PEER KI GALI, Jammu and Kashmir—It was a breezy, sunny midday at Peer Ki Gali, a mountain cross within the Pir Panjal vary of the Himalayas, connecting the Poonch and Shopian districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Because the solar and clouds performed conceal and search, 20-year-old Asima Chaudhary, a Gujjar-Bakarwal herder, a nomadic group identified for rearing sheep and goats throughout the mountains, watched her flock grazing on the slope. Her dhoka, a stone-and-mud shelter, was a 20-minute stroll away via steep, uneven terrain.
Of the 1.49 million, Gujjar-Bakarwals in Jammu and Kashmir, many nonetheless undertake seasonal migrations between Jammu’s plains and Kashmir’s high-altitude meadows. Girls, who handle households and herds throughout these grueling journeys, contribute virtually nothing to carbon emissions but bear the brunt of local weather change: erratic warmth waves, unpredictable snowfall, and useful resource shortage. Their struggles prolong past bodily hardship right into a silent psychological well being disaster largely absent from coverage discussions.
For ladies like Asima, these summary statistics and coverage gaps translate into grueling every day routines throughout steep slopes, the place each step carries each bodily pressure and psychological burden.
As Asima’s elder brother returned from his lunch break, he whistled in her path. Recognizing the sign, Asima picked up her sweater and stick and commenced strolling towards her dhoka. “He’ll deal with the herd now. I’ll go have tea and fetch some water whereas mom cooks,” she mentioned, persevering with alongside the slender path. Halfway, she paused and gestured towards a patch of grass. “Not that approach, it’s moist and slippery,” she cautioned. Her fast intuition and sharp eye for the terrain revealed how properly she knew each inch of the hillside, information constructed via years of residing and herding in these mountains.
This deep familiarity with the mountains makes the adjustments Asima has witnessed over current years all of the extra hanging. Sitting exterior her dhoka, she spoke about how the rising warmth has worsened her household’s every day battle for water. “5 years in the past, we might fill our pots from the spring simply behind our dhoka,” she mentioned, adjusting her scarf in opposition to the solar. “Now we stroll for hours, and the trail is dangerously steep. Some days, we go twice, morning and night, simply to have sufficient for cooking and ingesting.”
The water scarcity turns into particularly difficult throughout menstruation. “There are not any washrooms, and bathing is already laborious. We used to make small enclosures close to the spring, however now even that primary dignity is a battle,” Asima mentioned.
“Generally it feels suffocating,” she mentioned of the every day challenges for survival. “We preserve asking ourselves, why do now we have to reside like this?”
Asima’s battle is emblematic of a broader actuality confronted by Indigenous ladies whose every day lives and well-being are intimately tied to the land. For these ladies, the bodily hardships of migration intersect instantly with psychological well being challenges, with nervousness, despair, and persistent stress creating what consultants describe as a silent, widespread disaster largely absent from coverage discussions.
“Indigenous ladies’s lives are inseparably tied to the land and forests. Sadly, local weather change strikes on the very root of their existence, appearing as a drive of cultural and financial disruption. It instantly impacts ladies’s psychological well being via a number of interconnected pathways,” Bijayalaxmi Rautaray, a growth practitioner who works on well being and livelihood points with Indigenous ladies, advised International Coverage.
“In these communities, ladies bear the burden of your complete household. Erratic climate, droughts, and landslides drive herders to stroll farther and work tougher to maintain their households. Even accumulating firewood has grow to be a bodily exhausting activity, including to the pressure they already carry,” Rautaray added.
In line with a 2021 Jammu and Kashmir Coverage Institute research, local weather change is reshaping life for Gujjar-Bakarwal communities, with ladies disproportionately affected. Drying springs, erratic rainfall, and longer treks for water drive these ladies into cycles of exhaustion which have critical psychological well being penalties, from persistent nervousness to sleep deprivation.
Consultants say such lived experiences reveal a essential coverage blind spot, one the place psychological well being stays largely excluded from local weather and well being planning.
“Whereas there’s rising recognition that local weather and well being responses should embrace psychological well being, the lived experiences of Indigenous and nomadic communities nonetheless obtain little or no consideration,” mentioned Anant Bhan, a world well being and bioethics researcher. “With worsening climate disruptions, teams residing on the margins—like nomadic populations—face disproportionate dangers. Their well-being, together with psychological well being, should grow to be a central a part of local weather and well being planning.”
He added, “Coverage frameworks want each flexibility and depth to answer these realities. Addressing such challenges requires a multi-sectoral method, one which hyperlinks well being, local weather adaptation, livelihoods, and revenue assist, in order that no group is left behind.”
This coverage invisibility compounds every day life for ladies like Asima, whose bodily and psychological pressure is steady, intensified by the dearth of accessible well being companies and societal assist.
“Indigenous ladies reside with stress, nervousness and at occasions face despair, however they don’t know how you can clarify it to medical doctors,” mentioned Arif Maghribi, a psychiatrist who conducts cell medical camps alongside the migration routes of Gujjar-Bakarwal communities.
“Language limitations and social stigma usually go away these illnesses untreated,” he added. “Social pressures, together with the observe of consanguineous marriages widespread locally, add one other layer of stress, notably for ladies caring for youngsters at greater threat of developmental challenges or mental disabilities.”
These challenges replicate a broader sample documented amongst Indigenous ladies worldwide. A 2023 Girls Ship report inspecting local weather impacts on marginalized communities discovered that environmental change amplifies present gender and well being inequalities, particularly in distant, resource-dependent populations. The analysis reveals a spot: When local weather adaptation plans fail to combine sexual, reproductive, and psychological well being companies, they deepen the very vulnerabilities they intention to handle.
For Gujjar-Bakarwal ladies, this coverage hole means tangible every day penalties—drying springs, erratic rainfall, and longer treks for water that drive them to traverse treacherous terrain a number of occasions every day, a bodily exhausting routine that makes primary wants like menstrual hygiene and bathing more and more troublesome to keep up. The lack of grazing lands compounds family financial stress, a burden that falls disproportionately on ladies who should discover methods to stretch dwindling assets.
“The mountains are altering, and so is our life,” Asima mentioned, her voice carrying the load of exhaustion. “What our moms and grandmothers did simply, we now battle with each day. It’s not nearly strolling additional for water or discovering much less grass for our animals, it’s about feeling helpless and questioning if this life is even potential anymore. The battle doesn’t simply tire our our bodies, it breaks one thing inside us.”
Asima’s battle is shared by many others within the mountains. Two miles away is one other dhoka the place 18-year-old Samina Chaudhary lives together with her household of eight. Like Asima, she spends her days tending to the herd, however her obligations prolong past the pastures.
Samina’s burden intensified three years in the past when her youthful brother started exhibiting indicators of developmental delays, a situation Maghribi defined is likely to be linked to consanguineous marriage widespread of their group. Now, along with herding and family work, she helps look after her brother whereas managing her personal well being struggles. “Some nights I can not sleep, serious about all the things, the animals, my brother, whether or not we’ll have sufficient water tomorrow,” she mentioned, twisting the sting of her dupatta. “My mom says I fear an excessive amount of, however how can I not? The burden of all of it sits on my chest.”
“Being a girl right here means carrying the load of the household and the herd collectively,” Samina mentioned. “We stroll miles to fetch water, are likely to the animals, prepare dinner, clear, and deal with everybody, together with visiting family members. On high of that, we handle our well being and privateness in a spot the place nothing comes simple. On daily basis is tough, however we depend on one another to maintain going and survive.”
The friendship between Samina and Asima, shaped over years of neighboring migrations, has grow to be a lifeline for each. When isolation and stress grow to be overwhelming, they search one another out alongside the mountain trails; not simply to share tales about herds and routines, however to debate the intimate emotional and bodily challenges they share that neither can absolutely clarify to their households.
For ladies who grow to be moms in these harsh circumstances, the every day challenges develop even heavier. For 22-year-old Rubeena Ali, being pregnant was one of many hardest durations of her life. “There was no relaxation, no time to consider myself,” she recalled. “Even carrying water or cooking felt heavier, and I apprehensive on a regular basis concerning the child after I climbed the steep slopes.”
Since start to a child lady a month earlier, life had grown much more demanding. When the interval of seasonal migration started, her household made the troublesome determination to depart her behind with family members. Rubeena had simply delivered and couldn’t stroll lengthy distances or carry her new child safely.
“It was such a troublesome section,” Rubeena mentioned. “I used to be adapting to a brand new life-style and wanted my quick household, particularly my husband, round me. However they needed to preserve going for survival, whereas I stayed behind for my well being and the infant’s security. On daily basis, I’d consider my household and cry in isolation.”
Even now, the obligations of caring for her new child, mixed with reminiscences of that isolation and the continuing stress of local weather uncertainty, weigh closely on her. “On daily basis appears like carrying a mountain on my shoulders,” Rubeena mentioned. “The warmth, the water, the animals, the infant–all of it comes collectively, and I really feel stress, musibat [misery], on a regular basis. Generally I simply wish to disappear, however I can’t. I’ve to maintain going for my household.”
For ladies like Rubeena, these broader systemic and environmental pressures translate into very actual every day struggles which are each bodily exhausting and mentally taxing.
Maghribi, the psychiatrist, famous that “pregnant ladies in these nomadic communities endure excessive stress from local weather challenges. But nobody talks about how this impacts their psychological well being. Insurance policies ignore them, and authorities usually dismiss their struggles, considering consciousness would possibly ‘spoil’ the group. It’s unethical; they face immense challenges that they had no function in creating.”
In line with Bhan, ladies in nomadic communities just like the Gujjar-Bakarwals are among the many most susceptible to climate-induced stress and disruption. “Given their migratory life-style, these ladies face a number of layers of threat, from displacement and disrupted livelihoods to elevated caregiving burdens and lack of well being care entry,” he mentioned. “Local weather-related occasions comparable to floods and droughts can worsen these pressures, resulting in heightened psychological well being challenges, delayed care-seeking, and deepened gender inequities. The social context, marked by heavy workloads, restricted assist, and home violence, solely amplifies the psychological toll.”
As Bhan’s insights spotlight the bigger coverage gaps, native medical doctors like Maghribi are calling for sensible, community-based options.
“Similar to cell colleges comply with Gujjar-Bakarwal kids, cell medical vans ought to journey with the communities, offering look after persistent diseases and psychological well being assist the place they reside and migrate,” Maghribi mentioned.
For now, because the mountains develop harsher and is derived vanish, ladies like Asima, Samina, and Rubeena proceed to hold each the water and the load of a altering world. Their lives reveal a silent disaster: Local weather change isn’t just an environmental or financial menace; it’s a profound psychological well being emergency for ladies whose survival is determined by mobility and resilience.
