This was a one year long research project implemented in partnership between United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India and the School of International Development (DEV), University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. The project ran from January till December 2010. The project was led by Dr Vasudha Chhotray from DEV, UEA, who worked closely with a local research team based at the UNDP Orissa Office. Dr Joe Hill was the lead researcher heading the local team, Mr Rajib Biswal was the principal research assistant and Mr Sudhansu Behera was research assistant to the quantitative side of the study.
Project aims and approach
Coastal Orissa is severely hazard prone and regularly experiences cyclones, floods, storms and heat waves. In October 1999 a super-cyclone caused extensive damage to lives, livelihoods and state infrastructure in the state’s coastal districts. Since then, Orissa has experienced severe drought and frequent floods, even in its dry western parts, and the most recent flooding episode in September 2008 has devastated the coastal districts once again. While a number of studies were conducted immediately after the cyclone, there have been no studies to systematically understand the experiences of poor people in these coastal communities in the ten years since.
The proposed research will look at livelihoods trajectories in eastern Orissa since 1999, the socio-political and environmental dimensions that have helped shape them, and examine how these translate into the ‘ongoing vulnerability’ of coastal communities. It will attempt to systematically understand the existing physical vulnerability that is experienced within different locations as much as the social and political dimensions of accessing reconstruction aid as well as regular state development subsidies for both these impact upon the trajectories of livelihoods recovery over time. It will do so through four in-depth village level case studies: two directly on the sea coast and two in inland riverine locations within the broad coastal zone. Mixed methods will be used to collect qualitative as well as quantitative data through retrospective enquiry over a 10 year period.
News from the field (March-April 2010)
Research took place in Jagatsinghpur District’s Erasama Block, where the 1999 super-cyclone’s impact was most devastating. The research team conducted public meetings with communities in four wards of two revenue villages to explain the purpose of this research project and to discuss relief and reconstruction after the super-cyclone, and the state of farming and other livelihoods in the past ten years. A household survey was developed and four enumerators were hired and trained to undertake the survey with randomly selected households (30 households in each of the four wards). In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with a third of the households selected for the survey, and interviews were held with key individuals such as Sarpanches, block officials, NGO workers and other key individuals.
Photograph: A public group meeting held to recall and discuss relief and reconstruction following the 1999 super-cyclone
Project update (May-June 2010)
Field research in the first of the two selected sites was undertaken through February to April. Two coastal revenue villages in two neighbouring Gram Panchayats, in Erasama Block of Jagatsinghpur District, were chosen as sample villages. These villages contain wards dominated by either Oriya or Bengali families, and the sample was chosen so to be representative of such social dynamics as well as environmental and livelihoods dimensions. The research team (lead researcher, research assistant and four enumerators) lived in nearby villages and traveled daily to the selected wards to conduct household surveys, in-depth follow-up interviews with men and women, and public group meetings. Interviews were also held with government officials in various offices and with people’s representatives across the district.
Fieldwork was conducted in the summer season. Two common livelihoods pursued by villagers during this season (see photos below) are irrigated agriculture for those having access to water, and daily labour work through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Photograph: Irrigation of summer season paddy by manual lifting of pond water
Photograph: Road improvement works being undertaken under the NREG scheme
During May the team processed the data collected during field work. A spreadsheet was developed for the quantitative analysis of the household survey data: the 120 household surveys completed in site one were carefully entered into the spreadsheet, and analysis of this large data set will begin in July. Some of the in-depth follow-up interviews and all of the key informant interviews recorded on dictaphones and in notebooks were transcribed, while the remaining interviews will be transcribed in July and August. Secondary data collected from government offices was partly analysed.
Preparations were made to begin field work in Kendrapara District from the second week of June. This second site will complement and contrast with the first site: whilst Jagatsinghpur’s coastal Erasama Block was devastatingly affected by the 1999 super-cyclone but has since faced no major natural hazard, Kendrapara’s inland and riverine Garadhpur Block - less severely affected by the cyclone - presents a recurrent flood hazard environment. The two Gram Panchayats tentatively selected for study are close to the Chitrotpala, Luna and Paika Rivers, whose embankments breach almost every year causing varying degrees of disruption to villagers’ lives and livelihoods depending on their villages’ physical location.
News from the field (June-August 2010)
Field research in site two of this study, located in Kendrapara District’s Garadpur Block, started in the second week of June when the lead researcher and principal research assistant settled in the area and chose four wards in which to work. The research site and the villages/wards selected are precariously positioned inbetween and within a complex system of rivers, all stemming from and ultimately rejoining the Mahanadi River (literally meaning ‘Great River’) whose catchment extends beyond Orissa State to Chattisgarh and Jharkhand States.
We selected two wards/villages for our study to the north of the Chitrotpala River and two to the south. The wards to the north are affected by flooding due to breaches in the Luna and the Chitrotpala Rivers whereas one of the wards to the south is affected due to breaches in the Chitrotpala and the other affected due to breaches in the Chitrotpala and Paika Rivers. Besides floods caused by breaches that occur too frequently, farmland in this locality is affected by waterlogging because the rain that falls in the monsoon season cannot drain off when the water level in the surrounding rivers is high. 2008 witnessed the largest flood of the ten year period (1999-2010) which devastated the entire district and beyond. The government’s relief efforts were in 2008 guided by the recently framed Disaster Management Act of 2005. Villagers received food, medicine, fodder and polythene as relief, and following the flood received compensation for damaged and destroyed houses, and for loss of crop, livestock, household assets and so forth.
Photograph: Bamboo workers living just below an embankment of the Chitrotpala where breaches occured in 2001 and 2008, making baskets to sell in local markets
The research team in the field comprised the lead researcher Joe, the research assistants Rajib and Sudhansu, as well as three other staff who worked as enumerators for the household survey. We held several public meetings in the villages before conducting the household surveys and in-depth follow-up interviews. As with site one (Erasama Block), in site two (Garadpur Block) we conducted the household survey with a sample of 120 households and the interviews with around one third of those households. We held several more group meetings in the selected wards and undertook a series of interviews with key informants including people’s representatives, government officials and NGO workers.
Photograph: Social mapping exercise, to determine the current number of households in the ward and list the households, so to select our sample
Other news (July-August 2010)
Our research project hired two additional staff in July: Mr Rabi Ranjan from JNU, New Delhi, and Ms Maneesha Subudhiray of Bhubaneswar. Rabi specialises in using the software SPSS to analyse quantitative data, and is working with our household survey data. Maneesha works with Rajib to transcribe our qualitative interviews.
A couple of aspiring film-makers, DEV UG student Christopher Symes and UEA graduate Joel Sommazzi, visited the two field sites and accompanied by the local research team interviewed some of our respondents. The documentary will be completed on finalisation of the entire project.
Photograph: Film-makers in action
Project update (September-October 2010)
In September data collected in the second field site was processed while an analysis of the data collected in the first site was undertaken. By October both sets of data were being analysed. Rajib and Sudhansu made a trip to the first field site to investigate a seawater intrusion that occurred during a cyclonic depression. Our team prepared for a dissemination workshop in Bhubaneswar that would be held early November.
Project update (November 2010)
On 9th November, about 10 days after the eleventh anniversary of the super-cyclone that hit coastal Orissa, our project held a workshop in Bhubaneswar to present some of our findings and receive feedback. Several senior government officials attended the workshop, from the Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA) and the Departments of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development. OSDMA’s Managing Director engaged with our work and made valuable comments throughout the day. Emergency Analyst G. Padmanabhan (from UNDP’s Delhi office), State Programme Officer Ambika Prasad Nanda (from UNDP’s Orissa office), and Former State Programme Coordinator for the UNDP-Disaster Risk Management (DRM) programme Gyana Ranjan Das were present. Others who attended included District Emergency Officers from our selected districts, representatives from about 20 international NGOs working in Orissa in livelihoods and disaster preparedness, the regional representative for the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), academics from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, and our local research team members.
Photograph: The dissemination workshop held in Bhubaneswar
Photograph: Full team photo on 9th November (from left, Mamina Das, Deepika Sahoo, Sudhansu Behera, Jyoti Sahoo, Ambika Prasad Nanda, Manosi Bhoi, G. Padmanabhan, Jayanti Rout, Joe Hill, Vasudha Chhotray, Rajendra Samal, Rajib Biswal)
In the second half of November, Joe, Rajib and Sudhansu undertook a follow up field trip to discuss with villagers some of the trends that have emerged from the analysis of our quantitative survey data and to further query some of the issues that arose during the Orissa workshop. A second worlshop was held in the UNDP offices at Delhi in mid-December, 2010. Key findings were presented to UNDP and government officials, as well as NGO persons.
Photograph: A design created with paint powder outside a temple in Garadpur, at the time of the Panchuka festival
Photograph: Radha Astami, on the first day of Panchuka festival, during which young children dress up as Krushna and Radha, and seek donations from passersby
Main Findings
The larger message of this study can be contained in three main points.
- The study reveals areas of concern as well as of improvement. Livelihoods present the most pressing area of concern, showing the least signs of recovery, especially in Erasama. Housing presents a mixed picture, with at least Garadpur's households showing perceptible signs of recovery, though households in Erasama continue to suffer from poor quality kutcha and pucca housing. There are also important improvements in state level disaster preparedness, though much more needs to be done for institutionalising and substantiating such measures at the grassroots. Coverage of cyclone shelters has vastly improved though micro-level access remains an issue, for the population continues to greatly exceed the number of shelters.
- The study shows that the pursuit of two sites for research, sea-side Erasama and relatively inland, riverine Garadpur has been instructive for the understanding of recovery. The two sites are not strictly comparable as they have very different economies (with Garadpur having better access to economic opportunity than remote Erasama). However, for this precise difference, it has been possible to appreciate that in the longer-term, recovery is a function not just of the scale of the disaster, but also of the resources that people are able to access. Only studying Erasama, which suffered the brute impact of the super-cyclone, would have produced a more one-dimensional understanding of the challenges and opportunities for recovery. Besides, studying the significance of recurrent floods in Garadpur has provided a valuable extra dimension to this study, not least because it has allowed for a more recent assessment of how state responses to disaster have transformed since 1999.
- Finally, the study confirms that recovery is not a definitive state, rather a transient one that many poorer households struggle to achieve over time. In this process, their chances are most hampered by their inability to access state assistance effectively. The study confirms there is no substitute for effective state action, both disaster-related and general. Though there have been key improvements with regard to relief delivery and ex-gratia assistance, there are systemic failures in the performance of key state schemes: PDS, IAY, NREGS to name the principal few. Disaster preparedness in the broadest sense, and especially for the poorest and most vulnerable, can only be achieved when such state schemes function effectively.
Wider links
The project aims to inform current practice in the fields of disasters, vulnerability and livelihoods development in particular and chronic poverty reduction in general.
Photos courtesy Joe Hill and Rajib Biswal.
