Across South Asia, from India, to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, climate change has devastated communities with intense cyclones, floods, and heat waves. According to a World Bank Report, “South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate shocks. The region is living through a “new climate normal” in which intensifying heat waves, cyclones, droughts, and floods are testing the limits of government, businesses, and citizens to adapt. More than half of all South Asians, or 750 million people in the eight countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka — were affected by one or more climate-related disasters in the last two decades. The changing climate could sharply diminish living conditions for up to 800 million people in a region that already has some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.”
According to an article by Reuters, sex workers in Bangladesh will face increasing struggles as climate change causes more unpredictable weather. “Social prejudice and stigma in Bangladesh combine to exclude trans and intersex people, said Mahfuza Mala, a climate expert and gender justice activist who works for Naripokkho, a feminist working for the advancement of women’s rights in Bangladesh. As a result, these groups are especially vulnerable to shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme weather fuelled by climate change, including the devastating floods that have hit the northeast this month.”
In Sri Lanka, transgender people face employment struggles even without the additional challenge of climate change according to the paper, Gender Identity Matters: Barriers to Employment Cycle of Transgender Individuals in the Labor Market of Sri Lanka.
According to the Centre of Science and Environment, an environmental and science organisation based in Delhi, “In 2024, India faced extreme weather events on 93 per cent of the days in the year’s first nine months -- 255 out of 274 days -- marked by heat and cold waves, cyclones, lightning, heavy rain, floods and landslides.”
The Centre of Science and Environment, a Delhi-based environmental and science think-tank, reports that during the first nine months of 2024, India faced extreme weather events — heatwaves, cyclones, floods, and landslides — on 255 out of 274 days.
“The extreme weather events that pan-India is experiencing impacts the most vulnerable the hardest, including both cis and trans sex workers,” explains Dr. L. Ramakrishnan, the Vice President of the Chennai-based non-profit organization Solidarity and Action Against the HIV Infection in India (SAATHII). “We saw this very clearly during the 2015 floods in Chennai. Working class transfeminine persons, many of whom engage in sex work, live along the banks of the city’s rivers and canals, and when extreme rains caused the riverbanks to overflow, their homes were destroyed. They were left high — and not quite dry,” he adds.
Panna Guru, as she is commonly known in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, has been advocating for the rights for the trans sex worker community for 40 years. As a Guru, i.e., someone who has earned their right to lead a household, she lives with 20 other chelas or her trans women followers. “The rains in Pune start in May now! I got soaked just the other day, who will take care of us when we get sick? If we don’t work, we don’t eat. We don’t own property, and we don’t have wealth. We do everything ourselves. When our homes are flooded, we get lots of pests because we live in the slum area — in the red-light district — so even putting our feet on the floor means we get bitten. When it’s hot outside, the men seem to be in a hurry, they don’t talk to us or ask about us; they come in bad moods, and since we don’t have air-conditioning, it can get very hot, so our clients get angry. They hit us sometimes; they scream at us".
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When trans sex workers are displaced due to natural disasters, they are also at increased threat of being trafficked and subjected to gender-based violence, because they need to go to unknown areas and meet unknown clients. - Dr. L. Ramakrishnan
According to a paper by the Observer Research Foundation, “Transgender individuals and women engaged in sex work face profound challenges due to limited opportunities for stable income. Many transgender people and women resort to begging or sex work as primary sources of livelihood. They are often stationed at traffic signals exposing themselves to gruelling working conditions in harsh sunlight or heavy rainfall without access to basic facilities.”
Santa Khurai, the Secretary for All Manipur Nupi Maanbi Association, and a trans feminist scholar and writer, explains the situation in the Northeast of India. “We have the hijra/gharana system in the states of Assam and Tripura where mostly the community begs at railway and bus stops.”
She points out that even within trans women communities, there is access to privilege that should be noticed. “There is [within transfeminine communities] a difference between Guru and Chela, a certain level of privilege, and many times the chela will be the one out begging. The trans community is impacted severely by climate change. People can't stand in the sun for a long time. In Manipur, when it floods, there is no support from the government, and even now, I am distributing ration kits because the recent weather has severely impacted the community.”
Dr. Ramakrishnan points out that working class trans women, many of whom earn their living through sex work, don’t usually have ownership rights to land or their homes. They are at best renting, and at worst, considered illegally squatting by the government, and live in temporary shelters. When extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods occur and damage their dwellings, they are ineligible for government financial assistance to reconstruct their settlements, as they don’t have ownership rights over the land. “When they are displaced due to natural disasters, they are also at increased threat of being trafficked and subjected to gender-based violence, because they need to go to unknown areas and meet unknown clients.”
He does offer a way forward. “As India and other countries gear up to cope with the impacts of climate change, it is of utmost importance to focus on the most vulnerable populations. These include cis and trans sex workers, who, in addition to residing in areas at high risk of destruction, also exist outside the traditional hetero-patriarchal family units recognized in ration cards and other government IDs. They may be unable to supply “permanent” residential addresses for application forms, or face mismatch between their self-affirmed identity markers (such as name and gender) and those markers assigned at birth. Thus, they are most likely to be excluded from safety nets such as social security programs and disaster relief initiatives, and that must be one of the first steps we take moving forward.”
Silvester Merchant, the Community Engagement and Partnerships Lead at International Planned Parenthood Foundation South Asia Region, works closely with diverse communities. She concludes, “The International Planned Parenthood Federation recognizes sex work as legitimate work and affirms that trans sex workers, who face layered discrimination and marginalization, are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In response, IPPF is committed to advancing their rights, dignity, and resilience by promoting inclusive labour protections, access to social benefits, and economic empowerment within climate response frameworks. Central to this approach is the support for trans sex worker leadership, self-determination, and meaningful participation in policy, program design, and climate advocacy. IPPF will invest directly in sex worker-led organizations, strengthen partnerships across feminist, civil society, and governmental spaces, and ensure trans sex workers are included in all climate-related decision-making processes. Upholding the human rights of all people, IPPF reaffirms that climate justice must include the safety, wellbeing, and full inclusion of sex workers of diverse identities.
This piece was written by Sweta Daga, independent journalist and community facilitator based in Bangalore, India
