Aditi Bhowmick Receives Mittal Institute Grant for Gendered Climate Research
Aditi Bhowmick, a PhD candidate at Harvard, has won a Mittal Institute Faculty Climate Research Grant to study gendered climate vulnerability in India. Collaborating with Professor Eliana La Ferrara, Bhowmick aims to examine the effects of climate change on gender equity, particularly focusing on child marriage and health disparities. Their project integrates historical data with modern records to address gaps in research.
Aditi Bhowmick, an Indian PhD candidate specializing in Development Economics and Labor Economics, has received one of the first Mittal Institute Faculty Climate Research Grants at Harvard University. She will collaborate with Eliana La Ferrara, a Public Policy Professor, to lead a pioneering research initiative focused on gender-specific climate vulnerabilities in India.
The Mittal Institute’s grants aim to promote in-depth scholarly exploration of climate change in South Asia. They encourage innovative research that addresses energy transition, agricultural and land use systems, and legal policies for climate adaptation. Such initiatives are crucial as they foster the generation of new knowledge and sustainable solutions.
Recent studies indicate that climate-related disasters threaten advancements made towards gender equality in South Asia. Notably, the term “climate brides” refers to the disturbing trend of girls being married off prematurely due to extreme weather events, despite laws against child marriage. This early marriage exacerbates risks such as teenage pregnancies, maternal health issues, violence, and poor child health, thereby perpetuating health inequities.
Bhowmick and La Ferrara’s research seeks to bridge the existing data gap by combining historical ethnographic records from 1920 to 1960 with contemporary census data and satellite imagery tracking climate and economic fluctuations across India’s vast network of villages and towns. This innovative approach will allow them to investigate the causal links between climate change and detrimental gender and health outcomes, particularly concerning child marriage in rural settings.
Their study will additionally explore how historical social norms specific to a community impact these relationships. The project’s findings will be disseminated as a digital public resource, promoting collaborative research and informed policy decisions.
The combination of community-level data regarding norms with geographic and economic datasets will equip scholars, journalists, think tanks, and policymakers with crucial insights necessary to confront the challenges posed by climate change on gender inequality in India.
Bhowmick is currently a second-year PhD student focused on Economics at the Harvard Kennedy School and is a researcher at the Stone Program concerning Wealth Distribution, Inequality, and Social Policy. She actively pursues a research agenda targeting social norms and gender disparities across developing nations.
In conclusion, Aditi Bhowmick’s receipt of the Mittal Institute Faculty Climate Research Grant highlights the importance of addressing gender disparities exacerbated by climate change in India. Through her collaborative project with Eliana La Ferrara, the researchers aim to fill critical data gaps and foster a better understanding of how climate impacts gender and health outcomes. By sharing their findings as a digital public good, they will facilitate broader research and informed policymaking in the field.
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