ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the critical gaps in India’s climate adaptation policies concerning the intersection of gender, climate change vulnerability, and adaptive capacity. While India’s National Action Plan for Climate Change and many of the State Action Plans for Climate Change acknowledge the particular vulnerability of women and girls to climate impacts, their approaches remain superficial for the most part and largely fail to address the complex realities that women and girls face. The omission of comprehensive gender considerations in adaptation strategies not only undermines the resilience of women and girls but also threatens their socio-economic and equality rights. Despite these issues, gendered vulnerabilities in climate adaptation have yet to be addressed through judicial means in India. This chapter argues that India’s progressive constitutional framework and strong tradition of public interest litigation offer a promising foundation for advancing adaptation-related climate litigation to reduce the vulnerability of women and girls to climate change. By leveraging this legal framework, strategic litigation can address inadequacies in current adaptation policies and embed gender-sensitive approaches within the broader climate adaptation agenda. Such efforts are crucial for driving policy reform, ensuring inclusive and equitable adaptation measures, safeguarding rights, and enhancing the resilience of vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls, against the escalating climate crisis.
