Climate Change Affecting Urban And Rural Women Health
Manasi Saraf Joshi
Pune, 10th December 2024: Asha Waghmare, a 48-year-old woman from Bhor taluka of Pune district, has been suffering from low blood pressure for the last couple of years. Reason: The falling crop pattern led to a financial crisis in the family.
Similar to Waghmare, several other women have developed health conditions as a result of changes in the climate.
- Sarita Pawar, another 50-year-old woman from the same taluka, used to feel dizzy and experienced frequent hunger pangs. She was diagnosed with diabetes. The stress caused non-repayment of the loan due to crop loss because of changing weather patterns led to her condition.
- Laxmi Ghule, a farm worker, said women younger than her are falling ill frequently. Many of them are complaining of physical pain, while a few of them already have started medication for diabetes.
- In March 2022, Sumatibai (name changed) followed her daily routine and went to accomplish her agricultural work. The afternoon heat was at its peak. After a day-long work in the field, the 59-year-old felt dizzy and fell. She was a diabetes and hypertension patient. Although she received immediate care, Sumatibai started feeling restless. Her family members rushed her to a private hospital — 8 km away — but she did not make it.
These are a few of the several examples that indicate how the effects of climate change have crept into rural households across the country.
Mangal Magar, an Asha worker in the Pune district, said for the last couple of years, many women have been complaining of a spike in hunger pangs or dizziness.
“Upon examining them, we found that many women are suffering from high blood pressure or sugar. Earlier, these medicines were not available with us. But now, we have started distributing them as the number of cases has gone up,” Magar said.
“The lives of women in rural areas are burdened with household as well as farm work. The women labour on the farms, and after returning home, they cook and look after the other household duties. The erratic weather these days reduces their work days at farms and affects them as they are burdened with loans and other expenses,” she added.
Ashwini Sanas, another Asha worker, said, “Rural women do not eat healthy food. They also do not get their HB count checked. These women, while working on the farm, also cultivate a few local vegetables or staple food. But the weather pattern has been ruining the crops. This makes them restless as it’s the hard-earned money getting wasted.”
Sanas added, “Many women are reeling under pressure and have borderline BP or sugar due to crop loss. Many are now dependent on medicines. Although we have a stock of the required medicines, sometimes we do not have any left, and it becomes a problem for the women.”
Urban areas are rapidly growing into heat islands.
Constant construction activity, vehicles emitting harmful gases, manufacturing factories emitting smoke, air conditioners, and skyscrapers are a few factors that turn cities into heat islands. The worrying factor, however, is the rural areas experiencing the adverse effects of climate change.
An in-depth study by Prayas, a Pune-based health group, revealed how ‘climate change is the largest threat to human health and has been called a planetary health emergency’.
Its range covers direct impacts such as injuries and deaths due to extreme weather events like floods or heatwaves to indirect effects like alteration in patterns of certain infectious diseases, water-borne diseases, malnutrition, or mental health effects. An additional 2,50,000 deaths per year could be attributed to climate change by 2030.
During the research, Prayas selected Pune’s Bhor taluka. Although the taluka is not known for high temperatures yet, for the past few years, villagers of the region have been complaining of various health problems akin to urban living.
Dr Ritu Parchure, one of the Prayas members part of the study, said, “Heat or rising temperature is affecting human health in more than one way. Urban floods, impact on agricultural produce, less income source, less nutritional food and migration are the major reasons affect the women predominantly.”
Parchure said another factor affecting women is household work such as cooking or cleaning.
“Low height of the tin roof and poor ventilation, and closely surrounded with other houses, too, add to the woes as light and air could is unable to pass through easily,” she explained.
“Women who stay indoors for most of the time are affected by the rising heat and the humidity adds more stress. This stress gradually affects their lungs, fluttering of the heart, and in extreme cases, causes kidney failure. The ailments are aggravated as there is no respite from heat during day or night,” she added.
A National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5 revealed a sharp rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, which has gone up among men and women from 15% and 11% to 24% and 21%, respectively.
Similarly, the percentage of women reporting blood glucose >140 mg/dl has increased from 5.8% to 12%, the survey revealed.
Over the last few years, there has been a considerable increase in the minimum and maximum temperatures in various regions across the country. The continuously
Earlier, the connection of climate with vector-borne diseases was hard to establish due to the absence of local past evidence.
The Prayas study revealed that the schedule of pesticide use has changed over time. “Pesticides were not used during winter. Last year, however, farmers sprayed it during winter as the humidity was high. The monsoon pattern, too, has changed, leaving farmers with little option to save their crops. If the behaviour of pests changes, so will the behaviour of vectors. The farmers must adapt practices to prevent crop damage,” the study said.
Manasi Desai, professor at the geography department at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, said clothing plays an important role when it comes to the ill effects of rising temperatures.
“Clothing in our country is based on cultural and social factors,” she said.
“Indoor pollution caused by ‘chulha’ (gas stove), incense sticks etc., also puts stress on women and affects their breathing capacity. This leads to respiratory diseases. Stress also inflicts high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cardiac arrest, among others,” Desai said.
The professor said falling crops, especially in the rural areas, also add to the suffering as many food items vanish from the meal.
“Even if few nutritional items are present on the menu, most of them are meant for male members of the house. So, women are also deprived of nutrition. Similarly, women have very little say in deciding the crop pattern in their farms,” she informed.
Desai, citing the study titled Socioenvironmental factors associated with heat and cold-related mortality in Vadu HDSS, western India: a population-based case-crossover study, said, “Effects of the heat on total mortality in Vadu HDSS area are particularly high in women, residents working in farms, and those with low education. This is the first study in rural India that focused on social and demographic characteristics and ambient temperature.”
The study aimed to identify the social and environmental factors associated with heat and cold-related mortality in Vadu HDSS, western India, during 2004–2013.
According to the research paper, confidence intervals for the heat and cold risks for sub-groups were wide and overlapped. People working in the farming sector and individuals with little or no education were at a higher level of risk of dying on heat days.
The authors found an increase in total mortality by 48% per degree Celsius above a threshold greater than 31°C during the summer period.
Prior research on the population showed that men of working age were more vulnerable to the heat than women. This suggests occupational factors are likely to contribute to heat-related mortality risk. The results, however, show an increase in risk even for the working age group (15–67), and especially among women. The results confirmed particularly high effects of the heat on mortality among farmers. Heat mortality risk varies by age and sex, and women are at higher risk. There may be physiological reasons for increased risk in women.
In the Vadu HDSS population, individuals who had not completed primary school showed a high risk of heat effects during summer.
“These associations may exist because people with little or no education may be less aware of health risks of heat or cold waves and high possibilities of work in farms,” the paper stated.
Several past researches state that decision-makers in planning and implementing effective adaptation measures should recognize the importance of addressing heat adaptation as a health problem that requires political solutions and social changes. Similarly, to tackle the problem, there is a need for a multidisciplinary approach, including the participation of the public, policymakers and those affected by the changes.
