Gender-Just Transition : Establishing women as critical stakeholders

7th of July 2023 from 11am-1pm

Coal continues to remain mainstay of India’s energy portfolio mix. The climate change considerations and the increasing competitiveness of cleaner sources of energy are likely to increase the momentum of transition towards non-fossil fuel based sources. According to an estimate, this move would impact approximately 13 million people who are dependent on coal either directly or indirectly for a livelihood.

Women form only 6.7% of the coal workforce according to figures from the Coal India Limited(CIL), but this number only includes women who have regular employment with the company. Approximately 70% of India’s coal workforce is estimated to be informal - casual or contract labour. This is where a large number of women are likely to be concentrated. It is important therefore to bring about a just transition incrementally towards non-fossil fuel based options that is sensitive to the gendered impacts of decarbonization as “there is no climate justice without gender justice”.

In this backdrop, TERI organised an Experts' Roundtable on 'Gender-Just Transition : Establishing women as critical stakeholders' on the 7th of July 2023 from 11am-1pm. This roundtable highlighted the gender perspective of vulnerability present in the coal-producing geographies of India. Under-representation in the energy sector, the concentration of women in informal work,loss of agricultural and homestead land, unemployment-induced alcoholism and domestic violence, lack of agency in decision making at institutional level, are some of the key issues that exacerbate women’s vulnerabilities in the light of transition to a net zero pathway , if left unaddressed.

Insights from in-depth field work carried out in Odisha and Chhattisgarh were leveraged to frame recommendations for a gender-just energy transition and paved the way for a collective discourse through an experts’ roundtable on the key theme. The experts included

• Dr.Smriti Das, Associate Professor, XLRI Jhajjar
• Dr.Suravee Nayak, Associate Fellow, Centre for Policy Research
• Roli Srivastava, Correspondent, Just Transition, Thomas Reuters Foundation
• Dr.Upasona Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneshwar

It was an enriching discussion with many participants joining online as well as offline from other organizations such as WRI, E3G, NFI, GiZ, CEEW etc.

For more information on the event pls contact -

Apoorva Singh 
Research Associate 
Electricity and Fuels Division  
The Energy and Resources Institute 
apoorva.singh@teri.res.in