Migration

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July 10, 2022 People in India fleeing disasters like drought more likely to have experienced trafficking or modern slavery than those fleeing floods or cyclones
The country's climate change assessment suggests things are only going to get worse (Image: Saurav Karmakar, India Water Portal Flickr)
May 18, 2021 Income loss top concern for rural communities, says study
Must have protocols for timely action and outreach in times of need (Image: DMD, Government of Bihar)
May 17, 2021 Practitioner's experiences in tackling the second wave in Indian villages
There is a need to strengthen the capacities of ASHA workers, and other healthcare and grassroots workers. (Image: DMD, Government of Bihar)
May 10, 2021 Absence of skill assessment and skill certification a major barrier
The study points out prejudices and discrimination against inter-state migrant workers and how most local people consider migrant labourers as outsiders. (Image: Paradiz, Pixabay)
May 6, 2021 81% of the workers reported that work has stopped due to locally declared lockdowns: SWAN study
Jeevan Rath 2.0 helped people get back home in June 2020. Migrants from Chhattisgarh were stuck in Pune when CYDA came in contact with them and arranged their transportation and food through support of Jeevan Rath and SwissAid. (Image: Maha C19 PECONet Collaborative/IWP Flickr)
May 6, 2021 A coalition of nonprofits highlights the unique challenges that confront rural India and provides suggestions on how to respond to the second wave of COVID-19.
As healthcare systems in urban cities across India grapple with the second wave of COVID-19, smaller towns and villages too are facing devastating consequences. (Image: ©Gates Archive/Saumya Khandelwa)
Water-use accounts in basins: Model concepts and description – A working paper by the Challenge Program on Water and Food
What is basin use accounting? How is it done? What is its contribution in synthesis work? What does it mean to asses water, food, poverty and environment? This paper examines these Posted on 16 Aug, 2010 12:18 PM

This paper deals with basin water use accounting and is a contribution to the synthesis work of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food's (CPWF) Basin Focal Projects. It provides a means to assess the interactions between water, food, poverty, and the environment and helps develop sound information about water availability in a basin, where it goes and how it is used.

Leh cloud-burst: A first-hand account
Climate change and its impact on Leh-Ladak: an account by Linkesh Diwan Posted on 16 Aug, 2010 11:44 AM

Midnight, August 6, 2010: "Link, wake up!  Water is coming in from the roof!"  My mother and I were in Leh, Ladakh, staying at "Eco-Homestay," the house of Mr. Sonam Gyatso and family, in Lower Sankar.  The house was made in a hybrid of traditional and modern construction techniques: the main hall in the house was concrete, while rooms surrounding it were made of sun-dried mud bricks, and roofed with Poplar beams, a mesh of willow branches, and a thick pad of fine clay-like mud.  The house incorporated passive solar building techniques, such as a direct-gain room, and a Trombe wall, and had solar-powered lighting.  It had been raining since evening, and by midnight the clay roof was saturated and began to leak.  

We were in Leh for the express purpose of meeting with Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization, founder of the Ladakh Ecological Development Group, and founder of the Women's Alliance, Ladakh.  We had learned of her online, seeing an article of hers in CounterCurrents.org, and watching her video "Ancient Futures."  She is the only person who has critically witnessed the "development" of Ladakh, from complete self-sufficiency in an exceedingly fragile eco-system, to the disaster under which it writhes today.  She has seen how "development" pulls people into a money economy, increases the distance between production and consumption,  brings reliance on fossil fuels (especially apparent in Leh where fuel and commodities are trucked in over a hazardous two-day journey from lower altitudes), results in urbanization and rural-urban migration, and brings psychological impoverishment to the people it is inflicted upon.  For 35 years, she has been working to bring safe, stable, and ecologically sound development to the region through her organizations.  Her work today, no longer limited to Ladakh, is focussed on spreading economic literacy among people throughout the planet, educating about the deeper impacts of globalization and today's consumer mono-culture.  Garnered from her years of observation and research, she has an important message for humanity today, which is what prompted us to go and meet her.

Power finance: Financial institutions in India's hydropower sector - A report by SANDRP, Urgewald and IRN
What is really at stake in the two most important power projects of India? A background into India's power and financial sectors Posted on 12 Aug, 2010 05:01 PM

This report published by SANDRP, Urgewald and International Rivers Network (IRN) provides a brief background on India's power and financial sectors and illustrates the issues at stake by giving examples of two important power projects in India, the Dabhol project and the Maheshwar project.

The next part of the report describes the role that the domestic and international financial institutions have played and continue to play and the controversies that have been associated with the functioning of these institutions in the implementation of the hydropower projects in India.

The report emphasises the importance of the role of NGOs and civil society movements in making these institutions accountable to the common people whose lives are affected by the projects/ interventions.

Mountains of concrete: Dam building in the Himalayas - A report by International Rivers Network
Building several hundered dams on the Himalayas, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan. What this entails? Posted on 11 Aug, 2010 07:38 PM

Mountains of concrete - IRN reportThis document by International Rivers Network provides a background for the recent plans initiated by India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan to build several hundred dams on the Himalayan mountains, which store vast amounts of water and with their high slopes and fast moving rivers, present a huge potential for generating hydropower.

India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan have been facing the increasing challenges of meeting their rising elecricity and energy needs and hydropower dams in the Himalayas are being proposed as solutions to meet a considerable part of these requirements.

The document examines the various arguments that have been put forward against the building of the dams as against the proposed advantages that the dams are claimed to have for these four countries, which share common geographical, topographical and eco-climatic features but have starkly different political and economic contexts.

A study of saline freshwater interface phenomena in the Mahanadi delta region (Orissa)
Orissa's freshwater aquifer systems prone to saline water mixing and migration with time and development Posted on 10 Jul, 2010 10:40 PM

A study of saline freshwater interface phenomena in the Mahanadi delta region (Orissa)The subsurface aquifer systems in Mahanadi delta region in Orissa (India) is largely characterized by two groups of freshwater aquifer systems, both of which are prone to saline water mixing/migration with time and development:

  • The south western Mahanadi delta region is represented by unconfined to semi-confined freshwater aquifers underlained by brackish/saline aquifer systems with a diffusion boundary.
  • The north eastern parts of Mahanadi delta is represented by deep freshwater confined aquifers overlained by brackish/saline water aquifers with aquitard/ aquiclude boundary.
Climate refugees: Implications for India
The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) mentioned the “potential for population migration” due to increase in the number of areas affected by droughts and an increase in the intense tropical cyclones activities. Available scientific evidences indicate that a large number of people might be displaced due to climate change. However, much of the literature on this issue refers to the question of whether the people forced to migrate as a consequence of climate change should be described as climate refugees. The international community is yet to recognise this new category of migrants. Posted on 18 Jun, 2010 03:56 PM

A widespread view that is gaining ground is that climate related migration could evolve into a global crisis by displacing a large number of people from their homes and forcing them to flee. Christian Aid postulates that a billion people could be permanently displaced by climate change related phenomenon such as droughts, floods and hurricanes (Christian Aid 2007). The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) mentioned the “potential for population migration” due to increase in the number of areas affected by droughts and an increase in the intense tropical cyclones activities (IPCC 2007: 18). In particular, it seems likely that significant numbers of people will be displaced, either temporarily or permanently, from their homes as a consequence of global warming (Stern 2006). Available scientific evidences indicate that a large number of people might be displaced due to climate change. However, much of the literature on this issue refers to the question of whether the   people forced to migrate as a consequence of climate change should be described as climate refugees. There is no internationally agreed definition of the term “climate refugee” and the extent to which these displaced persons constitute a separate identifiable group. Although it is now widely recognised that climate change will significantly adversely affect India, there are few studies available on how climate change is going to affect the migration of people. It has been asserted that 70,000 people out of the 4.1 million living in the Indian part of the Sundarbans islands would be rendered homeless by 2020 (EPW, 6 June 2009).

Migration and displacement due to sea-level rise: Mega-cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai could be hit hard
A one-meter sea level rise will inundate 6000 square kilometers in India, of which Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will be the major cities being affected. This would mean losses of billions of dollars in infrastructural, social, physical assets and capital. Posted on 26 Aug, 2009 05:34 PM

125 million people are likely to migrate in the coming century of which 75 million will be from Bangladesh. The people from Bangladesh will most likely migrate to India in addition to our own 50 to 60 million people who will be displaced due to sea-level rise, shrinking water sources due to CC in the densely populated coastal regions of India.

Impact of climate change on river deltas and other coastal areas in India
While global warming is a matter of worldwide concern, among the most vulnerable areas are the coastlines of less developed tropical countries such as India. The river deltas, in particular, are already facing the brunt of climate change and these adverse impacts can be expected to increase dramatically in the course of this century. Posted on 26 Aug, 2009 04:23 PM

The effects are most visible in the Sunderbans. Literally the 'beautiful forest', these wetlands at the mouths of the Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems are among the largest mangrove forests in the world. About 62% of this area of some10000sq km lies in Bangladesh but there is a significant Indian portion in the state of West Bengal.

Impact of climate change on water resources
Sea-level rise and coastal delta flooding will result in large-scale migration, affecting traditional fishing communities, agriculture, tourism as well as industries and urban agglomerations along the coast. The stress on water resources will impact agriculture, especially rain-fed agriculture; as well as health; changing temperatures and moisture levels will affect insects and plants; and also our forests and pasture lands. Livelihoods will be at stake for the millions.
Can we do something about these impacts? Is something already happening? Yes, on both counts.
Posted on 26 Aug, 2009 02:30 PM

India has contributed immensely to the body of scientific research and analysis that underpins the understanding of the global impacts of climate change. There is, to a slightly lesser degree, an understanding of specific regional impacts. More needs to be done here, especially understinding micro-level impacts.

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