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 disguise and search, 20-year-old Asima Chaudhary, a Gujjar-Bakarwal herder, a nomadic neighborhood recognized 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 by way of 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. Ladies, who handle households and herds throughout these grueling journeys, contribute nearly 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 girls like Asima, these summary statistics and coverage gaps translate into grueling each 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 course. Recognizing the sign, Asima picked up her sweater and stick and started 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 slim path. Halfway, she paused and gestured towards a patch of grass. “Not that means, it’s moist and slippery,” she cautioned. Her fast intuition and sharp eye for the terrain revealed how nicely she knew each inch of the hillside, data constructed by way of years of residing and herding in these mountains.
This deep familiarity with the mountains makes the modifications Asima has witnessed over current years all of the extra placing. Sitting outdoors her dhoka, she spoke about how the rising warmth has worsened her household’s each day battle for water. “5 years in the past, we may fill our pots from the spring simply behind our dhoka,” she mentioned, adjusting her scarf towards 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 consuming.”
The water scarcity turns into particularly difficult throughout menstruation. “There aren’t any washrooms, and bathing is already arduous. 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 each day challenges for survival. “We hold asking ourselves, why do now we have to stay like this?”
Asima’s battle is emblematic of a broader actuality confronted by Indigenous girls whose each day lives and well-being are intimately tied to the land. For these girls, the bodily hardships of migration intersect immediately with psychological well being challenges, with nervousness, despair, and continual stress creating what specialists describe as a silent, widespread disaster largely absent from coverage discussions.
“Indigenous girls’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 pressure of cultural and financial disruption. It immediately impacts girls’s psychological well being by way of a number of interconnected pathways,” Bijayalaxmi Rautaray, a growth practitioner who works on well being and livelihood points with Indigenous girls, advised Overseas Coverage.
“In these communities, girls bear the burden of your complete household. Erratic climate, droughts, and landslides pressure herders to stroll farther and work tougher to maintain their households. Even amassing firewood has turn into a bodily exhausting process, including to the pressure they already carry,” Rautaray added.
In accordance with a 2021 Jammu and Kashmir Coverage Institute examine, local weather change is reshaping life for Gujjar-Bakarwal communities, with girls disproportionately affected. Drying springs, erratic rainfall, and longer treks for water pressure these girls into cycles of exhaustion which have critical psychological well being penalties, from persistent nervousness to sleep deprivation.
Consultants say such lived experiences reveal a important 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 worldwide 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 turn into 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 strategy, one which hyperlinks well being, local weather adaptation, livelihoods, and earnings assist, in order that no neighborhood is left behind.”
This coverage invisibility compounds each day life for girls like Asima, whose bodily and psychological pressure is steady, intensified by the dearth of accessible well being providers and societal assist.
“Indigenous girls stay with stress, nervousness and at instances face despair, however they don’t know easy methods to clarify it to docs,” mentioned Arif Maghribi, a psychiatrist who conducts cellular medical camps alongside the migration routes of Gujjar-Bakarwal communities.
“Language obstacles and social stigma typically go away these illnesses untreated,” he added. “Social pressures, together with the observe of consanguineous marriages widespread locally, add one other layer of stress, significantly for girls caring for kids at greater danger of developmental challenges or mental disabilities.”
These challenges replicate a broader sample documented amongst Indigenous girls worldwide. A 2023 Ladies Ship report analyzing local weather impacts on marginalized communities discovered that environmental change amplifies current gender and well being inequalities, particularly in distant, resource-dependent populations. The analysis reveals a niche: When local weather adaptation plans fail to combine sexual, reproductive, and psychological well being providers, they deepen the very vulnerabilities they goal to deal with.
For Gujjar-Bakarwal girls, this coverage hole means tangible each day penalties—drying springs, erratic rainfall, and longer treks for water that pressure them to traverse treacherous terrain a number of instances each day, a bodily exhausting routine that makes primary wants like menstrual hygiene and bathing more and more tough to take care of. The lack of grazing lands compounds family financial stress, a burden that falls disproportionately on girls 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 doable 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 along 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 could be linked to consanguineous marriage widespread of their neighborhood. 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, enthusiastic about the whole lot, 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 load of all of it sits on my chest.”
“Being a lady 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 kinfolk. On prime of that, we handle our well being and privateness in a spot the place nothing comes simple. Daily is difficult, however we depend on one another to maintain going and survive.”
The friendship between Samina and Asima, fashioned over years of neighboring migrations, has turn into a lifeline for each. When isolation and stress turn into 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 girls who turn into moms in these harsh circumstances, the each 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 nervous on a regular basis in regards to the child once 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 tough resolution to go away her behind with kinfolk. Rubeena had simply delivered and couldn’t stroll lengthy distances or carry her new child safely.
“It was such a tough section,” Rubeena mentioned. “I used to be adapting to a brand new life-style and wanted my rapid household, particularly my husband, round me. However they needed to hold going for survival, whereas I stayed behind for my well being and the child’s security. Daily, 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 continued stress of local weather uncertainty, weigh closely on her. “Daily looks like carrying a mountain on my shoulders,” Rubeena mentioned. “The warmth, the water, the animals, the child–all of it comes collectively, and I really feel pressure, 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 girls like Rubeena, these broader systemic and environmental pressures translate into very actual each day struggles which might be each bodily exhausting and mentally taxing.
Maghribi, the psychiatrist, famous that “pregnant girls 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 typically dismiss their struggles, considering consciousness would possibly ‘spoil’ the neighborhood. It’s unethical; they face immense challenges that they had no position in creating.”
In accordance with Bhan, girls in nomadic communities just like the Gujjar-Bakarwals are among the many most weak to climate-induced stress and disruption. “Given their migratory life-style, these girls face a number of layers of danger, from displacement and disrupted livelihoods to elevated caregiving burdens and lack of well being care entry,” he mentioned. “Local weather-related occasions corresponding 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 docs like Maghribi are calling for sensible, community-based options.
“Identical to cellular faculties comply with Gujjar-Bakarwal kids, cellular medical vans ought to journey with the communities, offering look after continual diseases and psychological well being assist the place they stay and migrate,” Maghribi mentioned.
For now, because the mountains develop harsher and is derived vanish, girls 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 risk; it’s a profound psychological well being emergency for girls whose survival is dependent upon mobility and resilience.
