Open AccessSocial movements and grassroots discourse of climate justice in the context of droughts: a case study in India
Author(s) -
Nairita Roy Chaudhuri
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
oñati socio-legal series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2079-5971
DOI - 10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1157
Subject(s) - grassroots , climate justice , political science , redress , context (archaeology) , social movement , state (computer science) , environmental justice , economic justice , civil society , political economy , sociology , climate change , law , geography , politics , ecology , archaeology , algorithm , computer science , biology
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.