Entrenched gender biases and injustices in the coal political economy cannot be wished away with the ongoing shift from coal to renewable energy. Rather, the energy transition must seek to unwind these entrenched patterns in the 20th century energy system while creating an equal role for and participation of women in the 21st century energy system. To do so, just transition planning must proactively engage with gender questions in coal communities and envision a gender-transformative pathway to the transition in India’s coal states.
Analysing the forms of exclusions faced by women in coal economies, this brief argues that women face four structural barriers – entry barrier, distribution barrier, wage barrier and representation barrier – that are consequential for their social and economic status and agency. The combined effects of these barriers, the masculine nature of the coal industry and existing social norms marginalise women in India’s coal communities and confines them to three observed patterns of engagement: 1) social reproductive labour, 2) informal casual labour and coal scavenging, and 3) formal but menial labour in coal mines.
The ongoing shifts in our energy foundations offer an opportunity to unwind the gender inequities and injustices of the coal economy and envision a gender equal energy future. In this direction, the brief suggests four immediate steps to engage with the gender question as part of just transition planning.
- Recognise women labour force in the coal economy through an intersectionality-informed analytical and assessment framework.
- Ensure women’s representation in just transition planning at different tiers of governance and decision making.
- Promote gender inclusive economic diversification in coal regions, with particular attention to women- centric and women-led economic opportunities.
- Treat women as change agents in the energy transition harnessing their potential role in smoothening the disruptions of the transition.
In 2014, CPR conducted an analysis of India’s State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC) of five states: Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Below are links to them:
While government departments work in silos, there is potential to synergise effort, finances, and technical expertise to plan and implement programmes and achieve holistic objectives. This can benefit scheme delivery by ensuring tasks are coordinated and conducted in timely fashion; fewer net resources are allocated towards one objective; and there is scope for increasing reach and coverage, ensuring smoother monitoring, and stronger feedback and accountability mechanisms.
This issue brief aims to highlight how convergence is understood by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in various government documents including guidelines, letters, and circulars.
In April 2017, Meghalaya enacted the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017. The Meghalaya Society for Social Audit and Transparency (MSSAT) is responsible for implementing the Act. This legislation is the first of its kind in the country.
This policy note aims to unpack how social audits have been institutionalised in Meghalaya. By identifying strategic action that the State government took to pass the Act, the policy note presents reflections on the current state of affairs on social audits. It thus identifies core areas that the State government and the social audit unit can strengthen to ensure that efficient audits are conducted, thereby meeting the Act’s objectives.
India has made considerable physical progress towards infrastructure creation under various national water and sanitation programme, yet the pandemic in 2020 further deepened WASH inequities for the urban poor. Evidence on the pandemic has demonstrated that community-based organisations (CBOs) played a pivotal role in facilitating on- ground during the pandemic to mitigate shocks to urban poor. They were instrumental in providing support in accessing food, health, and WASH services to urban poor by partnering with city governments. In Odisha, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Slum Dwellers Associations (SDAs) are emerging as part of the fourth tier of governance structure that allows urban poor to actively participate in civic work.
Against this background, participatory research was undertaken in Dhenkanal in Odisha to understand the challenges most marginalised groups face in accessing WASH services in poor urban settlements; explore the role of the fourth tier of governance in ensuring inclusive, equitable and sustainable access to WASH services to the urban poor, especially to the marginalised groups in unserved and underserved urban poor settlements during the pandemic; identify the underlying principles and factors for the deepening of engagement of community- based organisations (CBOs), in the framework of the fourth tier of governance, such that urban poor-led community based groups can ensure inclusive and sustainable WASH services in a poor urban settlement.
The study explores various opportunities, such as enabling policy and programmatic focus and challenges, such as weak capacities and deep-rooted exclusionary processes CBOs face to support marginalised groups accessing WASH services. Finally, the study analyses the concept of fourthtier governance in the context of SHGs and SDAs in Odisha.
The study recommends defining the framework for the fourth tier of governance with clear roles and responsibilities of different CBOs, strengthening CBOs to become anchors for disseminating information on programmes and schemes to the poor and marginalised who often get excluded from programmes because of lack of knowledge. The study underpins the need for institution-building and improving the financial health of these institutions.
What are heat action plans (HAPs)?
HAPs are India’s primary policy response to economically damaging and life threatening heatwaves. They prescribe a variety of preparatory activities, disaster responses, and post-heatwave response measures across state, district, and city government departments to decrease the impact of heatwaves.
Our assessment of Indian HAPs
In this report, we conduct what is, to our knowledge, the first critical review of heat action plans in India. We analyse 37 heat action plans at the city (9), district (13) and state (15) levels across 18 states and identify several opportunities to strengthen Indian HAPs. We also document an encouragingly wide range of solutions (covering 62 distinct intervention types) prescribed across these HAPs, from promoting green roofs to state-wide school awareness programs (see the interactive figure below). This lays out a consolidated toolbox of options for the Indian HAP designer and policymaker.
Findings
1. Most HAPs are not built for local context and have an oversimplified view of the hazard;
2. Nearly all HAPs are poor at identifying and targeting vulnerable groups;
3. HAPs are underfunded;
4. HAPs have weak legal foundations;
5. HAPs are insufficiently transparent;
6. Capacity building is sectorally-targeted.
Linking HAPs with existing policies
None of the HAPs reviewed explore policy integration across all listed interventions. Many actions in agriculture, water, housing, infrastructure, and urban design could usefully be linked to existing policies to unlock capacity and finances. In the interactive figure below, we lay out an indicative list of national and state-schemes that could be tapped into to improve implementation prospect:
Suggested citation: Aditya Valiathan Pillai and Tamanna Dalal. (2023). How is India adapting to heatwaves?: An assessment of heat action plans with insights for transformative climate action. CPR report.
Despite several efforts, a survey in 2018 ranked India as the most dangerous country for women. The Government of India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has several schemes, policies, and legislations, on women’s safety and empowerment.
In 2021, MWCD’s key umbrella scheme of Mission Shakti was divided into two sub-schemes called Samarthya and Sambal, focussing on “empowerment” and “safety and security” of women, respectively. Looking at women’s safety, this note explores the needs and finances for two schemes – One Stop Centre (OSC) and Shakti Sadan (SS) – subsumed under Mission Shakti, meant for redressal and rescue of women.
There are significant gaps in the number of victims of Gender-based Violence (GBV) receiving assistance to those who may need it. In the Financial Year (FY) 2021-22, MWCD should have spent at least ₹374 crore and ₹449 crore, respectively, on OSC and SS. MWCD needs to construct at least 340 and 822 additional OSC and SS facilities, respectively, to aid all estimated victims of GBV. Lastly, comparing estimated costs for OSC and SS and existing finances, Mission Shakti allocations are only 41 per cent of total costs required for the two sub-schemes.
Over the last few years, India has been implementing several nutrition interventions as part of its national strategy to address malnutrition and associated risks. These include nutrition-specific interventions that address immediate determinants of nutritional status, such as the provision of food supplements, Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation during pregnancy, breastfeeding (BF) promotion. They also include nutrition-sensitive interventions which cover underlying determinants of nutritional status, such as access to clean water, sanitation, etc.
This Policy Note aims to estimate the potential costs to deliver at scale (i.e. 100 per cent coverage) for a core set of Direct Nutrition Interventions (DNIs) for FY 2022-23.
