In 2016, researchers reported that in Malaysia, climate disasters hit indigenous women and their dependents particularly hard. Left behind by their husbands who worked away from their villages, these women had to face the brunt of climate disasters affecting their home.

Now, five years later, the women’s plight has gone from bad to worse under the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic and continuous environmental destruction.

In the 2016 scoping study by the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (Arrow) and the Penita Initiative titled ‘Climate Change and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR)’, indigenous women shared their stories dealing with the aftermath of floods.

“I don’t have time to go farming. Because I do all of the chores by myself,” said Anna Ngau, a Kayan woman in Sarawak. Her husband worked away from their village. “Since I’m alone, it is so difficult to look for food and ration water. Now I am alone doing all the cleaning of the ...