Pakistan, along with the South Asian region, is one of the most disaster-prone areas due to the rapidly changing environmental conditions in the past few decades. Due to depletion of the ozone layer, greenhouse effect, deforestation, soil erosion etc., climate change has been severely affecting our society in one form or the other.  If we look at the past five years, two major natural disasters i.e. the earthquake of 2005 and the torrential rains of 2011 (and more recently 2012) played havoc and caused innumerable damage both to human lives and to the infrastructure of the country. It is estimated that during August 2011, in Sindh, Pakistan “caused by heavy monsoon rains, the floods … killed 248 people and damaged or destroyed some 665,000 homes” (BBC News South Asia 2011).

The environmental change and its resultant hazardous outcomes affect socio-economic conditions and gender roles in societies. Women’s roles and responsibilities undergo a drastic change as they get immensely affected by floods, earthquakes, droughts etc owing to the displacement and migration of their families. This paper is an attempt to understand the change that climatic conditions are bringing into Pakistani society and its interconnectedness to gender roles in the socio-economic context and how women act as agents of adjustment in the new circumstances and their capacity to adapt to changing social and environmental conditions.

To study this theme, this paper would firstly focus on the analysis of secondary data, research journals, media reports and relevant published material in gather facts and figures about the theme; secondly, it will analyse findings from primary data, for which District Sanghar (which was one of the most worst affected areas during the flood of 2011) would be selected as locale of study. Five in-depth interviews would be conducted with the families which were affected, displaced or migrated during the 2011 floods. Five case studies would be done of those females who courageously faced adverse conditions and successfully helped their families in dealing with the mental and psychological trauma. Informal discussions would be held with villagers who suffered from the torrential rains (e.g. whose crops, houses or cattle were severely affected), about the roles and responsibilities of men and women and their coping mechanisms in the changing social and environmental conditions. Two key informant interviews would be conducted with an environmentalist and a gender specialist anthropologist, in which the experts would shed light on different social and environmental issues and their relevance to the theme.

This study would narrate real life experiences which would enable us to understand how climatic change induces migration and how it affects the lives of people, their collective and individual responsibilities and how the female family members adapt to different cultural, social and environmental circumstances. It would also be helpful in understanding the rural communities’ indigenous, in-built coping mechanism to a globally transforming climate. Furthermore, the findings of primary data would highlight the methods plus suggestions given by the female informants as to the best adaptive strategies related to the cultural context of South Asia.

In addition, the data and information of the paper can be used in formulating effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies into town planning processes, as well as to introduce pro-women policies into micro level institutes. For example, to equip the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA); Tehsil Municipal Authority (TMA) and other local bodies with sufficient resources by which they can address any adverse situation or natural calamity and thereby reduce its effects on the more venerable individuals i.e. women, children and aged persons by taking swift actions to salvage, rehabilitate and reconstruct the damaged homes and property so that they might be spared from the traumatizing experience of living in internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camps. The case studies and key informants interviews would help in understanding the causes and effects of climate change and gaps in management and policies which ultimately lead to disastrous consequences, so we can earn lessons and use this information to build a gender-friendly society where women can enjoy social and economic stability juxtaposed with their traditional knowledge and skills.

References:

BBC News South Asia 2011, ‘Pakistan floods: Authorities 'struggle to provide aid', 22 Sept. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15015765> accessed 19 Nov. 2012.