<i>Poor women's plight </i>
Historically, women have been the key to food security. But they are not secure; especially poor women die many times before their death. They receive less, but have no rights to demand more. They say less, but are bound to listen more. They eat less, but must produce more to feed others. If we analyze the lives of poor women, we become amazed at how they survive. Nazma (not her real name), a 32-year-old woman from Patuakhali, lost her house and belongings in cyclone Sidr, which hit in November 2007. Nazma was married at the age of 14 to a 30-year-old day labourer. Nazma had 2 children, but was abandoned by her husband five years ago due to her ultimate failure to pay extra dowry. He married another woman and now lives in the town of Patuakhali, pulling a rickshaw. Nazma's parents, brother and sister died in the 1991 severe cyclone. So, Nazma has no one from whom to seek any support. Cyclone Sidr took away 3000 lives, destroyed more than one million households, and snatched livelihoods of millions of people. Before standing up and bracing the loss, the people of the coastal belt faced another cyclone, Aila, in May 2009. Aila pushed them further back with considerable loss of lives and property. Nazma's two malnourished children survived Sidr and Aila, but then she had nothing to feed them. Nazma received some relief material, enough to last her a few days, but after that, she found no way to save the lives of her children and herself. So Nazma and her children, like many other victims, begged a launch supervisor to give her free tickets to Dhaka. She had to digest much slang from the launch authority. After arriving in Dhaka, Nazma and her children took shelter at Sadarghat launch terminal and passed two days without having any food, and only receiving water from a local restaurant. She looked for a housemaid's job, but people refused to appoint her, as they did not know her. On the third night, two people came to Nazma and proposed to give her a 'good job.' Nazma agreed and went with one man--the other looked after her children until she returned. Taking her to a room, the man forced her to have sex with him, paid her just Tk.20, and abandoned her. Nazma cried silently and went to reclaim her children, but she lost her way and could not find them. She cried loudly and searched for them everywhere, but she still could not find them anywhere. Nazma became very tired searching for the children, passing her time in the city without a job, and begging to survive. After ten days, she somehow returned home to her village with the hope that maybe her children had returned there, but they were not. In her village, she could not find work or food, but took shelter at a landlord's verandah to stay the night. Sidr and Aila affected many people in her area, so thousands of poor women and children, like Nazma and her lost children, were looking for help. There was profound regret, and wailing among many people, but too little help. Bangladesh experiences floods, drought, cyclones and disaster more frequently now, due to climate change. Scientists forecast a further increase in natural calamities in the future. This is why we need to explore the vulnerability of poor women and linkages between gender and climate change issues, particularly in relation to enhancing women's capacities to address climate change to save millions of women like Nazma and her children. According to the World Health Organization (Who), public health depends on safe drinking water, sufficient food, secure shelter, and good social conditions. Climate change is likely to affect all of these. Public health services and high living standards protect some populations from specific impacts; however, the health effects of a rapidly changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative, particularly in the poorest communities. Among these effects: * Rising temperatures and variable precipitation are likely to decrease the production of staple foods in many of the poorest regions, increasing risks of malnutrition. * Rising sea levels increase the risk of coastal flooding, and may necessitate population displacement. More than half of the world's population now lives within 60 km of the sea. One of the most vulnerable regions is the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta of Bangladesh. One of the participants of the Third World Climate Conference (WCC-3), organized by the World Meteorological Organization (Wmo) and held from August 31 to September 4, 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, was our Prime Minister. The theme of the conference was Climate Prediction and Information for Decision-making. Topics covered by this climate conference included the application of climate prediction and information on societal problems to enable better adaptation to climate variability. We need better climate information for a better future. The sorrows, tragedies and sufferings of millions of women like Nazma need to be brought in front of world leaders to help save Bangladesh and its people from the long-term problems of climate change. The United Nations secretary general said, "Climate change poses at least as big a threat to the world as war. For that reason, we have a duty to the vulnerable people who contribute least to the problem, but experience its impacts most severely. And we have a responsibility to succeeding generations. We also have a historical obligation to successfully transit to a low-carbon global economy." In developing countries, because of women's marginalized status and dependence on local natural resources, their domestic burdens are doubly increased; they feel an even greater burden of climate change. They are also underrepresented in decision-making about climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and most critically, discussions and decisions about adaptation and mitigation. So, let us empower our destitute and poor women like Nazma. Their contributions through growing crops, planting trees, producing homestead food will help the country ensure food and nutritional security, and approach climate change efforts with more than just hope and a begging bowl. The landless, poor women like Nazma are in a desperate plight, having lost all their belongings. So, the duty of national and international leaders should be to save their lives, because they, as human beings, have equal rights to stay alive, like others.
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