Dalit stakes in environment are high due to their dependence on natural resources for livelihoods. Though climatic uncertainties have implications on many sectors, rural livelihoods are most affected by changes in climatic patterns. Dalits, who are highly dependent on earnings from agricultural labour and, livestock rearing dependent on forests and other common lands have fewer resources and options to combat the damages to the resource base because of climate change. The internalization of discrimination and exclusion continue to deprive them of their social, economic and political rights and opportunities. Their locational, social and economic vulnerabilities place a greater strain on their adaptive capacity to climate change and ability to deal with shocks, stresses and change.

http://www.rightsandresources.org/documents/files/doc_6499.pdf