Abstract
This paper examines the livelihood vulnerabilities and coping strategies of char dwellers through a field study conducted in Mana Char. The analysis of their responses underscores the complexities of perceived agrarian threats and vulnerabilities of the Char inhabitants. It also suggests the need for re-examining the narrative of environmental risk and vulnerability within which chars are usually viewed. This study emphasises the component of subjectivity in perceiving agrarian threats. In doing so, it puts across the subtle differences in conceptualising agrarian threats in a char ecology and argues for ruling out the possibility of any generalisation regarding the environment of char and the operability of social life in it.
Introduction
Chars, 1 or accretion lands, are accumulations of riverine deposits like salt, silt and sand. Char results from sediment deposition by a river in its lower stretch. Such deposition occurs vastly in the deltaic regions (Bhattacharyya & Wiley, 2014). Initially, it may take the form of sandbars and then significantly grow into islands after detaching from the riverbanks. Being in a semi-permanent state, chars suffer from multiple troubles. From an environmental lens, they are prone to floods and riverbank erosion (Lahiri-Dutt & Samanta, 2007). From a political standpoint, chars are plagued with poor governance because they are transient. This is one of the reasons why revenue settlement of such tracts may sometimes get complicated (Chakraborty & Momin, 2023). Studies on charlands 2 in India argued that chars are one of the most marginalised areas on earth. Nevertheless, in a world of ever-increasing population and declining land availability, they provide unique platforms for people to settle down and scratch a living.
The marginalisation of chars makes the char dwellers, one of the most vulnerable groups, struggling with multiple uncertainties (Samanta & Lahiri-Dutt, 2005). As Mukherjee and Lahiri-Dutt (2021) note, chars destabilise popular notions about risk, vulnerability and security. Such areas are settled by refugees, migrants and other displaced groups. Chouras face many issues like physical and social isolation, identity crisis and economic hardships for survival (Chakrabartty, 2024; Lahiri-Dutt & Samanta, 2007) and confront further exclusion and impoverishment. Therefore, char area study helps us understand the complex hydrosocial relations between rivers and marginalised communities.
This paper attempts to understand the linkage between agricultural threats and livelihood vulnerability in Mana Char. Mana 3 Char (Figure 1) is a collective consisting of three sub-parts: Chhotomana, Majher Mana and Baramana. It lies in the lower section of the Durgapur barrage. This paper highlights the nuances of understanding agrarian threats in char ecology and argues against generalising the char environment and its social dynamics. Our approach to understanding people’s perceptions has been largely influenced by the academic writings of Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Gopa Samanta, Jenia Mukherjee, S. K. Chakrabartty and M. A. Hossain. However, our study diverges from existing studies by focusing on the nature of threat perceptions that char dwellers in the Lower Damodar Basin experienced in their agrarian environments. A field study was conducted in Mana Char, along River Damodar, sharing a border between the Bankura and Bardhaman districts of West Bengal during July 2022 and March 2023. The major data collection tools are non-participant observation, focus group discussions and personal interviews.
Conceptual Framework
We used ‘hydrosociality’ as the major theoretical underpinning of this study. Precisely, it is a socio-natural process by which water and society make and remake each other over space and time (Linton & Budds, 2014). The framework of the hydrosocial cycle captures this complex relation and tries to ‘reposition’ water from its physical circulation through the hydrologic cycle to the historical and relational-dialectical approach through which water and society constantly make and remake each other (Linton & Budds, 2014). Amidst other factors, such interdependence can be affected by climate change-induced aberrations in earning livelihoods, especially in the agrarian domain. Thus, analysing agrarian threats and livelihood vulnerability in fragile char environments requires a pre-requisite focus on climate change because of their greater vulnerability to climate change (Saikia & Mahanta, 2023). Current debates around climate change boil down to how people are affected by it. Most of the developing countries’ populations depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Therefore, it becomes an important sector to be secured from climate change-induced vulnerabilities. Such a step might help ensure global food security (Dobo et al., 2006) and sustainable livelihoods. Securing sustainable livelihoods can help reduce poverty, build resilience and make climate change adaptation easier (Hammill et al., 2005). Some quantitative studies focusing on the Livelihood Vulnerability Index have found that poor access to social and economic capital intensifies the vulnerability of people across different geographical locations (Toufique & Yunus, 2013). Regarding assessing vulnerability, there is a lack of a coherent base of vulnerability assessment research in the Indian context (Panda, 2009). However, Saikia and Mahanta (2023) have suggested integrating econometric and index-based approaches in researching vulnerability to climate change for better results.
Having established the core context, the subsequent discussion will explore the interpretations around char spaces and how livelihoods and associated vulnerabilities unfold there. Field insights from Chakraborty and Momin’s (2023) work in Malda, West Bengal, hint at the settlement problems of char spaces due to their existential ‘impermanence’. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Gopa Samanta and Jenia Mukherjee have focused on the subjective interpretation of char spaces such as how chars act as destabilisers of different binaries and generalisations. Further, the growth of Lower Damodar Basin chars into habitations of communities like the Bangladeshi refugees, despite challenges, underlines their interpretation of chars as ‘resource’ repositories (Chakrabartty, 2024; Lahiri-Dutt & Samanta, 2013). Along this line, Bhattacharya (2023) has attempted to relocate the discourse of ‘refugee-statelessness’, in the context of chars and their associated ‘geopolitical’ connotations. Interestingly, spatial interpretation and post-migration ‘re-grounding’ in chars have observably varied along gendered lines (Lahiri-Dutt & Samanta, 2016; Mukherjee & Lahiri-Dutt, 2021). Their works allow readers to perceive these landscapes as sites of new beginnings and experiential plurality. Besides, the neutral concepts of environmental security, risk and vulnerability have been presented differently in Lahiri-Dutt and Samanta’s analysis, that is, through a subjective lens. It stems from their attempt to trace the char dwellers’ mental maps of their space (Lahiri-Dutt & Samanta, 2007). Hossain (2024), in his work in the char villages of Bangladesh, focuses on the hazard-induced yet structurally linked ambiguities amidst people, in understanding climate-change and hazard situations. He further substantiates people’s everyday agency in coping with them.
Livelihood vulnerability has been studied extensively in char contexts. Findings suggest a positive correlation between natural hazards and livelihood vulnerability in the Lower Ganga plains (Singh & Pal, 2021). Owing to the presence of control structures, applying the same concept in the context of River Damodar sheds light on a different issue. Human interventions induced by changing fluvial dynamics have effects on increased vulnerability (Bhattacharyya & Wiley, 2014). Certain qualitative studies have also found a prevalence of a range of localised livelihood strategies attuned to the dynamism of the char dwellers’ lives. Samanta and Lahiri-Dutt (2005) have applied multiple lenses through which a nuanced analysis of the economic dimension of livelihood along the Damodar chars has been presented. Similar inquiries into livelihood options have also been made in Bangladesh’s chars. Alam et al. (2018), in their work in Char Gabsara, Bangladesh, have suggested some external solutions to improve dwellers’ livelihoods, like better institutional support, increased credit flow, char hut development and char market development.
The final theme in discussion is agriculture in chars. Sarker et al. (2022) have focused on the farmers’ perceptions of cropping patterns, risk to agriculture and coping mechanisms for promoting sustainable agriculture in the Chars of Northern Bangladesh. Additionally, specific solutions in terms of better institutional support, market reforms, and usage of pesticides have been provided to improve agriculture. This framework has also been scrutinised along River Brahmaputra’s chars—the question of agrarian sustainability has been addressed. Their findings suggest sustainability in char agrarian practices still seems to be a far cry, and a significant reason for this is tremendous population pressure and an insufficient support base (Barua & Singha, 2020).
Agricultural Scenario in Mana Char
Agriculture: 1950s to Mid-1970s
This period was marked by newer developments, such as the migration of people from erstwhile East Pakistan (currently Bangladesh), the Damodar Valley Corporation’s control over River Damodar through a network of dams and barrages and the consequent stabilisation of the smaller chars downstream. Mana Char developed into a recognisable entity during this period. The Bangladeshi refugees, most of whom have received Indian citizenship now, came to Mana from different places in India. Note, that there have been rare instances of direct migration of people from Bangladesh to Mana Char. An abundance of land resources in this area attracted people from various parts of West Bengal and beyond, where they might have been living in either refugee rehabilitation centres or in their relatives’ houses. Their agrarian background inculcated in them the required skill set for pursuing agriculture here, as well. Thus, the presence of unoccupied land in Mana suited their economic interests.
Mesta paat, a light variety of jute, was the major crop in Mana Char. It was a low-maintenance cash crop that could survive rough weather conditions and frequent floods. During food scarcity, Mesta’s edible seeds were consumed to meet people’s hunger. Besides Mesta, paddy was also grown on a differential scale for consumption needs. The quality of rice was inferior during the aforementioned period because the conditions in which Mesta was grown applied to paddy as well. Agriculture, though primitive, helped char dwellers adapt to a new and hostile environment. These crops dominated the crop composition of Mana Char during this time, along with some other minor crops like sweet potatoes and pulses.
Changing Trends
The character of agriculture began changing when political power shifted from Congress to the leftist regime in West Bengal in the late 1970s. During this transition, efforts began to provide char dwellers with shallow pumps on credit. Despite limited scope, it encouraged char dwellers to diversify crops like wheat, enhancing their agricultural returns beyond subsistence needs. However, this profitable transition depended on additional factors, including legal land document provision and advanced inputs, beyond just pump set distribution. There was a feeling of ease among the farmers when irrigation supported wheat production. Although it was never a dominant crop and had a brief spell in Mana, its mention is essential to underline the range of crops that have historically been grown in Mana. Local understandings of the causes of agrarian development in Mana Char were broadly attributed to two factors, (a) availability of better inputs and (b) improvement in land quality.
Current Cropping Pattern
The inferior land quality of Mana Char began to change for the better with increased cropping intensity. Although still labour-intensive, agriculture in Mana Char has become commercialised. The char soil is suitable for potato cultivation. Around 95.45% of our respondents cultivate potatoes in their fields. Mana Char produces a different variety of potatoes, pokhraj, distinct in build and taste from mainland-grown potatoes. On average, individual households produce 80–100 bosta 4 (gunny bags) of potatoes. However, potatoes are risky because of their high production cost and huge market price fluctuation. Groundnut is the second most important crop. It provides raw materials for the processing units that have recently mushroomed up in Mana, especially in Baramana. Such processing units absorb not only the dwellers of Mana, but the people from adjacent villages as well. Per bigha (units of land area—about 0.33 acres) estimates of the total groundnut output are noted in terms of quintals. Mana Char, on average, produces 4–6 quintals of groundnut. It is considered the most economic crop because of its low production costs and higher market returns. Karani Majumdar, a resident of Chhotomana, provides an attestation to this claim: ‘Keeping in mind the conditions of today’s times, groundnut is the most profitable crop because the cost incurred is less, the output is standard and the returns are stable’ (Fieldwork, 16 December 2022).
Paddy constitutes the third crop in Mana Char. However, it is not grown by everyone. The availability of family labour becomes a determinant factor in deciding whether one would cultivate paddy primarily for consumption. This study has identified a strong link between an increased standard of living and a corresponding decrease in the availability of family labour for engagement in field-based production processes. This, in turn, has shaped the preference of the target population in favour of consuming rice through market purchase.
As far as marketing is concerned, the burden of selling goods is not on the cultivators. The entire circuit of marketing is divided into two halves—the chouras produce crops on the field and assemble them, post-harvest, for the wholesalers (paikari in colloquial terms) to take over. The wholesalers then sell the amassed produce to the retailers. Finally, they reach the consumers. In short, the responsibility of the chouras gets over just at the stage of assemblage. Therefore, it is difficult to pin down the exact price figures. However, a guesstimate about them, averaged at the previous year’s/spell’s prices, can be furnished here. Potato was sold at ₹475–500 per bosta; paddy was sold at ₹800 per bosta and groundnut was sold at ₹5,000 per quintal.
Potato–groundnut–paddy is the dominant cropping pattern in the said area, complemented by a host of different types of vegetables. Agriculture as an economic activity unfolds in the tracts of Mana Char, throughout the year. Hence, it validates the prime focus of this article on using agrarian threat analysis as a stepping stone for commenting on the livelihood vulnerability in Mana Char.
Livelihood, Threat and Vulnerability
Research on chars consistently identifies floods and physical isolation as two critical issues that increase the vulnerability of both the char land and its dwellers. These factors tend to become agrarian threats as well. However, this storyline does not fully apply to Mana’s context. The existence of the Durgapur barrage has warded off floods from becoming a major agrarian threat. It has significantly reduced the frequency of floods, contributing to Mana Char’s stabilisation. Second, a historical adjustment of the dwellers to the whims of River Damodar has made people resilient to the cycle of making–shattering–remaking of livelihoods. Thus, they no longer consider floods to be a major agrarian threat.
Although several adverse events operate in a fragile ecology like Char, only a few qualify as potential threats. Broadly, they belong to two categories, namely, economic and natural. These threats have been identified through commonalities based on the responses of the dwellers. Some of the commonly perceived agrarian threats are discussed in this section.
General Economic Threats
Market price fluctuation is the biggest threat to the agrarian system that people have identified. The problem occurs when lower profits are realised from the sale. Low-profit situations lead to the declining capacity of people to invest in the cultivation of the next crop cycle and the repayment of debt from the previous crop cycle. Given this vicious circle, market price fluctuation is a great menace.
Rising input costs come next in the degree of seriousness. An example of such input is fertiliser—the char dwellers have commented on the regular rise in the price of fertilisers, which has, resulted in increased input costs. When this inevitable rise in production cost is combined with uncertain market returns, the pressure mounted on the dwellers becomes unbearable.
In connection with the economic domain, another problem that looms large is the labour shortage. Its long-term continuance has the potential to pose a threat to people’s source of livelihood and their standards of living.
General Natural Threats
Poor weather conditions, such as sudden spells of rain during the winter, can raise temperature levels temporarily. This can breed fungal diseases. In Mana, these diseases become threatening in the context of potatoes because it is the most lucrative crop as far as its economic potential is concerned.
Non-seasonal rainfall coupled with monsoonal showers are some important natural threats to people’s agrarian ventures. For example, showers in winter tend to damage crops.
Floods used to be a devastating agrarian threat, and it still remains one of those that define chars and their physical vulnerability. However, over the years, people have devised strategies to deal with it and developed resilience so that its annual occurrence does not cause much trouble.
Subjectivity in Threat Perception
The subjective frame has been used to understand how threat perception varies across different parameters and to tease out the differences in adjustment strategies. Besides, the idea is to assert that even a common problem can vary in degree of seriousness. We have identified two bases to study the differences in threat perception, that is, location-specific and economic strength-induced differences. A brief account of each basis has been presented in the following section.
Location-specific Differences
Mana Char can be classified into three sub-parts: Chhotomana, Majher Mana and Baramana. Chhotomana’s residents perceive market price fluctuation as a major threat to their agrarian ventures, given its proximity to the mainland and its market. Exemplifying potato in this context, its price fluctuation can be attributed to one, stocking a share of the previous year’s supply so that it could be used to meet next year’s demands, and two, farmers’ tendency to keep aside a share of produce, because of their speculative nature of realising higher profits in the future. The former happens on a mass scale, while the latter on an individual scale. The former may create the problem of oversupply in the next year, given an undisturbed spell of potatoes in the very year. The latter may result in recurring losses for the farmers. Soma Baruri backs this statement through her anecdote:
…A reasonable price was offered, but people’s speculation of getting a higher price got them to store their output…. We stored raw potato under straw cover so that it dries up and stays fine for sale in the market, later. Initially, we were offered ₹710 for each bosta, but I did not agree to sell it for that amount. But this speculation took a toll on us, as after some time we had to sell off potatoes at ₹690…. (Fieldwork, 20 December 2022)
Apart from this, weather-related problems are common agrarian threats across Mana. An interesting analysis can be presented in the context of floods. For instance, Chhotomana is located at a relatively higher elevation; thus, it does not have to bear the flood risk. Instead, respondents from Chhotomana expressed implicit desires to get low-intensity floods once in a while so that their medicinal qualities could reduce soil salinity. Such an urge could be noted in Bhabotosh Halder’s response,
If the land, during monsoon, gets water from the river [through floods], its capacity itself gets positively transformed. Continuous farming makes the soil saline. It can be naturally reduced by floodwater. Otherwise, we have to apply chun [limestone] to reduce it. It is natural that flooding benefits soil, but nobody can explicitly ask for it, right? (Fieldwork, 20 December 2022)
This line of argument indicates the dual interpretation of flood as it unfolds in the char. In some areas, it leads to hues and cries for its presence, and in others, for its absence.
In Majher Mana, the perception of threats changes in subtle ways. Majher Mana is densely populated; therefore, people have started usurping and ploughing the newly developed parts of the char. In this context, the binary between dangar jomi (literally, a plot on land) and Nodir jomi (literally, a plot in a river) should be introduced to note differences in threat perception even within Majher Mana. Poor soil quality, flooding, market price fluctuation and weather-related problems threaten agriculture in Majher Mana. Of which, poor soil quality creates trouble for those in possession of dangar jomi. Flipping the other side of the coin, the soil quality in the newly developed chars is extremely good, leading to a better productive potential for nodir jomi. Every monsoon, the freshly developed chars face the risk of getting flooded, sometimes leading people to step back from cultivating these plots. Nevertheless, historical resilience and an urge for survival in a resource-constrained area like Char have made the dwellers more risk-neutral, implying that they continue to practice agriculture even in flood-prone areas.
Baramana is the third major and biggest char constituting the collective of Mana, which lies amid two streams, namely, the mainstream of Damodar and one of its flow channels. Such a location puts Baramana in danger during sudden rainfall and monsoons because it is essentially flood-prone. Besides, its relatively lower elevation causes delays in the drying up of water, resulting in a disruption of agrarian operations. More than a threat to the production phase, floods cause problems in the marketing phase of the agrarian circuit because there is only one road that connects the entire Mana Char with the mainland. Niranjan Sarkar’s testimony helps one understand this statement:
Flooding is a big problem for us…. We are in the midst of two rivers. When a flood happens, our road connectivity stops, and we must wait for boats. We must stand in long queues to get boarded on a boat. One boat can carry four people (riding a bike) along with their output (vegetables and flowers), but it is too risky. (Fieldwork, 28 December 2022)
Besides flooding, sand mining is a suspected threat in the context of Baramana and to the freshly developed chars near Majher Mana. It is suspected to raise their susceptibility to bank erosion. Bank erosion can have a chain effect on the loss of cultivable land, thereby putting the dwellers at risk of narrowing livelihood opportunities. Many people have expressed their apprehensions regarding this, of which Dulal Sarkar’s anecdote is interesting.
If Balighat gets initiated in full swing, then very little faith will be left in our place’s existence. This is our main problem. If you are asking whether it can cause issues for agriculture, then yes, it does! (Fieldwork, 29 December 2022)
Apart from the threats above, weather-related problems and market price fluctuations also remain operational in Baramana.
Economic Strength-induced Differences
Char dwellers, who have been able to upscale their economic ventures and realise stable returns, do not consider anything to be a threat. Nor do they consider sole dependence on agriculture a profitable venture. Their greater access to profitable resources has equipped them to choose and optimise occupational options. On the other hand, those who could not reach this point perceive every unfavourable instance as threatening to their agrarian ventures in the long run. A few testimonies of people representing such variations can help substantiate this argument. According to Prabir Ghosh,
The only thing that is most problematic to us is financial in nature. The primary point is that every farmer faces problems of one sort or another, and it is not only you or me. Some people might have sufficient savings to get away with their problems, but we cannot save. (Fieldwork, 7 January 2023)
This testimony represents the economically weaker section within the community of char dwellers. This study has found a direct relationship between economic stability and thought transformation. Economic stability enables people to have a far-sighted view of the possible problems and their solutions within their livelihoods. Many dwellers who can be classified under this category in the area do not consider anything as threatening. Madhab Majumdar, the owner of a groundnut mill, opined: ‘Only weather problems are troublesome … I think flooding is not a problem; rather, sometimes it is good if a flood occurs. It deposits rich alluvium on fields, which raises the fertility of the soil’ (Fieldwork, 15 January 2023).
Declining Profitability and Vulnerable Livelihood Option
A qualitative analysis of threat perception delineates a conclusion regarding the vulnerability of livelihood derived from agriculture in Mana Char. Occupational diversification has become a rational strategy for coping with agricultural uncertainties. Around 36% of the sample population in this study has diversified into either daily wage employment, salaried employment, business or sometimes even more than one of these aforementioned areas. On a note of clarification, the term ‘business’ has been used as an umbrella term to include various activities, from large-scale mills to small-scale artisanal activities like balaposh (hand-stitched blanket) making. Salaried employment has been used to indicate jobs in the formal sector.
Conclusion
Livelihood derived from agriculture is vulnerable in Mana Char. The subjectivity component in agrarian threat perception has been focused here to shed light on various routes, which unanimously lead to the conclusion that agriculture is gradually becoming less appealing to the dwellers of Mana Char. Overall, economic threats are considered to be more impactful. Occupational diversification is gradually being adopted as the coping strategy of agriculture-based livelihood vulnerability. However, the majority still regularly try their fate on the field because not everyone can diversify into other occupations.
Narratives from the field have hinted towards a bleak agrarian future due to low youth engagement. Nevertheless, the possibility of discontinuing agriculture altogether is a far cry. In short, the char dweller community is essentially agrarian; the lion’s share of their income is sourced from this activity. Despite agriculture’s increasing vulnerability, the historical legacy of agriculture, abundance of land and most people’s inability to diversify into other occupations have remained the sources of motivation for its widespread continuance in Mana Char.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.