7.1 Introduction - im4change.org

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Chapter 7

Human Security and Vulnerability

Introduction7.1

The notion of Human Security dominatedthe development and political agenda duringthe 1990s in the aftermath of Cold War.Primarily it featured discussions aboutnational security but gradually it narroweddown to consider those pervasive threatsthat loom large over the “vital core” ofpeople’s life. The “vital core” constituteswhat is called the “functioning” of theindividuals such as assured basic income,access to food, improved health andsecurity from physical violence. Thus,breaches in Human Security can arise dueto exposure to downside risks i.e. risks likeeconomic deprivation, crime andenvironmental degradation that menace longrun sustainability of individuals andinterfere with the continuation of daily lifeand dignity. The extent to which such risktranslates into decline of well beingdetermines the vulnerability of humans.Typically development policy dialogues seethis vulnerability in terms of “entitlementfailure” and talks of enhancing the

“capabilities” of individuals by“empowerment” enhancing strategies.

In more than one way the concern oversafeguarding human security appliesoverwhelmingly in case of South 24Parganas. The district is typically at thelower rung of the ladder in terms of districtper capita income compared to otherdistricts of West Bengal (West BengalHuman Development Report, 2004). Thisplace also houses the largest proportion ofbackward people compared to the state andmost of these people depend on traditionalagriculture for livelihood support. Alongwith this, owing to its proximity to the Bayof Bengal, the district often faces thevagaries of extreme climatic events that aremostly hydro-meteorological hazards likecyclones and flood. In fact, in terms ofcyclone incidence it ranks first among theten Indian coastal districts (Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, 2004). Thus,income shocks are frequent in these areasrendering the populace highly vulnerable.

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1 The other two districts are North 24 Parganas and Murshidabad.2 Synopsis of the Rural Household Survey 2005, available at the website of the Panchayat and Rural Development,Government of West Bengal. http://wbdemo5.nic.in/html/misc/BPL_survey2005_summary.xls

So far as the crime scenario is concernedthe economically weaker group i.e. thewomen and children suffer the most in thisdistrict. West Bengal has the highest sharein woman trafficking across all Indian states(National Crime Bureau, 2006) and South24 Parganas is one of the three districtswhere such activities are rampant1 .

In South 24 Parganas the percentage ofhouseholds falling below poverty line(BPL) in rural areas stood at 35 per centin 20052 . Compared to the BPL Surveyresults in 2002 that shows the figure to bearound 37 per cent, this is surely animprovement but on relative terms there isa large disparity in the incidence of povertyin the rural and urban areas. The estimatedrural and urban poverty ratios in the districtare 26.86% and 8.5% respectively (WestBengal Human Development Report,2004). Hence there is a widespreaddisparity between rural and urban areas of

South 24 Parganas district, in terms ofincome level. Thus, it is evident that ruralareas are poorer and hence more vulnerablecompared to their urban counterparts. Thischapter would explicitly emphasize onvarious dimensions of human security withrural population in South 24 Parganas beingour unit of analysis. The next section shallonly briefly touch upon the economic andsocial security issues as they are discussedmore elaborately in companion chapters.However, one aspect of social security,incidence of crime among the blocks ofSouth 24 Parganas would be discussed inSection III. Section IV will look intovulnerability arising from natural disastersin South 24 Parganas. For gaugingvulnerability at the block level, Section Vwill discuss the vulnerability index and therelative position of the blocks in terms ofvulnerability status.

Economic and Social Security Issues7.2

Economic deprivation and poverty areassociated with a number of factors likeasset position of the households, say, interms of possession of land and house andoccupational status. To demarcate the

parameters that would mostly capture theeconomic and social (in)security wecalculate the correlation between variouspopulation characteristics for 18 districtsof West Bengal (See Table 7.1).

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Table 7.1: Correlation between Population Characteristics of the Districts of West Bengal

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).Source: Own Calculations from Rural Household Survey, 2005, Department of Pancahyat and Rural Development,Government of West Bengal.

The table provides a rough sketch of theinter linkages between risky outcomes,vulnerable groups and the private copingmeasures. As is evident, householdsemployed as agricultural labour and thosethat live in kuccha houses are positivelyassociated with incidence of poverty3 . Tosmooth their income stream agriculturallaborers often choose to migrate for casualemployment.

In South 24 Parganas agricultural labourforce grew in tandem with that of the stateas a whole though the growth rate ofagricultural labour in South 24 Parganas hasbeen higher (See Figure 7.1).

Though not strictly significant yetmarginal workers also have a positiveassociation with the extent of poverty. Here,also the district has experienced a slightlyhigher growth rate of marginal workerscompared to the state (See Table 7.2). Atthe same time, proportion of main workersto total workers has also declined both forthe state and district as a whole. The growingdistress in employment scenario is alsoreflected in income status of the district.The per capita income of the district hasgrown over the years but mostly remainedbelow the corresponding state figure (SeeTable 7.3, Figure 7.2).

3 Even if statistically non-significant, the positive association between percentage of households working as agricultural labourers andthose living in kuccha houses may suggest that there is an overlap between these two groups of people.

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total population for West Bengal and South 24 Parganas during 1951-2001

Source: Census 2001

Figure 7.1: Growth of Agricultural Labour-force in South 24 Parganas and West Bengal

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Table 7.3: Estimates of per Capita income of West Bengal and South 24 Parganas at constant prices (1993-94) (In Rupees)

Source: State Domestic Product and District Domestic Productof West Bengal, 1993-94 to 2004-05, BAE&S, 2006

Figure 7.2: Per Capita Income of West Bengal and South 24 Parganas

In fact our own calculations showed thatthe compound growth rate of South 24Parganas (5%) has been slightly lower thanthat of West Bengal (6%) from 1997-98to 2004-05 (See Table 7.4). Going bydistrict per capita incomes, the rank ofSouth 24 Parganas in 2000-01 was 14among 18 districts. The rank was 6 in

1980-81 (West Bengal HumanDevelopment Report, 2004). Hence thecomparative position of South 24 Parganasin the State is not at all impressive andeven more alarming is the fact that itsrelative position has deteriorated overtime (See Table 7.4).

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Table 7.4: Compound Growth Rates of Triennium Averages of Per Capita income (at 1993-94 prices) ofSouth 24 Parganas and West Bengal

Source: Own Calculations

People with low income lack the capabilityto achieve secure shelter for residence andso it may be interesting to observe thepattern of dwelling possession in South 24Parganas. Census 2001 has divided thehouseholds according to the condition ofhouses. These categories are “Good”,

“Livable” and “Dilapidated” houses. FromTable 7.4, it is clear that the conditions ofhouseholds in South 24 Parganas are moreor less similar to the condition of the State.But it is alarming that about 60%households in South 24 Parganas are notliving in ‘good’ houses.

Table 7.5: Percentage of Households (by type of houses) : 2001

Source: Census 2001

The condition/ status of houses can alsobe classified into four categories:Permanent, Semi-Permanent, TemporaryServiceable and Temporary Non-Serviceable. The number of permanent

households considerably increased from1991 to 2001 and the increase was greaterin the district compared to the overall statefigures (Table 7.6).

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Table 7.6: Percentage distribution of households according to house condition: 2001

Source: Census 2001

The foregoing discussion clearlydemonstrates that the district has recordedsome improvements in matters of housing.On the other hand, it has generally laggedbehind so far as employment and incomegeneration is concerned thereby makingthe resident households more prone toeconomic and social shocks. In this contextthe social safety nets provided throughinstitutional arrangements could be onecrucial determinant of vulnerability. Herewe discuss the performance of district forsix major schemes: a) National Old AgePension Scheme (NOAPS) b) NationalFamily Benefit Scheme (NFBS) c)Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY)that was subsequently replaced by NationalRural Employment Gurantee Act (NREGA)from 2nd February 2006, d) SwarnajayantiGram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) and e)Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

Both NOAPS and NFBS function underthe National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP). Primarily designed for ensuring

subsistence to destitute persons above 65years of age. NOAPS provides a monthlypension of Rs. 400. On the other hand,NFBS provides one-time financialassistance of Rs. 10,000/- to poor familiesthat have lost their principal earningmembers. So far as utilization is concernedSouth 24 Parganas have performed wellwith respect to the overall performance ofthe state (See Figure 7.3). However, itsperformance somewhat dropped down in2004-2005 in regard to NFBS and in factit had the lowest number of beneficiariesamong the nineteen districts of state in2004-05 (Annual Report 2004-05,Department of Panchayat and RuralDevelopment, Government of WestBengal)4 .

The SGRY was intended to provide wagebased employment to agricultural workersmainly during the lean season. Itssuccessor, NREGA, that was laterintroduced in ten districts including South24 Parganas expanded the approach and in

4 The records show that only six families out of every hundred thousand families benefited under the NFBS scheme inSouth 24 Parganas.

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addition to employment generationemphasises on awareness about the rightto get employed. NREGA now extends toall the districts. However, the performance

of the district both in terms of coverageof the scheme and the number of person-days generated is dismal (See Table 7.7).

Figure 7.3: Percentage Utilisation of National Social Assistance Funds

Table 7.7: Performance of the NREGA in Districts of West Bengal (2006-2007)

Source: Office of the District Magistrate, South 24 Parganas

Both in terms of number of registeredhouseholds in NREGA and averageexpenditure per Gram Panchayat South 24

Parganas ranks last among the tenparticipating districts. Apart from that theaverage number of person-days generated

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under the programme is among the thirdlowest in the district5 .

The SGSY scheme is designed togenerate self employment among the ruralpoor by organizing them into self helpgroups. SGSY is funded by both Central andState Governments in the ratio 75:25. In thiscase also the performance of the district ispoorer than the average over the districts.Particularly notable is the neglect of womanand scheduled tribes from the ambit of thescheme (Table 7.8).

In summary the social assistanceprogrammes related to employment

generation and poverty alleviation did notperform satisfactorily in recent times. Theweaker groups like women and scheduledtribes received relatively lesser coverageunder the schemes of self employmenthaving adverse implications for theirvulnerability status.

Lastly, one may look into the IAY schemethat provides shelter to the ruralhouseholds lying below the poverty line.Programmewise this is the most successfulone in South 24 Parganas as in West Bengal(See Figure 7.4)6.

Table 7.8: Performance of South 24 Parganas with respect to SGSY scheme(2004-05 & 2006-07)

Source: Office of the District Magistrate, South 24 Parganas

5 On the whole, the performance of NREGA has been poor in West Bengal. Although, the number of registered householdsfor employment assistance is substantial, on an average only 14 days of employment could be generated per householdduring 2006-07.6 The targets for the IAY scheme is the number of households that are planned to get assistance under the programme. Thisis set according to caste, disability and other criterions for women like widow ,war widow and unmarried woman.

Source: Annual Reports, 2004-05, 2006-07, Department of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, GoWB

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For both 2004-05 and 2006-07 South 24Parganas have not only exceeded the statefigure but also bypassed the target setunder the IAY scheme especially in

2006-07. This is perfectly commensuratewith improved conditions of dwellingsprevailing in the district.

Crime and Violence7.3In terms of IPC Crime rates West Bengal

had a fairly good position vis-à-vis thenational average in 2006. For both overallcrime rates and violent crime rates WestBengal had the fourth lowest figure amongthe 32 states in the country (National CrimeRecords Bureau,2006) thus maintaining theposition it had in 2000 (West Bengal HumanDevelopment Report, 2004)7 .Unfortunately its record in crime relatingto women trafficking is the worst and in2006 out of 123 cases of girls sold forprostitution in the country 114 had hailedfrom this state (National Crime RecordsBureau, 2006). Along with Murshidabadand North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganasis identified as one of the major areaswhere such illegal trafficking takes place.

In fact, so far as crime against women(CAW) is concerned South 24 Parganashad a remarkably high share in the State.According to Indian Penal Code (IPC)crimes against women can be classified as:

Rape (Sec 376 IPC)

Kidnapping and Abduction fordifferent purposes (Sec 363-373IPC)Homicide for Dowry , Dowry deathsor their attempts (Sec 302/304BIPC)Torture /cruelty both physical andmental (Sec 498A IPC)Molestation (Sec 354 IPC)Sexual Harassment /Eve-Teasing(Sec 509 or 294 IPC)Importation of girls up to 21 yearsof age ( Sec 366B IPC)

The composition of crimes in the stateas well as in the district is biased towardspost marital violence accounting for morethan half of the total crimes in 2002. Interms of share of the total CAW in the stateSouth 24 Parganas takes the lead among all18 districts in 2000 and 2003 (Table 7.9).The relative position of women got worseas its share in total IPC CAW increasedbetween these two time periods.

7 The overall IPC crime rate in West Bengal stood at 79 compared to the all India average of 167.7 while for violent crime,the figure is 12.1 as against the country average of 18.4. However one distressing fact is that while the average cognizablecrime rate in India dropped from 172.3 it actually increased in case of West Bengal from 76.7 in 2001( National CrimeRecord Bureau, 2001).

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Table 7.9: Districtwise incidence of crime against women (CAW) and persons arrested in West Bengalduring selected years

North

South

Coochbehar

Source: National Women CommissionFigures in parentheses show percentages of each category of crime to total crime for the year year.

So far as different components of CAWare concerned the share of South 24Parganas in cases of torture etc. was thehighest in the state accounting for about 15per cent of all cases. Its share in dowryrelated deaths was very low in 1995 but tooka sudden spurt in 2000 and 2003 and onceagain remained the highest among districts.Given the fact that female literacy rate inthe district is lower than the state average

(62 per cent) and most of the womenheaded households are employed asmarginal workers (Table 7.1) the high rateof crimes impart adverse implication forthe vulnerability status of women.

A more reliable estimate of exposure tointernal violence is given by the crime rateand here also the district has the secondhighest crime rate in 2000 and the highestin 20038 (See Figure 7.5).

8 Crime rate is defined as number of crime committed per lakh population. For the year 2000 we have taken census 2001population and the projected population for 2003 is calculated assuming an annual growth rate of 2 per cent.

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Figure 7.5: Crime Rates per lakh of population for the Districts of West Bengal: 2000 and 2003

CoochbeharNorth

24 ParganasSouth

24 Parganas

Within South 24 Parganas there ismarked interregional variation in overallcrime rates as well as in rates of CAW. Forbrevity we have decomposed the overallcrime incidence into three groups. The firstis violent crimes consisting of dacoity,robbery, burglary, theft, murder andculpable homicide. The other twocategories are riots and crime against

woman. Taking the average values of thetotal incidence of crime over three yearsfrom 2005 to 2007 it is seen that on anaverage violent crimes decreases as wemove away from Kolkata but the incidenceof CAW and riots increase significantly(Table 7.10)

On an average, the region closer toKolkata has a higher crime rate followed

Table 7.10: Regionwise Average Incidence of Crime in South 24 Paragans: 2005-2007

Figure 7.6: Trends in Crime Rates in different Regions of South 24 Parganas

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Figure 7.7: Incidence of CAW in Regions of South 24 Parganas: 2005-2007

Figure 7.8: Incidence of Riots in South 24 Parganas : 2005-07

9 Data on incidence of crime is provided at Police Station level and in some cases two different blocks came under thejurisdictions of the same Police Stations. Thus in some cases we had to merge two blocks like Bishnupur, Bhangar, Canningand Joynagar in Table 7.11.

by the North East and Mid West region andthen by the Sundarbans cluster. Of course,Figure 7.6 must be interpreted with somecaution as there is a high possibility ofunderreporting of crimes in remote areaslike Sundarbans.

CAW have highest incidence inSundarbans while the other two regionshave experienced almost equal proportionsof such crimes in last three years (Figure

7.7). For riots the highest incidence is inSundarbans area followed by the NorthEast and Mid West and the incidence is theleast in Kolkata surroundings (Figure 7.8).Blockwise Thakurpukur - Maheshtala andSonarpur in Region-I, Bhangar in Region-II and Canning in Region-III are most crimeprone for all the three types of crimereported (Table 7.11)9 .

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Table 7.11: Block-wise Incidence of IPC crimes in South 24 Parganas: 2005-2007

I-II

I-II

I-II

Source: Office of the SP, South 24 ParganasNote: Violent crimes include dacoity, theft, robbery, burglary, murder and culpable homicide.

Vulnerability to Natural Disasters7.4Natural disasters, especially

hydrometerological hazards like cyclonesand storm surges frequently occur in South24 Parganas. The southern part of thedistrict comprising the Sundarbans mostlybears the brunt of such disasters and hencewe shall largely limit the discussion of this

chapter to the 13 blocks of Sundarbans inSouth 24 Parganas.

The stretch of Indian Sundarbans extendsover an area of 9360 sq km comprising 102islands of which 52 have humansettlements10 . When early settlement beganin the area in 1770 (Bhattacharya, 1990)

10 The geographical span of Indian Sundarbans is divided in 19 administrative blocks of which 13 falls under the South 24 Parganasdistrict and the remaining 6 falls in the district of North 24 Parganas.

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it was immediately recognized thateconomic activity in the area faces the riskof tidal inundation from the complexnetwork of the river system interspersingthe area11 . Moreover, as it lies in the apexof Bay of Bengal tropical depressionsleading to cyclones and storms occurredfrequently12 . Thus, apart from the damagerisk of cyclonic wind, storm induced wave

11 The main rivers in this area including the estuarine and all having a southward course towards the sea are the Hugli, Piyali-Bidyadhari, Muriganga, Saptamukhi, Thakuran, Matla, Gosaba and Haribhanga. The Sundarban delta experiences two flow (inflow)tides and two ebb (outflow) tides during 24 hours. The tidal range varies from 3m to 5m and may rise up to 8m during normal springtide.12 Analyzing the records of incidence of tropical cyclones in Sundarbans from 1582 to 1994 one finds that on an average cyclonicdepression hits the area every two to three year.

surges causing tidal floods were anotherpotent disaster the local people had tocope with. To avoid the damage cost fromthese hazards, mud embankments calledthe “circuit embankments” around 3500sq km of area were constructed and tilldate this remains the first line of defenceagainst insurgence of tidal waves.

A much talked about disaster in recent

Figure 7.9: Vulnerability Profile (Flood and Cyclone Hazard Map) of South 24 Parganas as per OfficialEstimate

Source: Disaster Preparedness & Response Plan-2002, South 24 Parganas, Government of West Bengal.

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times is of course the coastal erosioninduced submergence of islands, especiallyin the Sagar Block. The tidal movement hasalready engulfed two islands, Lohacharaand Suparibhanga and it is gradually erodingaway the Ghoramara Island in the SagarBlock. According to Ghosh et.al. (2003)the island has already lost 75 per cent ofits land in the past 30 years with therefugees moving away to adjacent islandslike Kakdwip. An estimate by School ofOceanographic Studies, JadavpurUniversity, predicts that at the present rateof erosion almost 30,000 people will bedisplaced from Sagar and another 20,000from Namkhana by 2020. Several otherislands in the western estuarine deltaincluding Ghoramara will be completelydeserted (Priyadarshini, 2006).

Keeping in mind the fact that the regionis lagging behind in terms of basic humandevelopment indicators like health andeducation and that women and children arealso less secure it is obvious that copingability of the inhabitants in these areas areminimal and hence they are highlyvulnerable to such hazards.

According to official estimate thevulnerability from natural disasters likeflood and cyclone is extremely severe in7 out of 13 blocks in Sundarban areafalling under South 24 Parganas (See Figure7.9).

The ranking criteria are however largelyguided by past risk exposure evidence (Table7.12) without taking into account the adaptivecapacity of the communities that depends ona host of factors like ex-ante mitigationworks of the government and coping abilitiesof settlers, which in turn is contingent oncountless social and economic factors likeincome and awareness level.

Risks from natural disasters inSundarbans can be broadly classified intotwo types depending on the scale ofoccurrence: regular idiosyncratic risksoccurring from embankment collapse andsystematic risk occurring from thecyclones and storm surges that are lowprobability high consequence events.

Embankments raised along the river bedare the most vital “public defence” that aresupposed to protect the people from notonly extreme events of tidal surges but alsofrom the flow tide and ebb tide that takesplace every 24 hours in the area. During themonths of April to October the tidal wavesassume giant proportions and causes breachin the mud dykes. This is especiallydetrimental for paddy cultivation as the tidalingress raises the salinity of the soil untila couple of monsoon rains completelywashes away the salt deposition from thefield. In most cases gushing flow of salinewater also causes considerable damage tophysical assets and livestock. Thus,maintenance of embankments and their

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Table 7.12: Recent History of Disasters in South 24 Parganas

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timely repair is synonymous to maintaininga smooth income stream of the people.

Under the colonial rule the Zamindars,who encroached the land, looked after themaintenance of the dykes. But with theabolition of the Zamindari System the onusof repair and surveillance of the mudembankments lay solely with theDepartment of Irrigation and Waterways(DIW), Government of WestBengal13 .Government response to theexigency are of two types: (i) ex-antemitigation, involving maintenance ofembankments and in times of adverseweather, dissemination of warningmessages and evacuation, and (ii) ex-postcoping in terms of repair of breachedembankments and allocation of relief to theaffected villagers.

According to the DIW there are twomajor causes of embankment damage in theSundarbans area14. Technologically theembankment structures are weak since theywere initially built out of uncohesive siltavailable on the upper layer of riverside thatcannot resist the tidal surges in the long run.Also, unplanned settlement even in concavesides of the bends of the meandering rivernecessitated construction of embankmentsthat were highly unstable due to natural

scouring away of underneath river silt thatgradually weakened its base. Secondly,embankment damage is also linked with theproper drainage through sluice gates inthese areas. The average annual rainfall inthe area is 1625 mms (65 inches). The areais flat with a silty clay soil and so there islittle ground water absorption. To protectthe crops from inundation sluice gates havebeen placed in these areas that drain awaythe water to the adjoining rivers and canals.However, they are largely inadequate as theyserve only 0.119 million hectares (460 sq.miles) of land out of 0.259 hectares millionhectares of land. As rainwater accumulatesin the crop fields, people make crude cutson the embankments for draining away thewater. These unauthorized cuts are seldomclosed to proper sections thereby makingthe embankments vulnerable to tidal surgesand wave action.

Apart from hydro-meteorological causeslarge-scale conversion of paddy fields tobrackish aquaculture is yet another threat tothe structural stability of the existingsystem of embankments. Conversion ofpaddy fields into brackish aquaculture is asteadily growing practice in Sundarbans15 .As a part of the process the Bheri (fishery)owner initially acquires land from large

13 Initially the land was parcelled out in ‘lots’ to the affluent people who brought in tribal people called ‘Chakdars’ to beginclearing and cultivation in the area. Knowing that the island inundates during high tides twice a day the stretch of mudembankments was constructed by these ‘lot-holders’and was commonly hailed as Zamindari Bandhs (Bandopadhyay, 2000).14 Status report on the progress of “Urgent Repair works in Sundarbans” in 2006, Department of Irrigation and Waterways.

15 Chopra, Kumar and Khan (2007) find that declining land productivity and increasing population density is the determiningfactor for the conversion of agricultural lands to aquaculture in Indian Sundarbans.

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landholders for a lease16 . To ensure inflowof saline water they dig channels inembankments that reportedly increase thechance of embankment failure during hightides. The water inlets are completelyillegal, as The Bengal Embankment Acts of1876 and 1882 require that any alterationof the existing embankments should benotified to the Collector for approval17 . Thespread of these inland fisheries also raisesthe demand for wild prawn seeds as thesupply from the hatcheries is not adequate.The supply of the prawn seeds, called Meenin local parlance, comes from informal seedcollectors who wade through the riverbanks. Apart from adverse healthconsequences, the process also weakens theembankments as the seed collectorstrample upon the mud base and aggravatesoil erosion. Thus, damage risk of theexisting embankments is multidimensional

16 Field visits conducted in villages of Basanti and Gosaba revealed that Bheri owners pay on an average Rs. 3000 toRs.3500 per bigha annually to the landholders for leasing out their land. After tax deductions net income from leased outland comes around Rs.2500/bigha per year.17 For a discussion of flood control laws in India see Kamta Prasad (2006).18 Having said this it must be kept in mind that without a sufficiently large time series inference about the growth in breachwould surely involve a large margin of error. Thus, while several areas in Namkhana like Patibonia and Dhoblaat in Sagarare highly vulnerable to tidal surges aggregation at the block level in fact show a declining trend in embankment breach.With limited observation and large level of aggregation the vulnerability from embankment damage must be understood withcaution.

and vulnerability of the victimized populaceis likely to be different depending onwhether the embankment breach is fromnatural and/or anthropogenic factors.

Officially 9 out of 13 blocks ofSundarbans in the South 24 Parganasdistrict have been identified to havepotentially weak embankments due tonatural shocks and fishery problems (Table7.13).

Among the vulnerable blocks theconditions of Basanti, Gosaba, Mathurapur-II and Patharpratima are fast deteriorating(Table 7.13)18. Maintenance ofembankments requires huge capitalexpenditure the fund comes from threesources: Calamity Relief fund (CRF) fromthe Central Government, allocation of theState Government for DisasterManagement and the own fund of DIW. Theexpenditure on embankments has a risingtrend though it petered out in last five years(Figure 7.10).

Table 7.13: Embankment breaches in Sundarbans area in South 24 Parganas

Source: Disaster Preparedness & Response Plan-2002,South 24 Parganas, Government of West Bengal

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Table 7.14: Extent of Embankment Damage in 13 Blocks of Sundarbans in South 24Parganas (2002-2007) †.

(in Km.)

† Figures in parentheses show percentage breach out of total length of embankments in the Block.Source: Department of Irrigation and Waterways, GoWB

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While the general consensus isunambiguous about the natural causes ofembankment damage the opinion is dividedabout whether human activities like fisheryor cutting through embankments to drainout rain water are significant determinantsof breaches. Interactions with local peopleand people of Sundarban DevelopmentBoard repeatedly gave rise to the concernthat unregulated fishery activities are oneof the many causes of embankment failurein Sundarbans. On the other hand, promotingbrackish water aquaculture is an importantlivelihood strategy undertaken by the

Government in these areas. This involvesbank credit and so economic considerationmay point towards a diametrically oppositething: people whose payback is contingenton the stability of the embankments wouldrather look after their maintenance purelyfor private benefit that can convey apositive externality on the neighborhoodresidents. It seems that what matters hereis the institutional arrangement under whichfishery is organized. If it is largely informalthen the fishery owner flouts the norms19

for setting up the fishery and so will tryand maximize his short run gain. Thus,

BOX 7.1 : Embankment Collapse and Community Action

The Mousuni Gram Panchayat in Namkhana Block is known to be vulnerable for frequentcollapse of embankment stretches. In one such incident in May 2003 the embankment breachedin Kusumtala close to the mouza boundary of Baliara engulfing among other things the unpavedroad that leads to a primary school near the river. Children were kept from attending the schoolwhich also meant they would not get the supply of mid day meals that supplemented their dietto a large extent. When mothers complained about the incident to the Panchayats they advisedthem to go for mending the road on their own. As the Namkhana Panchayat Samiti was of adifferent political orientation so they feared that sanction for public works would be delayed. Thewomen folk under a Self Help Group decided that male members of the community would dothe work and they would cook for them in temporary camps on the road side. However, the daywhen the work would start no male member turned up and finally the women decided to carryout the work on their own. They completed the work in four days engaging 118 labour hours.Though this could stand as an example of community involvement in risk coping, it also showsthe delayed reaction that could as well prolong the burden of damage cost among politicallyfragmented rural self governments.Source : Danda, A. A. (2007) “Surviving in the Sundarbans : Threats and Responses - An analytical description of lifein an Indian Commons”, Ph.D Thesis, University of Twente,The Netherlands.

19 According to official sources the average per hectare yield is 900 kg for aquaculture farms. Some preconditions for settingup the fisheries include: a) a minimum distance of 200-300 meters from the shoreline (though coastal zone regulationsrequire a minimum distance of 500m from coastal line for any economic activity to take place) b) registration from theaquaculture authority and permission of the Environment Department and c) the entrepreneur must have at least two hectaresof land at their disposal.

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little attention will be paid towardsmitigation of breach events andmaintenance of embankments. So far asbreaches due to unauthorized cuts fordraining out rainwater is concerned thecounter-argument goes that it occurs onlyin a few places and that its frequency ofoccurrence over the years is very low.

Whatever may be the cause, the risingdifficulty of embankment maintenance ishighlighted from the fact that mitigationexpenditures have increased over the yearsbut have failed to arrest the breach and theresultant damage significantly. Oneimportant drawback that thwarts collectiveaction for risk coping at the communitylevel is the possibility of coordinationfailure across the different tiers of thePanchayats (See Box 7.1).

Naturally, the question arises whetherthe community organizes itself to poolindigenous resources for maintaining theembankments and to minimize the cost oftidal ingress. Surprisingly, it is seen thatno such efforts exist among the people inSundarbans20. Those who get displaced bytidal floods again settle on the raisedplatform of embankments knowing fully

well that will they may have to relocateshortly when the next tide occurs. Here,intra block relocation of households is thechosen coping strategy rather thanexpending resources on mitigation.

Historically, however, settlement inthese areas did not follow the patternfollowed in Bangladesh part of Sundarbanswhere there were large scale privateinitiatives to raise and maintainembankments. When reclamation ofBangladesh Sundarbans was nearlycomplete in 1904 barely 40 per cent of theSouth 24 Parganas Sundarbans had humansettlements (Ascoli, 1920). It wasunderstood that the required scale ofinvestment to raise embankments in theseareas would be far greater than the privatebenefit accruing from agricultural activitiesdue to the frequency of extreme weatherevents. Hence to encourage settlementsactive governmental support in the form ofreclamation loans and embankmentconstruction were extended. Thus,collective action in the form of a traditionin these areas is largely absent. Moreover,the alienation of the local people as anagent of management of local resources

20 In areas where there are brackish water farms near the river embankments, farm owners commit some money for embankmentmaintenance every year on a regular basis. This is because except in times of dire emergency Department of Irrigation and Waterways arereluctant to carry out mud patching in these areas. They reason that since the fishery farm owners carry out their business by diggingchannels in the embankment structure it’s also their responsibility to maintain it. In a way this has encouraged a lot of private efforttowards provisioning of flood defense in form of embankment maintenance. In Sundarbans two types of public effort is present: individualmaintenance expenditure and collective expenditure on embankment maintenance through committees involving fishery owners. InSouth 24 Parganas part of Sundarbans the former type of arrangement is mostly seen while collective maintenance through activities islargely present in North 24 Parganas part of Sundarbans like Sandeshkhali-I and II.

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like embankments by delegating theresponsibility to decentralized institutionslike Panchayats might have also triggeredsuch inaction21,22 .

Finally, for co-variate risks like tropicaldepressions and cyclones one importantproblem in the district is the lack ofadequate Cyclone Warning MessageCentres (CWMC) and the completeabsence of cyclone shelters. Among the

seven extremely vulnerable blocks onlyBasanti, Namkhana and Kakdwip have earlywarning systems. One study aboutinformation gaps in the Sundarbansrevealed that fishermen generally dependon Bangladesh radio for warning messagesas there have been cases when the warningmessages from All India Radio (AIR)reached them after the disaster hasstruck23 .

21 Interaction with people in Sundarbans during field visits clearly revealed that earlier family members actively patched damagedembankments with mud before and during the occurrence of breach. But gradually the decision making process regarding embankmentmaintenance slipped away from them and they now complain of untimely and inadequate repair works that they think is caused by thechain DIW-Panchayat-Contractors operating in those areas.22 In recent times mud patching of the embankments is being carried out through the NREG programme. In fact for most of the villagesone of the most important sources of employment delegating people for strengthening the embankments. Though people are criticalabout the allocation of NREGA funds there is a general consensus that the state of embankments has improved after the introduction ofNREGA.23 Action Aid and Reuters Foundation (2006) “The Need For Information and Communication Technology In The Sundarbans,” ProjectReport.

Towards a Block Vulnerability Profile: Vulnerability Index7.5The official estimate of vulnerability hasone important drawback in the sense thatit solely relies on historical risk exposuredata to assess the susceptibility of damageto disaster shock. The assessment is notcomplete in the sense that it does not takeinto account the adaptive capacity of thecommunity that is governed by theirentitlement reflected by asset position andthe extent of empowerment that can beobtained from indicators like education,health and social security that the peoplecan avail of. Thus, given the same level ofrisk exposure the community with higheradaptive capacity is less likely to bevulnerable. To account for that, a

vulnerability index is constructed as acomposite of two indices: Economic andSocial Vulnerability Index (ECVI) and Bio-Physical Vulnerability Index (BPVI). TheECVI is constructed by choosingdeprivation measures from the RuralHousehold Survey (RHS) data with theidea that communities having lower levelof deprivation are more capable of adaptingto extreme events than those with higherlevel of deprivation. The RHS providescategorical (percentage of households)data on the following 8 indicators:a) Possessions of land, b) possessionsof house, c) clothing, d) food intakee) earning members f) literacy, g)

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indebtedness, and h) migration.For the ECVI we standardized the

indicators as follows

minmax

min

ii

iij

xxxx−

−

Here,

ijx

is the ith indicator for the jth block

and maxix and min

ix are the maximum and theminimum values of a particular indicatoracross blocks with i=1,2,.., 8 and

j=1,2,..,29. Then the standardized indicatorsare combined by computing a simpleaverage for each block to obtain the ECVI.Here, we have attached equal weight toeach factor. By way of construction highervalues of ECVI would denote highervulnerability and thus is assigned a higherrank. The ECVI shows that regionwiseSundarbans has the lowest adaptive capacityand given the preponderance of natural

disasters, naturallymore vulnerablethan the other tworegions (Table7.15). It is clearlyseen Budge Budge-II in Region-I, Kulpiin Region-II andBasanti in Region-III are mostvulnerable blocksso far as adaptivecapacity isconcerned.

Table 7.15: Block-wise Economic and Social Vulnerability Indices

KAKDWIP

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The next task is to arrive at an aggregateindex combining both ECVI and BPVI. TheBPVI is derived from the estimate of thepopulation likely to be affected by thenatural disasters out of the total populationin each block (Disaster Preparedness &

Response Plan-2002, South 24 Parganas,Government of West Bengal). Here werequire an ordinal aggregator and towardsthis end the Borda Rule as a method ofrank- order scoring suggests itself24 . Goingby it we first rank each of the standardized

measures of deprivation that weobtained from the RHS of South24 Parganas. Adding up the ranksgives us the Borda Score ofeconomic and socialvulnerability. Then we rank theblocks according to thepercentage of the population thatare likely to be affected fromnatural disasters using the earlierstandardization method (Table7.16)

Finally, we add up the ranks ofthe BPVI with the Borda Scoreof the economic and socialindicators to arrive at theaggregate Borda Score and rankthe blocks according to the scoreobtained (See Table 7.17)

24 See Dasgupta P (1995) An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution, Clarendon Press,Oxford pages 109-111

Table 7.16: Block-wise BPVI

Block BPVI RanksBaruipur 0.250 1

Basanti 0.835 2

Bhangar - I 0.167 3

Bhangar - II 0.167 4

Bishnupur-I 0.000 5

Bishnupur-II 0.000 6

Budge Budge -I 0.000 7

Budge Budge -II 0.000 8

Canning - I 0.750 9

Canning - II 0.750 10

Diamond Harbour - II 0.500 11

Falta 0.667 12

Gosaba 0.710 13

Joynagar -I 0.167 14

Joynagar -II 0.167 15

Kakdwip 0.753 16

Kulpi 1.000 17

Kultali 0.750 18

Magrahat - I 0.583 19

Magrahat - II 0.583 20

Mandirbazar 0.659 21

Mathurapur - I 0.667 22

Mathurapur - II 0.667 23

Namkhana 0.815 24

Patharpratima 0.852 25

Sagar 0.884 26

Sonarpur 0.083 27

Thakurpukur Mahestala 0.000 28

Note: Diamond Harbour-I is excluded from the analysis because the exposuredata was not reliable.

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Ranking based on StandardizedEconomic and Social Indicators

Table 7.17: Composite Vulnerability Index (VI) of South 24 Parganas

Note:H: Percentage of households with no houseG: Percentage of households with number of garments less than 2F: Percentage of households that can manage less than 1 square meal a day for the major part of the yearEDU: Percentage of households where all 7+ members are illiterateEARN: Percentage of households having no regular wage earner or consisting of women, infirm, old or children onlyD: Percentage of households that have to take loans from familiar persons for everyday needsM: Percentage of households that have to migrate for various reasons to earn livelihoodL: Percentage of households with no land holdings

BSESI: Borda Score based on the ranks of Economic and Social indicatorsBSPLA: Borda Score based on population likely to be affected from Natural Disasters

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The composite Vulnerability Index (VI)preserves the ranking of ECVI and EI in thesense that here also the Sundarban regionis most vulnerable followed by Region IIand Region I (Figure 7.11). Moreover therank correlation between the BSESI andBSPLA is positive and significant at the

Figure 7.11: Average Borda Score of Composite Vulnerability Index across regions

25 It is absolutely necessary, however, to keep in mind the possible causality between economic and social vulnerability andexposure to climatic hazards. Poorer people tend to settle in risky areas and hence are more exposed to natural disasters.On the other hand disaster driven income shocks can be the sole determinant of poverty and vulnerability.

Table 7.18: Block-wise Vulnerability in Sundarbans

Block BSESI BSPLA Total Borda Score Borda RankCanning II 32 8 40 1Joynagar II 42 2 44 2Gosaba 42 5 47 3Kakdwip 42 9 51 4Sagar 38 13 51 4Mathurapur II 49 3 52 6Mathurapur I 49 4 53 7Kultali 55 6 61 8Namkhana 61 10 71 9Canning I 69 7 76 10Joynagar I 76 1 77 11Patharpratima 79 12 91 12Basanti 94 11 105 13

level of 10 percent25 .Taking Sundarbans in isolation it is found

that in terms of Composite VulnerabilityIndex Basanti and Pathapratima are themost vulnerable among the 13 blocks(Table 7.18).

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Concluding Observations7.6Employment generation strategies have

not worked well in South 24 Parganas –number of mandays generated is the thirdlowest among the districts. Given the lowper capita income and the highestconcentration of backward classes in thedistrict this implies low levels of economicsecurity. However, its performance inhousing schemes is better.

Social security for women is severelylacking as crime rate against women is thehighest in the district. Incidence of Riotsand CAW outnumbers the violent crimesin the district and these two types ofcrimes multiply as one moves from regionsnear Kolkata towards south in Sundarbans.In terms of crime rates for violent crimes,CAW and riots , Thakurpukur - Maheshtalaand Sonarpur in Region-I, Bhangar inRegion-II and Canning in Region-III are

most vulnerable.Idyosyncratic risks arising from

embankment damages are on the rise despitehuge mitigation expenditures. Conditionsof Basanti and Gosaba are fast deteriorating.Apart from natural causes unorganizedfishery activities are supposed to be theprime drivers of embankment breaches.Community institutions for collectivelymanaging embankments are missing inSundarbans raising question marksregarding operation of decentralizedPanchayati Raj bodies.

Finally, in terms of Economic and SocialVulnerability Budge Budge-I, Kulpi andBasanti come out as the most vulnerableblocks in South 24 Parganas. But in termsof overall vulnerability Basanti, Kultali,Joynagar-I and Pathapratima occupies lastfour positions among the 29 blocks.

In terms of overall vulnerability thisexercise conforms partially to officialassessment in that Basanti andPatharpratima display high vulnerability.But unlike official estimates Gosaba andSagar display lesser vulnerability and hereinlies the role of economic and social factorsthat determine adaptive capacity ofthecommunities. For instance in terms ofasset position Gosaba and Sagar fare wellcompared to their counterparts in

Sundarbans as here the percentages oflandless households are very small. Inaddition, Sagar Block displays lesserindebtedness and higher levels of literacythat can be suggestive of better capacity tocope with natural hazards. On another notetourism benefits from Sagar Mela mighthave prompted better maintenance ofinfrastructure in Sagar Block therebymoderating the damage potential ofclimatic shocks.

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