Drought-Induced Human Mobility in Purulia District of West Bengal

Abstract

Significant attention has focused on the possibility that climate change will displace large populations worldwide, but only a few multivariate studies analyzed drought-induced migration. When people in a particular region face serious environmental disasters or a consistent intolerable environmental hazard, they have only three options: (1) accept the hazard and live into it; (2) leave or migrate to another place; and (3) mitigate the effects. The process of environmental hazard and migration is a constant flux entirely dependent on the push and pull factors. Simultaneously, migration is a social process and one of the most important factors in the socioeconomic aspects. Migration can be environment-induced, job-oriented, and politically pressurized or can be voluntary in nature. Purulia District is selected in this study to illustrate migration in the context of drought. Agriculture is the main source of income, but drought induces water stresses which force people to search alternative livelihood options in their neighboring districts or states. Now, migration is considered as an adaptive strategy in these regions. This study addresses four key areas: first part deals with hazard hotspot zone identification based on standard precipitation index (SPI), second part with the livelihood turmoil due to drought-induced water stresses, third part with the fluctuation of labor pattern and scenarios of migration, and the last part is dealing with optimality and feasibility study with respect to demand of the migrants. The blocks where SPI is low there dominate higher proportions of migration and vice versa.