In the past months, I traveled across seven provinces of Nepal, some places so remote that our climate awareness event was the very first of its kind there. These were open, honest, sometimes painful dialogues with women who have been living the climate crisis in their bodies, in their fields, and in their everyday lives.
What I heard was not new in terms of science, but it was powerful in terms of lived truth. And that truth is this: THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ARE NOT GENDER NEUTRAL. Women in rural Nepal are being hit the hardest and in ways that are still invisible to most of our policies and platforms.
“Our daughters are menstruating earlier. It hurts more now.” One of the first things the women shared was how climate change is affecting their health, particularly their reproductive health. Girls are getting their first periods earlier, sometimes even before turning 10. Periods are becoming more irregular, more painful, and harder to manage, especially during hotter summers. Many linked this to heat stress, food insecurity, and a general feeling of being unwell most of the time.
These are not random stories. When women in different corners of the country echo the same concerns, it’s not anecdote, it’s evidence.
“Our education is also at risk.”
This isn’t only about the older women carrying water and working in the fields. Even the students, those pursuing higher education are affected. One student from the Agriculture University shared how fieldwork, once a core part of their learning, is now being cancelled regularly due to unbearable heat.
“We’re supposed to learn by doing,” she said, “but now we stay indoors because it’s too hot to go outside.”
Climate change is stealing their learning.
“We walk further for water. Our stomachs hurt all the time.” With local water sources drying up, women are walking longer distances carrying heavy loads of water. This has led to persistent lower abdominal pain, back issues, and constant exhaustion. One woman told me, “Carrying water is our everyday pain. But now, that pain doesn’t stop even after we put the gagri (water pot) down.”
There’s a clear link between environmental stress and physical health, but it’s not showing up in our health systems. And it’s not being spoken about enough.
“The rain is confused. So are our crops.” Agriculture has always been backbreaking work, but now, it’s unpredictable too. Rain doesn’t come when it used to. Sometimes it comes too much, sometimes not at all. Crops are failing. In the same land where women once grew three types of grains, they can now barely grow one. And they have to put in more effort than before, for less.
Before, they watered the field once a day. Now they spend up to a week just to get a single crop to sprout. Time poverty is real. And it’s gendered.
“We are not just victims. We are also holding our families together.” Despite the weight they carry, women are still running homes, raising children, farming, fetching water, feeding others. They are also showing up, learning, sharing, and asking questions at climate events that are often their first space of recognition.
This is not just a climate crisis. It’s a justice crisis. These testimonies are not data points. They are real lives, filled with pain, adaptation, resilience, and resistance. What I heard and saw is clear: climate justice must be gender justice. We need to listen to women, center their voices, and act on their truths. Not because they are victims, but because they are leaders. Because they see what’s happening more clearly than anyone.
This is not just about survival. It’s about rights. It’s about justice. And it’s long overdue.
(Written by Anjali Sai Chalise, Climate Justice Activist, Women of the South Speak Out (WOSSO) Asia and the Pacific Fellow.
This article was originally published in the Republica Daily, a national newspaper in Nepal.)