Page 9 - IJPS-6-1

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Voices of rural people: Community-level

assessment of effects and resilience to

natural disasters in Odisha, India

Sangram Kishor Patel*, Bincy Mathew, Ankit Nanda, Biswajit Mohanty,
Niranjan Saggurti
Population Council, Zone 5A, IHC, Lodi Road, New Delhi, India

Abstract: Globally, natural disasters have caused a large scale of damage and destruction every
year, affecting millions of people, the economy, and development – and developing countries
are the most severely affected. Odisha is one of India’s most disaster-prone states. This study
explores the effects of, and resilience to, cyclones, floods, droughts, and heatwaves in Odisha,
and identifies government strategies that help mitigate these natural disasters. We mainly used
primary data collected through a qualitative study undertaken from April 2017 to June 2017 in
ARTICLE INFO three districts of Odisha. We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with
Received: September 14, 2019 community members and key stakeholders at different levels. In addition, our study analyzed
Accepted: October 26, 2019 secondary data on natural disasters using DesInventar, a disaster information management
Published: November 5, 2019 system data source. The findings show that floods, cyclones, and drought in recent years,
along with heatwaves and lightning, have severely affected the people of Odisha. The impacts
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR of these natural disasters are calamitous – particularly on livelihoods, food security, health,
Sangram Kishor Patel, water, and sanitation. These natural disasters, which have affected agriculture, fisheries, prawn
Senior Program Officer, cultivation, roadside vendors, and daily wage laborers, have both short- and long-term effects
Population Council, Zone on the livelihoods of people in Odisha, leaving them with scarce employment opportunities. The
5A, IHC, Lodi Road, vulnerable and marginalized sections of the population have been the most severely affected,
New Delhi - 110 003, India.
sangramkishor@gmail.com, and common coping mechanisms have included selling off livestock, borrowing food, taking
skpatel@popcouncil.org loans and mortgages, and migration. The government’s measures/programs, such as an Early
Warning System, Public Distribution System, Multipurpose Cyclone Rehabilitation Centers,
CITATION Seasonal Residential Care Centers, and Indira Awas Yojana, play a major role in mitigating
Patel SK, Mathew B, Nanda A, the effect of disasters among rural communities. Our study indicates that natural disasters have
Mohanty B, Saggurti N. (2020). impacted the population of the state socioeconomically, physically, and psychologically. The
Voices of rural people: effect on livelihoods, directly and indirectly, exacerbates income, food security, and health.
Community-level assessment There is an urgent need to focus on reducing people’s underlying vulnerabilities by taking
of effects and resilience to proactive measures, engaging the community in decision-making, and generating alternative
natural disasters in Odisha, and sustainable livelihoods.
India. International Journal of
Population Studies, 6(1):3-15. Keywords: Climate change; Effects; India; Natural disasters; Odisha; Resilience
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v6i1.1042
This article belongs to the Special Issue: Environment and Population Dynamics in South Asia
Copyright: © 2020 Patel, et al.
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms 1. Background
of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Non Commercial Natural disasters count among the prominent events that devastate populations,
4.0 International License economies and impede development both in developed and developing countries. On
(http://creativecommons.org/ a global level, over 98 million people were affected and US$66.5 billion in economic
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting damages were incurred in 2015 alone due to natural disasters (UNISDR, 2016). India,
all noncommercial use, one of the most disaster-prone countries, supports around one-sixth of the world
distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the population on 2.4% of the world’s landmass. The country has experienced multiple
original work is properly cited. disasters and has 40 million hectares of land that is susceptible to floods, a long coastline

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