Climate change, salinity and menstrual health problems: Sundarbans women battle triple whammy 

Climate change has turned the waters saline, making agriculture unviable and forcing them to turn to

Climate change has turned the waters saline, making agriculture unviable and forcing them to turn to fishing. For women in the marshlands of Sundarbans, this switch is not just about livelihoods but also coping with the debilitating health impact on their lives.

Caught in a vicious trap that means spending hours waist-deep in the very waters that no longer nurture their fields, the women face a battery of menstrual, urinary tract and other infections.

“With agriculture becoming unviable due to the increase in salinity of the water because of sea level rise, more and more women are becoming dependent on fishing. This means their exposure to saline water is also increasing,” Nihar Ranjan Raptan, director of the NGO Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra (GGBK) who works in the Sundarbans, told PTI.

Irregular menstrual cycles, vaginal infections, recurring UTI and miscarriages are common amongst the women in the Sundarbans, he said.

The ecologically fragile Sundarbans region, which holds a vast mangrove forest, falls in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas region and is said to be one of the worst affected regions in India due to climate change.  The area has been battered by frequent cyclones, more than any other place in the country.

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According to Revati Mondal, who has been working in the Sundarbans’ Goran Bose village for more than two decades, the salinity of the water has been increasing steadily – and the health of the women deteriorating.