Climate change, gender and adaptation strategies in dryland systems of South Asia

A special emphasis is given on the gender factor in India as a determinant for unequal distribution of climate change impacts both on household and community. However, a quantitative research on role of gender in climate change and livelihoods in rural India is often missing. Therefore, conducted a quantitative research in India to understand the role of gender in the current and anticipated climate change impacts. The main objective of the study was to investigate the linkages between gender and climate change. More specifically the study focused on gender-wise perceptions of climate change, understanding coping strategies followed by gender, participation of gender in decision-making and vulnerability of male and female households to the poverty. The analysis was carried out during 2012-13 based on a survey of 1019 randomly sampled households in six districts of Andhra Pradesh (Anantapur and Kurnool), Karnataka (Bijapur), and western Rajasthan (Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur) as action sites.