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[P-28] Climate Change Induced Rural Socio-Economic Vulnerability: An Empirical Regional Analysis from Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India

*Manoranjan Ghosh¹ (1. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)

Keywords:Climate Change Vulnerability, , Regional Analysis, , Livelihoods’ strategy, , Environmental Profile, , Livelihoods’ Insecurity.

It has been generally acknowledged that poor people in the Global South are highly vulnerable to global as well as regional climate changes. From the existing literature, based on India, it is noticed that often the studies regarding climate change impacts are a model-based estimation of climate change vulnerability. However, these model-based approaches lack ground reality. Therefore, there is a need to explore the bottom-up effects of climate change on livelihood generation in the rural parts of India. Therefore, household-based primary field survey studies can help to overcome the uncertainties which exist in model-based climate vulnerability assessment. In India, so far, no research has been conducted considering the regional patterns of socio-economic vulnerability assessment in context of climate change based on primary households’ survey. Here, the Socio-Economic Vulnerability Index has been proposed to assess the climate change vulnerability, and regional patterns of vulnerability that have been assessed in thirteen Community Development Blocks (CD Blocks) in sub-Himalayan West Bengal. It comprises of 384 household samples and twenty-two indicators covering seven significant dimensions of climate change vulnerability including climate variability, natural disaster risk, socio-demographic profile, livelihoods’ strategy, environmental profile, livelihoods’ insecurity, and accessibility of necessary infrastructure. The results suggest that the region where the temperature and rainfall instability is more, the magnitude of climate change risk is also high. Alipurduar-II, Jalpaiguri, and Mal, which are highly exposed to climate variability and natural disaster risk, at the same time, have low adaptive capacity. On the other hand, the livelihoods’ strategy, socio-demographic and environmental profile are the determining factors of regional vulnerability in the study region. The CD blocks, for example, Falakata, Dhupguri, and Rajganj which have a higher adaptive capacity are less sensitive to climate change vulnerability, although the exposure of climate vulnerability is the same in the entire region. The survey findings indicate that adaptive capacity is high in Falakata and Rajganj, therefore, these blocks are less susceptible to climate change vulnerability. Finally, the overall results of the present research would be helpful for policymakers to identify the priority regions for implementation of suitable public schemes and also to make sector-wise development strategies to confront the contemporary climate change vulnerabilities.