Droughts in India is a natural phenomenon and is one of the most feared calamities that has the potential to impact agriculture and food production at a higher level. In addition to that, droughts tend to damage the morale of millions of farmers in the country.
It is observed that the frequency of droughts was increasing Y-o-Y due to irregular land acquisitions and inaccurate planning that’s disturbing nature. While droughts are causing severe distress, there is a lot that is going unnoticed on how gender influences are taking place when it comes to dealing with droughts.
Women in rural areas are playing a significant role to make ends meet. But, their recent intervention into agricultural labour has only made it worse for them. Despite working for a longer duration of time in the fields, women have no land rights, nor decision-making powers and their health is often compromised.
Dr Basanta Sahu presented a paper titled “Household drought coping, food insecurity and women in Odisha” which got published in Economic and Political Weekly where a discussion was conducted to find out the reasons behind the stressful situation.
As part of the study, two districts of Odisha namely Bolangir and Kendrapada have been aimed at exploring.
Both the districts experience frequent droughts with Bolangir being one of the poorest tribal districts and Kendrapada, a relatively developed coastal district with good connectivity and multiple cropping practices
The study revealed that,
Food Shortages and Income loss were the primary reasons for household distress
The quality and availability of food at a tribal area is always a challenge, and it has a direct impact on the household, which ultimately leads to distress. And the family could cope with it by,
Taking Loans and Selling off Assets
People usually handle the food stress situation by borrowing money from natural sources where money was spent on food and other needs that can come in handy for the initial migration. But, in other cases, people sell their assets in a desperate situation to meet the demand for food during droughts.
Men migrated out in search of work to cope with food and income shortfalls while women stayed back and looked after the children and the elderly.
Change in diet patterns and quantity of food
Household had to compromise on the food to accommodate others at home, especially during droughts. The diet patterns take a different turn as the availability of food becomes marginally lower, where women at home have to compromise and gets to eat the leftovers. When the available food was inadequate, many poor households tried to reduce the number of people that needed to be fed temporarily. This was done by sending some of the family members away temporarily, sending children to neighbours’ houses that had food or abandoning family members.
In the process, women’s health was compromised due to lack of clean water and extreme changes in the diet which has made them suffer from a range of health problems such as fever and reproductive health issues.
Gender-sensitive developmental plans to cope with droughts needed
The paper suggests that women should be given importance as they play a crucial role in the whole process. They should be given enough water and food to contribute to the well-being of the house.
The impact of drought on households can be vastly different, depending on local socio-economic conditions and geographic settings. Region speciﬁc and gender-sensitive developmental plans focusing on long-term drought prooﬁng, improving irrigation and farm practices, enhancing access to and use of water, land, credit and other resources are thus very crucial.
The paper ends by arguing that improving public food provisioning and conserving available resources with women’s participation and decision-making can go a long way in improving gender equality and food security in drought-affected areas.