Reaching Marginalized Women in Peri-Urban India for Gender-Inclusive Climate Action

This project seeks to address gender-based exclusion in peri-urban areas, particularly in the context of climate action. Women in these regions face precarity in terms of household and livelihood challenges, and yet, despite 44.7 percent of working women participating in the agricultural sector in 2023-24 ([UNDP, 2024](https://UNDP, 2024)), they remain largely absent from discussions on urbanisation and climate resilience. This invisibility deepens historical gender discrimination, leaving them vulnerable to socio-economic marginalisation that is worsened by increasing climate risks.

Our project is based in Kochi, Kerala, and identifies assetless women from several marginalised communities, including Dalits and other state migrants, as one of the hardest-to reach populations. These women face a double burden of socio-economic marginalisation – first due to their gender and second due to their social identities.

In peri-urban areas, where urban sprawl pushes rural livelihoods into fragile ecosystems, women’s roles are further threatened as agricultural land shrinks and environmental degradation accelerates. Collective mobilisations based on gender identities are challenging as women’s labour cuts across work opportunities in farming as well as non-farm rural activities and a growing mix of informal, casualised labour in the peri-urban areas.

By using artistic approaches, the project will document their stories through a participatory film, highlighting the everyday challenges, struggles, and aspirations of this overlooked community.

The project’s goal is to provide insights into how climate (in)justice can be reframed to include the voices and agency of marginalised women, leading to more inclusive and sustainable resilience and development outcomes.