Barriers and enablers of gender-just climate action: Examples from India

Kapitel i bok, 2023

This chapter examines the possibilities for a just transition centring around questions of gender justice. Through a comparative analysis of Solar Mamas, the Bhungroo Irrigation Technology and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), it responds to recent calls in energy and climate change literature for addressing institutionalised gendered injustices in the climate/energy policy landscape. The chapter seeks to understand institutionalised gendered norms around women’s role as care providers and their impact on providing gender-just energy solutions. The analysis of the case studies depicts that the state mechanisms to engender energy policies and programmes in India like the PMUY often internalise long-standing gender roles where women are seen as primarily responsible for the provision of “care” while initiatives that are emerging at grassroots level through bottom-up approaches like the Solar Mamas programme or the Bhungroo Irrigation Technology are largely cognisant of the everyday realities of women’s lives as care-providers, work towards disrupting gendered norms around care, and envisage a role for women beyond that of carers.