Climate Change, Gender and Rural Livelihoods: Understanding Women's Pathways to Resilience in Odisha

This paper examines the affiliation between climate change, gender & rural livelihoods in the ‘KBK’ region of Odisha, mainly focusing on the districts of Koraput and Nuapada. Irregular rainfall, rising temperatures, and environmental degradation have created uncertainty among rural households that continue to depend heavily on agricultural and natural resources in recent years. But these changes are experienced unevenly across their communities and rural areas. In particular, women face greater livelihood insecurity due to limited access to land, credit, institutional support, and part-taking in local administrative processes. Due to the movement of men in search of work, women’s responsibilities within both agriculture and household care have led to a visible ‘feminisation of rural labour’, and the study also shows that rural women are simply victims of climate vulnerability. Across the study area, women were actively responding to environmental stress through everyday adaptive practices rooted in local knowledge and collective support systems. In addition to adopting techniques such as millet cultivation and mixed cropping, many households have diversified their sources of income and have depended on self-help groups for social collaboration, financial support, and information exchange. These tactics are crucial for maintaining household survival in the face of shifting climate conditions. Using resilience as a conceptual lens, the study argues that it should be viewed as a socially and economically structured process shaped by institutional structures, community networks, and access to resources, rather than as a fixed capacity. This study needs more inclusive & gender sensitive policy responses in rural eastern Odisha by emphasising women’s lived experiences.