Hillary Clinton meets salt pan workers, announces USD 50-million Climate Resilience Fund

“All our hard work, it will certainly taste good,” said Vijuben as her farming partner Manguben Jagga, 25, informed that it would “become whiter”. Clinton’s questions continued, “You have been here since when? Your mother also was working here? How did you get here”, as Vijuben explained how they spend eight months of the year at the salt farms, from October.

Roughly 70 per cent of the total production of salt in the country comes from the salt pans of Gujarat, majorly spread across Little Rann of Kutch in Surendranagar district.

After announcing the USD 50-million Global Climate Resilience Fund to tackle challenges of climate change, Clinton said, “I am proud to announce that the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), started by my husband that will work closely with SEWA, with our partners the America India Foundation, the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock), Desai foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Council for Inclusive Capitalism and the Algorand Foundation is launching a USD 50-million global Climate Resilience Fund for Women”.

The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) started by late Elaben Bhatt, through its “Hariyali” campaign, proposes to act as aggregator for women in the informal sector.

Manguben’s 17-year-old daughter Rekhaben, excited about the “guests from America”, had cooked bajri rotlas on the wood fire outside her makeshift hut near the venue where people, majority women, had gathered to hear Clinton.

“This fund will empower women and your communities to have access to resources that will make you more resilient to the effects of climate change like extreme heat,” Clinton said, adding it would also help provide new livelihoods and educational opportunities.

“You are using the solar panels to fuel the work in the salt pans then you take the solar panels home to provide electricity in your villages and even provide it to the grid,” she said.

Adding that the fund will help monetise carbon credits, Clinton said, “We also want to connect you with global carbon markets so that you can work with the private sector to register and monetise the carbon credits from your work… the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) will create a heat-resilient policy for SEWA workers to pay your wage when you are unable to work because of extreme heat.”

The idea of building climate resilience through climate action came out of SEWA’s 50 year celebration on April 12,2022, in Ahmedabad that planned next 50 years as “Building Cleaner Skies — Climate Action by Women for All”.
In her address to SEWA members, Clinton said, “One of the women told me that she was the seventh generation of her family to work in the salt fields… Seven generations… 6, 5, 4 and 2 generations ago it was hard work, now it is the work in extreme heat that makes it even more difficult.”

SEWA has helped with the women salt pan farmers with solar panels that have replaced diesel engines that pull out water from the wells for farming. So far, with the help of SEWA, 5,000 women farmers have replaced diesel pumps with solar power generated water pumps in the state.

“With these solar panels, we are happy that we have cash in our hands when we go back home… otherwise we would keep borrowing,” Vijuben said explaining the benefits of solar panel used water pumps.

Giving details about their working conditions, she added, “At times we lose consciousness in the heat. Three months are very difficult for us. With intense heat, we feel dizzy and dehydrated.”

“You are the ones working, you are ones who know what can make a difference to you. We need your experience and advice because together we are not only going to help members of SEWA but also we will create models that will help women, men and children across the world,” Clinton said appealing the women workers to share their ideas.

The Extreme Heat Income Insurance is the first investment in Arsht-Rock’s Cool Capital Stack, and the first commitment in the Global Climate Resilience Fund for Women.

“Women are profoundly and disproportionately impacted by climate change, particularly extreme heat… The Extreme Heat Income Insurance (EHII) will ensure that these women don’t have to choose between protecting their health or their family’s financial security,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of Arsht-Rock.

The EHII, inspired by a predictive health impact algorithm created by Arsht-Rock’s Heat Health Science Panel and practitioners at Blue Marble, is activated when specific extreme heat conditions that are expected to result in negative health outcomes, stated a note shared by the Foundation.

The parametric tool is designed to pay out multiple times in one heat season to replace income — currently estimated at USD 3 per day — when the heat event occurs. In the pilot phase, the premium will be paid by the programme, not by the women participants, with a local insurer offering the cover.

Beginning April 2023, as the hottest season and frequent heat waves begin in India, Arsht-Rock, SEWA and Blue Marble will target 21,000 SEWA members in Ahmedabad across a variety of occupations — salt pan workers, waste recyclers, head loaders, street vendors, farmers, ship breakers, construction, and home-based workers — to participate in phase one, the note stated.

Clinton arrived in Ahmedabad on Sunday to pay tribute to SEWA founder Elaben Bhatt who passed away on November 2, first visiting her home. She also inaugurated a memorial to Bhatt and SEWA at the Lokmanya Tilak garden in Ahmedabad.