Gendered Air in Delhi through a Legal Lens

Co-Author: Yashita Gupta

Abstract: Women face air pollution differently than men. This paper probes into the gendered effects of climate change, particularly concerning air as a natural resource and how air is being damaged in a gendered way. The essay starts with a discussion of the world’s most inherent and disturbing problem—air pollution—and looks into the problem in the context of Delhi, India. We wish to explore the probability attached to widening the ambit of the term ‘resources’ which would widen the scope of ‘natural resources’ (a subset of environmental resources) and if it can overcome the restrains in the availability and accessibility of natural resources within communities, with a focus on the inclusion of ‘climate education’, ‘ecofeminism’ and ‘eco-spirituality’ as newer natural resources. Viewing these environmental resources (with an eco-feminist philosophical lens and a legal lens, concerning Articles 14, 19 and 21) can generate more rights and improve access to communities, particularly focusing on urban female communities. Further, this paper focuses on whether limited resources restrain the availability and accessibility of natural resources specifically within urban and rural female communities concerning the geographical ambit of Delhi. We also question the right to freedom of the members of these communities when the government and various other institutions and corporations modify structures harming these communities. Is there a conflict between the freedom of citizens and that of corporations, or is the right to freedom of government curtailing equal access to natural resources among the citizens?

KEYWORDS: equality, freedom, liberty, eco-spirituality, eco-feminism, climate education, natural resources