Climate change and mental health impacts among Dalit communities in southwestern Bangladesh

Brief description of the community

Sediment piling on a part of the Kobodak River in Tala Union threatens to further impact the lives and livelihood of marginalised communities in the area (Photo courtesy of Ishrat Jahan)

The southwestern area of Bangladesh is highly susceptible to climate and disaster impacts. The area, specifically the Satkhira region, is also home to a substantial Dalit population (Islam, 2011). It is estimated there are around five million Dalits in Bangladesh, with approximately 96% being illiterate and having limited economic opportunities (IDSN, 2023). The literature on Dalits in Bangladesh considers them a marginalized group whose identity is often primarily defined by their occupations being associated with notions of impurity, untouchability or low-status (ibid). Throughout history, Dalits have been involved in work such as working with dead animals or sewage, raising pigs, or working with leather or bamboo (Kabir, et. al., 2018). In administrative and development contexts, the term "Dalit" is used broadly to refer to scheduled castes, tribes, and 'backward' castes -– representing the most impoverished, living individuals who live in poor conditions, and lacking access to education and opportunities for advancement (Bhattacharjee, 2023). Thus the term encompasses diverse communities, each with their own markers of culture, dialects, and ways of living - but facing similar forms of socio-economic discrimination and political marginalization.

The literal meaning of the word ‘Dalit’ is ‘oppressed or broken’. The caste-based inequities that have permeated social and governance structures across South Asia have resulted in Dalit communities being unable to access arable land, clean drinking water, and economic resources necessary for survival (Prasad, 2022). As a result, there are critical implications for Dalit populations residing in Bangladesh’s climate vulnerable areas, posing unique challenges to their lives as climate events unfold in a fast-warming world.

While there is limited record of accurate population size of various Dalit groups, across the southwestern region there are roughly 25 different Dalit communities. In Tala, an in-land coastal area within Satkhira district of southwestern Bangladesh, Dalit communities such as the Kai-putro, Hajam, Jele, Bajnadar among others have generationally negotiated with spatial and social marginalization while forming a deep relationship with their surrounding ecology.

Brief discussion of the community’s experience of climate change

Tala is an inland coastal location that experiences relatively fewer impacts from both sudden and slow-onset climate-related events when compared to areas further south. While, cyclones and storm surges have been a historically significant disaster risk in the south of Bangladesh, the risk of loss and damage from greater frequency of these events are increasing (Van Schie et al., 2022). However, shifts in weather patterns, rising heatwaves and salinity are now producing economic and non-economic losses and damage across the southwest (Akter and Ahmed, 2021). Discussions with community members also reflect that they are experiencing weather patterns become erratic and share that it significantly impacts their lives either through affecting their incomes or through direct effects of heat, rising salinity and diminishing biodiversity on their health and well-being.

Due to their historical marginalization, Dalit communities have generationally resided in the most low-lying areas of rural localities, near to water bodies and in remote, often isolated locations. In most cases, occupational and social mobility remain greatly limited for Dalit communities in rural contexts (Sharif and Jabin, 2022). Even now the most common professions among Dalit communities are within the agricultural and aquaculture sectors - where they work as day labourers on farmlands, fishermen, handicraft-makers, etc. This makes them more vulnerable to being displaced, losing their source of income and during periods of heavy waterlogging or flooding., In the narratives of the Dalit communities, it is also apparent that slow-onset or chronic weather events are becoming the norm, and their lives and livelihoods become impacted, before other groups, given their spatial and socio-economic vulnerabilities.

Detailed discussion of the climate-related mental health impacts experienced by the community as documented by the community or the researchers/community organisations working with them

Understanding about the impact of climate change on specific Dalit population groups are limited in the context of Bangladesh. Studies on their mental health issues resulting from climate impact has therefore not been an area of inquiry. Different climate crisis events, sudden or slow, appear have varying mental health impacts on Dalit communities in the south and southwest region of Bangladesh. The findings this case study highlights are part of a larger qualitative research project undertaken as part of a graduate scholarship programme by the author at the Indepednent University of Bangladesh, IUB. The research focused on four Dalit communities in the southwest of Bangladesh in Tala, within the Satkhira area which is regarded as one of the most climate vulnerable areas of the country.

During sudden on-set events, especially waterlogging, Dalit communities often go through a protracted crisis period where their areas are the most impact and their recovery takes longer given that relief and rehabilitation efforts are insufficiently distributed or do not reach their areas. In the aftermath of these events, the communities experience trauma due to being homeless, losing their livelihoods and being susceptible to ill-health and bad conditions. The communities shared going through acute experiences of trauma which even after rehabilitation and recovery, has remained with them. Across discussions with communities most affected by sudden events in the past, they mention that they always live with a sense of melancholy regarding the trauma of being displaced or witnessing the destruction around them. Others mention that when they recall the events of the past the experience palpitations and bouts of restlessness and anger.

In cases of slow onset events, which are slowly eating away at the rural localities’ lives and livelihoods - community members shared that they experienced acute levels of anxiety which translated into sleeplessness and prompted them to detach or isolate themselves from family members and the wider community.

The growing uncertainty of weather events also adds to their experiences of anxieties. Women in the Jele (fishing) communities state that with growing heat and unpredictable rainfall every year, they no longer know whether their households will be able to make sufficient income and survive into the next year - as they state that ‘the fishes are dying from the heat’. Other communities fear that the ecology around them is becoming more vulnerable due to land-grabbing for creating aquaculture enterprises instead of agricultural activities. They feel that such shifts in their local economy, coupled with lack of sediment management of important coastal rivers which run through their area is resulting in lands becoming less fertile, is reducing the quality and nutritional value of their food.

Overall, the way in which they view and understand the impact of a fast-changing and unpredictable climate gives rise to a collective sense of grief and mourning as the ecology around them becomes hostile - disrupting the ways in which they relied on their environment for their physical and emotional well-being. As well as the varying individual experiences of anxiety which comes about due to a sense of powerlessness they feel.

Description of the community responses to climate-related mental health problems

The community’s ability to counter the negative impact on their mental health are limited, given that primary protective factors, i.e. - their basic rights and needs either remain unmet or become more difficult to access due to cascading impacts of climate change and the impacts of caste-based marginalization.

Given it is largely the cascading impacts such as diminishing income and reduced access to natural resources which create the conditions for acute experiences of anxiety and grief in the first place - there are limited responses that the community is able to take. Furthermore, for more marginalized Dalit communities (who have been less successful in integrating themselves to into the local economy) the scope of community-level responses is limited. Despite the southwest being increasingly vulnerable to impacts of climate change, there has been limited health system strengthening to respond to mental health implications arising from sudden onset climate events.

However, an interesting phenomenon among the women of these Dalit communities is that for majority of them they feel they have stronger community bonds because of the shared memory that was created among them due to collective suffering and loss. This provides them with a social network they can reach out to for support and comfort to tackle experiences of grief, anxiety and sorrows - leading to an overall experience of poor mental health. Interestingly the women across different Dalit localities believe that their collective resilience can ensure not only their survival and adaptability of their socio-economic situations to the crisis. But it can also help them tackle the negative mental health impacts in face of rising chronic climate events such as heatwaves and unpredictable rainfall. Women stated that they could mobilize collective action within their locality to mitigate the impacts of intense heat, rivers drying changes in tidal ecosystem, water scarcity: “We have seen so many things and weathered severe problems – we can handle what changes come. We will change along with our environment / climate. Despite the growing heat, we will survive.” (woman from Jele community; 35yrs. old – during a focus group discussion)

An evening by a river bed in a village in Khulna. As heat rises, communities are left to grapple with the multiple ways it impacts them (Photo courtesy of Asif Faisal Shakik)

Key insights and lessons learned

For more marginalized communities in the southwest of Bangladesh, the effects on their mental health resulting from climate change become apparent as their lived experiences are examined. Yet lived experiences of the effects in their health and well-being, and the differences in how those effects are experienced due to intersectional factors - receive limited attention in current climate change adaptation approaches. This frame of thinking in current approaches of adaptation taken on by governance and development actors to tackle climate change impacts, do not leave room for understanding and mitigating the unique challenges to mental health and well-being in climate-vulnerable areas.

The impacts on marginalized communities’ mental health which occurs due to diminishing incomes and livelihood opportunities, along with the slow erosion of the ecology and biodiversity which facilitates their day to day lives can also have critical implications on their overall resiliency and adaptive capacity. However, their collective resilience due to strengthened social bonds and coming together in times of crisis can also be a buffer for mental health in contexts where these communities experience suffering and loss from disaster or chronic weather events with added vulnerabilities of socio-economic marginalization. In such contexts, having strong social networks and positive collective efficacy or beliefs or shared narratives about their ability to enact change to adapt with climate impacts can not only be beneficial for building better adaptive capacities, but also for healing and strengthening their mental health.

The case study is also a reminder that pathways to mental health and resilient communities in the face of climate change can only be taken through work which addresses systemic and structural vulnerabilities, works to remove barriers to accessing basic human rights and ensures environmental justice.

Recommendations

The case study highlights the key role that communities themselves play in ensuring and building buffers for their mental health in face of the climate crisis. The case indicates the key role women play in community resilience, focus on empowering women through training programs, leadership development, and initiatives that enhance their ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Empowerment of communities is also critical in this process as advocating for environmental justice and reducing existing class-caste inequities are primary protective factors of mental health and well-being. Building leadership and agency of marginalized communities is a critical area of work development interventions need to bring into consideration.

Given that mental health remains an understudied aspect within climate change work in the context of Bangladesh, greater emphasis on conducting comprehensive and specific studies on various marginalized groups in climate vulnerable areas is an immediate priority. Beyond this, greater influence needs to be generated at policy levels to bring into consideration need for strengthening capacities to work on mental health in climate change research and interventions.

References

1. Akter, S., & Ahmed, K. R. (2021). Insight and explore farming adaptation measures to support sustainable development goal 2 in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 23(3), 4358-4384.Bhattacharjee, S. (2023). Deprivation and Social Exclusion of the Dalits: An Anthropological Observation. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X231199839Prasad, I. (2022). Towards Dalit Ecologies. Environment and Society, 13(1), 98-120.International Dalit Solidatory Network . (2023). The Situation of Dalits in Bangladesh . Joint NGO submission related to the review of Bangladesh for the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review.Islam, S., S. (2011). Ending the primitive discrimination and adaptation. Equity for Dalits.Policy Brief. Uttaran. Accessed on February 20, 2024. URL:https://uttaran.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/equityfordalits_policybrief.pdSharif, A., & Jabin, N. (2022). Triple Marginalization and Struggle for Autonomy: A Study on Dalit Women in Bangladesh. Asian Review of Social Sciences, 11(2), 40–47. https://doi.org/10.51983/arss-2022.11.2.3270Silva, S. D. (2015). Structural Vulnerability to Climate Change in Bangladesh - A Literature Review. https://doi.org/doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.4180.7520van Schie, D, Ranon, RJK, Mirza, AB and Anderson S (2022) Local responses to climate-related non-economic losses and damages: A case study in Burigoalini and Gabura Unions, Southwest Bangladesh. IIED, London.

Written by

Ishrat Jahan, Research Fellow, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University