Janakpur, Apr. 1: Chief Minister of Madhes Province Lalbabu Raut has said all sides concerned need to be serious to minimize the climate change impact on women. Women are more vulnerable to climate change, he underscored.

CM Raut said it during a programme organized by an organization Sathsathai on 'climate change impacts on women' here Friday. Once the women's participation was ensured in economic, social and political sectors, the violence and other injustices against women could be reduced, he argued.

He further shared that the provincial government had managed a reservation scheme to guarantee women's participation in all State mechanisms. Social structure, traditional thoughts and patriarchal mindset have deprived women of their access to socio-economic and political frontiers, CM Raut opined, adding that it was therefore time to ditch the traditional thoughts.

CM Raut also informed that overpopulation and the decline of forest cover are worrying issues. Madhes was growing more vulnerable to climate change because of the weak role of the regulatory bodies to curb the extraction of pebble, stone and sand from the Chure region, according to him. "Exploitation of Chure region with rapid deforestation on the one hand and extraction of pebble and stone has caused drying up of water resources, decrease in agricultural products and increase in floods in the monsoon season," he explained, reminding that although province government wanted to curb such irregularities, it did not get success.

On the occasion, Justice at Supreme Court, Sapana Malla Pradhan, said although climate change impact was pervasive from Himalaya to Tarai, those to suffer worst are the women from Tarai/Madhes.

Similarly, the Chairperson of the organization Sathsathai, Rachita Karki, reminded that a team of active women had conducted trekking up to Kalapatthar to give a message that women could face risky work. Even a 10-point declaration was issued by the team in course of the trekking focusing on the climate change impacts and sharing the information on impacts in mountain areas and Tarai/Madhes.