Caste and its interactions with the Climate Justice framework

Climate Justice is one of the definitive goals of lawmaking in the 21st century of the anthropocene. It is the manifestation of a "public trust" over nature's bounty that attempts to place humanity as protectors bound by the mutual kinship towards securing natural resources. In this anthropomorphised effort, it is the socially constructed scales of justice that mediate for nature's rights as well as natural rights of part of the human population. As society lurches towards late stage capitalism, the situation objectively gets worse – maps showing systemic events such as floods, droughts, heat waves are testimony to the scale at which climate injustice affects caste-oppressed populations. The historical brunt of the caste system is magnified in its impact on the castes which places them in a precarious mode of employment.

However, caste society is once again united in preserving the hegemony as crimes by illegal sand mining operations wreck the rural economy, construction occurs in the name of development, food sources are depleted due to climate change, and wastelands create inhabitable conditions for many without a choice. The intermediary has always been upper-caste society rendering Dalits, Bahujans, and Adivasis with no option but to fight for survival in this neoliberal hellscape.

Justice is guaranteed only by fulfilment of quora -

If intermediation is done by the upper-castes, it also influences the justice institutions to work with the same caste and class character as those who operate them and dispense justice through them. While India has the National Green Tribunal to address issues, it has often been left without a functional staff. The state machinery has been found grappling with the inability of institutions to find the human resource wherewithal to do the bare minimum for ensuring compliance. This increases the perception of environmental rule of law being an avoidable restraint in the modern labyrinth of laws that places a premium on economic activity. Additionally, the tendency of laws to bear an economic character drastically misplaces the priorities within a climate justice framework, because of the unequal burdens placed on Dalits due to their roles at the periphery of the economic system.

The climate justice framework places unequal burdens on Dalits as their right for climate justice is whittled away on a regular basis - due to state apathy or regulatory inaction. Climate adaptation and mitigation for Dalits is an integral goal that must be fulfilled on the level of justice more integratedly, with more purposive state action, rather than constant drafting and re-drafting of laws. This cannot be realised without the justice system being channelled towards a more representative quorum at all levels - since judicial discretion has various components - including human bias. The bureaucratic state being one which emphasises neutrality and impersonality in administration thus fails in as much as the process of judicial appointments involves judges appointing themselves and doing so in extremely disproportionate numbers relative to the population of SC/ST communities. This is a failure of the system itself which must be remedied through a commitment to the values of proportionate representation found in the constitution. In terms of convictions for crimes, Dalits have to further face policing biases which can just as often creep into environmental law enforcement, given that they are tasked with a wide range of duties.

Although international law functions with the hope of securing benefits for all the peoples of the world, it functions within the restraints of domestic legal systems that have many groups vying for political power. The electoral battle is ongoing between those who by their actions preserve caste and those contributing with historicity to the political discourse. In this effort, inclusion of caste issues in climate justice agendas is subject to the stances of those wielding power. As international agreements like UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement have their own internationally binding obligations, to translate these into climate justice at the grassroots level in caste-ridden societies is a challenge. Thus, Sustainable Development Goal 6 for ensuring access to clean water and sanitation is at once challenged by the notion of untouchability at rural borewells. Where the Paris Agreement stresses on climate adaptation, migrant labourers from different parts of the country still inhabit urban ghettos without rights to their property.

The caste character of the brahminical state is particularly visible when it represents its own interests in international fora. Even as international agreements are largely representative of the cumulative class interests of each republic, these treaties rely entirely on state parties to implement climate justice law and policy. Thus, efforts here may fall short due to inherent limitations in the legal system of any country. In India, this shortcoming hampers climate justice commitments from being exercised truly meaningfully and the state operates in close quarters with industrialists. Hence, the mirage of targets for its developing economy can in actuality divert attention from civil society's efforts. These efforts guide viable developmental efforts that provide relief to landless labourers, coastal communities, indigenous populations, and all others on the frontlines of the climate apocalypse.

As capitalism advances, the knowledge of indigenous peoples is lost out due to the necessities of survival. Indigenous peoples in India are made to abandon their lives and livelihood for the benefit of the ruling class's economic interests, and lack of economic planning. This occurs alongside the misdirection towards upper-caste interests as the bureaucracy is utilised for conservation projects with a highly specific scope that can serve aesthetic or tourist needs more than urgent requirements of Dalits who fight for their daily survival. A more balanced approach would invest more in communication of climate adaptation methods to the rural communities. Communication is a two-way street and hence, the public consultation mechanism can be made to function more meaningfully and across the vernacular linguistic experiences.

SC/ST communities are often made to wait years before their FRA rights come to fruition. Recipients of rights holding documents known popularly as "pattas" face discrimination once again because of the inherent deficiency in the legal system which places a premium on literacy during exercise of rights. Hence, it is necessary for right holders to be educated and to be made to participate more fully in the enforcement of their rights. This effort will require channeling of state resources for inclusion of SC/ST communities within the fold of the democratic lawmaking. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's recommendation for state socialism is a solution that must be implemented alongside the reforms on representation, communal land holdings, and full compensation for the property held by SC/ST communities.

The vast majority of shortcomings in the climate justice framework arise out of the oversight towards enforcement of environmental laws for the benefit of those at the fringe of Indian society. These shortcomings occur primarily because of the inability of the state to scale up a solution in the increasingly privatised policymaking economy that serves upper-caste class and caste interests. Information relating to climate resilience, rights of indigenous peoples' to be compensated, and ultimately, the access to material wealth is determined in large parts by the character of the legal system. Information is represented across a branch of semiotic and epistemic networks that work in the favour of caste society, and hence this must be dismantled towards utilisation by Dalits as equal citizens. Our solutions towards climate justice must involve strengthening the values of education, state socialism, and agency found in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's thoughts. Through this, one can ensure effective representation to resolve the apathy that ails the justice system as it battles climate change.

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