Paper short abstract:

Originally collected household survey data from across South Asia's three largest cities, Dhaka, Delhi and Lahore, offering unique new insights into the mechanisms through which various manifestations of environmental degradation hampers the economic wellbeing of women (and men) residing in slums.

Paper long abstract:

Degraded urban environments disproportionately affect marginalized populations, and especially impoverished women in South Asia’s informal settlements, where climate change vulnerabilities and gender inequalities are extreme. A comparative analysis was conducted of three neighboring countries, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, where urban environments, climate risks, and gender relations exhibit significant variances. With original survey data from 12 informal settlements across New Delhi, Dhaka, Islamabad, and Lahore, it was found that women are less empowered than men in all three countries, but their determinants related to environmental degradation and climate change vary. Qualitative data from key informants reveals several explanatory mechanisms of observed differences.

The paper makes three distinct and unique contributions. First, we explore links between place, gender, and climate resilience in a single framework through comparative case study analysis of three countries of South Asia – India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan – that recognizes

differences in their social and policy environments. Second, we employ mixed methods emphasizing the benefits of the complementary usage of household surveys with residents of informal settlements and key informant interviews with policymakers. Third, we develop

a novel index that captures multiple dimensions of empowerment into a single score. We demonstrate the usefulness of such an index in identifying gendered differences in empowerment and its determinants as well as its usefulness for cross-country comparison.