Climate Justice For Sugarcane Workers-An Action Research in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
Climate justice is a concept that is gaining popularity worldwide. It brings questions of power and equity into the discourse on climate change, highlighting that the consequences of the current climate crisis are borne most by those who have the most negligible role in creating it. Climate justice refers to the advocacy for equitable solutions to the climate crisis we all face.
For the marginalized and vulnerable communities of India, the impact of climate change is significant and increasing. Global warming exacerbates existing precarities and vulnerabilities and sometimes creates new challenges. Slow-onset conditions and extreme weather events lead to losses of income, livelihood, health, and habitats for communities at the frontlines of nature.
The impact of climate change on the lives and livelihoods of sugarcane workers is substantial—the study documents how their precarities have multiplied and vulnerabilities enhanced. For sugarcane workers, climate change is not just about environmental sustainability but also about ensuring decent working conditions, access to social security and public services, equitable access to resources and fair treatment in the face of climatic challenges. It is about the idea of climate justice, which recognizes that climate change is linked with issues of power and equity and it’s just resolution needs combine ecological and environmental considerations with social justice and protect the rights of the most vulnerable populations by advocating for equitable access to environmental resources and a sharing of the burden of the impact of climate change as well as equal participation in planning and undertaking climate action.
In its conclusion, the report provides some recommendations for actions, ranging from measures to improve workers’ immediate health and safety needs, income security and employment stability to ways in which a comprehensive support system can protect workers. The particular needs of women and children and the need to build resilience in source villages to prevent distress migration are also dealt with. This report represents how sugarcane workers see the pathway towards just futures in a world increasingly more impacted by climate change.
