Climate Change, Sea Level Rise and Displacement
As part of its climate action-related interventions, Aaina, in association with the Water Initiatives – a network of civil society organisations and individuals – took up a project titled ' Inclusive Rehabilitation of People Displaced by Climate Change Induced Disasters in the Bay of Bengal: Participatory Research & Action'.
As part of this project, we undertook rapid research in coastal districts of Odisha, namely, Puri, Kendrapada and Ganjam to understand the current vulnerabilities of people being constantly pushed back by an ever-inundating sea. The research was conducted in active participation of the vulnerable communities and looked into several aspects of their vulnerabilities such as the right to life, land rights, WASH, livelihoods, changes in the local natural resources, changes in basic entitlement systems, and so on and so forth. We also look into special vulnerabilities of women, children, aged, single women and PwDs. Based on the research, we engaged with the state government of Odisha, at the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) and advocated for taking up suitable climate actions including an inclusive Rehabilitation Policy for the people being displaced from their lands and livelihoods due to sea-level rise.
A Civil Society Task Force was constituted under the leadership of Mr Ranjan Panda, Convenor of Water Initiatives, who is a well-known water and climate expert in the nation. This Task Force had a series of meetings with the OSDMA officials as well as had the opportunity to engage with the Chief Secretary of the State. A national webinar on policy recommendations for people displaced by climate change was organized with the state government at OSDMA. This was organized on the 27th of July, 2023. In this webinar, we presented the 'Draft Rehabilitation Strategy', as had been discussed with the Chief Secretary of Odisha (who was previously the ACS and had been supporting us in this initiative), and the OSDMA presented about their work in the rehabilitation colony at Bagapatia where people displaced by climate change have been relocated.
The Chief Secretary then responded to our 11-Point Strategy. While basically agreeing to the idea of having a rehabilitation policy, he said that the government will try to include a provision within the existing Rehabilitation & Resettlement guidelines to cover the needs of the people displaced by sea-level rise. Regarding our idea of creating Land Bank and supporting people with both homestead and agricultural lands, however, he said this could be a difficult proposition for the government to take up at the moment. He emphasized on compensation for land and support for alternative livelihoods.
