The message of the World Population Conference, Bucharest, 1974 was “Development is the best contraceptive”. But to reduce the negative impact of on women climate change, I think, “contraceptive is one of the best alternatives.”
Climate change is a complex phenomenon that has brought with it a gamut of natural disasters like droughts, floods, increased frequency of cyclones, melting of glaciers, rise in temperatures, etc. In a way, it has made human life endangered on this planet. Our Gaia (Mother Earth) is now getting fever (Average surface temperatures all over the world are rising) and Gaia will do something to get rid of this fever. But one thing is sure those who have never contributed or have contributed very little in getting her fever, will be the worst victims of her actions, and more vulnerable are those who are the poorest and least privileged in the human society i.e. women and children.
Women in the poorest societies have to play a dual role. As providers, they work outside the house in agriculture or other informal sectors along with collecting food, fuel, and water for the household. As a caretaker, they take care of children, sick family members, and the elderly apart from the home and the family assets like domestic animals, etc. It has also been found in several types of research that women often encounter domestic and sexual violence after natural disasters like floods and storms.
This article argues that if the family size is big, the family responsibilities for poor women become enormous in the time of natural disasters like floods or drought and thus women become more vulnerable. The bigger the family, the worse is the condition of women and girl children because they have to give up so many things in favor of the men and male children. The fact that there is a large unmet need for family planning among the poor in India tells us that unwanted fertility in the poorest sections of society leads to bigger families. And this big family size, in turn, makes a woman and girl child more prone to climate change fury. So why not provide them with easily available, accessible (economically, geographically, and socially), affordable, and culturally acceptable family planning services so that they can have what they want. Not only would this reduce the family size it would also have several other benefits like a rise in the standard of living of poor households and better opportunities for education and health for the girl child.
The message of the World Population Conference, Bucharest, 1974 was “Development is the best contraceptive”. But to reduce the negative impact of on women climate change, I think, “contraceptive is one of the best alternatives.”
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