On Friday, the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs hosted an event titled “Environmental Casteism and Climate Disaster,” the first of four events in a climate justice series.

The Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs held an event on Friday called “Environmental Casteism and Climate Disaster,” where experts in the field discussed the presence of caste-based discrimination in the realm of climate change impact and disaster management.

The virtual event featured two guest speakers. The first, Srilata Sicar, is a lecturer on India and Global Affairs at King’s College London. Her research includes political urban ecology in South Asia and the politics of caste in infrastructure building. The second, Suprakash Majumdar, is a Pulitzer-Grantee journalist who investigates social justice issues through the lens of caste. Their coverage ranges from climate to the COVID-19 pandemic, and their work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Humanitarian, TIME, VICE, Al Jazeera, and The Rest of the World.

The conversation was moderated by Deepali Srivastava, editor of the CGEP’s Energy Explained blog. Dr. Anupama Rao, director for the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and convenor of the Ambedkar Initiative, delivered brief opening remarks. 

Sicar’s presentation sought to argue three main points. First, that conversations around environmental policymaking and climate justice in India occur in a caste-vacuum, which is not an accurate representation of those issues or the people being affected by them. “The material basis of societal functioning [in] India as well as economic production and cultural production is very reliant on a very rigid and persistent caste structure,” she said. 

The caste system is a series of hereditary classes in Hindu and South Asian societies. They often dictate social status, career prospects, and respect. Now, more people are viewing issues through an anti-caste lens, hoping to get rid of caste-based division and discrimination. 

Sicar’s second point centered around the idea of property ownership, and how property rights are tied to citizenship and social status. The lack of property rights is a form of social relegation, she said, and the lack of those rights often follows caste lines. 

Third, she argued that  in order to make substantive progress, India and the global community must reimagine the climate justice movement as a caste justice movement. 

Sicar offered a few anecdotes that exemplified caste-based discrimination in climate related issues. One was about the UN’s Loss and Damage Fund, which aims to provide funding to vulnerable areas impacted by climate change. Sicar argued “however partial, however inadequate [the fund is], … that sort of basic level of acknowledgement does exist on the Global Policy Forum, about the truth behind the history of the climate crisis.”

The same kind of acknowledgement about historically marginalized and disproportionately affected groups does not exist in India, Sicar said. Her work has been to trace the historical roots of the climate problem, and more broadly, the issue of caste. 

Property rights also have ties to social status and citizenship, Sicar explained. Property and tax regimes that were first imposed by colonial powers were then reinforced by the elite castes that benefited from them. The idea of property ownership allowing access to citizenship was then “institutionalized into the logic of the state,” Sicar said. 

Those of lower castes came to work in the informal sector of the economy, doing the jobs that keep cities running, such as agriculture and construction. This created a large number of itinerant workers that left their villages to move to the cities, making them doubly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, COVID-19, and more. 

The emerging idea of “bourgeois environmentalism” is an example of caste-based discrimination, Sicar said. Upper class communities care about the aesthetic of eco-consciousness, without acknowledging that businesses and wealthy housing developments are the largest polluters. Those in worse living conditions are unable to access the fruits of urban planning, even when torrential rain and flooding wipes out low-income areas. 

The second speaker, Suprakash Majumdar, began by explaining how different climate-related “disasters” may not be described as such based on who they affect. For example, when flooding wiped out low income areas and slums that were home to many people of lower castes, the event was not categorized as a disaster. However, when similar flooding greatly impacted upper class homes, it was specifically declared as a disaster by the government, Majumdar said.

The traditional triangle model used to explain the caste system still holds true when it comes to urban planning. “The Brahmins [highest caste] at the top [are in] the safest part of the town,” they said. Lower castes live toward the outskirts of the city and others still live outside the city entirely, most vulnerable to climate disasters. 

Government compensation plays a large role in addressing climate change, Majumdar explained. People from lower castes are often undercompensated for damages since disasters affecting them are underplayed and under acknowledged. They are also less likely to fight for the compensation they deserve, since they have little trust in government services to begin with.

Majumdar, a Dalit, or lower caste, journalist, has focused on representing the voices of the lower castes. They explained how important it is to retain traditional knowledge from local communities in order to combat the climate crisis effectively. 

In the question and answer section of the event, one audience member asked the speakers what they thought about the idea of climate resilience and adaptation to live with the changing climate. In response, the speakers both explained how the burden of adaptation is often placed on lower caste communities. For example, lower caste farmers are often encouraged to change their farming practices. 

To conclude, both speakers emphasized the power of social media and the next generation. “There are not many Dalit journalists, [but] there are many Dalit content creators showing their problems, lives, and other community members,” Majumdar said. “So, something like a network is formed, and people are exchanging ideas within the communities, and these ideas are also reaching to spaces like [Columbia], where we are out here discussing these topics which are uncomfortable for a lot of upper class folks.”

In addition to CGEP, the climate justice series is also co-hosted by the Ambedkar Initiative at the Institute  for Comparative Literature and Society, the SIPA Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Climate, and Engagement Committee, Columbia Climate School, and the South Asia Institute. Subsequent events will cover a range of related topics pertaining to climate justice and will be held on February 9, March 1, and March 22. To read more and register for these events, click here.

Feature image via Bwog Archives.