Climate change disproportionately impacts women, particularly in rural areas where they bear responsibility for food security, household income, and livestock care. Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall force women to work harder, walk farther, and spend more time gathering essentials like food, water, and fodder. The farther they walk, the more exposed they are to significant risks of gender-based violence and adverse health risks. Women, often the poorest and most marginalized, face limited access to essential services including clean cooking facilities and potable water due to limited resources and decision-making power impacting their health. They are also at higher risk of mortality during extreme weather events; according to UNDP, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men. Moreover, 4 out of 5 people displaced by climate change are women and girls, with disasters disrupting vital services like sexual and reproductive healthcare.

These differentiated vulnerabilities underline an urgent need for gender-responsive climate budgeting to ensure that climate action addresses systemic gender inequalities along with environmental challenges. By integrating gender considerations into climate budgets, governments can allocate resources more equitably, empower women, and mitigate the disproportionate burdens they face due to climate change. This is imperative for fostering both climate resilience and gender equality.

Integrating gender into the climate budget of India, however, is challenging on two fronts. One is the scarcity of empirical evidence on gender-differentiated impacts of climate change in India. Second, there is a lack of a holistic climate budget at the union level and varying methodologies to prepare climate/green budgets at sub-national levels.

Challenges in Integrating Gender into India's Climate Budget

Although data on the gender impacts of climate change is scarce, first-hand accounts of survivors  extreme climate events shed some light on the precarious situations faced by women. A report by Dialogue Earth revealed the increased instances of violence against women (domestic violence, human trafficking, increased preferences for male children, and sexual harassment) in flood relief camps after the devastating floods in Bihar in 2017. Similarly, a 2020 study highlighted a surge in domestic as well as intimate partner violence following the deadly 2004 tsunami in four Indian states—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. In Denganmal village, Maharashtra, water scarcity has led to the emergence of a polygamous family structure, where men marry multiple women known as water wives — one wife manages the household, while others are responsible for securing water. India has made concerted efforts to address gender vulnerability and climate change, but these efforts largely operate in silos. The Government of India has included a gender budget statement as part of its Union Budget since 2005–06, while international commitments primarily drive climate action, forming the foundation for national-level action plans and strategies. These efforts have their shortcomings. The gender budget statement is merely an accounting exercise to track how much finance was allocated and spent under women-specific programmes. Gender budgeting, in its true sense, must entail assessing different impacts of all the schemes and programmes on women, including aspects such as wage structure, workplace facilities, health and well-being, and women's participation patterns in the workforce. The lack of a climate budget at the Union level makes it difficult to track how many resources have been dedicated to climate action and measure the impact. Non-governmental institutions have attempted to fill this void with their estimates of requirements and finance flows to climate action, but methodological differences render such estimates incomparable. None of these estimates consider the nexus of gender and climate action. The states in India have taken lead in the preparation of a climate/green budget. Still, since each state uses different taxonomy and methodology, the allocations and expenditures on climate concerns are incomparable. Moreover, these documents are largely silent on gender.

Gender-Responsive Climate Budgeting for a Sustainable Future

Gender-responsive climate budgeting is essential for India to achieve its commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), nationally determined contributions (NDCs), adaptation goals, and just energy transition. The framework will directly address SDGs on gender equality (SDG 5), climate action (SDG 13), life on land (SDG 15), and life below water (SDG 14). In contrast, it will indirectly address SDGs on poverty (SDG 1), inequality (SDG 10), and peace and justice (SDG 16). The framework will also address NDCs related to adaptation (NDC 6) and the mobilization of financial resources (NDC 7). The mandate to mainstream gender in climate action also comes from international frameworks in the form of technical guide for mainstreaming gender into climate action, Lima Work Programme on Gender, and the Gender Action Plan.

Kenya has taken significant steps to integrate gender into climate action. It submitted its progress in implementing the gender action plan for the Lima Work Programme. The Government of Indonesia, in partnership with UNDP, has released a handbook on gender-responsive climate budgeting in Indonesia. The Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Budget Partnerships (IBP), and UNDP jointly have launched Inclusive Budgeting and Financing for Climate Change in Africa (IBFCCA), engaging with over 20 African nations on strengthening gender-responsive climate budgeting—these efforts, although in the nascent stage, are gaining momentum.

Challenges and Way Forward

The path to gender-responsive climate budgeting is a long and a complex one, but India must eventually adopt it to achieve climate resilience and gender equality. There would be challenges relating to lack of data availability, limited institutional capacity, and management of expectations of many stakeholders to the budgeting process. It is time to anticipate such challenges and promptly address them. India should leverage its partnerships with policy research institutions to gather empirical evidence on the gendered impact of climate change and the development of institutional capacity. It must also leverage its partnerships with multilateral organizations and institutions in Africa and Indonesia to learn from their initial experiences. Until fully-fledged gender-responsive climate budgeting is adopted, monitoring climate actions and initiatives based on gender-specific indicators is imperative. Understanding the nexus of climate action and gender would be a significant step towards developing an inclusive society.

In conclusion, while the Government of India has made commendable strides in promoting transparency and accountability through gender and climate-focused measures, the convergence of these efforts remains essential for maximizing their impact. By integrating gender considerations into climate budgets and monitoring initiatives with gender-specific indicators, India can build a more inclusive and equitable society. Embracing this framework will fulfil international commitments and pave the way for a sustainable future where gender equality and climate resilience are at the forefront of development priorities. #