Ongoing Project

Climate Vulnerability in Gujarat’s Salt Pans

ACPET Home
Climate Vulnerability in Gujarat’s Salt Pans

Women salt-pan workers (Agariyas) in Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch face intersecting climate and social risks. They work under extreme heat, erratic winds, and flooding, while also navigating unpaid care work, unsafe conditions, and limited access to finance, technology, and institutions. Climate variability exacerbates these vulnerabilities by disrupting drying cycles, damaging salt heaps, and intensifying health risks. Despite their central role in India’s salt economy, women’s specific vulnerabilities have been largely overlooked in research and policy.

Outreach

Objectives

To assess and map climate vulnerability among Gujarat’s salt-pan households and co-create locally relevant, community-driven policy responses.

To develop a climate vulnerability assessment at the household and worker level.

To construct a composite Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) suitable for local planning.

To identify vulnerability archetypes among households and link them with policy-relevant drivers.

To co-produce recommendations and policy levers with community and institutional actors.

Methodology

The study used a mixed-methods design:
499 household surveys with ~98% women respondents, guided by an Exposure–Sensitivity–Adaptive Capacity (ESA) framework.
Women-only focus group discussions (FGDs) to capture lived experiences.
Key-informant interviews (KIIs) with community leaders, cooperative members, and local officials.

Indicators were normalized to create a composite CVI (0–1 scale), and k-means clustering was applied to identify vulnerability archetypes. Qualitative insights were synthesized to contextualize the findings and inform policy.

Stakeholders

Agariya women workers and their families

Local cooperatives and community groups

State and district authorities in Gujarat

NGOs and civil society organizations working on climate, health, and livelihoods

Researchers and policy analysts in climate adaptation and gender studies

Project Site

The research took place in and around the salt-pan settlements of Surendranagar district in Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch. This unique region, with its harsh terrain and climate volatility, provided both the challenges and the stories that shaped this study.