Bangladeshi Women are most affected by climate change
A workshop recently held at Dhaka titled ‘Climate Change Migration and Gender-Resistant Programmes’ discussed the Migration of the poor, women, marginalized, and vulnerable populations from disaster and risk-prone areas, which has recently increased due to climate change.
Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and UN Women and allied organizations organized the workshop.
Although people migrate for various reasons, they force to move to nearby suburbs or distant cities due to climate change. Despite the increase in Migration, the migrant population is living a subhuman life in urban slums or elsewhere due to a lack of necessary institutional support, skills, awareness, and knowledge.
Women, children, adolescents, disabled and older adults from migrant families are more affected. In this context, collection and storage of accurate data, proper monitoring, increased coordination between public and private institutions, and adoption of gender-sensitive programs are essential to combat climate migration.
Dwijen Mallick, Research Fellow of BCAS, highlighted the research conducted on the disaster vulnerability of local communities and climate migration at the workshop. The study occurred in Bangladesh’s five disaster-prone regions (Jamalpur, Kurigram, Cox’s Bazar, Satkhira, and Khulna).
Dwijen Mallick said, “The disaster risk and endangered communities in the project area, especially the poor, women, marginalized and underprivileged communities vulnerable by the effects of climate change, and forced to leave their areas and move elsewhere. ‘’
He warned that the number of climate migrants would increase dramatically in the coming days.
Dilruba Haider, Head of the UN Women’s Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction program, said, “The nature and pattern of climate change migration are different from other migrations.
There is a need to understand the social context and the responsibilities of men and women in the family and society when discussing and adopting programs on climate change migration.
Because the danger of women in disasters only comes up, the role and responsibility of women in dealing with disasters remain unspoken in many cases. Women in migrant families need to be more skilled and trained to cope properly with disasters for themselves and their families. ‘’
She emphasizes qualitative research as well as quantitative research and specific recommendations and programs.
Shekhar Kanti Ray, the Senior Researcher of BCAS, presented research results on Disaster Risk Assessment (CRA) of local communities and climate migration.
In the results of the field research, he said, “Due to climate change, the level of Migration from disaster and risk areas has increased, and this trend is relatively high in the South Western region of the country.
In addition to visible major disasters such as cyclones, floods, riverbeds, and long-term and gradual disasters such as salinity and sea-level rise, poor, working-class people in the South West region are suffering from livelihoods.
They force them to go to different parts of the country for livelihood. In the new workplace, they are facing wage inequality and inhumane living conditions.”
Md. Khairuzzaman, Director of Bangladesh Climate Change Trust, said, “It is essential to have specific information to work for the development of climate migrants, and it is necessary to take integrated programs by increasing communication between different institutions. He emphasized setting up a central monitoring cell for climate migrants.”
