction with several socio-economic factors such as poverty, higher dependence on agriculture and inequality. Almost every year, the country experiences floods, sea-level rise, cyclones, drought, etc., which have a devastating impact on agriculture, water, human health and livelihood. With 700 rivers including 57 trans-boundary waterways, the country has insignificant control on the water flow. So, the availability of water is most often characterised by either overflow known as floods or water scarcity known as drought. The key victim of these disasters is basically the rural people who are mostly dependent on agriculture, and during climate change they have to incur decreasing crop yields every year.

Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country where the majority of people live in rural areas. Floods and droughts alternately affect people and their livelihoods most adversely. Most previous attention has been paid to the southern part of Bangladesh, especially the coastal region, exploring sea-level rise and salinity intrusion. This coastal region, the southern part of Bangladesh is worst hit by frequent cyclones, sea-level rise and subsequent coastal flooding. Besides, the farming system and living conditions of the people of Barind Tract are threatened by the adverse impacts of climate change. The recurrence of climate-induced natural calamities, particularly drought, dust storms, irrigation, water scarcity and the resultant lower crop yield are responsible for making livelihood harsh. So far, little emphasis has been given to assess the climate susceptibility of Northern Bangladesh taking into account different development dimensions. Floods, river erosion and drought are quite common in northwestern Bangladesh, especially in Kurigram district where the highest poverty rate (63.7 per cent) may provide an indication of gendered poverty (Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services [CEGIS], 2007a, 2007b). So, it is important to identify present climate change vulnerabilities and threats as well as to assess future opportunities and priorities for adjustment and sustain-able development.

Every year the country loses a huge amount of crops, livestock and fishery resources due to natural hazards. The top five priority concerns for Northwestern Bangladesh are (a) flood, (b) riverbank erosion, (c) drought, (d) a cold wave and (e) excessive rainfall. These natural calamities affect men and women differently. Although the Constitution of Bangladesh (under section 19 (2), (3)) has emphasised both social and economic equality between men and women as well as equal opportunity and participation of women in all spheres of public life, in practice, women are in a marginalised position as compared to men in society due to feminisation of poverty, and patriarchal social norms and restrictions. Women, like men, are largely dependent on agriculture, comprising up to 40 per cent of the total labour force while their contributions are mostly under represented or disguised (Sixth Five Year Plan, 2015). They have to suffer in different complex situations and the resultant disadvantages like inadequate access to and control over land and other productive resources as well as limited access to the market leave them without economic security. Already suffering from social and economic deprivation, they become more vulnerable than men when the changing climate brings about disasters and further deprivation. Climate change reinforces existing vulnerability as it curbs the ability to adapt to climate variability by limiting access to the natural resource base (Garai, 2016).

Several studies including Mondal (2014), Climate Change Cell [CCC] (2009), Alam, Fatema and Ahmed (2008) and Nasreen (2008) claim that the cultural traditions of Bangladesh make women more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because most often they are not permitted to participate in the public sphere and have limited access to critical information for emergency preparedness. Despite the strong relationship of gender with climate change and vulnerability, less attention has been paid to integrate the gender dimension into the climate change discourse (Dankelman, 2008; Terry, 2009). So far, gender-based vulnerability in respect to drought, floods and riverbank erosion in the northern part of Bangladesh has not been studied. These climatic disasters result in considerable crop loss, damage of property and infrastructure and obviously, the losses are aggravated for women by unequal gender relations. So, it is important to document how women are adversely affected by climate change and with what impacts and to determine the factors influencing gender vulnerabilities. The findings of this study might help to integrate gender into climate change preparedness and mitigation actions as well as find appropriate future adaptation strategies in Bangladesh.

Materials and Method

Study Area and Sample

To explore the abovementioned issues, Kurigram district was selected through purposive sampling. Afterwards, three upazilas (subdivisions) of Kurigram district such as Kurigram sadar, Chilmari and Char Rajibpur were selected purposively for field investigation since these sites are severely affected by climate change, particularly by flood and drought. Finally, one village from each upazila was selected using the simple random sampling technique. These were Char Parbatipur from Kurigram sadar upazila, Ramna village from Chilmari upazila and Baliamarir Char from Rajibpur upazila, respectively. In these three villages, one household member from 100 sample households was selected randomly for in-depth interview.

Data Collection

The data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire, a tool that was pre-tested among 10 households. The questionnaire was then revised and adjusted. Besides the household survey, the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) technique was adopted, aimed at gathering information on how natural resources were used by men and women. A simple checklist was prepared for FGDs which were organised by gathering mixed groups of eight or twelve people at one place where frank discussions took place after the purpose of the research was explained to them. Issues were clarified and opinions elicited followed by discussion. The ultimate consensus and information were documented.

Analytical Techniques

Various descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, such as percentage, cross-tabulation, Chi-square test, etc. were adopted for getting meaningful results. All the statistical analyses were performed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.

Gender Vulnerability Index (GVI)

To establish vulnerability by gender, the gender vulnerability index was prepared. The steps to determine gender vulnerability are as follows.

The vulnerability X is divided into m specific dimensions of impact and each is given a corresponding weight (w_i, i = 1,…, m). The weights are predetermined corresponding to the components of vulnerability.

The vulnerability of any given sex group g_i, i = 1 … n to the jth j = 1… m dimension of impact can be expressed as X_ij taking values 0 to 1 assuming 0 = no impact and 1 = full impact. X_ijw_i is the corresponding weighted vulnerability.

The sum of the weighted vulnerabilities across all dimensions determine the person’s total vulnerability based on gender categories (GV), that is:

\sum^{​} X_{w j} / \sum^{​} X_{w} = G V

For gender vulnerability index (GVI), the sum of the weights is set to:

\sum^{​} w_{i} = 1

The gender vulnerability index was coded into three categories. These were ‘highly vulnerable’, ‘moderately vulnerable’ and ‘slightly vulnerable’ (Table 2).

The value of a vulnerability index less than 0.3 was defined as slightly vulnerable, and denoted that a respondent faced a vulnerability situation only occasionally. The respondent who had a vulnerability index between 0.4 and 0.6 was referred to as facing moderate vulnerability. A score of 0.7 and above implied that the respondent was highly vulnerable.

Results and Discussion

Negative Impacts of Climate Change

The agricultural sector in Northern Bangladesh is adversely affected by both flood and drought. 60 per cent of respondents identified floods as the recurrent climatic event. More than 50 per cent reported crop and livestock loss due to floods followed by food shortage and food insecurity. Small and large livestocks were washed away causing income loss. Particularly, women reported subsequent reduction in income due to livestock loss as most of the women had control over livestock and the reduced income affected them severely. Flood also damaged infrastructure: roads, buildings and houses. For that reason, in Chilmari upazila, housing allocations are temporary.

Similarly, drought severely affects the northern part of Bangladesh, the key loser being agriculture. This region suffers from water shortage during dry periods. Respondents were more concerned about the negative consequences of floods than droughts. When they were asked to describe the extreme climatic events, most of them repeatedly mentioned floods, not drought. The reason may be because losses caused by floods are more apparent than those caused by drought. About 25 per cent of the respondents replied that they experienced drought thrice in the last six years. Similarly, 20 per cent respondents said that 15 per cent of their total land was affected by drought which caused lower yields. The geographic location of this district and other socio economic factors like lower literacy rate, inadequate employment opportunities, and limited industrialisation make it one of the most backward districts of Bangladesh where the highest per cent of poor people live.

The Lower Status of Women in Northwestern Bangladesh

A Chi-square test of independence was performed to test the existence of association between independent variables and men and women as categories. These variables were selected on the basis of the relationship between dependence on resources vulnerable to climate change impacts (sensitivity) and existing livelihood and income options (adaptive capacity). Households’ dependency on resources and services was used as a measure to gauge the extent of dependency on local resources vulnerable to climate change and its impact on food security, income and other sociocultural aspects of their lives.

From the responses, it was found that most of the respondents’ primary source of income was agriculture. 65 per cent of the men and 80.2 per cent of women reported agriculture as their major means of livelihood. This implies that men have more livelihood options as compared to women. This also indicates the sensitivity component of vulnerability. A greater reliance on agriculture implies dependence on livelihoods sensitive to the threats of climate change. Land ownership as a component was significantly related to gender. Most of the women (97.2 per cent) reported they were landless while most of the male respondents (79.3 per cent) reported that they belonged to small farm categories. Most of the respondents faced shortage of food every year. While 34.5 per cent of male respondents said they did not experience food shortage, only 14.9 per cent of female respondents said that they faced no food shortage.

Difficulty in bathing when the basic bathroom structure was destroyed during floods and river erosion affected men and women differently. Among female respondents, 87.2 per cent reported inconvenience and difficulty but 62.1 per cent of males said that they did not face similar difficulties. Further, 37.9 per cent men and 85.1 per cent women reported limited access to facilities such as sanitation, healthcare, the market and information, proving that women were marginalised in larger numbers. Another significant finding was that, 44.8 per cent men mentioned that during food crises they reduced the number of their meals. But the proportion of women who went without meals was much higher at 78.7 per cent. Additionally, ultimate use of borrowed money was significantly associated with men than with women irrespective of whether men or women procured the loan. From the aforementioned data, it is clear that men are privileged even within the scenario of dire poverty and women have a lower place in society and have less resources and advantages than men.

Vulnerability and Gender

The people of the area were suffering from different dimensions of economic and social vulnerabilities. Land was an important variable defining vulnerability. Landlessness led to vulnerable conditions during disasters, landlessness itself the result of economic inadequacy, limited access to all kinds of resources and loss of land by erosion. Also, social norms and restrictions limit the ownership of productive resources. For instance, gender norms in Bangladesh restrict women’s access to land. It was also common for women to face shortage of food during a year of severe climatic hazards. Disasters caused significant damage to basic infrastructures including private bathing areas causing difficulties particularly for women. Inadequacies in health and sanitation facilities occurred. Access to the market and agricultural inputs like seed, fertiliser and irrigation decreased during such climatic disasters. Food scarcity was a common phenomenon and people had to skip meals.

Table 1 depicts the relationship of variables with different vulnerability levels. It can be observed that there is a significant relationship between ownership of land and vulnerability. Landless groups were more vulnerable (90 per cent) than others. In the medium farm group, 50 per cent of the respondents had low vulnerability and 50 per cent were moderately vulnerable. The obvious cause behind this is the lack of productive resources which limits the capacity to deal with the adverse effects of climate change. The association between shortage of food in a year and vulnerability was found statistically significant. Six to eight months’ food shortage resulted in high vulnerability among 91.3 per cent of respondents which resulted in lacking the capacity to adapt to the situation.

Table 1.

Important Variables in Vulnerability

Name of Independent Variables	N	Vulnerability Situation
Name of Independent Variables	N	Low Vulnerability	Moderate Vulnerability	High Vulnerability
Amount of land (ha) (p = 0.0001)
Landless	60	2.0	8.0	90.0
Small farm (0.05 ‒ 2.49 ha)	34	33.3	25.0	41.7
Medium farm (2.50 ‒ 7.49 ha)	6	50.0	50.0	0.0
Large farm (7.50 and above)
Shortage of food in a year (p = 0.034)
6–8 months	32	8.7	0.0	91.3
4–5 months	22	18.2	0.0	81.8
2–3 months	18	7.2	21.4	71.4
Less than 1 month	11	9.1	18.2	72.7
No shortage	17	23.5	35.3	41.2
Difficulty in bathing when the basic bathroom structure is destroyed (p = 0.0001)
Yes	72	5.8	3.8	90.4
No	28	29.2	37.5	33.3
Limited access to facilities (sanitation, health care, market, inputs) (p = 0.0001)
Yes	71	7.9	3.9	88.2
No	29	24.0	36.0	40.0
Starvation during food scarcity (p = 0.012)
Male	19	6.6	26.7	66.7
Female	55	11.1	4.4	84.5
Both	26	25.0	31.2	43.8
Reduction of number of meals during food crisis (p = 0.012)
Yes	70	8.0	16.0	76.0
No	30	23.1	11.5	65.4
Use of borrowed money (p = 0.0001)
Yes	35	36.0	44.0	20.0
No	65	2.0	0.0	98.0
Total	100	13.3	14.5	72.2

Source: Field Survey, 2015.

Notes: p values are based on chi-square test. Row per cent for vulnerability situation add to 100.

A positive association was found between difficulty in bathing when the basic bathroom structure was destroyed due to flood or river erosion and vulnerability. Vulnerability was highest (90.4 per cent) among respondents, mainly women, who experienced such difficulties, because they were averse to bathing openly in a public place for women felt their dignity and privacy violated.

The association between limited access to sanitation, health care, market and input facilities and vulnerability was found statistically significant. The coping capacities of 88.2 per cent of the respondents who were deprived of such access were greatly restricted as a result.

Starvation during a food crisis caused by climate change was statistically significantly associated with vulnerability. Many respondents starved during the food crisis during or after disaster. But the percentage of female respondents who said that they had to starve during such periods was higher (84.5 per cent) than male respondents (66.7 per cent) thus increasing the number of female respondents in the highly vulnerable group. The reason is that, in Bangladesh, men enjoy special privileges due to traditional norms and values. Most often, the male head of the household and decision maker subordinates women in the family. It is also quite common for men to eat first, leaving women to take what is left. Gender norms also urge women to sacrifice their own comforts and needs during crises to show respect to men. To fulfil these cultural expectations, women have to consume less food during scarcity. As men work outside the house, they can use their income to supplement the food they eat at home, an opportunity that women do not have. Reduction of the number of meals during a food crisis was significantly associated with vulnerability. The majority of respondents (76 per cent) who reported that they reduced the number of meals during the crisis fell into the highly vulnerable category. Sometimes, the respondents had to borrow money as a coping strategy during or after hazards. Though both men and women could borrow money, the ultimate user of borrowed money in most of the cases was male. It is evident that 98 per cent of the respondents who could not use borrowed money for productive or survival purposes were highly vulnerable.

Table 2.

Gender Vulnerability Status of the Respondents

Vulnerability Situation	GVI Range	N	Per cent	Per cent of Male Respondents	Per cent of Female Respondents
Low vulnerability	Up to 0.3	13	13.3	42	20.8
Moderate vulnerability	0.4–0.6	15	14.5	33.6	26.9
High vulnerability	0.7–1	72	72.2	24.4	52.3
Total		100	100	100	100

Source: Field Survey, 2015.

So, it was evident that people who did not have an adequate amount of land suffered from asset inadequacy that hindered the possibility of covering income losses or supporting consumption shortfall. The majority of women belonged to this economic group who did not have sufficient amount of land nor could they access or use loans as they were not decision makers. In the disaster prone areas, although women sometimes get priority in being allotted small grants and funds, they have to hand over the money to male family members and it is not unusual for the latter to ignore family needs.

Conclusion

Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. As a developing country, socio-cultural norms make women more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as they have limited access to productive resources and participation in the public forum. The current study examines climate-induced vulnerabilities by gender. The results depict that more than half of the female respondents (52.3 per cent) in Northwestern Bangladesh were highly vulnerable to climate change; about 26.9 per cent were moderately vulnerable, implying that in case of an external shock they need some assistance to recover from it. Only 20.8 per cent of the female respondents were able to cope even though they were also vulnerable. The shift of a respondent from the state of low vulnerability to the state of moderate or high vulnerability was influenced by important factors like the level of landownership, and who has ultimate use of borrowed money. Therefore, the government should come up with appropriate intervention policies to restore gender balance in asset ownership by putting an end to gender discrimination. Bathing facilities should be restored quickly during disasters to ensure dignity, especially for women. Special attention should be given to infrastructural development. Granting credit on easy terms for women can help them cope with a sudden adverse situation. During or after disasters although women can manage money, they are not the ultimate users. This problem can be solved through involving women in the decision-making process both within and outside the home. Ensuring credit utilisation in the productive sector can make women economically less vulnerable when recovering from climate change impacts.

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