Assessment of climate change induced migration in rural context

Abstract

The climate disaster poses a major threat to humanity, environment, and all of our planet's animals, plants, and wildlife that inhabit our planet. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in 1990 that the most prominent effect of climate change could be on human migration, with millions of people displaced due to shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, drought and agricultural disruptions. As per the International Organization for Migration (IOM), there are around 272 million individuals, representing 3% of the global population, presently live outside of their birthplace. Climate change has become a major driver of population displacement. South Asia has received international attention for being an extremely climate vulnerable region due to extremely high population density, high density of poverty and lack of resources for climate adaptation. People may consider migration as the greatest approach for boosting their life chances as a result of climate change reducing their capacity to live a productive life in their customary area of residence. India being one of the largest country in the region is highly vulnerable to both internal and broader migration due to the impacts of climate change. There are 1.3 billion people involved in the rural areas and are engaged in climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fishery forestry for their livelihood becoming a typical method for managing risk, achieving goals, and earning money. In India there are seven states and out of 612 districts 100 are vulnerable to climate change impacts. Despite of being such a big and evident issue and it comes with lots of challenges and have immense impact on our life it is still termed as an ignored crises. There are lots of challenges that are faced by these climate induced migrants like sometimes they resettle in dangerous places or be pushed further to the margins. Increase in human trafficking. No laws recognizing the people who are displaced due to the effects of climate change as ‘migrants‘. The lack of figures can be attributed to a lack of clarity among scholars and policymakers in defining migrants of environmental disaster. There are various Vulnerabilities of Climate induced migrants like Livelihood insecurity and lack of access to better opportunities and assets. Assessment of Climate Change induced migrants in rural context, A case of Beed District The problem identifies in that there are need of better understanding the climate change impact in local context that cause the migration, and does vulnerability assessment provides a pathway towards the spatial planning of the region while considering the migrants. The aim of the study is to assess climate out-migration in the Beed district of Maharashtra and evaluate various variables associated with it. To achieve this aim there are three objectives, first one is to Study how climate change is impacting the area/region, which includes study about the Social, economic and physical factors of the area and also Conceptualizing the relationship between climate change, environment and migration. Second objective is to understand the government initiative for dealing with the vulnerabilities of these climate induced migrants, which includes current migration trends in response to sudden and slow-onset disasters policy responses and legal frameworks and strategies to deal with climate change. Third objective is to assess the livelihood vulnerabilities of climate migrants, for that it’s important to analyze nature of migration in the study area and also Understanding the impact of climate change on migrants life. The study is done with scope of exploring adapting strategies to reduce the livelihood vulnerabilities of climate induced migrants and also Identifying methods and tools to conduct climate change migration study in absence of migration data. With the help of Primary survey there’s opportunity to understand the impacts on livelihood due to climate change and understanding the livelihood vulnerability of climate induced migrants. The study will be done on a district level based on the vulnerability assessment of that region. The study will be limited to the region with slow onset disaster. To achieve the objectives study considered various factors like rainfall data, change in the amount of rainfall, and no. of rainy days unusual rainfall events, decrease in net sown area, declining crop yields and livestock which undermine rural livelihood and stimulate climate migration for the Beed district. The data for all these parameters are collected from 1981 to 2020 from various secondary sources. For further study ,for the selection of village ,index based approach is used which involve indicators like NDVI, NDWI, Soil moisture index, Ground water availability data and socio economic profile of all the talukas. Survey based approach method is used for conducting primary survey in the villages due to unavailability of migration data, primary data is collected at household level through survey and focused group discussions through Assessment of Climate Change induced migrants in rural context, A case of Beed District quantitative and qualitative questionnaire covering sixty four households within five villages. The surveys are conducted in the villages namely of Hatkarwadi, Takalwadi, Dhangarwadi, Gahukhel and Nandur which are identified on the basis of index based approach ranking and stakeholder consultation. Socio economic characteristics of these villages are studied Findings from household level survey suggest that the migration has increased approximately nine times in the intervention villages in past one decade. Water scarcity is the main driver of long term and short term migration followed by low income and lack of job opportunities. Migration is viewed as a volunteer decision but leaving a place is not a choice but a result of destruction of economic, political and social infrastructure which are required for the survival. It is required to take necessary actions mat various stages, but at initial stage before migration it’s extremely important which deals with the prevention and reduction of climate migration by increasing adaptation to climate change.