Work
1
Academic Paper
“Shallow Waters: Examining Displacement, Migration, and Climate Resilience among Urban-Village Communities in Beed.” - It has been published in the September 2023 issue of the International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research
2
The Climate Resilience Project Case Study Questions
The Climate Resilience Project Case Study Questions follows a semi-structured narrative interview style wherein the questions investigated themes pertaining to the lives and livelihoods of the sugarcane farmers affiliated with the Navchetana Sarvangin Vikas Kendra. The interviews were largely conducted in Marathi so as to provide respondents with comfort, while also allowing for richer data collection by communicating in their first language.
The CRP Case Study questions followed themes including, but not limited to, the farmers’ work and the ways in which this work is impacted by climate change phenomena such as unseasonal rainfall and droughts; the health and sanitation complications arising out of these phenomena; the ways in which community solidarity manifests during these times of adversity, and lastly the respondents’ experiences with forced climate migration on a socio-economic, and socio-cultural level.
3
Sample Case Study
Vaishali Tai, She is 25 years old, a wife and mother of 2. Vaishali belongs to a community of farmers who have worked in sugarcane plantations in the Beed district of Maharashtra for 6 generations.
But climate change over the last few decades has had devastating effects on the livelihood of her community. The change in rain patterns, widespread droughts as well unseasonal hailstorms have resulted in a destruction of their crops as well as a scarcity of food and water for survival.
Climate change has thrust Vaishali’s community into deep poverty where they are drowning in debt. Moreover, the community has been forced to rely on seasonal migration to neighbouring states such as Karnataka in search of alternate sources of income through the year. Their nomadic lifestyle presents enormous hardships for the families of the community. They live in temporary tarpoline tents, are often shunned by the locals and are extremely vulnerable to violence and abuse. This community has next to no access to even the most basic facilities for their health, hygiene and education.
In this extremely dire reality, the ones hardest hit are the weakest members of the community, the children. Because the children have to move with their parents they have no access to education and are forced into child labour and are often injured or die by being bit by snakes and scorpions, falling in open ditches or even being run over by tractors and construction vehicles.
The girl child is the most vulnerable member of this community and is often married off for money or for safe keeping.