A devastating heatwave is hitting South and Southeast Asia. In Nepal, the authorities are worried about forest fires increasing in "unimaginable proportion." In India, where election campaigning has been disrupted by high temperatures, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari suffered a stroke during an election rally. The opening hours of some polling stations were extended to allow voters to travel after dark.
From Vietnam to Bangladesh to Thailand, record-breaking temperatures are on the rise. Asia is warming faster than the global average, according to data from the World Meteorological Organization, and must prepare for longer, more frequent and more intense heatwaves. The consequences of these are well known. They kill, weaken social cohesion, can destroy harvests, damage infrastructure and reduce incomes by preventing people from working. All these effects are even more devastating for the poor and for women, although this is less well known.
Rising temperatures increase the risk of violence, including domestic violence. A study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry in June 2023 and involving 190,000 women from Pakistan, India and Nepal, shows that a one-degree rise in temperature coincides with a 6.3% increase in acts of domestic violence, due to worsening living conditions and accompanying stress. It also leads to complications for pregnant women, with an increase in the number of miscarriages and premature deliveries.
Another study, published by the journal Global Environmental Change in November 2020, shows that episodes of high heat in Bangladesh coincide with greater poverty and a doubling in the number of marriages of girls under the age of 14. When temperatures rise, the poorest women, who have no fans in their homes, have to take their children out regularly to cool them off in the middle of the night, depriving them of sleep. Whether they spend the day outside, in their tin houses or in poorly ventilated factories, they have to endure the extreme heat without fans or air conditioning. This prevents them from working, especially when schools are closed and they have to look after the children.
Insufficient initiatives
According to a study published in March by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the income gap between women and men in rural areas increases by 8% due to droughts.
In India, almost 21,000 women benefit from an insurance scheme that compensates them for days off work in the event of extreme heat, measured according to precise criteria such as humidity levels or day and night temperatures. These women no longer have to choose between risking their lives or going without pay. But initiatives of this kind are not enough. Adaptation policies need to be rethought not only in terms of social class, but also gender.
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