Climate Migration Demands Feminist Constitutional Remedies

“Managed retreat” in policy memos often translates into feminized precarity on the ground. Fishing communities along India’s eastern coast show how climate adaptation, when gender-blind, reproduces caste labour hierarchies.

Feminist Federalism for Climate Relocation

Article 246A already enables GST-style cooperation. We can adapt that logic for Climate Care Compacts:

• Ward-level gender data audits before relocation;
• Joint financing from state disaster funds and District Mineral Foundations; and
• Constitutional obligations to publish gendered rehabilitation scorecards.

Panchayat Feminist Relocation Councils

Kerala’s Kudumbashree groups have piloted care panchayats that negotiate land swaps, skill pipelines, and mental health clinics. Scaling this model needs a constitutional amendment that links Article 243G functions with climate relocation checklists.

Labour Transition with Dignity

We must move from “livelihood packages” to wage insurance:

1. Enumerate informal skills (net mending, salting, shell craft);
2. Provide credit guarantees for worker-owned cooperatives; and
3. Tie relocation approvals to demonstrable wage parity in the new site.

Wage justice is migration justice. Anything less is constitutional negligence.

Case Brief: Parvathi v. Union of India (Madras HC, 2023)

The court ordered desalination plants but ignored fisherwomen’s protests about unsafe night travel. A feminist appeal would have added:

• Community-controlled transport funds;
• Mobile childcare pods; and
• Gender-sensitive workplace harassment cells at new industrial sites.

Building a Litigation Toolkit

The next frontier is community-authored amicus briefs that bring sonic maps, collective testimonies, and data visualizations into constitutional record.