Whenever the villagers of Lawpani, a nondescript village in the North Indian state of Assam, organize meetings to discuss local issues, Rita Devi Magar, a 40-year-old illiterate woman, represents her family there. Her husband never attends local meetings. 

Like Rita Devi, many women in Lawpani village, which is located by the Brahmaputra River, attend local meetings as de-facto heads of their families. Usually, they are the ones who decide what contribution their families can possibly make to dealing with recurring problems like flood, inundation and erosion by the Brahmaputra River, which is the source of both livelihood and misery for hundreds of thousands of people in Assam. 

Lawpani is not a matriarchal society, though. Unlike some matriarchal societies in Meghalaya, another North Indian state that shares its border with Assam, Lawpani is fundamentally a patriarchal society. Mostly inhabited by people of Nepali origin, who settled down in Assam about half a century ago, Lawpani boasts of unique characteristics of patriarchy that is ubiquitous in Nepal. 

In fact, most of women in Lawpani would prefer to call their husbands as Maalik (master) -- a sign that the nature of the Assamese society of Nepali language-speaking people is extremely patriarchal even now. So, despite living in a patriarchal society, how do the Lawpani women, like Rita, get opportunities to attend social gatherings? 
"My Maalik (husband) is away from the village," explains Rita. "If he was in the village, he would certainly be attending all social activities," Even in absence of her husband, she does not want to present herself as the real head of family. "My Maalik is the head of our family," says she, without showing any qualms. "I am trying to fulfill my husband´s duty just in his absence." 

Rita´s husband has been working in Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, for the last few years. In 2012, when a deadly flood in the Brahmaputra River -- described as the worst ever since 2004 -- caused havoc in Assam, much of her fertile land was washed away. She lost some cattle, too. "The 2012 flood changed my life upside down," says she. 
Rita says life was not easy for her family even before the 2012 flood. "Even then, we would not grow sufficient food; and my husband would have to look for manual jobs," says she. "But, after the 2012 flood, we have only a small plot of land left. We will probably die of hunger if my husband does not work."

Like Rita´s husband, many young and physically strong men from Lawpani are now working in big cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Goa - most of them as security guards and night watchmen. "If the local youth do not go to work in big cities, most of women face difficulties in feeding their children," says Shobhakar Sapkota, Mukhiya or village head of Lawpani. 

In the wake of the 2012 flood, more men from villages like Lawpani, situated along the Brahmaputra River, are leaving their houses in search of manual jobs, especially in South Indian cities, according to Sapkota. "Only elderly men, women and children are now left in the villages," says Sapkota. "The locals are losing their fertile lands. For them, the only way to sustain their families is to work elsewhere."

Although increasing outmigration of men seems to be empowering the local women by allowing them to participate in social activities, its real consequences are far-reaching - and mostly negative. As men work away from their houses, their wives are forced to shoulder the whole burden of farming, rearing children and attending to cattle. 
A study on gender-differentiated impacts of climate change, which was recently conducted in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh of India under the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Program (HICAP), a five-year research initiative that International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is now implementing, has shown that outmigration of the men has rendered the women more vulnerable to consequences of climate change.

With the Himalayan glaciers melting faster than ever before - which scientists say is a result of global warming, the Brahmaputra River is causing more troubles in the recent years, eroding hundreds of acres of fertile land and displacing thousands of people every year. As the increased rate of glacier melt leads to the increased summer flow in the Brahmaputra River, posing further threats, the women, especially those whose husbands work far-away, face grim future. 

However, every cloud has a silver lining. Experts say the phenomenon of outmigration of men can be turned into an opportunity to strengthen the locals to cope with consequences of climate change. For an instance, the HICAP is now exploring possibilities of using remittances in increasing the adaptive capacity of the local woman living by the Brahmaputra River.

Published on: 2 March 2014 | Republica