GENDER PERSPECTIVE OF CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITIES IN THE AGRARIAN COMMUNITIES OF SEMI-ARID AREAS IN THE PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world due to extreme climate change events. However, it is important to know about the perceptions about climate change vulnerabilities in the rural areas from rural communities to overcome the climate changes related challenges. Gender remains an important social factor and the effects of climate change are felt in a different way for women and men therefore, adaptation intervention also need to be gendered. In this perspective, this study was conducted to find out the gender wise perception of climate change as well as vulnerability and adaptive capacity in the context of climate change. A cross-sectional survey of the male and female respondents was conducted from 24 villages of semi-arid areas of the Punjab, Pakistan. Data collection was conducted during 2023 in two semi-arid districts of Punjab Pakistan one from Layyah and other from Bhakkar district. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select a size of 360 households. Both male and female members of the households were interviewed to have a gender perspective. A total of 720 respondents (30 from each selected village: 15 Males and 15 Females) were taken as the study sample. This survey was supplemented with 25 key informant interviews. The data were analyzed descriptive statistical analysis used. For comparison, the independent samples t-test was used to compare the mean scores of both genders for a given variable. The results indicate that the female respondents perceived that in the past 10 years the summer heat waves have increased and rainfall has decreased as compared to their previous years experiences. Due to climate change impacts extreme cold wave have also increased which destroyed standing crops, vegetables and high risk of disease attacks plants and livestock. During drought and dry spell most of the crops were also destroyed due to shortage of water. Due to climate change impacts irregular rain fall also effected the seasonality of the crops and some crops could not be cultivated. Results also show that the sampled households get their food form their own farms to fulfill their basic food needs thus in case when any natural disaster occur they cannot fulfill the demand of food and face shortage of food. “Household got food from their own farmland” got mean values 4.07 and 3.31 for male and female respondents respectively. There was a significant difference between male and female respondents with t-value 7.764. During any natural disaster female member suffer more for collection of water from far areas. “Household with consistent water supply during natural disaster” had values 2.74 and 3.02 for male and female respondents respectively. The tendency for male respondents was rarely to sometimes, while for female respondents it was between sometime to often there was significant difference between male and female respondents with t-value 2.881. The overall results also indicate that most of the household rely on natural resources and they face difficulty during any natural climate change event occur.