The intensity of climate migration across South Asia will undergo a triple multiplier effect by 2050. Climate change-related disasters are amplifying channels of human trafficking and the consequent illicit economy of exploitation, with a particular increase in Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). India has been the epicenter of Trafficking in Persons across South Asia. This presentation questions how the double whammy of climate change and climate migration displacement can enmesh vulnerable stakeholders into a globalized illicit economic system within South Asia. Using desk-based secondary literature review of academic articles, news reports and grey literature from global and regional civil society publications, the study will be descriptive and qualitatively analyzed. In “Securitization Matrix in South Asia: Bangladeshi Migrants as an Enemy Alien”, Priyankar Upadhyaya elucidates how both forced and voluntary migration are ascending issues in the context of intra-regional demographic dynamics of South Asia, given the problematic cross-border flows of indigenous women being precariously positioned within the trafficking asymmetry of South Asia. One cannot categorize a preventive or anticipatory migration of a household due to the onset of a cascade of climate-disruptive events into a binary of voluntary and involuntary displacement. It reflects a reluctant dislocation, with the outer seemingness of willingness to undertake displacement. The nature of the classification of such migration is breaking binaries and thus can be called queering of studying climate disaster impacts. This particular lens must be applied to climate-related events in South Asia to consolidate changes in disaster management approaches in policy execution.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Vani Bhardwaj is the Co-President of Society of Gender Professionals. She is also the co-founder and co-lead of the Gender and Climate Justice Circle at the same organization. She has completed her bachelors in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and masters in International Relations and Area Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University.