An assessment of socio-economic vulnerability at the household level: a study on villages of the Indian Sundarbans

The Indian Sundarbans with its unique bio-geographical composition is prone to hazards like cyclones, storms and floods, making its socio-ecological systems vulnerable to environmental stresses. Moreover, its structural aspects appear to be a significant factor in pushing the systems towards vulnerability. A landscape analysis was done in four villages in the Indian Sundarbans to measure their socio-economic vulnerability. An index method was followed to compare the variables linked with the system’s vulnerability, namely basic socio-demographic characteristics, lack of basic amenities and enough safety nets, lack of accessibility and poor transport and communication. Among these variables, lack of accessibility, and poor transport and communication place limitations on the external exposure of the Indian Sundarbans. Satjelia is an island village found to be the most vulnerable among all with a composite index score of 0.518. Satjelia’s distant geographical location along with lack of sufficient educational and income opportunities, poor social network, higher percentage of marginalised population and greater losses due to natural disasters have contributed to its high vulnerability. Less-accessible villages are deprived of some of the basic facilities and thus are ranked higher on the ‘sensitivity’ domain and lower in the ‘adaptive capacity’ domain, leading to a higher value in the Socio-Economic Vulnerability Index. However, the overall index values did not differ much in the case study villages of the Indian Sundarbans due to standardisation, equal weightage, spatial factors and the usage of a limited number of indicators. Hence, a policy initiative should focus upon the improvement of basic infrastructure and better accessibility among all the geographical locations, thus minimising socio-economic vulnerability in the Indian Sundarbans.