Climate change highlights urgent need for action writes Abhi Singhal
When we talk about health and wellness of ones health, the obvious fact that is associated and should be adjoined with are the surroundings and the climate. The climate has been adversely been affected from the past many years, in turn affecting our health and increasing the threats.
Climate needs to be addressed as a serious issue which needs to be looked into as soon as possible.
To address all these issues Partnership for Impact have launched Voices for Impact. Their agenda for the discussion was Addressing Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier. This issue what discussed and had a panel discussion with Ms. Vini Mahajan, Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India; Dr Aditya Bahadur, Director, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and Dr Shagun Sabarwal, Asian Regional Director, Co-Impact.
The panel discussion was not just about explaining climate change but also finding a solution to the problem, understand it better, and looking at a partnership which can really have a solid impact.
The discussion was more about the awareness that the climate change is a threat to health in ways people wouldn't know and it has a lot of barriers and layers which need to be solved for getting the solution to the same.
The discussion also got a moment on gender inequalities and came forward was the fact that women and children who have no role to play in the clime change policy are affected the most by it.
Natasha Godinho, Vice President of GHS, moderating the conversation said, "Climate change is not just a health crisis or water crisis or a whole food crisis, it's so much more, and women and children just happen to be the face of this crisis. Years of inequitable social structures and patriarchal systems have left women in a worser position than men, and the lack of access to financial resources, land ownership and property rights have meant that women are far older than men."
The future of the country and if India is ready to embrace the change in climate Vini Mahajan said, "I think we will do it when it becomes a crisis. India is great at dealing with crisis."
It is important for everyone to have the knowledge of how the climate change each day with every passing heatwave, every passing disaster is affecting us and majorly our health and wellness.
The panel also had a serious exchange of words to into the issue of water, water sanitation and air pollution in Delhi (being a major affect to health).
Climate change was connected to many possible outcomes and solutions in the discussion. It meant that when it comes to climate, rather than thinking only about new things, we have to see that how can climate responses be integrated into current systems. So our social protection systems, are designed to target the most vulnerable. They have a huge reach in India. Can we start to integrate them is a question.
Dr Shagun Sabarwal took an emphasis on AI and the big learning models, and their usage of a lot of water to keep them cool, or even the minerals that are needed. She addressed this as one of the major concerns saying that ,"So to me, it's like we solve one problem and then have another problem."
The significance of localisation was explained in the same regard which made the conversation even more insightful.
"I feel like India's Social Protection Program also demonstrates how you can localize effectively, where funds from MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) are effectively controlled by local institutions, and there are moves to integrate climate risk in MGNREGA, which I'm confident in the years to come will be delivered. So I would say localization is a very important solution" explained Dr Aditya Bahadur on talking about policies and their effectiveness in ways.
The overall conversation gave a jist about differently raised problems due to climate and the importance of speaking about the same publically to curate answers and implementing solutions.
