Climate change, gender and rural development: Making sense of coping strategies in the Shivalik Hills

Abstract

The lower Shivalik Hills of North India is a region that is experiencing rapid socio-environmental challenges from interrelated changes in climate, market and society. While decades of governmental development efforts in the rural region have brought increased access to education, sanitation and improved infrastructure in the lower Shivalik Hills, the region is still characterised by poverty, illiteracy, a severely eschewed sex ratio and increased male out-migration to the larger cities. The article draws on empirical cases intended to provide an insight into gendered consequences of the contemporary rural coping strategies. These cases are drawn from anthropological fieldwork conducted in 2013.1 Although the joint households of the villages in the rural Shivalik Hills might seem to be resilient towards climate and market changes as men migrate for work, an overt focus on migration as a practice overlooks gender equality and social mobility, especially for young women, who are left behind to shoulder an extra burden.