Page 16 - FMR64_Trafficking and smuggling & Climate crisis and local communities_2020_web

FMR 64
16 Climate crisis and local communities
www.fmreview.org/issue64 June 2020

Displaced families who have the bear disproportionate burdens. They shoulder
means to purchase land further inland responsibility for heading the household,
tend to choose to rebuild their houses in caring for children and the elderly, disabled
comparatively safer locations rather than and sick members of the family, growing crops
to migrate permanently elsewhere, either for household consumption, and tending to
because they lack the means required for domestic chores and the family’s betel vine
more distant, permanent migration or sheds. Their socio-economic position within
because they are unable to bear the notion of a rural society also severely limits their
being separated from their land. Although mobility and their access to finance, health
they know that the present rate of erosion care, and participation in decision making;
means that Ghoramara will be completely while awaiting the return of their husbands
submerged within the next 30 to 40 years and every four or six months, they live in constant
that they will inevitably be displaced again, fear of climate hazards and face intense
their deep attachment to place keeps them deprivation. Women respondents empasised
rooted on the island. Those who lack the the need for a gender-sensitive analysis
means to move are increasingly demanding of the impacts of seasonal migration and
government assistance to enable their forced displacement. As one of them noted:
migration to and resettlement in a safer zone.
Until the 1990s, the Government of West “It gets very hard for me sometimes to manage
Bengal gave out land tenures and financial everything here without my husband. Extreme
poverty forces us to take on additional work like
aid to displaced households, acknowledging weaving nets.”
the challenges faced by households forced
to move because of environmental factors, The role of the community and local
and thereby setting a precedent. This women’s informal support networks features
is particularly significant in a country prominently in the narratives of all women
where policy and regulations – such as respondents in Ghoramara. However,
the National Policy on Resettlement and responses also reveal the reluctance of
Rehabilitation – recognise development- families from other islands and the mainland
induced displacement but no other type to marry their daughters into families in
of displacement as a legitimate cause for Ghoramara. Even impoverished families
financial aid and rehabilitation support. in Ghoramara who have sons must offer a
Legislation and policies targeted at disaster high bride price for the son’s marriage.
risk management overlook displacement
resulting from slow-onset events and are Sagar: a ‘safe’ island?
limited to immediate post-disaster relief. Although not connected to the mainland,
In the 1990s, as assisted resettlement Sagar – the largest island in the Sundarbans –
of people from Ghoramara continued, the has better infrastructure than all others in the
Government of West Bengal began to run out region. The island has a lower rate of erosion
of land to give to those seeking resettlement in than nearby Ghoramara, and benefits from
Sagar. Smaller landholdings were awarded, the proximity of the Haldia Dock Complex
4
until the scheme ceased altogether. Those (a major port on the opposite bank of the
who cannot afford to move are trapped; Hooghly) and from the presence of the Kapil
they continue to live in misery and despair, Muni Temple on Sagar. Every January, the
receiving no additional support from the Gangasagar fair at the temple site attracts
government apart from what is available millions, and in recent years this alternative
from existing national- and state-level source of income has brought asphalt roads,
rural poverty alleviation programmes. electricity and 17 storm shelters to the island.
Despite the obvious benefits expected
The inordinate burden on women from migration to Sagar, the decision to
Women in Ghoramara from households where migrate is by no means an easy one, especially
some male members are seasonal migrants due to the unavailability of assistance for