Social movements and grassroots discourse of climate justice in the context of droughts: a case study in India
Keywords:
Social movements, legal mobilization, disaster management, adaptation, climate justice, India, Movimientos sociales, movilización jurídica, gestión de desastres, adaptación, justicia climáticaAbstract
India’s encounter with farmers’ protests since 2015 has highlighted the constructivist attempt of grassroots movements in confronting the state’s monopoly over production of law. Farmers’ groups and civil society organisations have been mobilising legal and extra-legal tactics to gain discrete legal responses from the state towards guaranteeing farmers’ fundamental rights in the context of climate change adaptation to droughts in semi-arid parts of rural India. This paper discusses the strategies used by such actors to frame the contours of climate justice. The movement highlights the need for India’s policies to align with transformational, procedural and distributional justice goals that recognise and redress structural (socio-economic, cultural, colonial) roots of vulnerability towards just and sustainable adaptation processes. It also highlights the responsibility of the nation-state to safeguard the fundamental/constitutional rights of farmers who contribute to the nation’s food security while being the most vulnerable to climate impacts at sub-national scales.El encuentro de India con las protestas de granjeros desde 2015 ha puesto de relieve el intento constructivista de movimientos de base para enfrentarse al monopolio estatal sobre la producción de leyes. Los grupos de granjeros y las organizaciones de la sociedad civil han movilizado tácticas jurídicas y extrajurídicas para conseguir discretas respuestas jurídicas por parte del Estado en el sentido de garantizar derechos fundamentales de los granjeros en el contexto de la adaptación a las sequías en partes semiáridas de la India rural. Este artículo trata sobre las estrategias utilizadas por dichos actores para enmarcar los contornos de la justicia climática. El movimiento pone de relieve la necesidad de que las políticas de India se alineen con los objetivos de justicia transformacional, procedimental y distribucional que reconozcan y reparen de raíz vulnerabilidades estructurales (socioeconómicas, culturales, coloniales) y caminen hacia procesos de adaptación justos y sostenibles. También subraya la responsabilidad del Estado-nación para salvaguardar los derechos fundamentales/constitucionales de los granjeros que contribuyen a la seguridad alimentaria de la nación, siendo, en contraste, los más vulnerables a los efectos climáticos en escalas subnacionales.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1157
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Copyright (c) 2021 Nairita Roy Chaudhuri

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