USAID Clean Air Catalyst: Gender Analysis of Air Pollution and Vehicle Transport, India

The program is a five-year initiative implemented by the World Resources Institute, the Environmental Defense Fund, and a consortium of partners. The CAC program seeks to understand local pollution sources and identify sustainable solutions for clean, healthy air, which will have better health, climate, and development outcomes. Evidence suggests that air pollution impacts women and girls differently than men and boys. Factors involved may include biological differences, socioeconomic disparities, and unequal gender norms that affect exposure and types, as well as access to and impact of mitigation solutions. The CAC program aims to ensure that its clean air solutions are effective and inclusive by understanding gender differences in issues, concerns, barriers, and opportunities in potential pollution reduction strategies. The geographic scope of the review is at the country level for India, with a focus on Indore, Madhya Pradesh (MP). The analysis broadly addresses two questions: how vehicle emissions impact women and girls differently, and what are the opportunities for and barriers to women's leadership, decision-making, entrepreneurship, employment, and meaningful participation in catalyzing clean air action to lower vehicle emissions and/or exposure to these emissions. The research methodology involved primary and secondary data collection. The research team reviewed 68 academic and policy documents and program reports, supplemented with other literature as needed. Primary data collection involved eight key informant interviews, including a total of 13 people. Key findings and recommendations are summarized in the report, which is structured around three detailed research questions. One of the key findings is that women's restricted mobility may be a key factor in declining labor force participation at all income levels, more in urban than rural areas, and more worrisome among low-income women. Women are generally absent as staff and leaders in transport and municipal agencies, and quantitative data on this are unavailable. Indore data on women's employment overall and in high-emissions-exposure occupations are not readily available, but country-level trends highlight high levels of women's engagement in informal employment. The report recommends that the CAC program obtain Indore data on women's employment overall and especially in occupations with high exposure to toxic emissions, such as street cleaning, brick manufacturing, and construction. This information can be used to identify targeted communities and high-impact clean air actions for exposure reduction. Additionally, the report recommends obtaining Indore data on women's transport use and needs, as well as more details on who's doing what in e-mobility on gender issues research. The CAC program should also conduct individualized (not household-level) data collection and analysis to determine women- and men-specific information and differences between them, such as on transport use and emission health effects. Furthermore, the program should consider a study on how much transport-related mobility restrictions impact women's labor force participation.