Socio-demographic backwardness in cyclone prone coastal villages: An Insight from Indian Sundarban

Abstract

The capability to design for, respond to, and recover from natural hazards is much influenced by demographic and socio-economic vulnerability of the region. Triggering effect of cyclone induced multi-hazards in the coastal areas of West Bengal, India makes the life and livelihood of people miserable. Very recent cyclones, like, Fani, Bulbul, Amphan and Yaas make people much more susceptible to hazard with the evil impact of on-going pandemic. According to IPCC, sensitivity and adaptive capacity analysis at micro level is taking much importance to address the readiness situation of the region. In this backdrop, the study aims to assess and map the level of demographic and socio-economic backwardness at village level for Kakdwip coastal area under coastal West Bengal, India. Applying principal component analysis we have tried to find out the level of demographic and socio-economic backwardness at different geographical locations (categorise as inland, riverine/ estuarine, coastal and island). The final findings suggest that backwardness is more prevalent in the southern part of the research region, with island and riverine/ estuary villages being particularly vulnerable. When the results have tries to find out the triggering factors at different geographical locations, female and child population, land holdings and earning of household came as the dominant factors for such higher degree of backwardness. These findings, when combined with micro level assessments, could help village administrators, planners and policymakers, and emergency managers design more effective and spatially tailored backwardness management plans.